Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy: Why Are Israelis So Happy?
Despite constantly facing vicious enemies and enduring a year and a half of sustained fighting and funerals, Israel ranks in the top 10 countries with the highest levels of happiness, according to the 2025 World Happiness Report. In the final months of 2024, Israel witnessed a 10% increase in births. How come?Seth Mandel: The Jews of Hollywood Are Finding Their Voice
On April 12, 96% of Israeli Jews will participate in the oldest ongoing ritual in the Western world: the Passover Seder, celebrating the exodus from Egypt three millennia ago. Seders are often hours long, ritualized re-creations of the flight from Egypt, a reflection of how Jews live inside their history. Prayers, songs, food, and other rituals invite Jews to see themselves as having been personally redeemed.
Most optimists are mission-driven. Feeling a sense of belonging, they progress confidently toward worthy goals. As the best-selling British historian Paul Johnson observed, "No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny." Cherishing family, community, country, and history shapes their faith in the future.
Israelis feel they are part of Israel's story and the Jewish story, that of a proud people trying to do better in the world while also bettering it. Israeli schools repeatedly assign students shorashim, "roots," projects. These family-tree explorations, even in high school, usually culminate in evenings celebrating parents' or grandparents' differing ethnic origins, cuisines, and Zionist journeys, propelling everyone forward together.
With so much to live for, Israelis know what they are willing to die for, too. On the eve of battle, many soldiers write goodbye letters to be read in case they die. Having buried more than 1,000 soldiers since Oct. 7, Israelis have cherished these messages by fallen soldiers affirming their motivation to fight and their willingness to sacrifice everything for this country that imbued them, as individuals, with a particular identity - past, present, and future. In the heartbreaking letters, the soldiers, including reservists, who volunteered for combat duty, affirm their mission to defend Israel and the world against Hamas, Hizbullah, and the terrorist scourge.
In the Gulag, prisoners with robust identities, national and/or religious, were the strongest partners in the daily struggle against Soviet jailers. Those connected to communities awaiting them back home felt accountable and saw their actions as part of a historical chain. Group identity doesn't compromise our freedom; it enhances our journey, filling our free lives with the sounds of others, inspired by the ideas of our ancestors.
A healthy commitment to community, connectedness, and history anchors us. It motivates us to defend ourselves when necessary, while inspiring us always to build a better world. That's the essence of most Israelis' Zionism, which many just call patriotism. And that's the essence of the Passover Seder message, too.
Hollywood has a consistent modern track record of ignoring Jewish concerns unless those concerns are expressed publicly and with some force.Isabel Oakeshott: What my stupid accident in Tel Aviv reveals about truly world class healthcare
To take one recent example: There was a notable lack of activist pins at last month’s Oscars despite the post-Oct. 7 trend of film and television stars wearing an intifada-inspired anti-Zionist pin at award ceremonies. Those same stars freed their lapels this time. The reason: Many of their Jewish colleagues and peers in Hollywood properly called them out.
The Brigade, a group of about 700 Hollywood creatives, wrote a scathing letter to Artists4Ceasefire, the organization that took as its emblem a bloody red hand signifying a moment during the Second Intifada when a Palestinian man murdered an Israeli Jew, defiled his body, and held up his bloody hands to a cheering crowd of pogromists.
“That pin is no symbol of peace,” the Brigade wrote. “It is the emblem of Jewish bloodshed.
“In 2000, Palestinian terrorists in Ramallah lynched two innocent Israelis, ripped them apart limb by limb, and held up their blood-soaked hands to a cheering mob. That infamous image is now your ‘ceasefire’ badge.
“And on the very day it was discovered that the Bibas babies—innocent Jewish children—were strangled to death by the terrorist’s bare hands, you asked Hollywood to wear it with pride.”
There was never any possible “peaceful” excuse for wearing the pin, nor could anyone claim ignorance. The red right hand is among the oldest symbols on earth, always used to symbolize bloody vengeance. The actors who wore the pin represent a morally bleak cross-section of humanity, and the fact that it took their Jewish peers’ public objection for them to stop parading around in an artistic rendering of Jewish blood further confirms the need for Jews to speak at full volume.
American Jews have to make some noise if they want to be heard. And as a bonus, they create great art when they do so.
I had come to Israel to learn more about war, and how it might eventually end. The plan was to talk to the IDF, listen to intelligence sources and hear the latest from the defence industry. I was also due to visit Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology – a world class seat of learning and innovation. Linked to Albert Einstein, it has a central role in national life, training 80 per cent of Israeli engineers. From creating a microscopic Bible (the entire Old Testament on a chip the size of a grain of sand) to developing cancer cures and artificial meat, it is behind some of the most wondrous innovations on Earth.
Happily, I was still able to do all this, but the accident shifted my focus onto Israel’s widely admired healthcare system. The contrast with the NHS was too glaring to ignore.
Seemingly in no hurry (another novelty), my Polish surgeon talked of the benefits of dedicated emergency hospitals. (Our own acute facilities deal with both accidents and planned cases under one roof, a set-up that means backlogs in one area immediately affect the other.) Separate “hot” and “cold” sites might have saved much misery during the pandemic.
Based on mandatory health insurance with not-for-profit providers, Israel’s health system is means-tested but universal, ensuring even the poorest citizens are covered. By both efficiency and outcome, it ranks among the best in the world – as I can attest. By 10pm I was back in my hotel room, shocked, sore and feeling very stupid. I had been at the hospital for less than two hours. (In the UK, some 5,700 patients a day are forced to wait more than 12 hours to be seen at A&E).
The Sourasky uses all manner of time- and life-saving devices and AI wizardry to get patients through and out fast. For example, those who can are encouraged to speed up the initial admissions process by using simple self-service devices to provide their vital signs. Robots buzz around providing directions and other helpful information. In quiet moments, staff amuse themselves testing the AI: seeing if it understands slang (it does) and can tell the difference between male and female voices (it can).
Granted, Israel is a fraction of the size of the UK, with very different demographics. All the same, the NHS could learn lessons from this. So, of course, could I. A month after the debacle, my bruises have finally gone and I’m back on e-scooters. These days though, I’m considerably less cocky – and never wear hats that might fly off.
Trump is helping terrorized Jewish students
Every Jewish organization should be applauding the Trump administration’s actions to end the nightmares faced by Jewish students. Instead, two major representative organizations, Hillel and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), are undermining deportations and defunding – the crucial steps needed to protect our Jewish and pro-Israel students and, by effect, all students who want safe campuses.Why Andrew Cuomo’s Speech on Antisemitism So Moved Me
Hillel and the ADL have joined a chorus that includes the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people in demanding an expansion of legal protections for the Jew-hating, Israel-bashing perpetrators harming Jewish students. It is concerning to think that two Jewish organizations could advocate for appeasing antisemitism instead of defending Jewish students.
