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Tuesday, January 14, 2025

01/14 Links Pt2: Reality Is ‘Zionist Propaganda’; Why Israel’s enemies hate cartology; The Democrats’ Anti-Israel Future; ADL poll shows nearly half of adults globally harbor Jew-hatred

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Reality Is ‘Zionist Propaganda’
After the new year, the theater chain Alamo Drafthouse began showing September 5 in Brooklyn. Many of its own employees, organizing under its union, were outraged. They petitioned their employers to stop showing the film. Alamo appears, as of this writing, to have ignored them.

But it’s the petition itself, which of course soon garnered signatures from all manner of local organizers, that has to be read to be believed. Calling the film “Zionist propaganda,” it reads, in part:
“Echoing the well-worn pattern seen since 9/11, September 5 is yet another attempt by the Western media to push its imperialist and racist agenda, manufacturing consent for the continued genocide and cultural decimation of Palestine and its peoples. It is quintessential Orientalism: Depicting Arabs and brown people as evil, antisemitic terrorists, while lionizing the very newsrooms that provide political cover and, in many cases, cheer for endless wars and genocide. We’re certain that Alamo’s quirky pre-show won’t provide this context.”

The movie “depicts” Arabs as “antisemitic terrorists”? The movie is about an actual event, in which Arab anti-Semitic terrorists carried out murderous acts of terrorism. What’s more, the film is about the coverage itself—because a fair amount of what happened was broadcast. People watched it. This was a historical event that happened, like the moon landing.

More from the petition: “We, NYC Alamo United, wholeheartedly condemn the Alamo’s willingness to profit off of the genocide of Palestine.”

So we have two principles undergirding the opposition to the film. The first is that literal history as it happened is “Zionist propaganda,” and the second is that any depiction of Israelis or Palestinians is “profit[ing] off the genocide of Palestine.”

As to the first principle, I happen to agree. Reality is very harsh to the modern Western left’s anti-Zionist narrative, and it is very kind to the position of the Jewish state. As was the case when pro-Palestinian activists picketed showings of footage from Oct. 7 filmed by Hamas themselves, it is very difficult to see Palestinian terrorists as victims if you know what actually happened.

As to the second, I’m afraid the wider entertainment world has certainly adopted a pose that does not agree with the premise but abides by that premise’s preferred policy: It’s just too much trouble to show films or publish books with Jews in them, especially Israeli Jews.

After all, the Toronto International Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg noted in September, found itself in just such a predicament:
“My understanding is that TIFF outright rejected September 5, which was the hottest sales title that played at the Venice and Telluride film fests — and, THR reported this morning, has landed at Paramount — ostensibly because it might generate controversy related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So, fearing a backlash, the fest did not screen a film that is going to get a best picture Oscar nomination and maybe even win — it could have done so on opening night, which was, appropriately enough, Sept. 5 — but did screen Russians at War, a documentary thats sympathetic portrayal of Russians involved in the Ukraine conflict did result in protests of such a scale that the fest ended up pulling the film.”

The great hope for the future of art in America is that bigoted censors make arguments that are too absurd for even corporate chains to take seriously, thus delegitimizing the entire outrage industry. In that sense, the reaction to September 5 is off to a good start.
Why Israel’s enemies hate cartology
Enemies of the Jewish state hate cartology—the study of mapmaking—as the world was reminded again last week in the commotion over a map of biblical Israel.

Some Israel-hater noticed that the X (Twitter) account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry included a map showing the biblical borders of the ancient kingdoms of Judea and Israel, including the parts that extended eastward across the Jordan River.

The text asks, “Did you know that the Kingdom of Israel was established 3,000 years ago?” The answer is that, unfortunately, most people do not know that because the facts about the boundaries of the Land of Israel are one of those topics that mainstream media outlets and left-leaning professors never discuss.

The text also mentions King David and King Solomon, and other personalities and events from the biblical period. The Washington Post and the history faculty at Columbia University don’t like talking about this for good reason; they remind us that Israel’s roots in the Holy Land are deep and strong, reaching back literally thousands of years.

The foreign ministry post concludes with another simple statement of fact: “The Jewish people in the Diaspora continued to look forward to the revival of their powers and capabilities and the rebuilding of their state, which was declared in the State of Israel in 1948 to become the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Hysterical comments about the map quickly erupted across the Arab world.

Jordanian leaders were especially overheated in their response. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said it “condemns in the strongest terms the maps of the region” posted by the Israelis because they include territories that they “claim are historical for Israel, including parts of the occupied Palestinian territories, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.”

Those maps are “racist,” the Jordanians added, using what is fast becoming the most overused word in the English language used to attack Israel. Actually, the maps are exactly the opposite of racism since Israel is a multiracial state in which all groups are treated equally, by contrast with the Arab world, where blacks are victims of genocide (Sudan), are enslaved (Mauritania) and are massacred if they even approach the border in the hope of entering (Saudi Arabia).

Moreover, Israel does not have a law mandating the death penalty for selling land to members of a particular ethnic group, but the Palestinian Authority does—and that group is the Jews.

The speaker of the Jordanian parliament, Ahmad al-Safadi, said the maps “express a criminal mentality and malicious ambitions that cannot be ignored or tolerated.”

Not to be outdone, the P.A. declared that it rejects “alleged maps of historical Israel that include Arab lands.” Official P.A. spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh blasted the “alleged map with a comment fabricating an Israeli history dating back thousands of years in line with the Hebrew allegations.”
The Democrats’ Anti-Israel Future
THE 2024 ELECTION left the Democrats “considering how to navigate a dark future,” said the New York Times. Voices from the progressive wing instantly made clear that one matter at issue will be the party’s stance toward Israel.

The Democrats’ traditional friendliness to the Jewish state had resonated in the words of President Joe Biden’s immediate reaction to Hamas’s invasion and massacre of October 7, 2023. “This was an act of sheer evil,” he pronounced. “Israel has the right…in-deed has a duty to respond… . If the United States experienced [the likes of this] our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming.” He said that the U.S. was “surging military assistance” and had moved a carrier strike group and additional fighter aircraft to the area. “The United States has Israel’s back. It’s as simple as that…. We’re with Israel.”

