Tuesday, April 08, 2025

04/08 Links Pt2: Democrats and college administrators fail Jewish and pro-Israel communities; NYTs: Fighting Antisemitism is Bad for the Jews; Michael Rapaport: The loudest pro-Israel advocate

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Anti-Anti-Anti-Semitism
Yes, anti-Semitic incidents were often quite common in places with a lot of Jewish students. Also, the sky is blue. But more preposterous is the idea, so clearly spelled out in that paragraph, that punishing Columbia for violating the civil rights of its Jewish students is actually a case of targeting Jews for punishment because of the presence of Jewish students at Columbia.

I remind you: This man is the president of a university.

Speaking of which, here is how he talks about the Jewish students at his own institution who were appalled by the pro-Hamas protests: “Some of the students having grown up in communities of like-mindedness are surprised there is more than one side of an issue. In some cases, that is enough to awaken their anxieties.”

That is an astonishing level of contempt for a university president to express, in public, toward his students. But Roth is triggered by them, because he believes very strongly that there were very fine people on both sides.

Roth argues that Trump is a hypocrite because he is fighting anti-Semitism while tolerating the presence of anti-Semites in his own administration. This is undeniably true. And it is why I have been heartened to see the president make statements and take actions that the anti-Semites in the administration oppose. Roth feels otherwise.

On the same subject, Roth says that the president and his circle have legitimized people like Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes, and then says “These are our defenders?”

But Owens and Fuentes agree with Roth! “Republicans can’t claim to defend free speech while simultaneously using government to punish American citizens for criticizing Israel,” Fuentes posted. Regarding Khalil’s detention, Owens posted: “I will never cheerlead for things that are meant to chill speech—ever.” To paraphrase Roth: These are his defenders?

Meanwhile, to back up his own arguments, he quotes M. Gessen, a New Yorker writer who compared Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza to the Nazi liquidation of European ghettos. He also quotes a piece at 972 Magazine that includes, in a section of the piece Roth doesn’t quote, the claim that “traumatic episodes in Jewish history have been evoked to justify Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and crack down on those who criticize it.”

The fight against anti-Semitism will never require unanimity. But it will require, you know, fighting anti-Semitism.
Daniel Greenfield: New York Times: Fighting Antisemitism is Bad for the Jews
Rather than address antisemitism on the Left and on campus, Roth throws in Candace Owens (described as a Trump supporter even though she turned on him a while back), Nick Fuentes (ditto) Andrew Tate, and even Elise Stefanik, misattributes and misquotes multiple conservative figures, and wrongly insists “Shalom Columbia” is derogatory toward Jews.

And much of the op-ed is spent insisting that the handful of Jewish people who oppose Israel are equivalent to those who support it thereby actually doing what he wrongly accuses Trump of doing in Charlottesville, insisting on bothsideism.

Roth virtually offers no examples of leftist antisemitism, especially on campuses, that might have occasioned Jews to feel that “there is a great temptation for Jews to embrace anyone who denounces antisemitism, regardless of the moral contradictions.” Is he too unwilling or too afraid to do so?

“In the second and first century B.C., the Jewish kingdom of Judea aligned itself with Rome to protect itself from the domination of Greek culture. Rome obliged, and conquered Judea for itself,” Roth concludes. That’s bad history, but worse still, Roth is missing the point. He means it as a critique of Jews supporting Trump, but he might consider what if it’s really a critique of Jews supporting the Left?
Brendan O'Neill: Johnny Rotten is right: Hamas is a gang of ‘Jew exterminators’
Jew exterminators. This is, without question, the truest and most important thing I have heard any public figure say about Hamas. Reading Rotten say that, I understood how the kids of 1977 must have felt when they heard him snarl ‘God Save the Queen’. It felt like a jolt, almost like an ideological insurgency, to see a non-Jewish public figure speak so plainly about Hamas’s fascistic ambitions, its genocidal dream of destroying the Jews.

It shouldn’t, of course. It should be widely known that Hamas is a Jew-killing machine masquerading as a national-liberation movement. It should come naturally to the self-styled radicals of popular culture to condemn this virulently racist, misogynistic, homophobic movement that carried out the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust on 7 October 2023. Yet it doesn’t. Instead, lefties and luvvies and pop’s idiot crooners buy into the lie that Hamas is a resistance movement. They damn as ‘genocidaires’ not Hamas, but the brave young Jews who fight against it on the tragic battlefield of Gaza. Indoctrination indeed.

The dictionary defines punk as a ‘fast, loud and aggressive’ revolt against ‘conventional attitudes’. How fabulous to see Rotten, 69, still doing that. His anti-racist fury with Hamas shatters the lazy bourgeois prejudices of 2025 as much as the Sex Pistols did in late-Seventies Britain. The most stifling cultural orthodoxy of our age is to hate Israel. To pull on a keffiyeh, holler ‘From the river to the sea!’, and damn the Jewish nation as the most evil nation. Every opinion-making, Sally Rooney-reading, macchiato-quaffing prick will applaud you. Yet here’s Johnny, the punk who won’t die, with something rarer and more enticing: the truth. Never mind the bollocks, listen to Rotten.

Lydon does something wonderful: he brings to bear the moral sensibilities of the English / Irish working class against the faux-progressive bigotries of the elites. Against their anti-democratic wailing, he speaks up for Brexit. In the face of their Trump Derangement Syndrome, he says it makes sense that working-class Americans voted for Trump. And in reply to their frenzied Israelophobia, he says it’s Hamas that’s the problem.

He embodies the wisdom of the masses in an era of elite hysteria. And they hate him for it. ‘John Lydon’s rotten politics’, said a headline in the Guardian 15 years ago, when Lydon first spoke up for Israel. They’re The Man now, raging against Rotten for doing that thing the little people are never meant to do: tell their betters to fuck off.
California Nonprofit That Produces K–12 Teaching Materials Has Ties to Foreign Terrorists, Researchers Find
The Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA), a California nonprofit that designs K–12 curriculum material, has fiscal and personnel ties to U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, according to a new report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI).

“Our investigation of MECA has yielded evidence suggesting it holds fiscal and personnel ties to US designated foreign terrorist organizations, chiefly the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), alongside a host of extremist anti-government actors based in the United States,” reads the report by the NCRI, released on Monday.

MECA states on its website that it has sent more than $31 million in aid to children in “Palestine,” Iraq, and Lebanon since 1988. The nonprofit further purports to provide financial and professional assistance to community organizations in the West Bank and Gaza, fund university scholarships for Palestinians, and develop educational programs about the Middle East. MECA states that its “founding advisors” include Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Edward Said, and Maxine Waters.

