Friday, April 11, 2025

04/11 Links Pt2: Meir Soloveichik: America and the Exodus; Lee Smith: The Edgelords; Douglas Murray To Joe Rogan: Stop ‘Just Asking Questions’

From Ian:

Meir Soloveichik: America and the Exodus
In every generation, one is obligated to see himself as if he had left Egypt.
—The Haggadah

In 1956, millions of Americans flooded cinemas to see the Exodus story brought to life in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. Among those moviegoers were American Jews, who could not help but feel that the film spoke to them, personally and profoundly. When Charlton Heston’s Moses is asked whether he is ashamed upon learning he is not a prince of Egypt but rather a son of slaves, he responds: “If there is no shame in me, how can there be shame for the woman who bore me, or the race that bred me?”

In his book America’s Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America, Bruce Feiler recounts how, in the 1950s, DeMille had pleaded with Paramount Pictures to make a film about Moses but received only resistance, until its CEO, Adolph Zukor, an assimilated Hungarian Jew, rebuked his Jewish colleagues: “We should get down on our knees and say thank you that he wants to make a picture on the life of Moses.” At a time when “many Jews still struggled with assimilation,” Feiler notes, “Moses’ open embrace of his faith was a powerful statement of self-confidence.” (DeMille was himself of Jewish descent; his mother, Matilda Beatrice Samuel, was a cousin of 1st Viscount Herbert Samuel, the first commissioner of British Mandate Palestine. But he was himself raised in the faith of his Christian father.)

For many Orthodox Jewish immigrants, recently arrived on American shores, such assimilation was out of the question. Yet many of them also went to see the film, in the knowledge that there was a deep connection between their own faith and the culture of the American society that they had just joined. This belief was reinforced in the film’s prologue, in which DeMille himself appeared on-screen and addressed the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, this may seem an unusual procedure, speaking to you before the picture begins,” DeMille said. “The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God’s law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses. Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God? The same battle continues throughout the world today.”

To these religious Jews, recently arrived in America, this message was remarkable: One of the screen’s legendary directors, the man who helped found Hollywood itself by making a film there in 1913, was telling them that America owed its greatness to the Jewish Passover story.

DeMille was right.

In his important book The Hebrew Republic, Harvard’s Eric Nelson writes that while it is assumed the achievements of modernity, such as democracy and religious freedom, were the result of progressive secularization, the reverse was the case. The Renaissance, Nelson notes, reflected the pagan inheritance of antiquity and generated an approach to politics that was secular in character, whereas following the Reformation, “Christians began to regard the Hebrew Bible as a political constitution, designed by God himself for the children of Israel.” Liberty, Nelson argues, took root in the political Hebraism of the English-speaking world.

It is therefore significant that Ben Franklin made this proposal for a seal for the United States: “Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand. Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses, to express that he acts by Command of the Deity. Motto, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Franklin’s suggestion reminds us that the Haggadah’s central exhortation—that we must see ourselves as if we had been slaves in Egypt and had been guided out by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm—is not only a religious idea but also one with political and moral implications. The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has noted that modernity was formed by four revolutions: the British (in 1688) and American on the one hand, and the French and Russian on the other. In Britain and America, one source of inspiration was the Hebrew Bible. Secular philosophy guided the French and Russian revolutions. The former led to free societies, while French and Russian utopian revolutions ended in tyranny.
Nicole Lampert: I never felt part of the Jewish community. Since October 7 that’s all changed
Being among big groups of Jews used to terrify me. Even when I went to look around a Jewish school with my eldest son a few years ago, I had those familiar and perhaps contradictory feelings of both claustrophobia and being left out.

Everyone seemed to know each other. I was too busy hiding from those I did recall. My kids don’t go to Jewish school.

I grew up in north London, the bosom of British Jewish life, but never completely felt part of it. My family was intensely secular – although officially we were members of a shul, which we occasionally visited on Yom Kippur. We had challah on a Friday night but also a big Christmas tree and prawns in the fridge. I was a shy child and never joined a Jewish youth movement. Occasionally I would go to Carmelli’s on a Saturday night with a Jewish school friend – as Jewish kids did in those days – and we would feel like outsiders looking in at the air kisses.

And then October 7 happened. It happened to Israel but it happened to each of us in the diaspora too.

There are few British Jews who haven’t lost friends since Israel was attacked by a terrorist organisation – when we found ourselves being attacked too for sympathising with other Jews. I was accused of “drinking the Kool Aid” when I berated one acquaintance for parroting Hamas propaganda. Mostly I noticed the silence even as I was spending every day interviewing victims of the attacks, families of hostages and documenting the rise of antisemitism.

Writing about antisemitism for a national newspaper drew lots of amazing comments from strangers on social media platforms, who told me “we are with you”, but often nothing from those who were my closest friends. That silence was deafening.

But now I have some wonderful new friends, and have grown closer to old ones. And suddenly, I am part not just of one Jewish community but dozens. And I surprise myself by feeling totally at home.

October 7 and the world’s reaction to it – those parties on the streets – made us feel isolated as well as bereft. But it has also given us something special too. Our community is stronger for it.


Berger remained on 'path of faith' in captivity, she describes in WSJ op-ed
Former hostage Agam Berger explained that she remained on "the path of faith" for 482 days, including during Passover last year, in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, titled 'I Kept My Freedom in Hamas’s Captivity,' published Thursday.

Hamas kidnapped Berger on October 7, 2023, when the terror group invaded the Nahal Oz base. While many of her friends were murdered in the attack, Berger was taken into Gaza and imprisoned for nearly a year and a half.

In her piece, she recounted how—despite the cruelty and pressure she faced—she held tightly to her Jewish identity and faith, including observing fasts, refusing non-kosher food, and even celebrating a symbolic Passover while in captivity.

“In those harrowing moments, as I was being kidnapped, I had the freedom to choose what to say. I recited, continuously, the same verse that Jews on the threshold of death have said for millennia: Shema Yisrael.”

That moment, and many that followed, shaped her belief that no captor could take away her soul, no matter how dire the physical conditions, Berger wrote.

Berger explained that she draws strength from Jewish historical figures like Rabbi Akiva, Joseph, and Abraham, who also endured imprisonment, and finds continuity with them.

When her captors forced a hijab on her head and tried to convert her, she resisted spiritually, protecting her essence. She even managed to keep a siddur, a Jewish prayer book, wrapping it in a cloth sleeve made from the leg of torn pants.

Passover in a dark room without windows
Berger described how she and fellow hostage Liri Albag celebrated Passover in a dark room without windows.

They cleaned their sparse space, created decorations from scrap paper, and shared a makeshift Haggadah that Liri had written. They heard news of the table set for them in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and were able to listen to the voices of their loved ones. “We cried, then sat down to eat our own ‘bread of affliction,’” she recalled.

Agam explained that her release on January 30, 2025, did not mark the end of her concern, and she also reminded readers that 59 hostages are still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, now facing a second Passover in captivity. She urged the world not to allow a third.