Yet, over the ensuing weeks and months, it proved not as simple as that. Biden grew increasingly focused on protecting Gazan noncombatants and on restraining Israel in other ways. Vice President Kamala Harris, to whom he passed the Democratic standard in withdrawing from the 2024 election, was still more assertive in that direction, as was, to an even greater degree, her chosen running mate, Tim Walz. Their apparent predispositions, and the political currents within their party, prompted CNN political analyst Ronald Brownstein to muse, “Biden could be the last Democratic president for the foreseeable future who aligns so unreservedly with” Israel.

As Biden takes his bows, will the Democrats continue to pull away from Israel? Let us consider the background. Both parties have shared in America’s traditional friendship with that state, but each has done so unevenly. Among the Republicans, Eisenhower was quite unfriendly; Bush 41 was chilly; Nixon was, too, but provided critical aid during the Yom Kippur War. On the other hand, Reagan, Bush 43, and Trump were all warm supporters.

The Democrats had been more consistently friendly. Truman granted recognition to the reborn state, defying his advisers; Kennedy coined the “special relationship”; Johnson elevated the degree of military aid to Israel; Clinton worked furiously to broker a two-state solution and blamed Yasir Arafat when it was not achieved. Even Jimmy Carter, who was viscerally hostile, nonetheless brokered the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

And then, in 2008, came Barack Obama. He differed from the others in background not only by the epochal fact of being our first black president. He had dabbled in radical ideas as a student, then launched himself into a career as a “community organizer, and turned to politics only, he said, as a different path to the same goals. His rise marked a shift in tone, spirit, and perhaps the long-term direction of his party affecting a range of issues, not least Israel.

The priority of his foreign policy was to improve relations with the Muslim world, which he believed had been needlessly alienated from the United States by George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror. To demonstrate a new sensitivity, he gave his first presidential interview not to the New York Times or CNN but rather to the Arabic-language network Al Arabiya. The first foreign parliament he addressed was Turkey’s, and he later named Turkey’s Islamist prime minister (now president), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as one of five foreign leaders with whom he felt closest.

Two months later, he delivered a major address in Cairo, saying:
I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.

While in the region, Obama also visited Saudi Arabia, his third Arab capital, but pointedly did not visit Israel, 37 minutes from Cairo by air. He told American Jewish leaders that his goal was to put “daylight” between himself and Israel in a way that his predecessors had not done. “When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states,” he explained. He aimed, said the Washington Post, “to restore the United States’ reputation as a credible mediator …[by] talk-[ing] tough to Israel, publicly and privately.”

In all, he visited more than 40 countries during his first term, some two or three times, but didn’t bother to visit Israel until 2013—during his second term.

Yet all this “daylight” yielded nothing in the peace process, which is not surprising because it was not Israel that was sitting on the sideline. Only months before Obama’s inauguration, Israel’s then–Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought to bring to fruition a series of secret negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas by presenting an offer that aimed to meet Palestinian goals on every issue.


Lyn Julius: As a Syrian Jew, the country’s tragic story resonates
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, a number of reports have appeared about the status of the country’s remaining Jewish sites, and of its very few remaining Jews. Many have been misleading or worse, writes Lyn Julius:

We now know that only nine Jews live in the entire country, the community having been the victims of a most successful ethnic cleansing. Sometimes, the numbers are exaggerated: the BBC reporter Lyse Doucet thought that the Jewish quarter of Damascus was full of Jews—when, in reality, none has been there for 30 years.

Media reports are also guilty of whitewashing anti-Semitism in Syria in order to blame the creation of Israel for the flight of most Jews. The majority had already left Syria by the time Israel was established; . . . the rise of pro-Nazi sentiment in Syria throughout the 1930s, and the Aleppo anti-Jewish riots before Israel’s establishment, caused all but a small number to leave the city.

There are thousands today, however, in Israel and the diaspora, who consider themselves Syrian (or Aleppan) Jews, not for any love for their former homeland, but because they have maintained the distinctive local customs of their ancestors. One such Jew, Joseph Dweck, now Great Britain’s leading Sephardi rabbi, shares his personal reflections:

My family first came to the eastern shores of the United States in 1901, seeking better economic opportunity after the opening of the Suez Canal diverted major trade routes away from Aleppo, which led to a decline in commerce. But they arrived on those shores with a robust culture and tradition that they faithfully instilled in their descendants. It is only due to their strong commitment to its preservation that it continues to live within me to this day. . . . Aram Soba, as it is known in Hebrew, produced renown rabbis, exquisite liturgical poetry, and delectable cuisine.

I cannot help but reflect on what has been lost: a cultural and historical tapestry that prominently includes the Jewish presence. Yet I also know that a large part of that legacy lives on, preserved in Jewish memory and practice. For centuries, the Jewish people lived as guests among other nations, always aware that our presence was temporary, our security fragile. The existence of the state of Israel has transformed that reality.

But Israel’s importance extends beyond its role as a refuge. It represents the culmination of our journey as a people who have wrestled with exile and have come home stronger and wiser.


Israeli-Emirati relations ‘weathered the shock’ of last 15 months, Jewish leader in Abu Dhabi says
When Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli foreign minister, met with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 7, it was the first exchange at that level since Oct. 7, 2023. Lower-level diplomatic engagements continued during Israel’s war against Hamas, and the United Arab Emirates, which condemned Hamas’s attack early on, often criticized the Jewish state’s prosecution of the war harshly in international fora.

Emirati diplomatic corps and reporters played Sa’ar’s and Abdullah’s meeting up heavily, according to Marc Sievers, the inaugural director of the American Jewish Committee’s Arab-Jewish understanding center in Abu Dhabi.

“The reception by Sheikh Abdullah was clearly very warm and friendly, and so they put it all over the ministry of foreign affairs’ feed and out of the Emirati embassy in Washington,” Sievers, a former diplomat who served in the region, including as U.S. envoy to Oman, told JNS.

Sievers, whose new role focuses on deepening ties between American Jews and Gulf leaders and citizens, doesn’t think it is a coincidence that an Emirati media report about the same time as the ministerial visit quoted official sources about an Emirati role in post-war Gaza. That wasn’t a new idea, according to Sievers, but it had added weight given the high-level diplomatic meeting.