The supposedly humanitarian organization has expressed its support for violence against Israel. The day after October 7, MECA declared its support on social media for the attack: “We are witnessing the people of Gaza rising up to respond to decades of Israeli settler colonial violence. The US [government] bears responsibility for its political, economic & military support of this brutal apartheid regime. Join us to stand in solidarity with Palestine.”

The NCRI report identifies deeper relationships between MECA and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997 and participated in the October 7 attack on Israel.

MECA’s current director of Gaza projects, Dr. Mona El-Farra, previously served as the deputy director of the Union of Health Work Committees, which was recognized as the “health organization” of the PFLP in a 1993 USAID report. In 2014, El-Farra was reportedly denied an exit visa by Israel for “security reasons.” El-Farra and Barbara Lubin, MECA’s founder and current executive director, have both met with Leila Khaled, who joined the PFLP when it was founded in 1967 and became the first woman to hijack a plane.


Democrats and college administrators fail Jewish and pro-Israel communities
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas murdered, beheaded, raped and massacred 1,200 people while attempting to do the same to the 7 million Jews living in Israel. Astonishingly, support for the terror organization’s attack and its ultimate goal to destroy the only Jewish state has become a legitimate viewpoint that is defended by university administrators and a majority of the Democratic Party, even if they personally disagree with it.

Attempts to disguise the legitimization of supporting Hamas with a free-speech argument are absurd. These so-called advocates would never defend demonstrations by white supremacists on college campuses or oppose the deportation of neo-Nazi supporters holding green cards.

College administrators and Democratic members of Congress would also likely oppose campus demonstrations by and support the expulsion of students who refuse to call transgender students by their preferred pronouns. They would view this conduct as harassment, yet calling for the massacre of 7 million Jews does not raise the same level of concern.

It is well-documented that anti-Zionist students not only oppose Israel but are also antisemitic, as can be seen from the massive harassment and discrimination against Jewish students on campus, as well as non-Jewish pro-Israel students, all of which violate codes of conduct on American college campuses. Yet harassing people because of their pro-Israel views is somehow considered legitimate, whereas the harassment of transgender students is not. Somehow, college administrators cannot enforce the view that no students should be harassed.

The Democratic Party has also intellectually defended the call for the destruction of Israel as a legitimate viewpoint during the Biden administration, as their “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” failed to include the word Zionism or the wording of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The IHRA working definition of antisemitism has been adopted by more than 40 countries and the U.S. State Department.
New Jersey Jewish leaders say Kim ‘failed’ Jewish community with Israel arms vote
A group of 167 New Jersey rabbis and cantors said in an open letter on Monday that newly elected Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) had “failed our ally … and our community” with his votes in support of two resolutions last week attempting to block $8.8 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel.

The Jewish leaders said they were “shocked,” “dismayed” and “angry,” feeling that Kim had betrayed his “numerous pledges that he would stand by our ally and his Jewish constituents,” instead voting “with the anti-Israel fringe, against our ally, and our community” in his first key vote on the issue.

“Senator Kim’s deliberate choice to side with Israel’s loudest opponents is an affront to our values, our strategic interests, and our community,” the rabbis wrote. “Senator Kim: You are on the wrong side of this issue. Your constituents are outraged. Listen to them. Stop siding with anti-Israel extremists. Stand with Israel.”

“As leaders in New Jersey’s Jewish community spanning religious denominations and political affiliations, we join together in our condemnation of Senator Kim’s irresponsible and misguided vote to undermine Israel’s security,” they added.

The organizers of the letter include rabbis from the local Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements. The letter highlights the backlash that Kim is facing from his state’s sizable Jewish community over his vote last Thursday, which began minutes after the votes concluded.

“The vast majority of our elected officials know how important these arms are to the threat Iran and her proxies pose,” the leaders wrote. “Sadly, a small minority in Congress do not understand the importance of the US-Israel relationship and seem to have accepted Hamas’ lies and propaganda. Now, knowingly or not, they are doing Hamas and Iran’s bidding and want America to abandon our ally and block these weapons sales.”
AOC and the diminishing prospects for Jewish Democrats
The ‘core values’ of the Democrats
Those urging her to choose that option were bolstered by a CNN poll that showed that of the leading Democrats, she “best reflects” the “core values” of the party.

That advantage shouldn’t intimidate her potential opponents since she topped a list of 26 Democrats with only 10% giving her that title. Still, it is significant that in doing so, she finished ahead of people like former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris, though it’s hard to imagine the latter trying again for the presidency after her 2024 debacle. Even more interesting is the fact that Shapiro—the early favorite of pro-Israel moderates—got only 1% in the poll of Democrats while Fetterman received zero support.

As the flurry of flattering articles about her in the liberal press, such as one by New York Times columnist Michelle Cottle and a separate Times news analysis indicates, AOC is widely liked by her fellow congressional Democrats and is working to build bridges with the moderates.

More important than that—and unlike a lot of people on the left who are supposedly smarter than her—AOC deserves credit for trying to downplay the ideological divide in her party. Instead, she is taking a page out of the playbooks of both Sanders and Trump by demanding that the Democrats must give up being the party of the educated class and credentialed elites. Instead, she wants it to go back to its roots as a party that represents working people.

Her ideas, like the radical environmentalism of the Green New Deal, would be terrible for everyone, especially for working-class Americans, since those who aren’t privileged rich people would be hurt by abandoning fossil fuels and other measures that benefit the upper classes. The same is true for her support for open borders that depress the wages of lower-income Americans and make housing less affordable. Still, she does understand that the globalist economics pursued by the establishments of both major parties until the advent of Trump have devastated blue-collar voters.

Her undoubted charisma and support that she’s always gotten from the liberal press who have helped her go mainstream are formidable advantages heading toward 2028.

It remains to be seen how she would fare in a presidential campaign, however, since the only way to know if a candidate, no matter how popular or well-funded, is ready for prime time is for them to run. And three and a half years away from the 2028 general election, it’s unclear how the nation will perceive Trump 2.0, and whether Vice President JD Vance, the current front-runner for the GOP nomination, will stay in Trump’s good graces. And that’s not taking into account whether Trump is really serious about finding a way to evade the barrier to an unconstitutional third term erected by the 22nd Amendment.

The left wing of the Democratic Party is unlikely, as it did in 2020, to allow the D.C. establishment to stay in power again. The party base’s rage at Trump, especially if, unlike in his first term, he proves impervious to attempts to sabotage his administration, will be vented at centrists as much as it will be at Republicans.

A bipartisan consensus is dead
That’s bad news for the dwindling number of Democrats like Fetterman, who would like to reassemble the old bipartisan pro-Israel consensus.