Over the last 18 months, we have all watched in horror as Jewish students have been and continue to be openly attacked, harassed, terrorized, prevented from going to classes, blocked from walking across college quads, punched in the head, stabbed with flag poles, subjected to acts of vandalism, called Nazis and baby-killers and Genocide-supporters, confronted with daily Hamas-aligned riots calling for murdering every Jew on the planet (“globalize the intifada”) and made unsafe on college campuses throughout the country. And their universities have allowed this campus terrorism to mushroom out of control.
This tsunami continued to grow while the Biden administration failed to heed the repeated calls of members of Congress and the Jewish community demanding action to halt the campus pogroms and hold their organizers and enablers accountable.
Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx from North Carolina and Elise Stefanik from New York held eye-opening hearings focused on campus antisemitism, which resulted in the on-the-record refusal of university presidents to acknowledge that calling for the murder of Jews violates campus policies. Each of these hearings demanded action from the university presidents and the Biden administration but ultimately fell on deaf ears – and led to the presidents’ resignations.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) filed multiple complaints with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Right, met with OCR officials, wrote detailed letters to the office and Biden’s attorney-general and FBI director calling for investigations, arrests and prosecution of organizations, leaders, funders and actors perpetrating violence and Jew-hatred on campuses.
Fortunately, the current US administration is responding to this crisis by doing what is necessary to stem the antisemitic campus horrors. President Donald Trump is implementing appropriate, legally authorized penalties for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including terminating funds to universities that continue to allow their campuses to be hotbeds of antisemitic hate.
“I am here to say that I am sorry. I am sorry for the pain and anguish you felt on October 7 and every day since. I’m sorry for any anti-Semitism you have experienced and the repugnant behavior of demonstrators masked as Hamas that you have endured. I’m sorry if you have not felt safe on the streets right here in your own hometown. I’m sorry for the unimaginable pain and hardship the hostages and their families endured and continue to endure.”EU Transparency Shattered: Auditors Expose Billions in NGO Secrets
“I’m sorry for my mistaken assumption that widespread anti-Semitism could never happen again in modern sophisticated, educated society, and certainly not in New York City.”
When I first found out that Andrew Cuomo is running for mayor on a hard-hitting anti-anti-Semitism platform I was more than a bit wary, as I suspect many New Yorkers were. Cuomo did not exactly make a graceful exit in 2021, wracked by allegations of sexual misconduct and nursing home deaths from Covid.
But then I heard the speech he gave on April 1 at the West Side Institutional Synagogue. It was everything we’ve been wanting to hear from every American and European leader since 10/7 but only a few were brave enough to state the obvious—to state the truth. And there’s no question that both Cuomo and his father, Mario, were strong on understanding that Zionism is a subset of liberalism; if you’re not a Zionist, you’re not a liberal.
Under Andrew Cuomo, New York became the first state to oppose BDS, and then the first state to counter BDS by an executive order saying that if a company boycotts Israel, New York will boycott the company.
Cuomo didn’t just list all of the ways he will fight the surge of anti-Semitism in our schools and on our streets. He said the words that every New Yorker has been waiting to hear: With the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, “New York City should set the precedent” in fighting this century’s violent anti-Semitism.
“We must stop the disinformation being spoon fed in many of our educational institutions. We must hold the colleges accountable for their professors and the actions on their campuses. We must stop the flow of funding from countries dictating a biased curriculum. If they want to teach bias and misinformation, then it should be called for what it is… If they want to be an institution of higher education, they must hold themselves to a higher standard or we will.”
In addition, New York must accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism and “be creative and aggressive in making sure the law is enforced by exercising its jurisdiction over human rights violations, which can be prosecuted by New York City without needing a district attorney or a judge to intervene.”
After spending years pouring billions into left-wing progressive activism and demonizing conservatives for wanting financial transparency, the European Commission just received a giant blow from the inside.I Was Called an ‘Inbred Swine’ at Princeton Last Night
In a bombshell report, the EU Court of Auditors (ECA) confirmed what right-wing groups have been saying all this time: there is no transparency, no oversight, and no clue where most of the money sent to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will end up.
“Transparency is key to ensuring credible participation by NGOs in EU policymaking,” Laima Andrikienė, the ECA member in charge of the report, said.
However, despite some progress since our last audit, the picture of EU funding for NGOs remains hazy, as information on EU funding—including lobbying—is neither reliable nor transparent.
The key findings listed in the damning report speak for themselves. Most importantly, the EU seems to be intentionally violating its own transparency standards with its “opaque” system. Data is fragmented across incompatible online platforms, with key information mislabeled, buried, or outright missing—making reliable information “practically impossible” to find.
What the court did manage to find only paints an even darker picture. The ECA noted that there are no real checks in the system to ensure the recipients represent the values they claim to uphold. Many of the groups that the court looked at were not even classified as NGOs, while many of the clear-cut lobbyists who influenced EU policy-making at the EU Parliament or the Commission were either wrongly labelled in the official database or simply omitted.
What’s more, the court found systemic failures in the Commission’s accounting department, with certain grants listed as hundreds of millions less than what was actually awarded. Additionally, up to €2.6 billion was classified as “shared management” between member states, making it impossible to track where the money actually went.
But perhaps the most troubling finding was that EU funds are “overly concentrated on a small number of NGOs,” which disproves the notion of EU ‘pluralism’ and raises the suspicion of ideologically biased cronyism instead. Just 30 organizations received more than €3.3 billion—or 40% of the total amount awarded in the last decade—forming a select group of NGOs that Brussels trusts most to advance its progressive agenda.
“In short, the EU-NGO complex is murky, captured, and self-serving—and Brussels likes it that way,” the conservative think tank MCC Brussels said in a statement in reply to the report.
Last night at Princeton, Jewish students were called “inbred swine,” told to “go back to Europe,” and taunted with gestures of the Hamas triangle by masked protesters. Sadly, slurs like these have become commonplace at anti-Israel protests at my college in the months since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, but university president Christopher Eisgruber insists he is “proud of the campus climate at Princeton.”
What would it take for him to question that belief?
The latest outrage was sparked by a visit from former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett. More than 200 students had turned up to hear Bennett talk about his time as prime minister from 2021 to 2022 and the current government under Benjamin Netanyahu post–October 7.
Days before Bennett arrived, the Princeton chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine had plastered posters all over campus, calling him a “war criminal,” and flooded listservs and social media with messages saying the college was “complicit in normalizing his murderous policies.” SJP students publicly declared that “Bennett should be in prison, not at Princeton.” Never mind that he was the first Israeli PM to form a coalition with the Arab party in the Knesset. Or that Princeton’s Hillel and four other organizations had invited him to the talk in good faith. All students who registered for the event were encouraged to submit questions in advance; only those with a Princeton ID were able to register.