The Jan. 7 meeting nudged Israeli-Emirati ties back into the spotlight, but Sievers told JNS that AJC never stopped working in the country, even as the war appeared to fray some of the bonds forged in the Abraham Accords.

“Certain things slowed down. Bringing visitors to Israel wasn’t really possible after Oct. 7, and there were a lot fewer Jewish and Israeli visitors coming here—at least that we engaged with,” he said.

“But there was always a dialog and there was always a space for us to engage with people,” he said. “We just did it without publicity and without calling attention to ourselves.”

The AJC hosted an iftar break fast for Ramadan even as the war escalated last March. Sievers said that the event, which wasn’t publicized on social media, didn’t receive negative feedback. There have also been several low-key events and visits from AJC and U.S. Jewish lay leaders, and Israeli tourists and Jewish groups have gradually returned to the country, he said.

“The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi never closed. It wasn’t asked to close by the Emiratis, and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sufficient confidence in the security levels here that they never withdrew,” Sievers said. (A two-week stretch at the end of 2023 was the only exception, in which families left.)
Why Amnesty won’t get another penny of my money
It is the latest outrage from this organisation which, far from being politically independent, has slowly mutated into one of the most ideologically driven NGOs on the planet, with a fixation on Israel that is now unhinged.

Let’s run through the greatest hits: it has libelled the Middle East’s only democracy, saying Israel practises apartheid; it shared a Valentine’s Day post targeting Israel, claiming it’s waging a “war on love”, conveniently forgetting that same-sex love is effectively illegal in the Palestinian territories; it has employed staff who make antisemitic jokes and then promoted them; it urged the United Nations not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, undermining, you could say, the very reason for Amnesty International’s existence, the human right not to be abused because of who are or what you believe.

And it described the death of a Palestinian terrorist in an Israeli jail as “heart-wrenching”, referring to him as simply as a “writer”. Walid Daqqa became a “writer” during his 38-year prison term. He was behind bars because he was responsible for the kidnap and murder of Israeli solider Moshe Taman in 1984. Before shooting him dead, his killers gouged out his eyes and castrated him. Moshe was 19, not much older than me when I wrote those impassioned Amnesty letters at my parents’ pine kitchen table.

Is this once-great organisation set up by a Jew in 1961 – I know, I know – aware it has been dubbed “Antisemitism International”? When you are as pickled in the brine as some at Amnesty clearly are, do you care what your detractors say, even when those detractors include people like me who were once among your most fervent supporters?

When I was talking about this column to a fellow Jewish journalist, she remarked that it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of other countries in the world on which this human rights organisation can focus. But, actually, that’s not quite the problem. Amnesty International has written damning reports about the appalling human rights records of Iran and China, among other abhorrent regimes.

No, the problem is the one with which we Jews and our allies are now so wearily familiar: it’s Amnesty’s repeated and inordinate focus on this one tiny country – a country around the size of my native Wales, as it happens – that is surrounded by very big ones that want to annihilate it.

I tried to explain all this to my final caller from the organisation’s fundraising department a few years back. And you know what? I felt listened to. Especially when I said it would never get another penny of my money.
Major LGBTQ confab maintains ‘Zionism-free space’ at conference event
Next week in Las Vegas, thousands of LGBTQ activists will gather for the annual Creating Change conference, a major confab hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. The driving value for the event’s organizers, according to the conference website, is “radical welcome: love, curiosity and respect for each other and our LGBTQ family.”

But the gathering has already drawn controversy for being unwelcoming to some attendees, with one planned session — a meeting of queer Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) attendees — explicitly defining itself as a “Zionism-free space.” (Ironically, the description of the event says it welcomes “queer individuals from diverse MENA backgrounds,” including “Mizrahi” people, which is a Hebrew word used in Israel to describe Jews from Middle Eastern and North African nations.)

The event is one of dozens of small caucus meetings happening for different identity groups and interest areas at the conference. There is also an “Oy, gay” event for Jewish attendees and a Shabbat dinner, as well as a discussion about “pinkwashing,” to teach attendees about the “tactic used to obscure Israeli militarism and occupation by presenting a narrow view of LGBT rights.” The organization hosting the MENA event and the pinkwashing event, a New York nonprofit called Tarab NYC that supports Arab and Middle Eastern LGBTQ individuals, called the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks a “military operation targeting settlements near the besieged Gaza.”

The approval of a “Zionism-free space” — even if it’s just a small gathering hosted by an independent organization — at a conference focused on inclusion has raised alarm bells among some Jewish LGBTQ advocates.

“There’s these lines that are drawn for people who call themselves tolerant,” said Mike Rogers, a media executive who served as the director of development at the National LGBTQ Task Force in the late 1990s. He estimates that he’s attended the conference 17 or 18 times over the years, but he no longer does.

“I don’t go to the conference anymore. I’m uncomfortable as a Jew,” said Rogers, who was at the Creating change Conference in Chicago in 2016, when a Shabbat dinner hosted by the organization A Wider Bridge, which builds ties between the LGBTQ communities in Israel and the United States, was disrupted and forced to shut down by 200 anti-Israel protesters. “I have no desire to go back,” Rogers added. (The Shabbat dinner had initially been canceled by the Task Force, which reinstated it after facing protests from progressive Jewish activists.)

Known simply as “the Task Force,” the organization is on the left flank of the LGBTQ movement, well to the left of the better-known Human Rights Campaign. But the Creating Change Conference is an important event for people working in the LGBTQ space. Its sponsors include Everytown for Gun Safety, AAA, Hilton and Comcast. Representatives for each of those sponsors did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting ‘shocked’ by NHS antisemitism
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is “challenging” the NHS “at every level” to act to tackle antisemitism within it.

“I have been pretty shocked by what I have seen and heard about the conduct of people working in the NHS and the experiences of patients too”, he told the Jewish Labour Movement’s one-day conference on Sunday.

“There is a fundamental principle here, which is everyone – whatever their background, whatever their beliefs and whatever their political views – should feel safe and in safe hands when people go into any health or care provider.”

He added: “I mean, your life is literally in people's hands ... if you have a fear that you're going to be treated differently because of who you are, that is terrifying”.