AOC is very much in sync with not merely the anti-Israel activism of left-wing Democrats and fellow “Squad” members in the House. She also supports the pro-Hamas mobs on campuses like Columbia University, even as she hedges her bets by saying that she’s against antisemitism while denying that her anti-Zionist allies are Jew-haters.

Those who wonder what will happen to the U.S.-Israel relationship or the fight against antisemitism if the Democrats win in 2028 have good reason to worry. As much as the Biden and Obama administrations saw a steep decline in the influence of pro-Israel Democrats, the Democratic Party of the future that AOC represents is one in which they will have virtually no voice at all. Whether or not she runs, or winds up seriously contending for the presidential nomination, a Democratic Party where someone who shares her views can be spoken of as a realistic possibility for 2028 is one that will have abandoned Jewish voters. It will also mean that any hope that Israel hasn’t become a partisan issue for the foreseeable future is officially gone.


YouTube star Ms. Rachel should be investigated for spreading Hamas propaganda over posts about Gaza kids, antisemitism group tells AG Bondi
YouTube’s top toddler whisperer, Ms. Rachel, should be investigated over whether she’s being paid to spread Hamas-aligned propaganda for her posts about the deaths of kids in Gaza, a major antisemitism group tells Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Ms. Rachel, real name Rachel Griffin Accurso, has become the modern equivalent of Mister Rogers, educating and entertaining millions of young kids with her “Songs for Littles” streaming shows — which have been viewed more than 10 billion times.

But the Jewish civil rights watchdog group StopAntisemitism said Ms. Rachel is not so sweet.

StopAntisemitism takes issue with multiple posts Ms. Rachel made about the condition of children in the Gaza Strip during the war, alleging that the content is either debunked or disputed by Israel.

The group says the posts are anti-Israel and are meant to inspire pro-Hamas sympathies among young kids.

“Given the vast sums of foreign funds that have been directed toward propagandizing our young people on college campuses, we suspect there is a similar dynamic in the online influencer space,” StopAntisemitism director Liora Rez said in a letter sent Monday to Bondi.

“We urge you and your office to investigate whether or not Ms. Rachel is being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers, as this may violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),” Rez said.

In the letter to Bondi, the group said Ms. Rachel, who once focused solely on catering to children, has been “incorporating Hamas-like propagated images and stories into her content.”
Mahmoud Khalil downplays campus antisemitism, accuses students of 'participating in genocide'
Mahmoud Khalil accused Columbia University of creating a “manufactured public hysteria about antisemitism” and likened the school to a Nazi collaborationist government in a letter dictated from an ICE detention center.

He also claimed, without citing evidence, that fellow students who spoke out against antisemitism were serving in the Israeli military during school vacations.

The letter, published Friday in the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper, is Khalil’s second since he was arrested on campus by ICE nearly a month ago. Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian and recent graduate of Columbia, was a leader of protests against Israel and among the first and most prominent student activists to be arrested in the Trump administration’s campus crackdown. He is now fighting deportation in court.

The letter was published as conflict over student activism has continued to play out at Columbia. Last month several plaintiffs, including Khalil and Columbia students, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the school from sending a House committee its disciplinary records. A federal judge ruled Friday that the school must give students 30 days’ notice before handing over any documents.

Prior to the order, a group of mostly Jewish protesters chained themselves to gates on Columbia’s campus Wednesday demanding to learn more about whether the school had provided information to the federal government that led to Khalil’s arrest.

The student protesters were physically removed from the gates by public safety officers, who The New York Times reported have been newly empowered to stop campus protests. Columbia has pledged to add 36 “special patrol officers” with arrest powers to its ranks in March in response to the Trump administration’s demands that it do more to fight antisemitism.

Khalil accuses Columbia of 'laying the groundwork for my abduction'
As in his first letter from ICE detention on March 18, Khalil accused Columbia of “laying the groundwork for my abduction” by exercising “repression” of pro-Palestinian students. In Friday’s letter, while writing about the recent resignation of Columbia’s acting president, he called the school “Vichy on the Hudson,” a reference to the Nazi collaborationist government in France.

“The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine,” he wrote. “In the 18 months since the genocidal campaign in Gaza began, Columbia has not only refused to acknowledge the lives of Palestinians sacrificed for Zionist settler colonialism, but it has actively reproduced the language used to justify this killing.”

Khalil wrote that the school pursued its policies “under the auspices of combating antisemitism.” Many Jewish students, as well as Jewish organizations on and off campus, have said that campus pro-Palestinian demonstrations created a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students, and groups have reported a rise in campus antisemitic incidents.

In his letter, Khalil suggested that those worries were artificial, and that conflicts were instigated by pro-Israel students. He referenced an article in The Intercept, a left-leaning publication, about a groupchat of pro-Israel alumni that allegedly worked to identify and report student protesters to law enforcement.


Hostage Forum publishes health report for 24 living hostages, warns ‘time is running out’
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum published on Monday a medical report detailing the condition of the living hostages still held captive in Gaza, based on known medical conditions and injuries, propaganda videos published by Hamas, and testimonies from those released during the recent two-month ceasefire.

The report, which the forum stressed did not provide a full depiction of the hostages’ health, examined both their physical and mental state. It warned that some have been isolated for the majority of their 550 days in captivity, increasing the chances of severe psychological distress, and that many of them were likely suffering from digestive problems, prolonged dehydration and serious infections.

Fifty-eight of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught remain in the clutches of Gazan terror groups. Hamas is also holding the body of a soldier killed during the 2014 Gaza war, bringing the total number of captives to 59. Of that number, 24 are thought to be alive.

The testimonies from hostages released during the recent ceasefire from mid-January to early March reveal proof of “severe shortages of food, water and medical care, leading to malnutrition, severe weakness and the deterioration of their health,” the forum said.

On top of that, they are undergoing “physical and mental torture,” it said, including “strangulation, being tied up, being hung by the legs, burns and deliberate starvation.”

Some of the hostages are chained up, “for weeks or months at a time,” and they are all being held in tunnels underground “without natural light and air,” the report said. Images of those held captive in Gaza are displayed at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, on March 31, 2025. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

“Captivity survivors held for long periods of time described conditions of complete isolation, with no contact with other Israelis, or knowledge of their loved ones’ conditions,” the forum said.

“Many suffered from severe malnutrition and deteriorating health due to the lack of proper medical care. Some battled serious infections or illnesses without any access to medical care, and sometimes remained wounded, without bandages or painkillers.”
Call me Back Podcast - with Dan Senor: Rachel Goldberg - The Paradox of Passover 2025
Jews began celebrating Passover during the actual exodus from Egypt, sometime in the 13th–15th century BCE, and the tradition has continued—evolving but unbroken—ever since. To honor this tradition, we will be doing something different on this Call me Back episode - we will be talking about Passover, and about what this tradition can teach us about this paradoxical moment.