Around 7 p.m. on Monday, anti-Israel protesters gathered at the campus’s flagship building, Nassau Hall, and then marched, while banging drums and shouting into microphones, toward McCosh Hall, where Bennett started giving his remarks at 7:30 p.m. I settled into a seat to hear him talk. About 20 minutes into his speech, around 25 students stood up in unison and shouted at Bennett, “War criminal!” “We charge you with genocide!” and other exclamations before walking out en masse.
Five minutes later, the social media activist Sayel Kayed, who does not hold a Princeton ID, stood up and yelled at Bennett: “Now you’re committing a holocaust!” and “You killed 60,000 Palestinians!” He kept shouting until free-speech facilitators asked him to leave and then removed him from the event. (In 2015, Princeton adopted the University of Chicago’s free speech guidelines, which state that no single person’s right to speak overrides the right of others to learn from the main speaker at a lecture or event.)
Ten minutes later, a fire alarm went off. Clearly, there was no fire. We sat in confusion until two Princeton rabbis started singing Jewish songs as many of us joined in. But, by then, the event was pretty much over. Later that night, SJP claimed responsibility for pulling the alarm, stating on social media: “Genocide alarm activated.”
As we filed out of the building, the protest had swelled to around 100, with most people wearing masks and many yelling at us: “You’re committing a holocaust!” and “You’re killing babies!” Multiple students, myself included, were told to “go back to Europe.” We also heard many shouts of “They’re all fucking inbred!” and “inbred swine!” At least two or three protesters used their hands to create the shape of the Hamas triangle.
Naftali Bennett completely shuts down a heckler at his talk at Princeton University:
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 9, 2025
“Instead of whining for the past 80 years and building your own future, you have focused on killing the Jews. It’s time for the Palestinians to stop whining and build their own future.” pic.twitter.com/tW6ljvHLUx
Keith Siegel recounts his Hamas captivity to foreign diplomats, AJC members
Keith Siegel, the North Carolina-born Israeli-American freed earlier this year from Hamas captivity in Gaza, recounted the horrors he endured while being held by the terror group to a gathering of foreign diplomats, D.C. power players and American Jewish Committee members on Wednesday evening.Vance meets with former hostages, families of hostages in Washington
Siegel, 65, spoke at the AJC’s annual Ambassadors’ Seder, attended by envoys from around the world to Washington, congressional staff and a range of other D.C. policy hands. The event was AJC’s largest-ever Ambassadors’ Seder in more than 30 years, with more than 400 attendees and diplomats from more than 60 countries registered to attend.
Recounting his time in captivity, Siegel said he was beaten at random and without warning, sexually assaulted, forced to watch as other hostages were beaten and assaulted, starved and humiliated, forced to make Hamas propaganda videos, spat on and forcibly shaved. He said he was kept alone in a locked room for six months. Siegel said that Hamas also attempted to make him convert to Islam.
“These memories of medieval torture methods still haunt me,” Siegel said. “Every interaction,” Siegel continued, “reinforced this brutal reality” that he was entirely at the terrorists’ mercy.
Siegel said he had been shot in the hand and his ribs had been broken during the Oct. 7 attack and that his wounds were not treated for the entire time he was held by Hamas.
“I’m sharing my story because the world needs to understand what the 59 hostages that are still held captive in Gaza are facing,” Siegel said.
Siegel thanked President Donald Trump for his work to reach a hostage deal after more than a year of delay.
“President Trump got negotiations resumed, and the deal that brought me home was signed,” Siegel said.
US Vice President JD Vance met with a group of former hostages and families of hostages, he said on X/Twitter.
Former hostages Iair Horn, Keith Siegel, and Aviva Siegel were there, along with the families of Omer Neutra, Edan Alexander, Gali and Ziv Berman, Itay Chen, and Omri Miran.
“Today, I met with a group of hostages released by Hamas terrorists, along with the families of hostages still held captive,” Vance wrote on Wednesday. “[US] President [Donald] Trump is committed to reuniting the remaining hostages with their families, something that should have happened long before his return to office.”
Trump and hostages
The Siegels and Horn were invited by Trump to tell their story during the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington on Tuesday.
“I am here, and I am alive. President Trump, you saved my life. You saved the lives of 33 hostages because of your efforts,” Keith Siegel said at the event. Each of the former hostages was wearing a yellow scarf.
Horn, who wore a shirt with his brother’s face and “Bring Eitan home now!” printed on it, talked about how he “saw the light” once Trump was elected.
“We knew there is now someone who makes things happen. We knew we needed someone who does things; that’s President Trump,” he said.
“You know, I’m a simple man. I’m running the bar in the kibbutz in Nir Oz, where I live, and now I’m here with President Trump, who’s running the world.”
Thank you, VP Vance, for amplifying our stories and showing that the mission to save the hostages is a shared cause—championed by @POTUS, you, @SteveWitkoff, and this administration.
— Moshe Emilio Lavi (@MosheELavi) April 9, 2025
The fight continues until Omri and all remaining 59 hostages are home—just as my nieces wish. pic.twitter.com/xyf0Pd0nz1
Excruciating https://t.co/75Toksp8rn
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) April 10, 2025
Five Americans are still being held hostage in Gaza.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 10, 2025
Every single American should demand that they are released immediately.
Imagine if it was your family member. pic.twitter.com/fXEmOd2uhg
Yarden Bibas posted this to Instagram.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 10, 2025
We will never forget the Shiri and the Bibas boys. pic.twitter.com/gioPKmwKUx
“What should we wish for?” Lishay asks her two-year-old daughter Alma.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 10, 2025
“That daddy will be back from Gaza,” she replies.
Release Omri now!
pic.twitter.com/mmwak7L2y6
A request from former hostage Karina Ariev:
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 10, 2025
“During the Seder, we read the verse 'In every generation, a person must see themselves as if they personally left Egypt,' and this meaning changes after experiencing captivity.
Although I am here, my heart is still there. There are… pic.twitter.com/rc2whCiY3G
Empty seder 5785, feel free to use https://t.co/KgvnBry0lq pic.twitter.com/RgZ1o8tLDX
— S ilan block (@IlanBlock) April 9, 2025
A Shift in U.S. Policy toward Campus Protests
Are the protest movements in U.S. academic institutions following the October 7, 2023, massacre and the Gaza war conducting legitimate human rights advocacy or coordinated subversive activity? There are reports of possible links to extremist groups, use of encrypted platforms to coordinate violent activities, and dissemination of advice on disturbing the peace and physically attacking law-enforcement personnel, alongside anti-American messages.
Reports from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) indicate that Telegram has been used by extremist groups and conspiracy networks for propaganda dissemination, recruitment, and coordination, taking advantage of the platform's encryption and relative anonymity. According to published data, 50% of people in Russia use Telegram, while in the U.S. only 2% do. Yet, in the U.S., the university and college tent encampments are coordinated primarily via Telegram.
A 2017 study by the Jerusalem Center showed that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is not an independent student organization but, rather, a network linked to Hamas. American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) provides financial and logistical support to SJP and AMP's leaders apparently have links to actors involved in funding Hamas.