The Health Secretary said he had had “enough people telling me that they feel unsafe, either in the NHS or as a patient or working in the NHS, to know that we need to act”.

Although he thought it would be easier to take action against “overt prejudice and discrimination”, he wouldn’t shy away from discussions about what he called the “thornier” issue of “people bringing their politics” to work.

“People might think they're wearing a particular badge or lanyard out of solidarity with a particular cause they're passionate about, and they might not even think for a moment about how those symbols, or those messages, might be received by someone else.”

Streeting said he wanted to “do some work with the workforce on this” because he didn’t want a total shut-down of political activity for healthcare workers.

“What I wouldn't want to do is say to staff trade unions that they couldn't go to work and have meetings that say what a terrible Health Secretary they've got … I might strongly disagree with anyone who says that while I'm the Health Secretary, but it's legitimate for staff trade unions to be able to organise politically in the workplace and to criticise leadership, management and government”, he said.

The MP for the East London constituency of Ilford North, said there had been some “some high-profile cases in the media” of antisemitism in the NHS. Although he would not go into details, he said: “Those cases tell me that the regulation and the regulators are not working effectively, that even within existing regulations, I've seen some decisions made which I think are woeful.”

He continued: “Fundamentally, I've had enough people telling me that they feel unsafe, either in the NHS or as a patient or working in the NHS, to know that we need to act”.
The Birth of Jewish Studies at Columbia
Over the past year, Columbia University has developed a reputation as one of the campuses where anti-Israel demonstrations have been the most strident and persistent, and among the most violent. It has also been the home of some of academia’s foremost apologists for terrorism: Edward Said, Rashid Khalidi, and Joseph Massad. But Columbia, in addition, has long been a place where Jews, and Jewish studies have thrived—as well as a place of restrictive quotas and presidents overly friendly to Nazis. Michelle Margolis takes a look at the university during the 1930s and 40s:

The year 1928 saw not only the first Jewish trustee in over a century (Benjamin Cardozo), but also a donation from Linda Miller honoring her husband with the endowment of the Nathan J. Miller Chair in Jewish History, the first such chair in the United States. Although there was some discussion over the hiring of the incumbent, the young Salo Baron would ultimately be hired in 1930 to the position and would go on to transform Jewish studies in the United States.

In 1936, Maír José Benardete would lead the newly established “Sephardic Section” of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia. Benardete’s M.A. thesis . . . was completed in 1923, on Spanish ballads of Sephardi Jews.
Hosting antisemites on college campuses endangers students
U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, widely known for her antisemitic and anti-Israel views, recently visited the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her presence raised significant concerns in Jewish societies and the wider Jewish community as her previous so-called lectures have gathered dozens of radicalized youths who often wage a campus war on Jewish and Zionist students.

Albanese is a proud supporter of antisemitic mobs who proudly deny Israel’s right to exist, as well as an outspoken “critic” of the world’s only Jewish state. Among many controversially antisemitic statements she has made, Albanese’s claim that “America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby” remains one of the most disturbing. Despite being a presumed expert in international law, she seems to be puzzled when it comes to recognizing Israel’s right to self-defense under U.N. Charter Article 51.

Having someone as controversial as Albanese speak on campus poses a peril to Jewish students.

Universities have long held double standards when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not only Israel is misunderstood in academia but is depicted as an aggressor; in reality, the nation is the target of racial hatred from Islamists. Israel suffered greatly (and is still suffering with nearly 100 hostages still being held captive in Gaza) from the brutal assaults on Oct. 7, 2023, yet almost immediately afterward, students were waving Palestinian and even Hamas flags in solidarity with the terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Giving platforms to Albanese and others with similar views is just the visible part of the iceberg. The rhetoric used by such antisemites ignites unchecked and uncontrolled antisemitism on university campuses.

The situation at Exeter University in Britain serves as a reminder of the real dangers posed by unregulated “freedom of expression” that leads to violence. Less than a year ago, Jewish and Zionist students set up a pro-Israel display and were surrounded by 100 Palestinian supporters who shouted at them and threw objects. The attack occurred in daylight, highlighting a growing climate of hostility toward Jewish students.

In another instance, the Hillel house at the University of Leeds was defaced by pro-Palestinian protesters last February. Instead of taking drastic measures to wipe out antisemitic encampments on campus, the universities, created a “safe environment” for these vandals to openly say that they would be back next academic year to achieve their goals.

While at King’s College London, a lecture by dual Israeli-British citizen Ely Lassman was canceled after he received death threats because of his Israeli and Jewish background, and service in the Israel Defense Forces.
Four Brooklyn yeshivas file federal complaint against NY Education Department
The New York State and City Education Departments discriminate against Chassidic Jews and threaten their ability to maintain a Jewish-centered education, according to a federal complaint that four yeshivas in Brooklyn filed on Monday.

Bobover Yeshiva Bnei Zion, Oholei Torah (Chabad), United Talmudical Academy (Satmar), and Yeshiva and Mesivta Arugas Habosem (Tzelemer) argue in the complaint that the city’s and state’s bias “pervades every aspect of their schools.”

“New York categorically refuses to credit any instruction that is a part of their Jewish studies curriculum, despite its academic value and content. It prohibits the yeshivas from teaching required classes with instruction and texts in a foreign language, even though such texts and instruction are central to their heritage and public schools are encouraged to provide foreign language instruction,” according to the complaint, which Yeshiva World News posted.

The city and the state also impose “a government-approved reading list on the schools, for the express purpose of exposing their students ‘to a range of materials that their parents and schools wouldn’t otherwise permit them to read,’” per the complaint. “It interferes in the process by which the yeshivas hire their faculty, and it refuses to accommodate their values as it relates to the gender profile of their classrooms.”

Those practices “would strip the yeshivas of their essential Jewish character,” the schools state.

“If they can’t devote sufficient time to Jewish studies with instruction in their original language that utilizes primary texts taught by a faculty hand-picked by them to model behavior in conformity with their values and heritage while maintaining the autonomy and authority to select which material students read in a classroom whose composition reflects their principles,” per the complaint, “then they are no longer Jewish schools.”