With us today is Rachel Goldberg, who – for most of her career – was a professional Jewish educator. We wanted to speak with her as we prepare for our seders.

00:00 Introduction
09:25 The Paradox of Passover in 2025
27:24 The Haggadah
39:00 The Four Sons
46:30 Getting the remaining hostages home
54:23 Passover without Hersh




Colombia Cuts Ties With Israel, Then Appoints Anti-Zionist ‘Rabbi’
The appointment of Richard Gamboa comes amid a broader shift in President Petro’s foreign and domestic policies toward Jewish institutions

The appointment of Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar as director of religious affairs at Colombia’s Ministry of the Interior has sparked significant controversy both nationally and internationally. His self-declared status as a rabbi, lack of recognition by established Jewish communities, and repeated statements against Zionism and the State of Israel have drawn strong criticism from religious, diplomatic, and academic sectors.

Gamboa’s appointment is also the latest flashpoint in an escalating diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Israel. Tensions began in earnest after President Gustavo Petro repeatedly condemned Israel’s military actions in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel. Petro compared Israeli actions to those of Nazi Germany, prompting outrage from Israeli officials. Israel recalled its ambassador from Bogotá in protest, and Colombia responded by recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv. In May 2024, Petro announced the complete severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, making Colombia the only country in Latin America to take that step. The move drew condemnation from Jewish organizations worldwide and marked a break from decades of security, trade, and cultural ties between the two countries.

Against this backdrop, critics view Gamboa’s appointment not as an isolated issue but as a deliberate move by the Petro administration to antagonize Israel and mainstream Jewish institutions.

Questions about Gamboa’s rabbinical credentials lie at the center of the debate. Unlike traditional ordination processes that require years of formal study of the Talmud and Torah at recognized institutions, Gamboa received his certificate from the Esoteric Interfaith Theological Seminary, a Florida-based organization that offers religious titles online for $150, according to its official website.

He claims to represent the “Free and Independent Rabbinical Council of the Americas,” a body with no verifiable presence, and serves as chancellor of the “liberal and independent Jewish Union of Colombia,” a Facebook-based group with fewer than 20 followers. Gamboa also leads the so-called Shéguel Institute, a self-established rabbinical institution without academic or religious accreditation.
Fake rabbi appointed head of Colombia Religious Affairs bought title online
Colombia’s Interior Ministry’s new director for religious affairs got his rabbinical ordination at an online shop and holds a doctorate from a mysterious source, which has Colombian Jewish and Christian communities worried over both his radicalism and newfound power to regulate religious organizations.

Rabbi Dr. Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar, who announced his appointment on X/Twitter on Friday, regularly takes to social media to denounce Zionist Jews as “Nazis” and “false Jews.”

The process of his ordination as rabbi has led some, like the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in the Latin America region to describe him as a “fake rabbi.”

Gamboa’s rabbinical ordination certificate, a picture of which he posted on his LinkedIn account and website, came from the Esoteric Theological Seminary.

While he cited the name of an “Interfaith Theological Seminary” in Gainesville as its source, his documents were identical to those from the Esoteric Theological Seminary.

This interfaith gnostic mystery cult church offers to convert titles for an interfaith minister, shaman, Celtic druid, Gothi Norse clergy, or rabbi for $150.

The application requires a one-page essay about an aspiring rabbi’s spiritual history and a paragraph about their religious work before paying the fee, which comes with added costs of additional titles. An applicant can also earn the certificate by paying $700 for an online study program and writing a 4,000-word thesis.

While Gamboa insisted that his ordination was performed by the seminary’s “rabbinical council,” the certificates, identical to the ones displayed at the online store, were signed by Reverend Katia Romanoff and Reverend Robert Straitt. Both identify with Christianity, according to their respective website biographies.
Bill would fine schools $100k or more for failing to protect religious students
Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) reintroduced the University Accountability Act bill on Monday to penalize educational institutions that fail to protect Jewish students.

“I will continue to lead efforts to rid our colleges and universities of antisemitism alongside President Trump, who is delivering on his promise to hold these failed institutions accountable for their neglect and abandonment of our Jewish students,” Stefanik stated.

The New York representative’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was recently withdrawn due to internal Republican party considerations.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved the bill last year, but the legislation failed to receive a vote from the full House before the time expired in December. It was originally tabled last July.

The bill would require colleges and universities that violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to pay a $100,000 fine, or 5% of the total amount that the school reports on its 990 tax form in employee payment, including bonuses, incentives and the like—whichever is greater. (The 1964 law bars institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating, including on the basis of religion.)

After a school accrued three civil rights violations, the bill would trigger an Internal Revenue Service review of its tax-exempt status for potential revocation.

“Universities have a responsibility to protect their students from violence and discrimination, but, instead, we’re seeing a disturbing increase in antisemitic attacks and rhetoric on college campuses,” Malliotakis stated.

“Our legislation seeks to hold these institutions accountable and encourage them to investigate and crack down on instances of antisemitism to help foster a safer academic environment for all students, regardless of their gender, race or religion,” she stated.
Sydney protesters slam IDF soldiers for 'apartheid'—not knowing they're not even Jewish
A multi-faith Israeli delegation, including Druze, Christian and Jewish IDF veterans, as well as bereaved families from the Gaza war, visited university campuses across Australia to share their personal stories and showcase the diversity of Israeli society. However, pro-Palestinian protesters aggressively demonstrated against delegation members.

At the University of Sydney, protesters gathered with signs denouncing “IDF soldiers on campus,” seemingly unaware that many members of the visiting delegation were not Jewish—and, in fact, challenged the very stereotypes the demonstrators appeared intent on reinforcing.

Gideon Abbas, a Druze fighter who lost his brother during battles in Gaza, said, "I am Druze, I am Israeli and I lost my brother in this war. It hurts to see people shouting at me without knowing anything about who I am or what I’ve been through. I came to talk, not to fight."

Shiran, the delegation leader from the advocacy group ISRAEL-is, added, "We came to talk on an equal footing, not to argue. The participants' stories speak for themselves – they authentically reflect Israel’s true and diverse reality, challenging the narrative protesters are trying to create."

Among the delegation members were also Odelia, a Christian combat veteran from Ma'alot who lost her brother at the beginning of the war, and Anthony, the son of a family of South Lebanon Army veterans, a medical student in Sydney who grew up in Israel and joined the delegation to explain what is really happening at home.