Jonathan Schanzer, an investigator of terror funding in the U.S. Treasury Department, testified to Congress in 2016 that AMP was "arguably the most important sponsor and organizer for Students for Justice in Palestine." Schanzer explained that "at least seven individuals who work for or on behalf of AMP have worked for or on behalf of organizations previously shut down or held civilly liable in the United States for providing financial support to Hamas."
Research suggests the potential existence of a well-coordinated infrastructure leveraging encrypted technologies, concealing financial channels, and disseminating inflammatory messages aimed at disrupting public order in the United States. If these organizations' activities go beyond legitimate democratic protest and constitute orchestrated subversive action, the U.S. should consider responding decisively, both legally and economically, to safeguard itself against those who seek to undermine it while exploiting the very freedoms designed to protect them.
#BREAKING from @WSJ: The Trump administration is seeking to put @Columbia into a consent decree to force change at the university, where antisemitism has been allowed to fester unchecked for years, especially after the October 7 massacre.https://t.co/DYOBxLqp3t
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) April 10, 2025
Kennedy, Torres take to task antisemitic school newsletter in New York City
In a Thursday speech on the Senate floor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) censured the New York City public school system in regards to the circulation last week of an antisemitic newsletter.California: School’s ethnic studies curriculum discriminated against Jewish students
“I’m still in disbelief,” said the Congress member. “The bullet point on the newsletter that the public schools of New York sent out was called: ‘Guidelines for teaching about genocide,’ and if you clicked on this phrase in the newsletter, it sent you to another site. Do you know what the site was? ‘Stop Gaza Genocide Toolkit.’”
Kennedy said the newsletter contained “the biggest bunch of antisemitic rot you can imagine.”
The Office of Student Pathways Newsletter, a monthly publication distributed to students and parents in New York City’s public school system, included a link on April 3 to a “toolkit” that encouraged students to boycott pro-Israel organizations and advocate for Palestine on social media, according to reporting by the New York Post.
A version of the “toolkit” appears to have also been linked in a newsletter from October-November 2024, according to Kennedy.
“That document called on all the teachers and all the students in the New York public schools, and everybody else reading the newsletter, it called on them to participate in ‘rage week’ and ‘resist genocide’ by mobilizing on Saturday, Oct. 5, for a ‘Day of Action’ ahead of the anniversary of Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023,” he said. “That was the date of the terrorist attack on Israel, which apparently the administration of the public schools wants to celebrate.”
A California school’s ethnic studies curriculum that included discussions of Israel as a “settler colonial state” was found to have discriminated against Jewish students.Harvard, Columbia Plunge in Law School Rankings Amid Anti-Semitism Backlash
The California Department of Education issued the ruling last Friday following an investigation into a September complaint by the Bay Area Jewish Coalition — Education and Advocacy, which is affiliated with the local Jewish federation.
The advocacy group said teachers at Branham High School, in San Jose, had presented “biased” content about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a 12th-grade ethnic literature curriculum.
The investigation found that a lesson discussing whether Israel is a settler colonial state and a teacher’s response to a student presentation on the “Genocide of Palestinians” had been discriminatory to Jewish students.
In the lesson, according to the state DOE ruling, the teacher showed students two videos about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but didn’t offer students a pro-Israel perspective. After the first video, a Vox explainer called “The Israel-Palestine conflict: a brief, simple history,” the topic of whether Israel is a “settler colonial state” was discussed, according to the report.
“In this lesson, in order for the information to be unbiased, there would have needed to be a video that reflected a pro-Israel perspective,” the ruling said. “This would have encouraged students to create authentic answers regarding the questions provided in the lesson.”
In another instance, a student group presented a project with a slide titled “Genocide of Palestinians.” The investigation found that the teacher in that case did not respond adequately to the presentation to ensure the classroom wasn’t “hostile” to Jewish students.
“By [the teacher] not commenting on the slide regarding Palestinian genocide, it could have been interpreted by the student audience as approval of the presented thesis,” the report said.
Harvard and Columbia Law Schools both plummeted in the 2025 U.S. News ranking amid ongoing controversies over campus anti-Semitism, while Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin joined the prestigious "T14" list.CAIR Seeks To Block Columbia University From Submitting SJP-Related Protest Records to Congress
Harvard slipped to No. 6—its lowest ranking ever—while Columbia fell to No. 10. By contrast, Vanderbilt and UT Austin—which work to combat campus anti-Semitism, according to the Anti-Defamation League—climbed 5 and 2 spots, respectively, to tie for No. 14. The ranking marks Vanderbilt's first-ever appearance in the "T14," a longstanding label for the top 14 law schools in the United States, according to legal commentator David Lat.
The shake-up for Harvard and Columbia comes as the schools have faced public scrutiny over their repeated failure to protect Jewish students and rein in anti-Semitic protests on campus. The Trump administration, which has pledged to cut funding from universities that fail to curb anti-Semitism, revoked more than $430 million in federal funds from Columbia and is reviewing nearly $9 billion in contracts and grants at Harvard.
Both Ivy League schools received poor marks on the Anti-Defamation League's 2025 campus anti-Semitism report card, with Harvard earning a "C" and Columbia a "D." The ADL evaluated 135 universities based on their administrative policies, responses to anti-Semitic incidents, and protections for Jewish students.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, was one of just 11 schools nationwide to earn an "A" from the ADL, placing it "ahead of the pack" in combating anti-Semitism. UT Austin received a "B," meaning that it performed "better than most" peer institutions in 2024.
The Council on American Islamic Relations is seeking to block Columbia University from turning over records to Congress this week related to the pro-Hamas group Students for Justice in Palestine’s activities on campus, court filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.A Top Berkeley Official Said Trump Threatened Academic Freedom. She Forced Professors To Set Racial Quotas for Course Readings and Guest Lecturers.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) asked Columbia to produce records related to SJP's activities, finances, potential links to terrorist groups, and overall "threats to campus safety" by Wednesday. CAIR, which is suing Columbia’s board of trustees on behalf of detained protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and several other foreign anti-Israel students, objected to the request.
Releasing the documents, attorneys with CAIR's legal defense fund argued, could implicate Khalil and his classmates. They asked a federal judge in New York to implement a 30-day review period, during which CAIR could assess the documents and file objections. The judge, Arun Subramanian, responded by ordering Columbia to delay the release of the documents until Friday for CAIR's review, according to court filings.
The ordeal comes as Columbia attempts to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds frozen by the Trump administration. To do so, it must placate federal regulators and lawmakers with policy changes meant to quell anti-Semitism on its campus. Many Columbia faculty members and students, however, object to those changes—as do anti-Israel activists groups like CAIR, which is working to stop Columbia from cooperating with the federal government.
CAIR sued Columbia on behalf of Khalil and seven other Columbia and Barnard College students on Mar. 14, saying the school's "decision to cooperate with this political witch hunt puts hundreds of students in danger of government retaliation, doxxing, and harassment."