New York appears to have acted in a “calculated” way “to make it too difficult for the yeshivas to fulfill their educational missions and to sustain their heritage,” the complaint adds. “But New York is badly mistaken if it thinks complainants will cave to the pressure and standardize and secularize their schools.”

Among the claims in the complaint is that New York City “flatly refused” to accommodate yeshiva requests in line with their religious beliefs about modesty.


Qatar's Al-Jazeera, Bullhorn for the Muslim Brotherhood, Promotes Jihad, Radical Islam, Terrorism. Even Israelis and Palestinians Agree!
"Among the Islamist terrorist organizations that Qatar and Al-Jazeera have supported over the years are the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hizbullah, the Al-Nusrah Front/ Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, ISIS, Hamas, and even the Shiite Iranian proxies in Yemen, Ansar Allah (the Houthis)..." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.

"The Al-Jazeera TV network is an arm of the Qatari regime. It is owned by the government and carries out its foreign policy by means of indoctrination of the Arabic-speaking masses worldwide. Al-Jazeera, therefore, should not be discussed as a means of telecommunications, but instead as an unyielding and forceful political tool of Qatari foreign policy under the guise of a mass media network." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.

"Al-Jazeera was the prime power for toppling the secular authoritarian regime in Egypt, when Qatar, by means of Al-Jazeera, supported the Muslim Brotherhood in ousting then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Al-Jazeera, the single most significant platform for mainstreaming jihadi and Muslim Brotherhood ideology, was the power that accorded [Muslim Brotherhood member] Mohamed Morsi his victory [in Egypt's 2012 presidential election]." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.

Al-Jazeera's role in providing a platform for promoting extremist Islamist ideologies goes back decades: "The case of promoting Al-Qaeda is of particular interest.... Al-Jazeera's official role in the current Israel-Hamas war is nowhere more evident that its exclusive broadcast of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif... at the very time that Hamas terrorists were carrying out their mega-terror attack in Israel... Deif declared the launch of 'Operation Al-Aqsa Flood' and incited all Palestinians to join the war, using all means in their possession – guns, knives, Molotov cocktails, and vehicles." — MEMRI, May 6, 2024.

They [Israelis and Palestinians] have both come to the conclusion that Al-Jazeera's goal is to promote radical Islam and terrorism. It now remains to be seen whether the US and other countries will follow suit and stop the Qatari-owned TV station from supporting terrorism, poisoning the hearts and minds of millions worldwide, and ravaging global security.


Israeli Court Rules Against Defamation Lawsuit by Abbas's Son
The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday rejected a defamation lawsuit by Tareq Abbas, son of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, against Middle East expert Dr. Reuven Berko.

In an Arabic language television interview Berko asserted that Tareq Abbas owned multiple companies and claimed that Abbas's family members "arrived here with nothing and became millionaires."

Abbas alleged that Birko's statements portrayed him as collaborating with Israel. However, Judge Ram Winograd stated that Israeli courts do not consider statements about cooperation with Israel as defamatory.

Moreover, the interview was not aired on an Israeli channel but that excerpts were distributed through a Gaza news site.

Berko maintained that in the complete interview, he had actually commended the Abbas family, and his statements were presented out of context.


Israeli security forces arrest Palestinian disguised as Border Police officer
A Palestinian impersonating a border police officer was arrested by border police officers operating the al-Zaim checkpoint in the Jerusalem area, the police announced on Tuesday.

Police officers stopped for inspection a suspicious vehicle that had come from the West Bank, after noticing it had red and blue lights at the front.

Upon inspection of the car, the officers noticed the driver, a 34-year-old resident of Anata in the West Bank, was disguised as a border police officer and had donned a coat belonging to the force.


PA Moves Against Armed Militias in Jenin Are "a Big Show"
Has the Palestinian Authority reformed by cracking down on terror groups that seek to attack Israel? "Everything the PA is doing right now is part of the Trump effect. The PA remembers Trump's steps against them in the previous term and wants to show that they are capable of change," said Shaul Bartal of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. "In practice, this is a big show," he said, referring to PA moves against armed militias in Jenin. "The majority of the Palestinian public in the West Bank is not satisfied with the PA and there is almost no Palestinian faction that believes that this is a real change within the PA."

Bartal said that in northern Samaria and especially in the Jenin area, "the PA has begun to lose control." It "wants to show Israel, and especially Trump, that it is capable of enforcing government order and dealing with militants."

Journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Strategic and Foreign Affairs, said the PA is more worried about its honor than it is about actually fighting terror groups. "We've seen clashes like this in the past," he noted, adding that this time it appears to be on a larger scale since the armed groups have "never before challenged the PA in such a way."

"Why can't the PA say openly in Arabic, 'No more battalions, no more armed groups and no such thing as resistance?' Why don't we hear that message? I don't hear it in Arabic." Instead, Abu Toameh said he hears Palestinian officials saying, "We are not against the weapons of the resistance." "They don't come out against the whole idea of resistance against Israel." Moreover, "We know there is no strategic decision to dismantle these groups because we don't see it in other places like Tulkarem and Nablus."


Azerbaijan foils Iranian plot to kill senior figure in local Jewish community
Azerbaijani secret service (DTX) thwarted a terror attack targeting a prominent member of the Jewish community. Sources within the Jewish community confirm that the intended victim is a senior figure, highly respected both in Azerbaijan and internationally, particularly in Israel, for his significant efforts to strengthen ties between the two nations.

Two suspects – Georgian citizen Aqil Aslanov and Azerbaijani citizen Ceyhun Ismayilov – were apprehended near a Jewish center. According to local media, Aslanov, a known drug trafficker, was approached by foreign intelligence agents while abroad. Local sources point to Iranian involvement, likely orchestrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), notorious for its global terror operations targeting Jews, Israelis, and Iranian dissidents.

Offered a substantial sum for the assassination of the Jewish community member – $200,000 – Aslanov was tasked with gathering intelligence on the target. He, in turn, recruited Ismayilov, and they both collected and transmitted information on the target's residence, workplace, and habits to their handlers.
Israel uncovers Iranian plot to lure businessman to Dubai under pretext of interview
Iranian proxies attempted to lure an Israeli businessman to Dubai under the pretext of an interview, the Israeli National Security Council revealed on Tuesday, warning citizens to be on high alert for such attempts.