Berger called on readers to remember October 7, to never allow such atrocities again, and to keep fighting until every hostage comes home.
‘We became one in every possible sense’: Former hostages share story of sisterhood
Two young women who survived over 14 months of Hamas captivity have revealed the extraordinary bond that helped them endure torture, injury and grief – and ultimately, find strength in each other.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Emily Damari, 28, a British-Israeli from Kfar Aza, and Romi Gonen, 24, from Kfar Vradim, were held together in Gaza for 431 days. Both were wounded on 7 October – Emily shot in the hand during the terror attack on her kibbutz, and Romi in the arm as she tried to save a dying friend at the Nova music festival.

“Two injured girls, two functioning hands, and two bleeding souls. That’s how mine and Emily’s journey began,” said Romi. “Over time, a cosmic connection was created that we can never explain in words.”

The women were initially treated at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where Emily was “sewn up like a pin cushion”, according to her mother. Thirty-nine days later, they were reunited in the tunnels, and from that point until their release on 19 January, they were inseparable.

“Thank God that He put this strong Romi Gonen with me for my whole time in captivity,” said Emily. “I was blessed with a special woman who is made entirely of flowers, full of love and giving.”

They became each other’s lifeline – helping one another eat, wash, and even kickbox to relieve tension using one working hand each. “We were each other’s refuge during crushing moments that you don’t think you can recover from,” said Romi. “I needed her, and she needed me.”

Even after release, their connection remains unshakeable. The two now share a room in Sheba Medical Centre’s rehabilitation unit, where they undergo surgeries and therapy side by side. “We’re still on 7 October,” said Emily. “Still healing, still hurting, comforting each other, and like oxygen for each other.”

Emily has since returned to the ruins of her home in Kfar Aza, accompanied by Romi. “To go there with Emily… everyone with us was shocked: how the hell did I know that?” Romi said. “During the days in captivity, I managed to connect Emily’s friends as if they were my own.”

Reflecting on their survival, Romi said simply, “It wasn’t just by chance that God brought us together.”


Ex-hostage Agam Berger will perform at Auschwitz during March of the Living
Freed hostage and violinist Agam Berger will perform at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the 37th March of the Living ceremony on April 24 as part of an Israeli delegation of former captives, relatives of victims of the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, Gaza border community residents, and Holocaust survivors.

This year’s March of the Living event will mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and the end of World War II. The Israeli delegation will be led by President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog and will include 80 Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world. Polish President Andrzej Duda will also attend.

Other members of the Israeli delegation include released hostage Eli Sharabi with his brother Sharon, as well as Tzili Wenkert, grandmother of freed hostage Omer Wenkert, along with freed hostages Ori Megidish, Raaya Rotem, Hagar Brodutch, Almog Meir Jan, Moran Stella Yanai, Gadi Mozes, Aviva Siegel, Keith Siegel, Shiri Weiss and Chen Goldstein-Almog.

“I won twice — once against the Nazis and once against Hamas,” said Tzili Wenkert. “I will march in the March of the Living as living proof that the Jewish people survive despite all attempts to destroy us.”

Bereaved members of the delegation will include Ofer Winner, father of Yahav Winner, who was murdered in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, and Shaylee Atari, Yahav’s widow. Ofer Winner is also the son of a Holocaust survivor.

Several sets of parents and relatives of victims of October 7 who were killed by Hamas at the Nova rave will join the delegation, including Reuven and Vered Yablonka, parents of Hanan Yablonka; Hanan and Rachel Tzarfati, parents of Ofir Tzarfati; Ilana Aline Atias, mother of Amit Buskila; and Nissim and Amit Louk, father and brother of Shani Louk.


Lee Smith: The Edgelords
What’s interesting here is that Smith and other podcasters who boast of ostensibly provocative takes insist that they’re unveiling dangerous truths the media doesn’t dare speak for fear of upsetting powerful forces. But the self-styled dissident podcasters’ “edgy” takes are mere repackaged establishment wisdom that they generate in consort with one another.

“There’s just no way to get rid of Hamas, without it being replaced by more Hamas or a Hamas-like group,” Smith tells Murray, on the inevitability of resistance against military force. “It’s General McChrystal’s ‘insurgent math.’” Citing the premise of Stanley McChrystal’s counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine is strange. Smith is famously, and rightly, critical of the United States’ failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but the only people who think the retired four-star was right to spend American lives and money cheaply by prioritizing the hearts and minds of people who wanted to kill Americans are: West Point faculty; think tank experts scattered across Washington, D.C.; and family and guests gathered around the Thanksgiving table at the Bush ranch.

Even the role Smith and Rogan play is an establishment category—a comic who is not just a jester, but a gimlet-eyed and idiosyncratic observer of current events celebrated for relating sardonically to his young and disaffected audience. It’s Jon Stewart, but for right-wing audiences.

So what, exactly, is happening here? Call it the wages of Russiagate.

Starting no later than December 2016, the American media began collaborating with U.S. spy services in an unprecedented effort to topple the president of the United States. The media had long tilted left and thus earned the disdain of the right, but using leaks of classified information to interfere with the administration of government made the media, in the eyes of the right, an enemy institution. The media’s complicity in subsequent anti-Trump operations—from the special counsel investigation to the two attempts on Trump’s life—plunged half the country further and further into doubt, despair, and even paranoia. After all, with the January 6 arrests and prosecutions, it became clear the Joe Biden White House and its media auxiliaries were aiming not just at Trump but his supporters as well. Grandmothers, veterans, clergy were being rounded up for exercising their first amendment rights. The press cast them as insurrectionists, and reported favorably about children who turned their insurrectionist parents over to the police. Under those circumstances, who could you trust?

That’s the environment that the new right-wing media—these podcasters—inherited.

One option would have been to approach audiences knowing that since these Americans have gone through hell, many of them all but broken, they need their faith restored. To move forward they need to know true things about the world, their communities, and themselves or we will be lost as a nation. In short, that it’s the media’s job to help them believe again.

But that is not the choice the podcasters made. Rather, consciously or not, they saw the right—their audience—as easy marks, made even more vulnerable with additional doses of fear and panic and falsehood. You have no control over your own country, or even your lives, they tell them, sometimes daily. Trump has no control over the government, they say over and over. Neocons are driving us to war with Iran and thousands will die, they tweeted again and again. The reason Smith and others are disguising establishment talking points as new right wisdom is to herd their audiences into the pen the left built for them.
Douglas Murray To Joe Rogan: Stop ‘Just Asking Questions’
Murray then pressed Rogan on why he brings on people who, Murray explained, simply don’t know what they’re talking about.

“If you’re going to interview historians of the conflict, or just historians in general, why would you get someone like Ian Carroll?” Murray asked.

“Yeah, but Ian Carroll, I didn’t bring him on for that purpose,” Rogan said. “I brought him on because I want to find out, like, how does one get involved in the whole conspiracy theory business, because his whole thing is just conspiracies, y’know?”