The original lawsuit cited a February records request from a different body, the House Committee on Education and the Work Force, which requested disciplinary records related to the "takeover and occupation" of Hamilton Hall, as well as other illegal demonstrations. CAIR argued that the records would "be weaponized against students who dare to speak out against Palestine."
On April 1, the chair of the University of California, Berkeley’s academic senate, Amani Nuru-Jeter, issued a dire warning about academic freedom.Academic's 'distressing' comment while pointing at a Jewish university student sparks furious backlash: 'That includes that fellow over there'
"Recent actions by the federal government," she told colleagues in an email, "are chilling open inquiry and undermining self-governance at American universities." She was referring to the Trump administration’s decision to pause $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University until the school agreed, as a precondition for negotiations, to overhaul its Middle Eastern studies department, where professors have equated Israel with Nazi Germany, derided the "Zionist cabal," and glorified the Oct. 7 attacks.
Critics had framed the administration’s demand as an unprecedented assault on academic freedom. Now Nuru-Jeter, formerly the executive associate dean of Berkeley’s School of Public Health, was joining the pile-on, circulating a statement on behalf of the senate that warned that the "fate of higher education" was at risk.
"Current efforts to curtail academic freedom will stifle the rights of faculty to teach and conduct research without external interference," the statement read. "If allowed to prevail, these actions will undermine the rights of students to study and learn through free inquiry into controversial material."
But at UC Berkeley, these rights were under attack long before the Trump administration’s war with Columbia. And the person who initiated the assault was none other than Nuru-Jeter herself, who in 2021 instituted a series of "antiracism" requirements for all courses taught at the school of public health.
Those requirements included that at least 10 percent of course readings "focus on/be authored by people from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities," and that a third of all guest speakers be "BIPOC." Professors also needed to update their syllabi with an "antiracism" statement that Nuru-Jeter personally helped draft, according to emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
A prominent pro-Palestinian campaigner and Sydney academic has defended his actions after he was filmed telling a Jewish student that he 'should feel uncomfortable' during a pro-Palestine rally at a Sydney university.
Dozens of protesters attended the rally at the University of Technology (UTS) campus in Ultimo on March 26 where UNSW honorary associate professor Peter Slezak told the crowd that 'we have a duty to make Jews uncomfortable'.
'And that includes that fellow over there,' Dr Slezak said, pointing to a Jewish student who had wrapped himself in an Israeli flag for the demonstration.
The clip quickly went viral on social media, prompting UTS vice chancellor Andrew Parfitt to announce an investigation into the 'divisive rhetoric' on university grounds.
In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, Dr Slezak attempted to clarify his comments.
'What I mean is that Jews are... placed in an invidious position: Israel is claiming to speak on behalf of all Jews,' he explained.
He said it was 'appropriate' for Jewish people to feel uncomfortable given 'claims are being made on their behalf, and we're talking now about a genocide'.
'And you know the slogans that we all use? There's two slogans. We say: "Not in our name" and we say: "silence is complicity",' he said.
🎓 A new lawsuit claims Columbia student groups may have known about October 7 before it happened. With suspicious posts, rapid protest rollouts & Hamas bragging about “American operatives,” it’s time to ask: who benefits—and who’s actually behind it? pic.twitter.com/YSImI5WgDE
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 10, 2025
🚨MUST WATCH JUST IN: @SecRubio "No one's entitled to a student visa. The press covers student visas like they're some sort of birthright." pic.twitter.com/HjrKoQoFOR
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 10, 2025
Wow — the federal government wants to place Columbia University under a consent decree.
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 10, 2025
It sounds like this is because former Interim President Katrina Armstrong failed to convince the government that Columbia is serious about change.
“The Trump administration is planning to… pic.twitter.com/nwqZW1D1QY
CUNY prof avoids calling Hamas a terrorist group because 'terrorist' is a 'racially loaded' term
A debate in March over anti-Semitism and the Israel-Hamas conflict occurred in which two City University of New York (CUNY) professors, Jeffrey Lax and Peter Beinart, sparred over the definition of terrorism, with the latter declining to label Hamas as “terrorists.”
A boiling point was reached when Lax pressed Beinart on whether he would explicitly call Hamas a terrorist organization. Beinart, while condemning Hamas’ actions as “war crimes” and “immoral,” refused to label the group as terrorists, instead arguing that the term is selectively applied to Palestinians.
“I don’t like to use the word terrorism,” Beinart stated. “I think that Hamas committed war crimes. I think Hamas’ history of targeting civilians is immoral, and a violation of international laws … and I oppose it with all of my being.”
In response, Lax said: “I’m not letting you get away with this. They burned babies in front of their families. They raped women, and cut off their limbs. You can’t call that terrorism?”
“I don’t want to use a term [terrorist] that I think has become racist,” Beinart concluded.
When Beinart doubled down on his refusal to use the term, Lax concluded, “So do you realize you are now giving license to Hamas and groups like ISIS?”
Beinart reinforced that he wants to use more “neutral” language and not “racially loaded” terms like terrorist.
The full debate: https://t.co/LVmi7FMNY8
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) March 20, 2025
The federal government constantly uses its funding “clout” to elicit university policies. Most recently, this has come in the form of heavy handed diversity requirements, which of course involves admissions policies.
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) April 9, 2025
As far as I know, Eisgruber has never raised the issue. 2/
Of course, as Eisgruber knows, it’s hard to overstate the institution-shaping significance of NIH funding, and by implication, of its funding requirements.
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) April 9, 2025
The NIH gives its top earning universities more money annually than the state of North Carolina gives to UNC-Chapel Hill. pic.twitter.com/m5kyH14WNx
P.S. - I also love how she learned this Marxist term at Swarthmore. Xie holds a bachelors in English literature and double minor in education and religion from Swarthmore for those that are curious.
— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 9, 2025
"I love the concept of reification that I learned at Swarthmore. It has helped…
Meet UCLA’s student body president , Adam Tfayli, a foreign national from Lebanon on a student visa.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 9, 2025
- Tfayli was arrested for interfering with police during a violent SJP takeover of Royce & Kerckhoff Hall according to the Daily Bruin.
- Tfayli compared the IDF to the KKK,… pic.twitter.com/JFQvxlzF9R
The Delaware Shakespeare company, a 501c3, is participating in the antisemitic BDS movement.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 10, 2025
Voice your concern to artistic director Mariah Ghant: mariah@delshakes.org
Delaware is one of multiple states with anti BDS laws in place. pic.twitter.com/mETribrnOW
Brandon Wixson, a Michigan-based engineering tech with a prior weapons charge, now uses X to spread violent, antisemitic hate.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 10, 2025
Wixson shares tweets including praise for Hitler, promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, and openly calling for harm.