In a statement, the NSC warned that Iranian elements are targeting Israelis online and trying to convince them to attend meetings abroad at which they will be targeted.

Recently, the NSC said, an Israeli businessman was contacted on Telegram by someone posing as an employee of the Persian-language version of the Al Arabiya news outlet. The Israeli man received a request to fly to Dubai for a meeting in order to take part in an interview about “the Iranian regime.”

Becoming suspicious, the businessman alerted the NSC, which discovered that the contact had infected his cellphone with malware to hack into his phone.

The NSC warned Israelis against sharing information with unknown contacts online and not disclosing personal details or travel plans with any potential business or academic partners without verifying their identities. Israelis were urged to be vigilant and to contact the Foreign Ministry or NSC about any suspicious activity. In November, an Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary based in the United Arab Emirates — Rabbi Zvi Kogan — was kidnapped and murdered by three Uzbeki citizens who Israel believes were recruited by Iran.
Making Iran Choose between the Bomb and Bankruptcy
Iran's long-declining economy has reached a critical point where the government is struggling to provide basic services. The electricity sector is deteriorating rapidly, and officials can no longer guarantee a continuous power supply throughout the year. Systemic failures are also evident in the natural gas sector, the public's primary energy source for heating. The national currency is plummeting as well, driving daily increases in the cost of essential goods even before the anticipated return of Trump's "maximum pressure" policy.

A pillar of the Islamic Republic is a concept that portrays Iran as a dominant force under the guidance of "the sagacious Supreme Leader." This image helped Tehran expand its militia network and attract recruits by projecting alignment with the "victorious" side. Yet recent setbacks have severely eroded this perception, compounded by the internal divisions and crisis of leadership that have emerged within the IRGC-Qods Force.

The regime's past security strategy was based on foreign militias to provide defensive depth and missiles to bolster deterrence. Yet the recent costs of this approach are undeniable even in Tehran. The Supreme Leader might also be concerned by the prospect of U.S. and/or Israeli military action if no nuclear agreement is reached in the near term.


ADL poll shows nearly half of adults globally harbor Jew-hatred
A new survey released by the Anti-Defamation League shows nearly half of the global population holds elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes.

The Global 100 poll found that an estimated 2.2 billion people, representing 46% of the world’s adults, “harbor deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes,” the ADL stated. That figure is double the level from a decade ago and the highest on record since the group monitoring Jew-hatred began examining worldwide trends.

Through its polling partners, including Ipsos, the ADL surveyed more than 58,000 adults from 103 countries, covering some 94% of the world’s adult population, with responses solicited between July 23 and Nov. 13, 2024.

Alarmingly, the survey revealed that one-fifth of respondents have not heard about the Holocaust with only 48% recognizing the historical accuracy of the mass-murder operation to eradicate European Jewry. That figure of recognizing the accuracy of the Holocaust fell to just 16% among respondents in the Middle East.

That figure falls under 40% among 18- to 34-year-olds—a demographic among which some 50% overall hold antisemitic sentiments. Forty percent of that age category also agreed that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” The antisemitic figures among the younger generation were noticeably worse than their elders in many categories.

“We live in a world in which a literal modern-day pogrom can take place in the streets of a major Western European capital, unchecked for hours, and in the aftermath, we are gaslit and told that what happened was something we imagined or blamed for the act in the first place,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL national director and CEO, said on a conference call on Tuesday coinciding with the survey’s release.

“While tracking antisemitic incidents is an essential way to measure antisemitism, it’s by no means the only way negative attitudes towards Jews—in agreement with age-old antisemitic tropes—have been a crucial pillar that the ADL uses to assess overall levels of anti-Jewish prejudice within a country,” Greenblatt added. “It is a key factor that impacts how free a Jewish person feels to live openly and express their identity, whatever that looks like for them.”

Twenty-nine percent of those younger than 35 expressed favorable opinions of the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, higher than the overall mark of 23%.
Frustration as Dutch online archive names accused Nazi collaborators, without details
On Dutch Openness Day, this year’s release of secret documents from state archives suddenly left Peter Baas with fundamental questions about his father’s stature as a World War II resistance fighter.

While many were cleaning up the mess from New Year’s Eve fireworks on January 1, hundreds of thousands of others in the Netherlands looked for their relatives in a new database containing the names of some 425,000 people investigated for collaboration with the Nazis in 1940-45.

Some looked out of curiosity, others out of concern.

A controversial topic
One of those names was Ludolf Baas, a resistance fighter who taped microfilm of Nazi atrocities to his body and smuggled it over enemy lines.

“When I saw my father’s name, I was shocked,” Peter Baas told The Associated Press. He wondered if his father’s legacy was a lie and needed to find out if one of society’s ugliest stigmas would also stick to him.

“The publication of the list of names has caused great social unrest,” the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, said in a statement Friday. The research organization, founded days after the Netherlands was liberated, has called for the government to intervene.

Nazi collaboration is a controversial topic in the Netherlands and much of Europe and is often shrouded in family mystery and stifled under a cloak of silence. Initially, the Netherlands was long seen as a welcoming safe haven for persecuted groups. Many Jewish families, like that of famed diarist Anne Frank, fled Germany in the 1930s for the apparent relative safety of their Dutch neighbors.

That changed when the Dutch surrendered to the Germans in 1940. Only 27 percent of the Dutch Jewish population survived the war, significantly less than the survival rate in France and Belgium, and collaboration made persecution easier.

Eight decades after the war ended, many still worry about what that legacy means.

“You see the bullying even now,” Holocaust historian Aline Pennewaard says. She described social media posts denouncing Dutch politicians as Nazis because they shared a surname with someone on the list.
Bologna Jewish leader: After synagogue attack, concrete actions are necessary
A violent protest in Bologna on Saturday night escalated into an attack on the city’s historic synagogue, as demonstrators vandalized the building and hurled explosives, causing significant concern within the Jewish community.

The unrest was initially sparked by the resurfacing of footage related to the death of 19-year-old Ramy Elgaml, an Egyptian Italian who died in a police chase last November. Protesters, angered by the apparent police involvement in Elgaml’s death, took to the streets across Italy, with demonstrations turning particularly violent in Bologna.