“There’s been a tilt in the conversations, both conversations, the last couple years, and it’s largely to do with people who have appointed themselves experts who are not experts,” Murray pointed out.

“I don’t think he appointed himself expert in anything,” Rogan protested.

“Who’s that other dude who thinks he’s an expert on Churchill?” Murray asked.

“Daryl Cooper does not think he’s an expert,” Rogan said. “Have you ever absorbed any of his material? Have you ever consumed any of his podcasts or anything?”

Murray replied:
I tried. It’s pretty hard to listen to somebody who says, “I don’t know what I’m talking about but now I’m gonna talk.” Or, “I don’t know about this.” Or, “I’m not capable of debating this historian but I’m just going to tell you what I think.” … If you throw a lot of s*** out there, there’s some point at which “I’m just raising questions” is not a valid thing. You’re not “raising questions.” You’re not “asking questions.” You’re telling people something.

Murray concluded, “I think there’s a whole bunch of guys doing that. Dave is doing that, very obviously. Dave’s a comedian, but he’s now mainly talking about Israel.”

The episode continues with a lengthy discussion of the war between Israel and Hamas, the history and purpose of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other foreign policy issues.


Comedy Cellar USA: The Sam Harris Joe Rogan Dust-up, with Ami Kozak
Taped the day before the Rogan-Murray-Smith debate, are bigots and quacks being normalized on the biggest shows in the world? And, what are the consequences?


'Look How Devilish the Jews Are': Biden DHS Approved Grant to Florida Mosque Tied to Prominent Anti-Semites
The Department of Homeland Security recently awarded anti-terrorism grants to a Florida mosque linked to pro-terror Islamic clerics, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and an anti-Semitic pastor who claims "the Jews" conduct "secret rituals" at holy sites in Jerusalem.

DHS gave nearly $300,000 to the Deen Center, Inc. on Jan. 31 as part of its Nonprofit Security Grant Program, according to the federal spending database USASpending. The grants to the Tampa-area mosque were approved by the Biden administration in October, according to Florida state records.

While the program—overseen by FEMA—is designed to help religious institutions protect against terrorist attacks, the Deen Center has embraced clerics, activists, and Muslim scholars who have promoted terrorist attacks against the United States and Israel and has pushed anti-Semitic tropes.

Eddie Redzovic, the founder of the Deen Center, has repeatedly featured anti-Semites on his popular YouTube channel, The Deen Show.

On the show, which boasts 1.1 million subscribers, Redzovic has interviewed prominent anti-Semitic preacher Rick Wiles, who said in an appearance on The Deen Show in November 2023 that "the Jews have been doing Freemason secret rituals beneath the Temple Mount for quite some time." Wiles, who previously called Jews "deceivers," asserted in the interview that "Jews will spit on the ground when you say [Jesus’s] name."

Redzovic entitled an episode with Wiles, "Christian Pastor Responds to the Judeo-Christian Claim for Support of I$RAEL," invoking an anti-Semitic smear.

In December 2020, Redzovic interviewed Kevin Barrett, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who claimed the al Qaeda attack was a "false flag" that was "designed to create" hatred of Muslims. He peddled debunked anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that Jews received warnings on the morning of 9/11 "to stay away from downtown Manhattan."
Trump Admin’s Crackdown on Universities Over Campus Antisemitism Supported by Most Americans, Poll Shows
Most American adults, including college students, support the Trump administration’s cancellation of federal funding to universities which fail to address the campus antisemitism crisis, a new poll commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) and conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research has found.

A striking 66 percent of US adults expressed “total support” for cutting federal grants and contracts to higher education institutions that “do not do enough to protect Jewish students or address antisemitism.” Only 34 percent said they “oppose it.”

A strong, but less overwhelming, majority of college students, 56 percent, said they approve of the cuts, compared to 44 percent who oppose them.

Meanwhile, a majority of US adults, 54 percent, indicated support for the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who led raucous anti-Israel campus protests and, according to the federal government, expressed support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Only 25 percent said they oppose his deportation.

College students are more conflicted about the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Khalil, who was an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover during the 2023-2024 academic year and organizer of several demonstrations which caused lockdowns at Barnard College this academic year. Forty percent of those surveyed, a plurality, approve of removing him from the US while 37 percent disapprove.

“The American public has sent a clear message: universities must be held accountable for failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment,” ICC chief executive officer Jacob Baime said in a statement. “Amid a rising crisis of antisemitism, too many academic institutions have neglected their duty.”

He continued, “With 66 percent of US adults and 56 percent of college students supporting the withdrawal of federal funding from schools that tolerate such failures, these findings signal that administrators must act decisively to ensure a safe, inclusive environment for Jewish students.”

The survey was conducted over three days in March, with 1,000 US adults and 450 college students participating.
House ed panel to grill Cal Poly, Haverford, DePaul on mishandling Jew-hatred
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce plans to hold a May 7 hearing titled “Beyond the Ivy League: Stopping the spread of antisemitism on American campuses” with the presidents of California Polytechnic State University, Haverford College and DePaul University.

The college presidents will “answer for mishandling of antisemitic, violent protests,” the committee stated.

“For the past few years, our committee has played a critical role in both uncovering the rampant antisemitism on college campuses and holding administrators accountable,” stated Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), the committee chair.

“This hearing is a continuation of this work so that we can ensure Jewish students across the nation don’t face threats or harassment in violation of Title VI,” under the 1964 Civil Rights Law, Walberg stated. “Numerous legislative options are under consideration to make certain that schools across the country are ensuring a safe learning environment for all students in compliance with federal law.”
Trump admin seeking judicial consent decree at Columbia over Jew-hatred
The Trump administration is seeking to put Columbia University’s agreement to combat antisemitism under the oversight of a federal judge, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Lawyers in the Department of Justice’s antisemitism taskforce are reportedly seeking a consent decree with Columbia, which is a judicial maneuver that in recent years has been used in cities like Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., to address alleged civil-rights abuses in local police departments.

A consent decree, into which Columbia would have to agree to enter, would give a federal judge the power to hold Columbia in contempt of court and levy fines against it if the judge determines that the school is not complying with the terms of its agreement with the Trump administration.

In March, the Trump administration announced that it was halting $400 million in contracts and grants with the university over its alleged failure to protect the civil rights of Jews under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Later that month, Columbia agreed to a series of Trump administration demands to restore the funding, including a ban on masked demonstrations and reforms of its Middle Eastern studies department.

Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, resigned on March 29 amid the controversy over that agreement.

Federal funds have yet to be restored to Columbia.

“The university remains in active dialogue with the federal government to restore its critical research funding,” a spokesperson for Columbia told JNS on Friday. (JNS sought comment from the Departments of Education and Justice.)

A consent decree would be a powerful new tool for the federal government to enforce compliance with civil rights legislation on college campuses.
Yale Adopts IHRA Definition, Brown Launches New Training Program Amid Trump Campus Antisemitism Crackdown
Yale University has quietly adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, according to a new investigative report by the Yale Daily News, the school’s official campus newspaper.

IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US — adopted a “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum as a reference tool which helps policymakers determine what constitutes an incident of antisemitism, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

Yale University apparently enacted the policy change following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, the News said, noting that an archived webpage containing the section of the disciplinary code to which the definition was added shows a revision date of March 28. The paper added that the university never formally announced its adoption of what would have been a highly acclaimed move in some circles and a deplored one in others. Jewish civil rights groups such as the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) encourage the definition’s adoption, as well as codification in law, while others argue it weaponizes the American people’s abhorrence of antisemitism to censor criticism of Israel — an accusation its advocates regard as a slander.

Writing to the Yale Daily News, Yale University officials downplayed the significance of the measure, saying it is “not intended to infringe free speech or the free expression of ideas” and even denying that the school holds “a separate definition” of antisemitism.” The Algemeiner asked the university to clear up the matter. It received a similar answer.
McGill University to cut ties with student union after anti-Israel strike and class
McGill University is set to end its contractual relationship with the student union, both institutions announced on Monday, in response to an anti-Israel student strike that led to the blockading and interrupting of classes, vandalism, and violent altercations.

In line with the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement between McGill and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), due to the termination, a mediated process would be held until June to attempt to resolve their differences.

SSMU said on Monday that all SSMU operations would continue as normal during the mediation process.

The administration had terminated the contract, Interim Deputy Provost Angela Campbell explained in a letter to McGill students, that SSMU had failed to disassociate or reject unrecognized student groups that engaged in vandalism and intimidation during the student union's three-day "strike in support of Palestinian liberation."

During the April 2-4 strike, adopted in a motion during a March 27 SSMU Special Strike General Assembly, keffiyeh-clad activists blockedaded or interrupted dozens of classes.

Students feel unsafe
"Students and instructors were unable to teach or learn," wrote Campbell. "Many felt threatened, intimidated, and unsafe."

In one incident related by Campbell, activists smashed a glass office door using a paint-filled fire hydrant, and sprayed paint inside the office, hitting one staff member.
This Passover at Georgetown, an Anti-Israel Referendum in the Spirit of Pharaoh
“Mah nishtanah halilah hazeh?” Why is this night different from all other nights? Jews around the world read these words in the Haggadah, the ancient Passover guide that tells the story of Pharaoh’s oppression of the Jewish people in Egypt. While the first night of Passover may be different from all other nights, the insistence of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) to hold an anti-Israel campus wide referendum over the Passover holiday is sadly more of the same antisemitism that has overtaken the campus. Once again, Jews are being singled out for unequal treatment at Georgetown.

GUSA’s scheduling of the referendum during Passover is no oversight. GUSA broke its own rules to advance the referendum without the approval of the Senate’s Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), which typically determines whether to send legislation to the full Senate. According to one GUSA senator, John DiPierri, “Every single rule related to our procedure was broken.” Another, senator Saahil Rao, complained that this directly impacted the referendum that was advanced: “There’s obviously a lot of controversial language within this referendum, and I thought we should have debated as a senate on how to present this issue to the student body in the most objective way possible.”

By rushing the resolution, GUSA has organized a Passover crisis for Georgetown’s Jewish community. While haste is nothing new for people who still eat unleavened bread for eight days to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, the spiraling antisemitism that has seized college campuses since Hamas’s brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, is something else entirely.

Seventy-three percent of American Jewish college students surveyed in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre said they have personally experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism. In particular, 87 percent of Jewish college students are concerned that anti-Israel protests and petitions to boycott the State of Israel lead to hate crimes and violence against Jewish students, according to February 2025 polling.

Unfortunately, Georgetown already has a poor track record of protecting its Jewish students. A series of protests chanting for the destruction of Israel escalated on Sept. 20, 2024, to a vandalism incident where the John Carroll statue outside Healy Hall was spray-painted with an inverted red triangle, a symbol used to indicate planned retribution against primarily Jewish individuals. Students have reported a series of antisemitic incidents at Georgetown, and the Chabad rabbi was struck several times by a Lyft driver.
New pro-Israel faculty group at Georgetown urges university to reject divestment proposal
More than two dozen pro-Israel faculty and staff members from Georgetown University signed a letter — as part of a newly formed coalition — opposing a proposal from their colleagues for the university to divest from companies and academic institutions with ties to the Jewish state.

In a Thursday night email to the university’s Jewish student groups, Rabbi Ilana Zietman, Georgetown’s director of Jewish life, announced the formation of the new Committee for the Integrity of Academic Institutions as Centers of Learning, which is composed of professors and other faculty members from a variety of departments.

Zietman also shared a letter that the new group sent to Georgetown’s Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility (CISR), urging it to reject a proposal from the Georgetown University Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. That proposal “calls on the university to cease investing in United States corporate entities that profit from weapons or systems employed to commit war crimes or human rights abuses anywhere in the world. But it makes it clear that the specific target is companies that have anything to do with any part of Israel’s defense sector,” the letter states. It points out that “to date, no American university has taken such a position, known broadly as BDS [Boycott, Divest and Sanctions].”

Georgetown holds investments in companies including Google’s holding company Alphabet and Amazon, both of which have provided technology to the Israel Defense Forces. In 2017, CSIR rejected a student proposal to divest from companies with ties to Israel, stating that “divestment would not be an effective tactic to end hostilities or promote a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Jacob Intrator, a sophomore and president of the campus chapter of Students Supporting Israel, told Jewish Insider that SSI “stands in solidarity with and supports the letter from Jewish Life.”

“Our greatest power and tool to evoke change is our voices, and I am grateful to every faculty that joined the committee and signed its letter for using their voices for good. Their support means the world to Jewish and Israel-supporting students on campus,” Ayelet Kaplan, a freshman representative for the Jewish Student Association, told JI.
Felony Charges Filed Against Pro-Hamas Protesters Over Stanford University Break-In
Twelve Stanford University students have been charged with felony vandalism and conspiracy to trespass for their role in the takeover of an administrative building during the final days of the 2023-2024 academic year, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.

“Dissent is American. Vandalism is criminal,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “There is a bright line between making a point and committing a crime. These defendants crossed the line into criminality when they broke into those offices, barricaded themselves inside, and started a calculated plan of destruction.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, on June 5, 2024, pro-Hamas activists associated with the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) raided then-president Richard Saller’s office, locking themselves inside using, the Stanford Daily reported at the time, “bike locks, chains, ladders, and chairs.” The incident was part of a larger pro-Hamas demonstration in which SJP demanded that the university adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as the first step to its eventual elimination.

Inside the building, the protesters proceeded to graffiti “kill cops” and “De@th 2 Is@hell” on school property.