The delegation traveled to Australia as part of an initiative by ISRAEL-is, which works to improve Israel’s image globally through the personal stories of young Israelis. Delegation members bring with them the diverse voices of Israeli society – religious and secular, Jewish and Arab, soldiers and graduates of civilian service – and participate in meetings with students, communities and government officials worldwide. They aim to foster a sincere, non-patronizing dialogue based on personal connections rather than slogans.
Academic Freedom to Support Hamas at the London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is rated as one of the best universities in the UK and globally — and the school often extols its academic mission and motto: rerum cognoscere causas (“to know the causes of things”).

It is curious, then, that the LSE does not feel obliged, let alone willing, to share the knowledge presumably obtained at a book event it hosted about Hamas.

Readers may not be aware that the LSE recently hosted a discussion with an author about her book Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters. The discussion quickly attracted criticism and censure when it was announced.

First, LSE’s webpage for the event carried the blurb of the publisher, OR Books. The blurb claims that “the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been subject to intense vilification. Branding it as ‘terrorist’ or worse, this demonization intensified after the events in Southern Israel on October 7, 2023.”

It is difficult — and incredibly radical – to sustain the idea that Hamas has been demonized.

Of course, this is no surprise for OR Books, which features a book called Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn, no fewer than six books by Norman Finkelstein, and — what else — a “Free Palestine Reading List.”

But the LSE has a reputation to maintain. Thus, following criticism, the LSE replaced the event’s description. Unfortunately, their promotional text remains problematic in other ways: it claims that the book set out Hamas’ “transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies to a stance that differentiates between Judaism and Zionism.”

Efforts by Hamas members to slay the “Yehudis” surely refute this.

As the event neared, protests and counterprotests arose. The LSE was determined that the event go ahead, because “free speech underpins everything we do.” What is more, “Students, staff and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world.”

However, perhaps anxious about security and reputational implications, the LSE decided that this “public” event would only be available to LSE staff and students. Indeed, there would not even be a livestream of the event. To date, the LSE has not put up a video of the event. So much for visitors being invited to “discuss and debate the most pressing issues.”


Cam Higby: I Investigated UCLA Palestine Protests What I Found Was Deeply DISTURBING
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Palestine Protesters SURROUNDED Me, BUT they Didn’t Know I Was Filming!
Cam Higby Reacts to his Crazy moments

I hope you enjoyed! For more of my content follow me on my other platforms! I am really looking to build my discord community so that you all can have as much fun debating each other as I do and hone your skills. everyone is welcome regardless of political affiliation.




Israeli envoy ejected from African Union event on Rwandan genocide
Israel’s foreign ministry has protested the ejection on Monday of its ambassador to Ethiopia from an African Union meeting commemorating the Rwandan Genocide.

Representatives of several countries declined to attend the event in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, if Ambassador Avraham Neguise was present, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The ministry also strongly criticized comments made by Mahmoud Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, during the gathering. “It is outrageous that at an event commemorating the victims of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, to which the Israeli ambassador in Addis Ababa was invited, [Youssouf] chose to introduce anti-Israel political elements,” the statement said.

Israel announced in July 2021 that it had regained observer status at the African Union, an international forum consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent.
Israeli high court bars Netanyahu from firing Shin Bet service head
Israel’s top court barred Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from firing the head of the Shin Bet domestic security service on Tuesday, prompting allegations from critics of judicial overreach and warnings of an impending constitutional crisis.

After an 11-hour hearing on several petitions seeking to block or reverse Bar’s dismissal last month, the High Court of Justice issued an injunction stating that “Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, will continue to serve in his position pending a different ruling.”

The ruling and the controversy about its circumstances are the latest battleground in a broader political conflict between Israelis who recognize Netanyahu’s elected, right-wing government and those who seek judicial interventions against its mandate.

The five-page ruling from the three-justice panel on the petitions, which alleged a conflict of interest on Netanyahu’s part, provoked angry reactions on the right. Several politicians noted that Israel’s lawbook states explicitly that the government has exclusive authority over appointing and dismissing the Shin Bet head.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that the ruling is “puzzling,” and that it is “unthinkable that the government is prevented from firing a failed Shin Bet only because of the initiation of an investigation that’s not related to any of the government ministers.”

Shlomo Karhi, the Israeli communications minister, stated on social media that “the government must obey the law, because its loyalty is to the State of Israel and its laws, not an illegal injunction devoid of any authority.”
IDF dissolves platoon, dismisses officers after reservists vandalize West Bank camp
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said it dismantled a platoon of reservists and dismissed several officers on Tuesday for vandalizing Palestinian property during a raid in the Deheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem the week prior.

During a counter-terror raid in the West Bank camp on April 2, soldiers “graffitied slogans on buildings in the village, as well as vandalized equipment, in a way that exceeds the procedures and commands given before the operation,” the IDF said.

The graffiti images included Stars of David over Arabic slogans, which were photographed by Palestinian residents.

The operation was halted, the graffiti covered up, and an investigation was launched by the commander of the West Bank Division, Brig. Gen. Yaki Dolf, together with the commander of the Etzion Regional Brigade, Col. Gal Rich.

The findings were submitted to IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, who said the “grave” incident “contradicts the level of professionalism and values expected of IDF soldiers.”

As a result, the IDF said that the commander of the battalion whose troops were involved was formally reprimanded — a note that will remain on his permanent record; a company commander present during the incident was dismissed from his position; another company commander was reprimanded; and two additional commanders, along with several soldiers, were dismissed.

The platoon involved in the vandalism was also dissolved.

The IDF said that the disciplinary action was taken “in accordance with the findings of the investigation” and in line with the policy of the new IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, under which such cases are “treated with severity.”
West Bank cousins handed life in prison for deadly 2024 terror spree in Ra’anana
The Lod District Court on Tuesday sentenced two perpetrators of a 2024 car-ramming and stabbing attack, in which they killed an elderly woman, to life imprisonment plus 60 additional years.

Cousins Ahmed Zidat, 25, and Mahmoud Zidat, 44, were convicted of repeatedly ramming vehicles into pedestrians across several locations throughout Ra’anana on January 15, 2024. The terror attack killed 79-year-old Edna Bluestein and injured at least 17 others.

The perpetrators, from the southern West Bank town of Bani Naim, had been working in the Ra’anana industrial zone without proper documentation. The two pleaded guilty and were convicted in July 2024 on terror charges including aggravated murder, attempted murder, causing injury and other offenses.

According to an indictment filed by prosecutors in February 2024, both identified with the Hamas terror group and had planned other terror attacks in the past. They carried out their rampage using three cars in separate parts of the city.