During the protest, demonstrators spray-painted slogans such as “Justice for a free Gaza” alongside Elgaml’s name on the synagogue’s walls. Daniele De Paz, president of Bologna’s Jewish community, told The Media Line that the march deliberately passed the synagogue on Via de’ Gombruti, where attackers broke through police barriers and targeted the building with Molotov cocktails and fireworks. “This route was clearly premeditated,” De Paz stated, emphasizing that the attack was a deliberate act of antisemitism, diverting attention from the protest’s original anti-police focus.

Rise in Italian antisemitism
The attack left the community shaken, highlighting a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents in Italy since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023. De Paz expressed concerns over increasing hostility toward Bologna’s Jewish community, noting that public support has waned while criticism of Israel has intensified. He also criticized the Bologna municipality for continuing to display a Palestinian flag on a government building, despite the community’s appeals to remove it due to safety concerns.

Italian leaders, including Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore and Senate President Ignazio La Russa, condemned the violence. Israel’s ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, called the synagogue attack a “serious antisemitic attack which must be condemned with absolute firmness.”

Elgaml’s family distanced themselves from the violence, stating, “We believe Ramy’s memory should be a symbol of unity, not of division or destruction. We dissociate ourselves from any political use of our son’s name.”
Kosher eatery vandalized in latest antisemitic attack in Canada
A kosher restaurant was broken into and its business office vandalized in separate incidents in the Greater Toronto metropolitan area over the past few days. It is the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks in Canada, according to Canadian police.

The office of La Briut was vandalized and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti on Friday, while its restaurant in Toronto was broken into on Sunday. The front door was shattered and money was stolen, according to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

Police have released images of the suspects, who remain at large.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said it was “deeply alarmed” by the break-ins.

“This latest appalling attack on a Jewish-owned business is a stark reminder of the persistent and troubling rise in antisemitism in our society,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, the group’s senior director of policy and advocacy.

“No one should have to live in fear for their safety or endure harassment and intimidation because of their faith

or identity. We must come together as a society to reject this kind of hatred and ensure that those who perpetrate these despicable acts are held accountable,” he added.

Canada has seen a burst of antisemitism over the last year amid Israel’s 15-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.


Toronto synagogue arsonist who set signs on fire arrested
An arrest was made in connection to the vandalizing of signs in front of a Toronto synagogue that has been targeted eight times since October, Kehillat Shaarei Torah told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

On July 31, the alleged vandal set synagogue signs on fire with a blowtorch. According to the synagogue, the suspect is linked to other occurrences in the city. Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>

Toronto Police Service (TPS) confirmed on Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the case, but that further details, including the suspect’s identity, would be released once charges were filed.

According to the synagogue, the signs set on fire in July had just been replaced after they had been spray-painted.

Kehillat Shaarei Torah was first vandalized on April 19 when its windows and doors were smashed with hammers, an act that was repeated on May 17.

Additional cases of vandalism
On June 30, a motorcyclist threw rocks through the windows of Kehillat Shaarei Torah, as well as through those of the Pride of Israel synagogue.

Not long after the signs had been graffitied and set on fire in July, a dead raccoon was placed on the synagogue’s grounds, which the synagogue said was intentional.


Man admits altering Disney World menus, including Jew-hate content
Michael Scheuer, a former menu production manager at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., has admitted to altering menus at the park to promote antisemitism and deceive guests with food allergies

Scheuer pleaded guilty to hacking and one count of aggravated identity theft in a plea agreement filed Jan. 10 in Florida federal court. Federal authorities charged the defendant in October with causing the transmission of a program, information, code or command to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage.

The defendant had been fired by Disney for misconduct months earlier, according to the criminal complaint.

Scheuer, who hacked into the company’s menu-creation software, added images including a swastika, changed allergen information to falsely show items were safe for people with allergies and changed the regions of wines to places where mass shootings occurred, according to the plea agreement.

He also altered some menus that included a QR code for a digital version of the menu to send guests to a website promoting the boycott of Israel. While manufacturers printed some menus with falsified QR codes, the change was caught before they were distributed.

Court documents stated that by the end of his hacking campaign, Scheuer had impacted “nearly every menu in the system.”


Israel Defies Expectations with Surge in Tech Funding despite War
Investment in Israeli technology startups grew 28% in 2024 to $10.6 billion, up from $8.3 billion in 2023.

Israel's technology sector is responsible for 20% of its gross domestic product and 10% of employment.

It contributed directly to 2.2% of GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2024.

Funding raised by Israeli defense-tech companies grew to $165 million in 2024, from $19 million the previous year.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei wins 2025 'Jewish Nobel Prize'
The Genesis Prize Foundation announced on Tuesday that the Genesis Prize 2025 laureate is Argentine President Javier Milei, making him the first head of state to receive the prestigious award, widely referred to as “The Jewish Nobel Prize.”

Milei was the unanimous choice of the nine judges on the committee, which commended him for his unequivocal support of Israel during one of the most difficult times since the founding of the Jewish State.

President Milei recently announced his decision to move the Argentinian embassy to Jerusalem, has reversed years of anti-Israel votes by Argentina in the United Nations, and has pledged to bring culprits responsible for the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings in Argentina in 1992 and 1994, respectively, to justice.

Not long ago, he declassified intelligence on the mysterious murder of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the AMIA case.

“President Milei is a true hero of the Jewish people,” said Stan Polovets, co-founder and chairman of The Genesis Prize Foundation. “Unlike leaders of many other countries, Milei has unconditionally backed the Jewish people and their state. This award expresses the appreciation of the State of Israel and the gratitude of the people of Israel toward the president and the people of Argentina.”

Milei has also deepened Argentina’s alliance with Israel, bucking decades of anti-Israel votes at the United Nations, and pledging to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem. This move stands in stark contrast to other responses by South American countries that have distanced themselves from Israel amid its war with Hamas.

Along with his foreign policy accomplishments, the Genesis Prize Committee cited Milei’s economic reforms. Under his command, inflation in Argentina fell from 25% to 2.4% per month, and the country recorded a fiscal surplus for the first time in 15 years.