“In addition to damage done inside the building, protesters committed extensive graffiti vandalism on the sandstone buildings and columns of the Main Quad this morning,” provost Jenny Martinez said following the incident. “This graffiti conveys vile and hateful sentiments that we condemn in the strongest terms. Whether the graffiti was created by members of the Stanford community or outsiders, we expect that the vast majority of our community joins us in rejecting this assault on our campus.”

The students — originally called the “Stanford Thirteen” to include the arrest of a Stanford Daily reporter who no longer faces criminal charges for being present during the alleged criminal conduct to cover it as a news story — face some of the toughest sanctions imposed on anti-Israel protesters who, beginning in April 2024, commandeered sections of their campuses across the US and refused to leave unless school administrators adopted the BDS movement. In addition to being criminally charged, eight of the 12 were suspended by the university for what was allegedly a premeditated operation.

“Multiple cell phones were recovered from the arrestees,” the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “A review of the cell phone data resulted in detailed communication about the planning and commission of the conspiracy, including encrypted text-messages and links to detailed operational plans. The communication indicated the suspects met on multiple occasions, days in advance, to conspire to take over the building.”


AP doubted reliability of Hamas-linked reporter years before Oct. 7, documents show
In 2018, the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA questioned the AP about an article on the shooting of a boy in Gaza. The shooting was attributed to Israel, using Eslaiah’s reporting to corroborate the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims and describing Eslaiah as a “local journalist.” CAMERA’s Israel director, Tamar Sternthal, asked the AP staff which outlets Eslaiah worked for, the emails showed.

“I don’t know. I’ll check. I was told he is independent and reliable and not Hamas,” an AP staffer said in response. The AP email addresses in the documents were redacted.

Sternthal responded with information about Eslaiah, including a link to the Electronic Intifada website, saying that Eslaiah was a camera operator with the Hamas-affiliated Quds TV. CAMERA also reviewed Eslaiah’s social media and said that he openly identified with Hamas’s politics, praised terrorism, backed the murder of Israelis and made anti-Jewish statements.

“They have sent an entire file on the journalist we quoted, saying he is from Hamas media. Is this stuff accurate? I thought you said he is independent,” one of the AP staffers said in the internal email chain.

“The most important thing to me is that our reporting is accurate. Hassan is a freelancer, he is active on several platforms and mostly quotes, shares or reposts stuff from different sources,” another staffer said in response, indicating the AP was aware of Hassan’s posts.

“Frankly speaking, many local journalists here don’t pay attention to their language,” they said.

“We shouldn’t describe someone from Al-Quds as being an independent journalist,” another staffer said, adding that the news agency should seek another corroboration for their report. “I just want to shut them up once and for all,” they said of CAMERA.

“I still think we need to be careful. [Redacted] describes this guy as independent and reliable. I’m not sure he is either,” another email said.

CAMERA previously said it had informed the AP about Eslaiah’s Hamas links, but the documents released this week were the first view of the newsroom’s internal response, including the fact that staff doubted Eslaiah’s reliability.
Board claims ‘some progress’ after meeting with BBC chiefs over Hamas documentary
The Board of Deputies has said there has been “some progress on the issues raised” with BBC Director-General Tim Davie and other senior executives in a meeting called following the outcry over the screening of the “Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone” documentary.

The Board and BBC met on March 20th, with the communal organisation setting a Passover deadline for “a list of clear actions the BBC should take to tackle issues of bias in its coverage, and improve its treatment of Jewish staff and contractors.”

Since that date, the Board said in a new statement that the respective teams have been discussing these measures, with the BBC now said to be seeking to so the following:

– The BBC has committed to launching an independent Thematic Review into its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict and is considering both the terms of reference and the timing of that review. We have asked for this to include the BBC Arabic service, which has been of particular concern.

– A full fact-finding review into the making of the highly problematic programme ‘Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone’, is currently underway and the Board has asked for a report on the conclusions of this review at the earliest opportunity.

– We have been assured that issues around the use of language and translation, including the policy around translating the words ‘Yahud/Yahudi’, are being considered in the course of these two reviews.

– The BBC has confirmed it has facilitated training on antisemitism over the past year with a range of editorial colleagues, and it is considering plans to roll out training more widely. Given serious concerns about the health and well-being of Jewish staff at the BBC, we will be engaging with the BBC to ensure that, going forward, the quality and content of this training is what the Jewish community would expect.

The Board’s statement said it was continuing to press our BBC counterparts on “calling Hamas and Hezbollah what they are: ‘proscribed terrorist organisations'”.

And also over a means of “rapidly addressing serious editorial failures and occasions where reporters are found to have egregiously breached its rules of impartiality and/or antisemitism.”
Irish Times Invites Readers to Watch Blood Libel Movie About Palestinian ‘Martyrs’ Capital’
According to Jansen, the Israeli military is not conducting counterterror operations targeting Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other armed groups embedded in Jenin. Instead, she frames the operation as an unprovoked, almost vindictive, disruption of a sacred holiday:
The Israeli army on Monday intensified its 70-day assault on Jenin city and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp … Despite the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, Israel troop reinforcements and armoured vehicles stormed the city … and ransacked dwellings. In the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces demolished homes and ravaged infrastructure.

Conspicuously absent is any acknowledgment that these raids are targeting entrenched terrorist networks that operate from within densely populated civilian areas — a grim reality that imposes both legal and moral obligations on Israel to act.

The irony, of course, is glaring. Jansen bemoans the desecration of Eid, yet omits any mention of Palestinian terror attacks deliberately timed to coincide with Jewish holidays — including Hamas’ October 7 massacre on Simchat Torah.

She also neglects the rocket attacks launched during Ramadan in 2021 by the very same groups Israel is now confronting. Evidently, Jansen is more concerned about the sanctity of Islamic holidays than Hamas is.

Later in the piece, Jansen refers to Jenin as the center of “resistance,” quite literally borrowing Hamas’ terminology without the slightest nod to Israel’s far more accurate descriptor: a hub of terrorism.

Jenin has long served as a launchpad for deadly attacks and is home to some of the West Bank’s most unrepentant perpetrators of violence.

The article then ends with a bizarre cinematic endorsement — of a film that has done more than almost any other to spread one of the most persistent and damaging blood libels in recent memory:
That assault inspired the film Jenin, Jenin, which contributed to the camp’s reputation and made it an anti-occupation beacon.

In fact, Jenin, Jenin is a widely discredited propaganda film that peddles the thoroughly debunked lie that Israeli forces committed a massacre in 2002 — a fabrication repeatedly disproven by international investigations but still parroted by anti-Israel activists and antisemites alike.

The Irish Times is no longer just editorializing against Israel. It is now platforming and promoting blood libels in its international news section. Just when you thought it couldn’t sink any lower.
New York Times Takes Iran’s Side in US-Iran Talks
The New York Times coverage of the US-Iran nuclear talks seems written from Iran’s perspective.

One Times article reports that the talks “come at a perilous moment, as Iran has lost the air defenses around its key nuclear sites because of precise Israeli strikes last October. And Iran can no longer rely on its proxy forces in the Middle East — Hamas, Hezbollah and the now-ousted Assad government in Syria — to threaten Israel with retaliation.”