Ahmed rammed into one pedestrian at high speed, exited his wrecked vehicle, then hijacked another car to run into two other pedestrians. He again got out of the car and began stabbing one of his victims.

Mahmoud, meanwhile, spotted a crowded bus stop and rammed his car into those waiting there, running over 18 people, including Bluestein.

One of them told the Shin Bet that “when the war in Gaza started,” they “decided to carry out an attack and become martyrs… Initially, we intended to stab Jews, but then we decided to run over as many Jews as possible,” Channel 12 reported last year.


Did Hamas just protest itself? The Gaza uprising that feels like a setup
This is not to say that the anger in Gaza isn’t real. It is. It has been simmering for years. Civilians are exhausted, displaced, starving. Entire neighborhoods have vanished. And in that desperation, some have found the courage to speak out.

But the reality of Hamas’s control over Gaza cannot be overstated. Nothing happens there without their knowledge. Spontaneous protests in the middle of a war zone, under the watchful eye of a paranoid regime? That is not how Gaza works. Not unless Hamas allows it – or engineers it.

We’ve seen the playbook before. In Iran, the regime has staged counterprotests to justify crackdowns. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s regime planted “protesters” to smoke out dissidents. In Russia, fake opposition is routinely used to confuse and control. Hamas has learned from these regimes.

It is no coincidence that as international scrutiny intensifies and pressure mounts over the failure to extend a ceasefire, Hamas suddenly becomes the target of public ire – just enough to distract, just enough to muddy the narrative, just enough to blame Israel or the West for everything falling apart.

And then there’s the digital theater. Many of the protest videos were circulated by accounts known to oppose Hamas – but how much of that opposition is real, and how much is staged? In an information war, what seems authentic is often artificial.

The protester with the microphone, the chants calling for Hamas to step down, the Facebook posts accusing the group of turning citizens into numbers – it all reads as powerful, until you realize it may be part of a script. A performance staged not for the people of Gaza, but for an international audience already struggling to make sense of an increasingly complex conflict.

If anything, this protest tells us less about Hamas’s weakness and more about its adaptability. This is not the behavior of a regime on the brink. It is the behavior of a regime that knows exactly how far it can go – how to allow just enough anger to vent before sealing the pressure valve shut.

The message sent to the people of Gaza was clear: We are still watching. And the message sent to the world was even more chilling: We control the narrative, even when it turns against us.

In the end, the voices of the protesters – however genuine – have been swallowed up by a broader, more cynical machine. Their pain is real, but it’s being packaged and sold by the very group they were trying to resist. In Gaza, dissent is not crushed in secret anymore. It is weaponized, staged, and televised. The revolution may not be televised, but the illusion of one absolutely is.
Brussels preparing multi-year financial boost for Palestinian Authority
A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to JNS on Tuesday that Brussels was in the process of preparing a “multi-year financial support package” for the Palestinian Authority.

“The European Union is committed to continue providing financial support to the Palestinian Authority,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to JNS, noting that Brussels provided almost €400 ($437 million) in “short-term emergency financial support” in 2024.

“As a second step, we are now in the process of preparing a multi-year financial support package for the Palestinian Authority linked to an ambitious reform programme to be anchored in the P.A.’s own strategy for reforms,” the E.U. spokesperson stated, adding that “any further development in this sense” would be communicated “in due time.”

On Monday, Sky News Arabia cited an anonymous “credible Palestinian source” as saying that Brussels approved a financial aid program for the Palestinian Authority exceeding €1 billion ($1,092 billion) for two years.

The Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network cited “informed sources” as claiming that the E.U. funding would be announced later this month.

Brussels wants the Palestinian Authority to assume control of Gaza after the completion of Israel’s military operation against Hamas; Jerusalem vehemently rejects this due to Ramallah’s overt support for terrorism.

P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, whom Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas appointed in March 2024, has claimed Ramallah aims to enact wide-ranging reforms and hold its first vote since 2006.

However, he has yet to provide a timetable, saying the vote depends on “realities on the ground” in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.


Houthis say intel commander killed as suspected US strikes pound Yemen overnight
The Houthi rebels announced an intelligence commander was killed as several US airstrikes targeted Houthi positions throughout rebel-held Yemen on Monday night.

The Houthis said that Col. Abdul Nasser Sarhan al-Kamali was killed in one of the US strikes.

Unnamed sources told the Al Hadath network two airstrikes hit Houthi weapons stores on Kamaran Island in Hodeidah as well as an ammunition depot in the al-Juba area of the Marib governate.

Five other strikes targeted the Al Jumaimah area in the Sanaa governorate, Al Hadath reported.

Al Hadath also said that the Houthis carried out a campaign of arrests following the strikes. Among those said to be detained was the deputy head of the Houthi intelligence service over suspicions that he leaked coordinates for targets.

An intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump targeting the rebels since March has killed at least 70 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.

The campaign shows no signs of stopping as the Trump administration has repeatedly linked its airstrikes on the Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

CENTCOM did not comment on the individual strikes, but posted footage of aircraft preparing for attacks on Monday evening.


Goal reached: all 20 Premier League clubs hold antisemitism workshops
Every Premier League football club has now participated in workshops examining the rise of contemporary antisemitism and its impact on the British Jewish community, Jewish News can reveal.

The significant milestone, as part of a partnership undertaken by Lord John Mann and Maccabi GB, was achieved last week after Southampton Football Club became the last of the 20 top-level English football sides to agree to host workshops for the Tackling Antisemitism in Sport project.

The south-coast side’s participation in the scheme means all current Premier League sides has received vital training in recognising and dealing with anti-Jewish racism since the projects launch in September 2023.

The workshops provide an essential introduction to the British Jewish community, discuss the issue of antisemitism through a historical and contemporary lens, stressing the importance of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

They also assess real-life scenarios that have occurred around a football-setting, encouraging participants to address and report any incidents that are witnessed or experienced.

Since becoming the government’s Independent Adviser on Antisemitism Lord Mann has been a staunch supporter of antisemitism campaigns and education in football – both in Britain and internationally.

The partnership with Maccabi GB on the latest project has proved to be particularly successful.

Lord Mann told Jewish News: “Having representatives from every Premier League club receive training on contemporary antisemitism is groundbreaking in the world of sport.


Albanian PM invites all passengers on first direct flight from Israel to a festive meal
Albania’s prime minister has welcomed passengers arriving on the country’s first ever direct flight from Israel, hailing it as a landmark moment in the strengthening of ties between the two nations.

Travellers onboard Sundor Airlines’ inaugural Tel Aviv-Tirana route were greeted on Wednesday evening with a red-carpet reception and festive dinner hosted by Prime Minister Edi Rama at the presidential palace.