Why is @Tremec standing by… https://t.co/c4Ol2PNpMe
Arkar Parker's bigotry continues as he:
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 10, 2025
– denys the atrocities committed by Hamas on 10/7
– posts crude, racist slurs against other ethnicities and religions
Do you stand by Arkar Parker’s actions, @BECU?
Concerned? beverly.anderson@becu.org pic.twitter.com/osrgS0GfTo
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 10, 2025
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 10, 2025
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 10, 2025
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) April 10, 2025
No, @TheEconomist. Israel is intent on destroying Hamas.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 10, 2025
It's Hamas that is intent on bringing destruction to Gaza. pic.twitter.com/KAJ0CPV7Q1
The quote is referencing a well-known hadith found in Sahih Muslim, one of the six major collections of hadith in Sunni Islam. Here's the hadith in question:
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 10, 2025
Sahih Muslim 2922 (also referenced as 41:6985 in some editions):
“The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the…
Arab Israelis arrested for smuggling $800,000 from Turkey to Hamas
Israeli security forces recently uncovered a Hamas terrorist financing network run by Arab-Israeli citizens, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police announced in a joint statement on Wednesday.Palestinian who stabbed two at age 13 is freed, said to have developed schizophrenia
The network allegedly funneled millions of shekels from Hamas’s Turkey offices to “terrorist infrastructures” in Judea and Samaria.
Following a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and the police’s Lahav 433 National Unit for International Crimes, six Arab suspects have been indicted by the State Attorney’s Office’s Cyber Unit.
The six suspects are being charged with contact with a foreign agent and handling terrorist funds, among other offenses, the two agencies stated.
The suspects include Fadi Arabi, a 33-year-old from Arraba in the Lower Galilee, who allegedly coordinated the money transfers through his brother Nassim Arabi, who has been living in Turkey.
Nassim allegedly worked with Wajdi Saadi, originally from the northern Samaria terrorist hub of Jenin and now residing in Turkey, who, per Israeli authorities, operates as a key Hamas financier in the Anatolian country.
Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian man who stabbed two people in Jerusalem when he was 13, and who lawyers claim developed schizophrenia as a result of his conditions in prison.2015: Video of Palestinian stabber proves Abbas' 'execution' victim still alive
Ahmad Manasra, now 20, was released after completing his 9.5-year sentence, according to his attorney Khaled Zabarqa, who said he had no immediate information about Manasra’s condition but was with the ex-prisoner’s parents.
“We know in jail he’s been very ill. We’re waiting to know his health situation now,” Zabarqa said.
The release came amid allegations by human rights groups and released Palestinian prisoners of abuse in Israeli prisons. Israel’s Prison Authority declined to comment on Manasra’s detention and said all prisoners are held in accordance with Israeli and international law and that allegations of abuse are investigated.
In 2015, Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan Manasra seriously wounded a 20-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood. The terror attack took place amid a spate of stabbings by Palestinians in the West Bank and across Israel that raised fears of a third intifada in 2015-2016.
Police responding to the attack fatally shot Hassan, and Ahmad was seriously injured when he was hit by a car as he tried to escape the scene of the attack. Graphic video would later circulate of the wounded assailant lying in the street, bleeding from the head as passersby cursed at him.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed at the time that Israel had “summarily executed” Ahmad Manasra, prompting Israel to take the rare step of publishing a picture of the minor recovering at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.
Manasra was convicted a year later and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 2017, the Supreme Court reduced Manasra’s sentence to 9.5 years, citing his young age, rehabilitation, the opinion of prison authorities, and Manasra’s secondary role in the terror attack relative to his cousin.
What @amnesty don’t tell you, is that I n 2015, Manasra stabbed two Israeli kids in Jerusalem, for which he was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison, which was later reduced by the Supreme Court to 9.5 years.
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) April 10, 2025
But for Amnesty, Jewish lives just don’t count. https://t.co/LW0UL23fkA
Remind me: Did @FranceskAlbs bother to post a tweet when we learned that the Bibas children had been abducted from their home? How about when we learned that they were brutally strangled to death? https://t.co/yfJpexRJDI
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) April 10, 2025
Gazan anti-Hamas protester Abu Himam Jundiyah is now in hiding because the terror group threatened to hunt him down.
— Center for Peace Communications (@PeaceComCenter) April 9, 2025
He wants the world to know that he is hanging tough.@JusoorNews
Watch: pic.twitter.com/dWU3SBTUGP
Abu Ali Express on Telegram:
— Imshin (@imshin) April 10, 2025
Residents of the Gaza Strip are convinced that the crossings will open next Monday and goods will enter the Strip.
The Gazan in the video claims that as a result of this, all the merchants began pulling their goods out of their warehouses, and… https://t.co/uEcX4SdMrL pic.twitter.com/HWeRJ2xlE8
A massive mob in Bangladesh attacked a KFC branch after being accused of supporting Israel pic.twitter.com/qmCMcPdmub
— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) April 10, 2025
Hezbollah claims ready to discuss ‘defense strategy,’ vows to keep arms
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group has declared its readiness to conduct talks with Lebanon’s government on a “national defense strategy” in the wake of the war with Israel, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The announcement came after a Reuters report that cited Lebanese government ministers demanding a timetable for the disarmament of Hezbollah, as required by the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the ceasefire deal Beirut reached with Jerusalem in November 2024.
State Minister for Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadi, who is affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces Party, told Reuters earlier this week that the full disarmament of the terrorist army should take no more than six months.
Ghaleb Abu Zeinab, a senior member of Hezbollah’s “political wing,” told the country’s Al Jadeed outlet on Wednesday that the group would not agree to give up its arms as part of the national defense strategy.
“There will be no disarmament, no handover of weapons and no compromise,” he said, denying reports to the contrary.
Experts have warned that Hezbollah, instead of disbanding its “military” wing as required by Resolution 1701, will leverage its remaining power to integrate its terrorists into the Lebanese state apparatus.
U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus told local media following a three-day visit to Beirut on Sunday that Hezbollah and all Lebanese militias should be disarmed “as soon as possible.
“We know that the sooner that the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] is able to meet these goals and disarm all militias in the state, the sooner the Lebanese people can be free,” she told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI).
🔴I just wanted to point out that this kind of statement would have been unheard of in Lebanon about a year ago. https://t.co/RFt4kJQ1fM
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 10, 2025
🔴 If anyone believes for one second that Hezbollah will fully disarm of its own will and turn into a peaceful political party, I have a bridge to sell you. https://t.co/GujtkgBetV
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 10, 2025
Trump must flip the script at Iran talks and demand concrete actions
Donald Trump returns to the table this Saturday. According to the White House, the President will engage with Iranian representatives to discuss regional de-escalation and nuclear restraint. But before he does, he should remember who else is at the table. Not just the Islamic Republic. But also China, Russia, Qatar, the Europeans, and even some Gulf states—all quietly urging the US to make a deal.