For Israel and America, it’s a less perilous moment, as we no longer have to worry about our planes getting shot down by Iranian air defenses. “Perilous” seems to be from the point of view of the Iranian terror-sponsoring regime. For America and Iran, it’s a hopeful moment, as we may finally eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat or, even better yet, the terror-sponsoring and oppressive Iranian regime.

The same Times article, by David Sanger and Farnaz Fassihi, reports, “Many Iranians have begun to talk openly about the need for the country to build a weapon since it has proved fairly defenseless in a series of missile exchanges with Israel last year.”

That spins the Iranian nuclear weapon as a matter of Iranian defense, when in fact the Iranians have been pursuing it for decades as part of their goal of wiping Israel off the map. Even the Times article concedes as much later on, reporting that “Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has been operating for decades and is spread around the country, much of it deep underground.”

The same Times article goes on to contend, “If Mr. Trump does not achieve full dismantlement, he will be forced to confront questions about whether he got anything more than the Obama administration got a decade ago. Mr. Trump dismissed that accord as a ‘disaster’ and an embarrassment, noting it would lift all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear production by 2030. Now his challenge, experts say, will be accomplishing more than Mr. Obama did.”


Galilee men charged with plotting attack on Temple Mount
The Haifa District Attorney’s Office filed charges on Friday against two residents of northern Israel, accusing them of planning a violent assault on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and seeking affiliation with a terrorist organization operating in Judea and Samaria.

The men—identified as Nur Shabat from Nahf, 14 miles east of Acre, and Amir Kiwan from nearby Deir al-Asad—were apprehended after a collaborative investigation led by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police.

Authorities allege that Shabat tried to establish contact with members of the Tulkarem Brigades, a known terrorist group, and explored the possibility of joining their ranks. He allegedly tried to enlist Kiwan’s help in organizing a stabbing attack aimed at Israeli security personnel during Ramadan in 2024.

Law enforcement officials highlighted the significant danger posed by citizens engaging in extremist plots and reaffirmed the agencies’ dedication to thwarting threats to public safety.
Four Palestinians indicted for ax attack, attempting ramming
Indictments have been filed against four Palestinians who attacked Israeli civilians near Deir Dibwan in February, Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said in a joint statement on Thursday.

Police responded to a call in February about an attack on two Israelis, which included an ax attack and an attempted running over by four suspects from the village.

The suspects admitted they had thrown stones at the Israelis during questioning and that the attack had intended to “expel the Jews from the village.”

The indictment was filed this week through the military prosecution after a joint operation and investigation by the West Bank unit of the Israel Police and Shin Bet. West Bank violence

Israeli security forces apprehended two terrorists, including a senior terrorist in the dismantled "Lion's Den" network, during counterterrorism operations, the IDF, Shin Bet, and Israel Police said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

Additional weapons were also confiscated.

The IDF, Shin Bet, and Lahav 433 – The National Crime Unit's "Gidonim" Unit apprehended Muhammad Bana, who was previously a senior member of the Nablus terrorist organization, and was armed with an M-16 rifle and a spray grenade, the statement said.
What’s New? The PLO Promises Jobs to Released Terrorists
Upon Israel’s release of Palestinian terrorists from prison as part of the recent exchange deal with Hamas to free Israeli hostages, the PLO has continued to honor these murderers and terrorists.

One of the Palestinian Authority (PA)/PLO gestures toward the released terrorists — in addition to the generous “Pay-for-Slay” salaries they have been receiving throughout their imprisonment — is jobs. And not just ordinary jobs, but “employment in international civilian and military institutions in the service of their homeland and people,” according to the PLO itself:

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed senior PA leaders’ warm welcome of the released terrorists and the many benefits they receive, including release grants from PA leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The glorification of the released “heroes” continues. Earlier this month, PA and Fatah leaders met with released terrorists for iftar — the Ramadan fast-breaking meal — during which they stressed their “appreciation for these heroes,” gifting them with “honorary plaques”:


Tunisian Teen Who Died Raising Palestinian Flag Celebrated as ‘Martyr’
A 16-year-old Tunisian boy fell to his death while attempting to hoist a Palestinian flag, according to regional sources, and has since been praised as a “martyr” by Palestinian factions and Arab activists, raising concerns of growing youth radicalization.

The incident took place Tuesday in Tunisia’s Manouba province, where teenager Fares Khaled climbed onto a school building and lost his balance, plummeting over six stories.

Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education confirmed his death, calling it a “tragic accident,” and suspended classes for two days.

What followed, however, was a wave of glorification.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas posthumously honored the teen, awarding him a medal “in recognition of his great sacrifice and his commitment to solidarity with the Palestinian people and their rights.”

Meanwhile, Hamas’ youth wing called his actions “heroic,” while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued condolence statements.
Iranian State Media Boosts Tucker Carlson’s Comments Opposing US Military Action, Condemning ‘Neocons’
Iranian state media boosted recent comments from controversial political commentator Tucker Carlson that suggested an American military confrontation with Iran would be “suicidal” for the US.

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of the state of Iran, published an article on Tuesday highlighting Carlson’s comments, in which the far-right podcast host and media personality warned the US against prosecuting a “destructive” war with Iran. Carlson cautioned that the US would surely “lose” any military confrontation with the Islamist regime and blamed unspecified “neocons” for suggesting federal lawmakers adopt a more aggressive posture toward Tehran.

“Whatever you think of tariffs, it’s clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran. We can’t afford it. Thousands of Americans would die. We’d lose the war that follows,” Carlson posted on social media.

Carlson then blamed a potential war with Iran on “unrelenting pressure from neocons,” referring to so-called neoconservatives in the US who believe in a more aggressive US foreign and military policy. He also blasted federal officials for allegedly pushing for “war with Iran” and said they are “not an ally of the United States, but an enemy.”

The former Fox News host did not note in his social media post that US officials have long accused Iran of clandestinely pursuing nuclear weapons — a charge denied by Tehran — and labeled the Middle Eastern power as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

Tuesday was not the first time that Carlson lambasted US foreign policy toward Iran and its terrorist proxies in the Middle East.
Iran’s Navy Chief Compares Tehran to Israelites Fleeing Pharaoh Ahead of Passover
Ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Iran’s navy chief boasted that his country’s naval and defense power is stronger than ever, seemingly comparing Iran to the ancient Israelites and warning that enemies would be drowned at sea like Pharaoh’s army.

In an ironic twist, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani drew a parallel between Iran and the ancient Israelites enslaved by Egypt in the Exodus story, positioning Tehran as the modern-day victim of persecution.

In that biblical account, Pharaoh, fearing the growing Israelite population, enslaved them and even ordered the death of newborn boys. However, under God’s power, the Israelites, led by Moses, escaped Egypt. When Pharaoh’s army pursued them, driven by greed and fear, they were ultimately destroyed by the sea.