“It was a pleasure to greet the visitors of the first direct Israel-Albania flight,” Rama said in a post on Facebook. “A connection that will further strengthen the historic ties between our peoples, boost Albania’s tourism sector, and facilitate cooperation across various fields.”

The launch marks a significant milestone in Israel-Albania relations, with the new route, operating three times weekly, expected to open doors for tourism, trade and cross-cultural exchange.

Sundor Airlines, a leisure-focused subsidiary of El Al, held a celebratory send-off at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport prior to take-off. Dignitaries including Albanian Ambassador to Israel Mary Kombo, Albania’s Honorary Consul Sani Senilovic and Sundor CEO Gal Gershon joined the event alongside passengers.

Upon landing in Tirana, passengers were welcomed with traditional refreshments and a formal ceremony attended by Israel’s ambassador to Albania, Galit Peleg, and other senior Albanian officials. The direct flight between Tel Aviv and Tirana opens new opportunities for connecting the region through tourism and culture. Photo: X

Addressing guests at the evening dinner, Rama reaffirmed Albania’s commitment to deepening diplomatic and people-to-people ties with Israel. He was joined by the country’s minister of infrastructure and tourism and over 140 guests from the flight.
Actress Patricia Heaton is 100,000th signer of Jewish Future Promise
Actress and advocate Patricia Heaton helped the Jewish Future Promise pass a historic milestone when she became the 100,000th signer of the pledge on Tuesday.

“As a Christian, my spiritual heritage exists in the Jewish people. The bond Jews and Christians share is deep and profound,” said the 67-year-old. “Along with that, our shared Judeo-Christian values are the foundation for the free and thriving democracies we see in Israel, America and around the world. The Jewish future is everyone’s future!”

Heaton has been a fierce advocate for the Jewish state, especially after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She founded the Oct. 7 Coalition, “a network of Christians standing visibly and vocally against the rise of antisemitism in our country,” according to its website. It recognizes Israel’s right to exist; emphatically rejects antisemitism; and aims to strengthen ties and connections between Christians and Jews.

JFP founder Mike Leven stated that the 100,000th signature “is not merely a milestone; it’s a profound reflection of our collective commitment to the future of Jewish life.”

“Each of the 100,000 made is a promise to sustain our heritage and nurture the values that have defined our community for generations,” he said. “This is more than just a number. It is a living legacy.”

The JFP is a “moral commitment to share Jewish stories, values and traditions with family and friends,” that also asks that 50% of all charitable contributions made after passing be allocated to Jewish causes and/or Israel. “It is not a legal or binding agreement, but a promise to the next generation of the Jewish people,” per its website.

It was founded in response to a 2017 survey that revealed just 11% of donations from Jewish benefactors were invested in Jewish causes.
Michael Rapaport: The loudest pro-Israel advocate

Ambulance hero Norman Rosenbaum dies at 90
Norman Rosenbaum, a retired surgeon whose donated ambulances for Israel’s emergency service helped save an estimated 132,000 lives, has died aged 90.

A long-standing member of Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue, Rosenbaum crowdfunded 16 ambulances for Magen David Adom (MDA) UK over two decades, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds and mobilising a dedicated donor base in north London.

Figures published in 2019 revealed that 12 of those vehicles alone had responded to more than 75,000 emergency incidents, including 46 terror-related calls, 2,760 involving children and 997 births. One ambulance, funded by Jewish News and Cockfosters Synagogue in 2010, went on to attend over 10,000 calls.

MDA UK now estimates that the vehicles donated thanks to Rosenbaum’s efforts have helped save approximately 132,000 lives.

In 2021, Rosenbaum was appointed Honorary Manager of Magen David Adom in Israel and vice president of its UK branch. That same year, he and his wife Eve dedicated their most recent vehicle at Sopwell House in Hertfordshire, named in honour of Prince William.

Paying tribute, MDA UK Chief Executive Daniel Burger said: “Magen David Adom UK mourns the loss of Norman Rosenbaum, an exceptional individual who taught me personally so much about chesed and tzedakah and has saved countless lives through the crowdfunding of 16 vehicles over his time with Magen David Adom UK.

“It was an honour to see him win the Jewish News award all those years back and then hand it over to the next generation. Norman is the absolute essence of a mensch and he will be sorely missed by everyone that knew him.”
‘Holy’ work: Stars of David replace crosses on stones of two WWI soldiers at national cemetery
Some 100 people, ranging in age from about 8 to 102, huddled for warmth as they braved 40-degree temperatures on a damp day at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to watch, as speaker after speaker put it, Pfc. Adolph Hanf and Pvt. David Moser “come home.”

Neither of the Jewish soldiers, who served in World War I and have been dead for more than 100 years, underwent a geographic relocation. But with the help of Operation Benjamin, a donor-supported nonprofit, Moser (1898-1919) and Hanf (1884-1918) received new gravestones with Stars of David rather than Latin crosses.

“We take a moment out of our busy lives to remember two men of the Jewish faith, long at rest in this cemetery but mistakenly commemorated,” said Rob Dalessandro, deputy secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission. “Today, thanks to the efforts of Operation Benjamin and their team, we can better appreciate the shared Jewish sacrifice in the cause of democracy and freedom.”

Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, the president of Operation Benjamin, told the attendees that his organization’s work is “very important and precious and I would even say holy.”

Schacter told JNS that the new headstones finally provided the two men with a grave marker that was appropriate for them as Jews.

“What we have seen today is an extraordinary expression of the commitment of the Jewish people and of the leadership of the United States of America to set the historical record straight, to bring soldiers who gave their lives for America, as Americans and as Jews, under the marker that represents their ancestral faith,” he said.

Shalom Lamm, the chief historian of Operation Benjamin, noted that few people gathered at the cemetery had even heard of Moser and Hanf prior to two months ago. “What is it about their story that stirs the human soul?” he said. “I’d like to suggest that we all feel a sense of justice being done after all these years for two young men, who sacrificed all for an idea bigger than themselves.”

“We instinctively know that when they lost their lives, they lost the ability to fight for their own identity. Our sense of fair play is aroused by our ability to make things right after all of these years,” Lamm said. “We have a sense, I think, of paying a long overdue debt to these men. We got it wrong for over 100 years. We buried them incorrectly for over 10 decades.”


Holocaust survivors join soldiers to mark 80 years since Bergen-Belsen liberation
Two Holocaust survivors have returned to British military grounds to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Mala Tribich and Alfred Garwood addressed troops at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, in a special commemorative event co-hosted by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) and The Light Dragoons. The date, 4 April, came just ahead of the official liberation anniversary on 15 April.