Leading the American delegation will be Steve Witkoff, Trump’s longtime associate and newly appointed Special Envoy for the Middle East and Stability Talks. A real estate mogul with no prior diplomatic experience, Witkoff enters the room with a mandate to test Iran’s intentions—but also amid pressure from international actors hoping for a quick détente. That pressure should be resisted.
The pressure is building from every direction. Russia and China want sanctions relief for their Iranian partner. Qatar and Oman want to mediate for prestige. The Europeans want any deal that looks better than collapse. Even the isolationist wing of the GOP will call it a win if Trump delivers a breakthrough. They’ll all tell him that he can control the outcome.
But Israel knows better. So do Republican hawks and real opponents of the Islamic Republic. They’ve seen this game before. They know the regime doesn’t compromise—it stalls. It negotiates to neutralize pressure, not to resolve conflict. And every time the West gives in, the regime comes back stronger, bloodier, and more entrenched.
The Islamic Republic doesn’t fear collapse. It fears clarity. And clarity is exactly what Trump must bring to Saturday’s talks.
Why is the EU so focused on quotas & pronouns? The left is obsessed with symbolic issues but won't speak about Islamism,
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 10, 2025
Says Swedish Member of the European Parliament @BeatriceTimgren who supports Iranian women & warns that islamism is also a danger to women's rights in Europe pic.twitter.com/5Bgo4bSSLq
🚨 Democratic Senator John Fetterman told the Jewish Insider that he opposes nuclear talks with Iran: "I'm not sure about the value of negotiations; I'd rather they destroy Iran's nuclear facilities." pic.twitter.com/QyEwwuiwHh
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 10, 2025
Breakthrough in restitution of stolen property to descendants of Hungarian Jews
Senior figures in Hungary’s Jewish community expressed satisfaction at the statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting with him last Friday, held in the hotel hall where he was staying in Budapest during his official visit.Antisemitism the New Normal in Canada
Among other things, Netanyahu said: “We have discussed with the Hungarian government a fixed annual grant to the fund dealing with heirless property and the restitution of heirless Jewish assets. Our new Ambassador in Budapest, Maya Kadosh, has a lot of work ahead of her. With God’s help, we will continue this effort.”
The context for these remarks is the vast amount of Jewish property that belonged to Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators.
Many of the victims had no heirs. Some were childless individuals, while many were entire families who perished in the gas chambers or were executed by gunfire, leaving behind no surviving relatives.
Their assets were seized by the Nazis and, after the war, transferred to the Hungarian government.
The post-Holocaust Hungarian government pledged to return these assets to Jewish hands. However, 80 years have passed without significant action, primarily because most Hungarian governments in the ensuing decades were communist.
It has also emerged that in addition to Netanyahu’s public comments, a similar message was conveyed by a senior Israeli official in a closed-door briefing held before Shabbat.
In a country once known as a beacon of tolerance, Jew-hatred through online and face-to-face harassment, vandalism and violence increased by 125% to 6,219 incidents in 2024 compared to 2,769 in 2022, according to B'nai Brith's annual audit on antisemitism released Monday.New York-based ISIS supporter sentenced to more than 19 years in prison
That's consistent with reporting by Statistics Canada that while Jews make up 1% of Canada's population, 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes today are aimed at Jews.
Since Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish day schools in Canada have been shot at, university students threatened, Jewish businesses, homes, places of worship and community centers vandalized.
This is the worst outbreak of antisemitism in Canada since the 1930s, as Jews in Canada are held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza.
This is twisted logic that, were it reversed, would blame Muslims in Canada for terrorism by Hamas.
Sinmyah Amera Ceasar, 30, a U.S. citizen who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced on Wednesday to 230 months in prison for recruiting people to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, obstructing justice and failure to appear in court.Kanye West sparks fresh outrage with Hitler post and GOAT emoji on X
ISIS is a U.S.-designated terror organization. Ceasar pleaded guilty to the three charges in 2017, 2019 and 2022, respectively.
“Today’s resentencing marks the end of a righteous journey that began a decade ago,” stated Sue Bai, the head of the U.S. Justice Department’s national security division.
“Terrorist organizations like ISIS rely on recruiters like Ceasar to attract, indoctrinate and enlist new followers,” Bai said.
John Durham, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated that Ceasar, who used the alias Mother of Nutella in her social media postings, “an unrepentant ISIS recruiter, will be incarcerated for a significant period of time to protect Americans here and abroad from her violent extremism.”
“Even after pleading guilty to providing material support to ISIS, the defendant continued to support terrorists, obstructed justice and fled from prosecution,” Durham added.
Kanye West has sparked widespread outrage after posting a photo of Adolf Hitler alongside the GOAT emoji, commonly understood to mean “Greatest of All Time”, on X.
The post, shared from the rapper’s official account this afternoon, featured a black-and-white portrait of the Nazi dictator accompanied only by the goat emoji. It has since garnered over 1.7 million views and thousands of interactions.
The image has been widely criticised online, with many users interpreting the pairing of Hitler with the GOAT emoji as a glorification of the Nazi leader. Others have described it as a deliberate attempt to provoke outrage.
This is not West’s first incident involving antisemitic content. In 2022, he praised Hitler during multiple interviews, leading to his suspension from several platforms.
Despite this, Elon Musk reinstated West’s account in 2023, citing a commitment to free speech. The rapper, who now goes by “Ye,” has since used the platform to share a number of controversial posts.
As of Thursday evening, the post remains visible on West’s account. Neither he nor representatives for X have commented.
BREAKING - Woman exposes Zionist daycare workers
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) April 10, 2025
A deranged woman claims to discover that 'Zionists' are working as daycare workers and teachers in Australia.
The woman doesn't seem well and it's unclear which 'Zionists' she is referring to but Jews working in professions… pic.twitter.com/ffVjbxzoF0
Star NCAA Coach Bruce Pearl Takes New Role In Pro-Israel Advocacy Group
Auburn University men’s basketball head coach Bruce Pearl, who led his team to the NCAA Final Four earlier this month, is taking on a new role off the court — chairman of the board of directors for the pro-Israel nonprofit, U.S. Israel Education Association (USIEA).
His new role comes after he used his team’s successful season to promote the release of the 59 hostages still in Hamas captivity, including 21-year-old American Edan Alexander. Pearl will replace former Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), who chaired the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019 and was the ranking member until 2021.
“I’ve dedicated much of my life to teaching young people about the importance of leadership, values, and understanding different perspectives,” Pearl said in a statement. “My work with USIEA aligns with those principles, and I’m excited to continue building a bridge of understanding between these two great nations.”
Pearl led the Auburn Tigers to the program’s first-ever Final Four appearance and has been a head coach for 29 seasons, with his teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament 22 times.
He and his wife, Brandy, first became acquainted with USIEA when he went on the group’s 2019 Partners Tour to Israel, during which participants had high-level briefings on Israeli defense, artificial intelligence, and U.S.-Israel foreign policy.