On Thursday, the Iranian commander praised Tehran’s naval strength and defense capabilities during a meeting with the families of the country’s 86th naval fleet, as tensions grow in the lead-up to nuclear talks with the United States.

“Our maritime power and defensive capabilities are stronger than ever,” Irani was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

“Today, our enemies see the Islamic Republic’s armed forces and strategic navy as a superpower,” Irani continued. “The devil seeks a direct confrontation at sea, but with God’s help, we will defeat and drown it like the people of Pharaoh.” Other translations quoted him as saying Iran’s “enemies” will be defeated “just as Pharaoh was drowned.”

The apparent comparison was striking since Iranian leaders routinely call for Israel’s destruction, often describing the Jewish state as a “cancer” that must be wiped off the map. “The efforts of my comrades have become visible to everyone in the country, the region, and the world,” Irani said. “This has brought dignity and pride to our beloved Iran.”

Earlier this week, Tehran and Washington announced that diplomats from both countries will meet in Oman on Saturday to begin negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
Kansas codifies IHRA Jew-hatred definition into state statute for first time
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed legislation on April 9 codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into state law.

“It is hereby declared that antisemitism and antisemitic acts are against the public policy of this state, including, but not limited to, the purposes of public educational institutions and law enforcement agencies in this state,” the bill text states.

In addition to codifying the definition into state statute, the bill states that acts can be labeled as antisemitic if they encourage, support, praise, participate in or threaten “violence or vandalism against Jewish people or property.”

Additionally, “wearing masks to conceal a person’s identity with the intent to harass or discriminate against Jewish students, faculty or employees on school property” and “incorporating or allowing funding of antisemitic curriculum or activities in any domestic or study abroad programs or classes” also constitute antisemitism.

The bill, supported by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, passed the Kansas state Senate and House last month. While this marks the first codification of the IHRA antisemitism definition in Kansas statute, the state legislature adopted the IHRA definition in 2022.

“The Jewish community seeks the same thing every other minority and historically discriminated group seek—the ability to live in peace while being able to practice our religion and culture,” David Soffer, CAM’s director of state engagement, said when testifying before the Kansas House Committee on Education in February.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Soccer Fans Receive Compensation From Netherlands for Amsterdam Attack
A number of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans who were violently attacked on the streets of Amsterdam five months ago are being given financial compensation for the onslaught, according to the Tel Aviv-based law firm that coordinated legal efforts on behalf of the victims.

“Our office received the news that the authorities in the Netherlands have made a decision to compensate Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, who experienced riots when the football game in Amsterdam ended,” the law firm Dr. Gideon Fisher & Co., which represented the Maccabi fans in partnership with a Dutch team, announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “This is a first and significant step towards doing justice to the fans who were attacked, and our office continues to work to file additional claims and exercise the rights of additional victims.”

In November 2024, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were brutally assaulted in the Dutch capital after watching the Israeli soccer team compete again the Dutch club Ajax in a European League match. During the premeditated and coordinated violence on Nov. 7, Maccabi soccer fans were chased with knives and sticks in several locations around the city, run over by cars, physically beaten, and some were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine” to avoid further assault. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”

Compensation for victims of the attack ranges from 1,000 to 35,000 Euros ($1,113–$38,958) and is being issued through the Netherlands’ Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund, according to Ynet.

The amount a person receives is determined by the severity of their physical injury or emotional damage. Those who experienced multiple injuries, or both physical and psychological trauma, may qualify for higher amounts, and those who only experienced mental trauma also qualify for compensation, the Israeli publication added. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund processes claims within 26 weeks, and the compensation is separate from any future lawsuits that might be filed on behalf of victims.
Global club promoter Boiler Room bans Israel shows after being acquired by KKR-owned firm: ‘It’s insane’
A global concert promoter that was acquired this year by a subsidiary of private equity giant KKR has quietly slapped a ban on all shows in Israel — a move that appears to be part of a boycott over the war in Gaza, The Post has learned.

Boiler Room, a UK-based online broadcaster and club promoter founded in 2010, has discreetly wiped any trace of livesteams from its previous Tel Aviv events.

Dozens of Israeli DJs said their performances were pulled last weekend without warning or explanation from the brand’s website and popular YouTube channel.

Yarin Lidor, one of the founders of the legendary Tel Aviv club Kuli Alma, ripped the surprise decision, which came only weeks after the takeover of Boiler Room by KKR’s Superstruct Entertainment.

“It feels less like a principled stand, and more like a symbolic move to show they’re ‘clean’ in the eyes of their audience,” the 44-year-old producer told The Post. “It is not about values, but about image.”

Lidor added that there had been “no dialogue at all” and that he only found out about the move when he was updating his own homepage.

Boiler Room’s moves risk landing them in hot water with their new private equity overlords: KKR’s two surviving co-founders, Henry Kravis and George Roberts, are Jewish, as was the late Jerome Kohlberg Jr., who was Kravis’s cousin. Kravis’s foundation has donated to Israeli causes including the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

The Post has approached Boiler Room and its parent firm Superstruct Entertainment for comment. A spokeswoman for KKR declined to comment.

Two weeks ago, Boiler Room’s bosses ripped KKR following an online uproar over the takeover by Superstruct, a Europe-based music festival promoter.
Jews Urged Not to Attend German Music Festival Headlined by Anti-Israel Rapper Macklemore
A major Jewish organization in Germany and the country’s commissioner for the fight against antisemitism have warned Jews against attending a large German music festival in July because the headliner is Grammy-winning American rapper Macklemore, who has a history of making antisemitic and anti-Israel comments.

Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, is scheduled to perform as the main act at the Deichbrand Festival in Cuxhaven that will run from July 17-20. Approximately 60,000 people are reportedly expected to attend the festival this summer.

In his lyrics and comments on and off stage, the Seattle-based “Thrift Shop” rapper has promoted antisemitic stereotypes; repeatedly accused Israel of genocide, apartheid, and war crimes; and compared the struggles that Palestinians have in the West Bank to the horrors Jews experienced in the Holocaust.

The “Can’t Hold Us” singer made numerous anti-Israel claims in his songs last year titled “F—ked Up,” “Hind’s Hall,” and “Hind’s Hall 2,” and described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “colonizer.”

The Central Council of Jews in Germany said on Tuesday that Macklemore’s invitation to perform at the music festival sends a “sobering signal” that antisemitism is welcome “on the big stage.”

“The fact that Macklemore spreads antisemitic propaganda and trivializes the Holocaust in his lyrics and videos seems to be of little interest,” the Jewish organization added. A spokesperson for the Central Council of Jews in Germany further told German media that following Macklemore’s invitation to perform at the music event, “the Deichbrand Festival is therefore no longer a safe place for Jews.”
Man, 19, charged with arson attack on D.D.O. synagogue
A 19-year-old man has been charged in the firebombing of a synagogue in Dollard-des-Ormeaux in December.

Mohamed Ilyess Akodad faces two arson-related charges, two counts of attempted arson, one count of destruction of property and one count of possession of incendiary material.