The 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars, a predecessor regiment of The Light Dragoons, were among the first British soldiers to uncover the atrocities at Bergen-Belsen in 1945. They entered the camp in the final days of the Second World War, revealing scenes of death and starvation that would shock the world.

In a tribute, an oak tree was planted during Friday’s event, symbolising remembrance and resilience. The survivors also contributed handwritten reflections on the lessons of the Holocaust, which were sealed in a time capsule to be opened in 2045, on the centenary of the camp’s liberation.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of HMDT, said, “I’m deeply grateful to The Light Dragoons for their invaluable partnership in making this event possible. Their connection to Bergen-Belsen made the collaboration especially meaningful.

“Together, we honoured not only those who were murdered at Bergen-Belsen and the British soldiers who liberated the survivors but all six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. This commemoration served as both a reflection on the past and a commitment to the future – an affirmation of our responsibility to stand against hate and uphold the values of freedom and dignity for all.”
Congresswoman proclaims ‘Hanna Slome Day’ to honor 100-year-old Holocaust survivor
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) announced on Monday that she visited Hanna Slome, a Holocaust survivor who will turn 100 on Friday, at her home in Meng’s district in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, N.Y.

The congresswoman proclaimed Slome’s birthday “Hanna Slome Day” throughout the Sixth Congressional District.

“I am proud to commend and recognize Hanna for a century of courage, service and inspiration,” Meng stated. “Her message of resilience and hope continues to inspire generations and will do so for many years to come.”

“It is an honor and privilege to wish her a very happy 100th birthday, and I send her my warmest congratulations,” Meng said.

Slome, a Czechoslovakia native, was rescued aboard the Kindertransport in 1939, which whisked away more than 600 children from Nazi persecution to a new home in England.

Nick Winton, the son of Kindertransport organizer Sir Nicholas Winton, also visited Slome over the weekend with Meng.

Slome immigrated to the United States at 19, settled in New York City and later married, becoming a mother to two, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother to 10 children.

The survivor has spoken to school groups about her life during and after the Holocaust and was active at Flushing’s Temple Gates of Prayer Congregation Shaarai Tefilla, an egalitarian Conservative synagogue.
Germany’s last convict for Holocaust crimes dies at 99
The last person to have ever been convicted in Germany for crimes during the Holocaust has died, a court said on Monday.

Irmgard Furchner, a 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary, was handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2022 for complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people at the Stutthof concentration camp in occupied Poland during World War II, according to AFP.

The camp was established in 1939 by Nazi Germany in a secluded, wooded area near the village of Stutthof, some 22 miles east of the city of Danzig (Gdansk).

Between June 1943 and April 1945, Furchner followed the orders of the camp’s commander Paul Werner Hoppe. Her husband was an SS officer at the camp, the report added.

About 65,000 people perished at the camp, with most being non-Jewish Poles. The Jewish prisoners deported to the camp came from Warsaw, Bialystok, and forced-labor camps in the occupied Baltic countries.

“Nothing that happened at Stutthof was kept from [Furchner],” judge Dominik Gross said in 2022 when delivering the verdict, per AFP.

Moreover, the defendant was aware of the “extremely bad conditions for the prisoners,” Gross noted.

Furchner tried to avert her trial, fleeing the retirement home that she resided in, according to the report. She was caught by police in the nearby city of Hamburg. Her sentence was carried out in a juvenile court because she was a teenager when she committed her crimes.

Furchner was the first woman in decades to be prosecuted for crimes committed under the Nazi regime. In 2024, a German court rejected an appeal by Furchner against her sentence.
Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz, review: a film so powerful it’s tempting to turn away from it
There is a temptation when confronted with a film like Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz (BBC Two) to turn away. His story of how the Holocaust was a European-wide crime of complicity is overwhelming, horrific, atrocity layered upon atrocity until it’s just easier to change the channel.

The film’s primary message, however, is that apathy is deadly. As 98-year-old survivor Marian Turski says to Schama at the film’s close, “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. Evil comes step by step. And therefore, you shouldn’t be indifferent.”

Turski, a heart-rending caption informs us at the end, died three months after that interview, but that was also a reminder of Schama’s second tenet: as we reach a moment where the last survivors are dying it is up to historians – and documentary-makers, and in this case viewers – to make sure that it is never forgotten. Time and again throughout Schama’s journey, showing how evil came step by step through Lithuania, the Netherlands, Warsaw and eventually to the pitiless conclusion of Auschwitz-Birkenau, he stressed the importance of testimony.

Some of the bravest acts were diary entries, secret photographs, records made in grave danger and then buried so that future generations could know what happened. The irony, of course, is that hatred and Holocaust denial all over the world is on the rise. We are indeed ignoring the lessons of history, even when the lessons are as vital and as clearly explicated as they were in this film.

But it was not an easy pill to swallow because a third lesson was embodied in the photos of local people looking on, sometimes pointing or just walking by as Jews were dehumanised, mistreated, massacred and finally liquidated. Complicity was collaboration: “What happened was only made possible by centuries of dehumanisation of Jews,” said Schama. “The Germans were only doing what millions of other people wanted to happen.”
Nick Robinson shares personal Holocaust legacy in the new HET podcast
The Holocaust Educational Trust is launching a powerful new podcast series exploring Holocaust history through personal objects — starting with a deeply moving episode featuring BBC journalist Nick Robinson.

The first episode of Objects of the Holocaust, available from Tuesday 8 April, features Robinson reflecting on a handwritten letter received by his grandfather, Dr Bernard Rosenberg, a Jewish GP in 1930s Berlin. It came from a long-time patient, who explained that — although he still wanted Robinson’s grandfather to be his doctor — he could no longer be seen entering the practice because it displayed a Jewish name.

“I remember reading that letter for the first time and thinking, ‘Oh my God, that’s it,” Robinson says in the episode. “For me, it suddenly shone a light on everything. I thought, I’ve got it. It’s in that letter.”

Presented by Professor Tim Cole and actress Louisa Clein, Objects of the Holocaust tells the story of the Shoah through individual artefacts — from a repurposed sardine can to a wedding dress made from parachute silk. Each object unlocks a personal account of persecution, survival or memory, told by public figures, descendants, or survivors themselves.

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said:
“This podcast is a powerful way to connect audiences with the history of the Holocaust in a deeply personal way. The stories we hear in this series are fascinating stories of survival. Behind every object is a person, a family, a story.

“We are very proud to launch Objects of the Holocaust and hope it will reach new audiences and encourage them to consider the lessons of the Holocaust and the nature of the antisemitism that led to the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazis.”




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

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