“My experience in Israel was transformative,” Pearl said. “I felt it was my responsibility to become more involved in the mission of USIEA and educating senior government leaders in America on the importance of supporting Israel.”
The 2025 Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year — an award he shared with St. John’s head coach, Rick Pitino — is expected to help USIEA educate and assist government leaders who are involved in advancing U.S.- Israel relations.
Happy Passover & a Chag Kasher V’sameach to @TuckerCarlson @RealCandaceO @DanBilzerian @IanCarrollShow @jakeshieldsajj 😘✡️🫓 A seder of simple sons, wicked sons, and those who don’t how to ‘just ask questions’ pic.twitter.com/oUmNB2jWcy
— Ami Kozak (@amiKozak) April 10, 2025
Tikvah Podcast: Dara Horn on Her New Graphic Novel
Later this week Jewish families all over the world will sit down at the seder table and, guided by the text of the Haggadah, recapitulate in a highly ornate and ritualized form the Israelite redemption from oppression in Egypt. The text of the Haggadah itself is fascinating, not only because of its sources and composition and what it emphasizes and how, but also because it references itself. There are discussions of previous seders within the seder. It is a document that structures a holiday designed to help us remember. Memory and the presence of the past is the great theme of the Haggadah, and it is the great theme of Dara Horn’s new graphic novel for middle-grade readers, One Little Goat.The Parking Lot That Determined the Future of Jerusalem’s Past
Dara Horn is the author not only of One Little Goat but also of Eternal Life, A Guide for the Perplexed, and three over novels, as well as her celebrated volume of reporting and essays, People Love Dead Jews. This week, she joins the podcast to discuss this theme—the inescapability of the past, the formative nature of the past, the obligations imposed on us as memory-bearing creatures and as a memory-shaped people—and why it is woven into all of her work, including her most recent book.
In 1867, Queen Victoria, in celebration of the 30th year of her reign, sponsored the newly created Palestine Exploration Fund, which recruited Second Lieutenant Charles Warren of the British Royal Engineers to lead its first archaeological expedition to the Holy Land. Thanks to the recent and temporary alliance between Britain and the Ottoman empire, Warren was given permission to unearth biblical-era antiquities and bring some of those treasures back to the British Museum. He was to concentrate on finding artifacts from the time of ancient Israel’s storied kings, David and Solomon. The Temple Mount, however, was to remain off-limits.Who Owns Jerusalem? | Archeology, Politics & the War Over Truth
Upon arriving in the Holy Land, Charles Warren bribed his way through the ranks of the Ottoman bureaucracy and launched his expedition as close to the Temple Mount as he could. He knew that the Mount, upon which today stands the Dome of the Rock, was a Muslim holy site as well as the former location of the First and Second Jewish Temples. When his team began excavating, the initial results were disappointing: pottery and coins, but nothing that reached back to the time of the Bible.
Had Warren’s adventures ended there, his name would likely have been one more in a list of treasure hunters who came before and after him. But his work did not end there. Warren went on to uncover something extraordinary, something that neither he, nor anyone else, had even realized was lost: the original site of ancient Jerusalem, a discovery that changed the way we understand history.
Charles Warren kindled an ongoing quest to uncover Jerusalem as it was during the times of the First and Second Temples. The patient, careful work undertaken since that time has vastly increased the scholarly understanding of the Hebrew Bible (as well as the Christian one) and of Jewish history, and still attracts some of the world’s leading archaeologists, as well as scientists who are constantly developing new methods of exploring these sites.
Of course, those who have been involved in the project that Warren began have brought with them various religious, ideological, and scholarly agendas. But a different kind of agenda has emerged over the past several decades: an attempt to stop further exploration and destroy the archaeological record, in order to throw into doubt the connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland. In what follows, I will look at those who have in recent years continued what Warren began, and how their progress was almost thwarted.
This Passover edition of Israel: State of a Nation takes you deep beneath the surface—literally and figuratively—into the archeological war for Israel’s legitimacy. Host Eylon Levy sits down with Doron Spielman, former IDF Spokesperson and VP of the City of David Foundation, to explore the ancient stones that are shaking modern politics.
🟢 In This Explosive Episode:
Why the City of David threatens Israel’s enemies
How archeology became a battlefield for truth and identity
The global campaign to erase Jewish history
A behind-the-scenes look at the Israeli government’s PR strategy
Shocking discoveries that upend anti-Israel narratives
🎙️ Featuring stories from deep inside the City of David and powerful firsthand accounts of diplomatic showdowns, this episode is a must-watch for anyone who wants to understand why history matters now more than ever.
🔔 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more unfiltered truth from the frontlines of Israel’s information war.
00:00 - Introduction and the City of David’s Historical Battle
05:30 - Confrontation at the Church of the Nativity
11:51 - Archaeological Evidence and the City of David’s Significance
19:00 - The Campaign Against Jewish History
25:38 - International Pressure and the Pilgrimage Road
34:43- Defending the City of David and Personal Stories
41:42 - Remarkable Discoveries in the City of David
49:39 - Personal Stories and Conclusion
‘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.”
It took more than a century for the U.S. government to finally honor two Jewish American heroes who died in World War I with proper headstones—ones that bear the symbol of their faith: not the Latin Cross but the Star of David.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) April 9, 2025
There is something especially poignant about… pic.twitter.com/VO1e9CWwaN
Trump dedicates April 9 as ‘Education Day’ in honor of Chabad Rebbe
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared April 9, 2025, as “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.” in honor of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Rebbe’s Hebrew birthday corresponds to that day, the White House announced.
Trump said the Rebbe was “a transformational teacher and a spiritual force who, from the ashes of the Holocaust, established one of the most vibrant, joyous and significant religious movements of the modern era.”
“In the wake of unimaginable destruction, he embarked on a global campaign of spiritual outreach to bring the light of faith and Yiddishkeit to countless members of the Jewish community,” according to the president’s proclamation. “The first lady and I encourage all Americans to reflect upon the Rebbe’s teachings. His inestimable dedication and unwavering example have become woven into the very fabric of our nation and its character.”
Trump visited the Rebbe’s grave in 2024 on the anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks that took place in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, resulting in the murder of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 more into the Gaza Strip.
The president also prayed along with the families of 21-year-old American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, who remains in Hamas captivity, and Jerry Wartski, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
“All Americans can learn from his tireless devotion to teaching, good deeds and charity,” he said.
On the eve of Passover, I joined hundreds of Christians to celebrate our shared values.
— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) April 10, 2025
For antisemitism is not merely a disease of the mind, but an affront to God.
To our Christian friends: you have stood by us in our darkest hour, and we will never forget. pic.twitter.com/NJBSlwUvg8
Over 27,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since last Passover.
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) April 10, 2025
Most came from Russia, the US, France, and Ukraine, but also from South Korea, Kenya, Zambia, and even Afghanistan.
That’s 27,000 people who feel more at home in a country at war, facing missiles and terror…
"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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