The charges relate to a Dec. 18, 2024 fire at the Congregation Beth Tikvah on Westpark Blvd., which caused minor damage to the synagogue.

Police at the time reported broken glass and damage to the door of the synagogue, as well as smoke damage, and a smashed glass door at the nearby offices of Federation CJA, a Jewish community group.

The incident was widely condemned, including by then prime minister Justin Trudeau, who called it “a vile antisemitic attack against Montreal’s Jewish community.”

Akodad pleaded not guilty during a virtual appearance at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday, and is scheduled to appear again on Thursday to discuss next steps.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs welcomed news of the arrest.

“Now, it is up to prosecutors to responsibly proceed with this case focused on maximizing its deterrent effect,” said Eta Yudin, the organization’s vice-president for Quebec. “It must be made clear that the hateful targeting of the Jewish community has serious consequences.”
Graffiti removal taskforce finds over 175 instances of antisemitic slurs in surrounding neighborhoods
A graffiti removal taskforce says antisemitic graffiti has gotten out of control in Park Slope and the surrounding neighborhoods.

In response, they have taken it upon themselves to build a task force.

Stella Belenkaya tells us she has seen graffiti all over the borough, including swastikas and an inverted red triangle.

Members of the Park Slope Graffiti Watch Group have banded together since October 7th, where they say incidents of antisemitic hate has increased.

Mark Treyger, CEO of Jewish Community Relations Council of New York says, "reported hate crimes in New York City still continue to show that the Jewish people are the number one target of hate across New York."

With this, some Jewish Brooklynites in Councilwoman Shahana Hanif's district tell News 12 that they feel that they must take it upon themselves to remove graffiti.

Last March, Hanif made comments in a meeting where she said she is "okay with the free Palestine" in graffiti.

When asked about this comment, Hanif told News 12 those words were “emotionally charged" and she wants to reassure her Jewish constituents that she is fully committed to protecting them and condemning Jewish hate.

"I condemn all graffiti on property that is motivated towards a particular group," she shared on Thursday with News 12.


Prime minister’s salute to Jewish liberators of Bergen-Belsen
Keir Starmer has sent a heartfelt letter to two Jewish veterans who helped liberate Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, writing that he can “only begin to imagine how it must have felt as Jewish men to discover such depravity towards your fellow Jews”.

The letter was sent ahead of next Tuesday’s 80th anniversary of the arrival of Allied troops at the concentration camp, where an estimated 52,000 Jewish and Polish prisoners were murdered.

In an extraordinary personal tribute ahead, Starmer wrote to Mervyn Kersh and Stanley Fisher, both now 100 years old, thanking them for their “extraordinary service” and their courage in bearing witness to one of the darkest chapters in human history.

He writes: “As veterans of the Normandy Landings, you were part of a special generation of British servicemen whose breathtaking heroism and sacrifice dealt a decisive blow against fascism,” Starmer wrote from Downing Street. “But your story did not end with the liberation of Europe… You went on to become eyewitnesses to the horrors of Bergen-Belsen.”

Kersh and Fisher are among an estimated 60,000 Jews who served in the British Armed Forces during the war. Both landed in Normandy in 1944 and were later stationed near Bergen-Belsen when it was liberated by British forces in April 1945.

Kersh, who served in the ordnance corps, recalled in a 2015 interview how he gave chocolate to starving survivors—only to learn it could harm their frail bodies.

“These people were walking skeletons,” he said. “Chocolate was far too rich for their weak digestive system.”

Fisher, who landed at Arromanches, remembered in a 2023 interview how witnessing the camp’s horrors left him traumatised and silent for years.

“If someone fell by your side, you just carried on,” he said. “But the nightmares stayed.”


South African lawmakers visit Israel in rebuke to ANC
A group of 15 South African parliamentarians, including members of the national unity government, visited Israel this week in a show of faith-based support for the Jewish state and a rebuke of the Middle East policies of the ruling African National Congress.

The parliamentary visit follows the formation of a national unity government in South Africa last June, after the ANC lost its absolute majority for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago.

The delegation, which included members of two parties in the government of national unity and a Christian opposition party, as well as Christian and Jewish faith leaders, met with Israeli lawmakers and visited southern Israeli communities targeted in the Hamas-led massacre 18 months ago that triggered the current war.

“The ANC does not speak for everyone,” Parliament member Ashley Sauls, whose Patriotic Alliance party is a member of the South African government, told JNS during an event at the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem on Monday. “We support Israel and believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization which must be annihilated so that there is peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.”

He added: “We can say that Israel is not an apartheid state, and there is no genocide going on in Gaza.”

The ANC, which has spearheaded South Africa’s anti-Israel foreign policy, won only 40% of the vote in last May’s election, forcing it to form a national unity government.

Some lawmakers in the delegation from another party in the unity government pointedly declined to comment on their trip due to the sensitivity of the visit.
Noa Tishby Releases Free Passover Cookbook in Collaboration With Jewish Chefs, Social Media Food Influencers
Israeli actress, author, and activist Noa Tishby released a mini cookbook for Passover on Wednesday that features seven recipes from Jewish chefs and social media food influencers ahead of the Jewish holiday that begins this weekend.

Tishby’s cookbook includes recipes for breakfast foods, soups, main dishes, snacks, and desserts. The two-time New York Times best-selling author, who is also Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism, teamed up with Jewish foodies who include cookbook authors Jake Cohen and Eitan Bernath, celebrity private chef Brooke Baevsky, who goes by the Instagram handle Chef Bae, and recipe developer Sivan from Sivan’s Kitchen.

Ben Soffer, better known by his social media handle BoyWithNoJob, shares the recipe for his barbecue potato chip-crusted chicken with pickled coleslaw and homemade ranch dressing, while chef, cookbook author, and restauranteur Beejhy Barhany gives step-by-step directions of how to make Ethiopian, gluten-free matzah. Writer and producer-turned-food-traveler Phil Rosenthal, from the Netflix docuseries “Somebody Feed Phil,” also joins Tishby and her sister as the three of them make Tishby’s “favorite childhood matzah cake.”


Ask Haviv Anything: Bonus episode: This Passover, we find our freedom
Passover is upon us, the seder is Saturday night.

Freedom, the Sages teach, is not an end, it is a path; no mere escape from Pharaoh's tyranny but a becoming, filled with substance and responsibility and devotion; no one-off achievement but a ceaseless struggle to secure and deepen who and what we are.

This bonus episode offers a few short thoughts that I teach my children at our seder each year about the meaning of this holiday, and thus the meaning of our peoplehood and freedom.

This episode is sponsored by the Sapir Journal, a wonderful quarterly journal devoted to ideas for a thriving Jewish future, edited by the Pulitzer-prize-winning Bret Stephens.

If you live in the United States, you can now receive SAPIR in the mail absolutely free. You can sign up for your free subscription by going to sapirjournal.org/AskHaviv.






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