That said, there is an adjustment struggle in terms of implementing these reforms, but it has an approval rating above 50% – which is extremely high for a democratic leader.

Upon accepting the honor, Milei said, “I am deeply honored to receive the Genesis Prize. I will give the monetary prize to causes that support freedom and the fight against antisemitism, whether in Argentina or worldwide.”
Holocaust survivor, 93, who fled Berlin at 7 gets German Order of Merit
A now 93-year-old Holocaust survivor who was shuttled out of Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom when he was a boy, just before the outbreak of World War II and without his family, was honored by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany.

At the age of 7, George Shefi was whisked out of Berlin as part of the Kindertransport (“Children’s Transport”) rescue operation to evacuate Jewish children from Nazi-controlled areas of Europe to the United Kingdom in the nine months leading up to the war. On Jan. 10, he received the Federal Order of Merit from Steinmeier, handed to him by Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert.

The event was held ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, which this month will mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. George Shefi BookThe Way of Fate by George Shefi. Credit: Courtesy.

The child survivor last saw his mother at the train station in Berlin as he fled for safety with other youth to England in 1938, after Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) on Nov. 9-10 and the year before Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and started a global war that ended on Sept. 2, 1945. His mother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 and murdered in the Nazi concentration and death camp.

Shefi lived in Britain for years, then in Canada and the United States before immigrating to Israel in 1949, where he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, married and started a family.

He wrote a book on his experiences published in 2016, titled A Way of Fate: A True Story From the Kindertransport.

“Holocaust survivors must tell their story because we are the last generation that can testify to things firsthand,” Shefi has said. “During my life, I have done this with thousands of German students to whom I said that they are not to blame for what happened to us, but they are responsible for it never happening again.”

The nonagenarian is slated to participate in the annual International March of the Living, an education program that brings individuals worldwide to Poland and Israel to study the history of the Shoah. This year, it will take place on April 24.

“George is responsible for creating thousands of new young witnesses to his story who take responsibility for Holocaust memory and the need to fight antisemitism,” said Revital Yakin Krakovsky, deputy CEO of the International March of the Living. “We are honored that he will march this year in the March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It will be an emotional and meaningful closing of a circle.”
King meets Holocaust survivors as he prepares for historic Auschwitz visit
The King has spoken of his pain at the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors as he kicked off the UK’s commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Charles III met 94-year-old survivor Manfred Goldberg during an event at Buckingham Palace on the day it was confirmed he would join other world leaders at the notorious camp later this month.

Manfred, 94, who survived concentration camps, including Stutthof, and a death march when just a schoolboy, said the first thing the King mentioned was the trip, saying: “I feel I must go for the anniversary, (it’s) so important.”

The monarch was introduced to students and teachers from a Cheney School in Oxford who were among the community groups, interfaith activists and prisoners to take part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s 80 candles for 80 years project. The school collaborated with the Rumble Museum and Museum of Oxford to learn about survivor Anita Laskar-Wallfish, who was part of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz. The result is a candleholder that includes broken glass to represent her time in the camp as well as musical motifs.

HMDT CEO Olivia Marks-Woldman told the King that the initiative had encouraged creativity from the most destructive of times, while chair Laura Marks said the 80 candleholders will be showcased in a special digital exhibition on Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January – stressing the challenge to represent the stories of survivors when they are no longer with us.

One answer to that challenge is provided in the Holocaust educational Trust’s Testimony 360 project which the King was introduced to by CEO Karen Pollock and chair Craig Leviton. Launched last year and used by schoolchildren across the country, it uses VR technology to enable students to ask a virtual Goldberg hundreds of questions about his experiences in the Shoah.

HET ambassadors Phoebe Winter and Jake Grey and Sacred Heart School students Lara Moreyra Gouveia and Victor Luiz Carvalho De Jesus, who have taken part in the programme, spoke of its impact, prompted by an intrigued monarch who quizzed the youngsters on their studies. He also took his chance to ask the VR Manfred a question.

Manfred was asked by Charles about his 2017 meeting with the Prince and Princess of Wales at Stuttof and later said of the King’s decision to join the Auschwitz commemoration: “I find it almost difficult to put into words, and I’m not often lost for words. But I think it is an astounding affirmation by His Majesty that he fully understands the colossal injustice and atrocity that was perpetrated against Jewish people during the Holocaust.

“He seems to have made it an active component of his life to do what he can to ensure that people become aware. He, like me, is trying to spread knowledge that once people understand what the Holocaust represents, I think every single one contributes to preventing it ever happen again. Silence never helps the oppressed.” He also expressed concern for the future of the country “not because of politics, because of the social media platforms”.


In first, researchers find where Jerusalemites prayed before Temple became only game in town
Researchers believe an ancient multi-room structure uncovered near Jerusalem’s Old City was likely used for ritual and worship nearly 3,000 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday, marking the first such find of a religious site practically down the street from the biblical First Temple while it still stood.

The 220-square-meter (2,370-square-foot) structure, dating from the 8th century BCE, “features eight rock-hewn rooms containing an altar, a standing stone, an oil press, and a winepress,” the IAA said in a statement about the well-preserved site, which was seemingly boarded up during an ancient crackdown on worship outside the Temple Mount. Standing stones are upright stones placed in the ground associated with religious ceremonies.

Researchers believe the site to be the only known ritual structure dating from the period of the First Temple in Jerusalem, and one of “very few found in the land of Israel,” according to the IAA.

The structure was likely “used for ritual purposes while the Temple still stood on the Temple Mount, just a few hundred meters away,” the authority said. The City of David, an archaeological park adjacent to Jerusalem’s Old City in the Silwan neighborhood, is considered by most scholars to contain a portion of the ancient core structures of Bronze and Iron Age Jerusalem and is an important site for biblical archaeology.

The building was first excavated in 2010, although a section of the structure had been uncovered by British explorer Montague Parker in 1909, who excavated at the site over several seasons in his search for the Ark of the Covenant.

Although the structure was found “a few years ago, you continue to excavate and find things, it takes time” to produce results, excavation director Eli Shukron told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

The archaeologists found the building basically preserved in situ, a rarity for excavations from the First Temple period. “It was closed off… nobody knew about it, nobody touched it, for so many years,” he said.





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