Friday, April 18, 2025

04/18 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The Jewish community's fifth column; Vermont, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Mountains of Useful Idiots; Harry Truman’s Seder Message

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Jewish community's fifth column
To issue such a public denunciation during a war for Israel’s existence is an act of treachery and betrayal. And in their supreme arrogance, the 36 are inflicting this damage from the relative safety of their homes thousands of miles away.

Even though they amount to merely one tenth of the Board’s 300 representatives, the message has gone out out through the mainstream media that those speaking for the Jewish community have denounced the war and blamed Israel’s government.

In a desperate attempt to mitigate the damage, the Board’s president, Phil Rosenberg, has written an article emphatically distancing the Board from the letter. He writes in the Jewish News:
Whether intentionally or otherwise, the impression that has now been put forward by certain national and international news outlets is that yesterday’s letter published in the Financial Times, signed by approximately ten percent of Deputies, is the position of the Board of Deputies as an organisation and therefore the position of the UK Jewish community as a whole. This is emphatically not the case, and as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, I speak for the organisation as a whole…

We yearn for the return of the remaining hostages, whose absence is more acute than ever now, during the Festival of Freedom. Yet given that Hamas just this week rejected yet another mediation put forward via Egypt, which would have required the terrorist group to disarm, I am simply unable to agree with the viewpoint aired in the FT letter which lays blame squarely on the Israeli Government. I am confident that the vast majority of Deputies and the Jewish community as a whole agree with me…

It is remarkably easy to get the media to listen to you in this country if you highlight your Jewish identity while vocally criticising Israel or its government…for a letter signed by three dozen people to make headlines in an assortment of national newspapers, while TV and radio producers fight among themselves to get signatories to appear on their shows, makes very little sense.

Oh, but alas it does. For of course the letter has been seized upon with unrestrained glee by the mainstream media and others who want to bring Israel down. Just like the way in which the Iranian regime uses the handful of fanatics of the Jewish Naturei Karta sect, or as Jeremy Corbyn used other Jews who sought the destruction of Israel, the 36 letter-writers have provided the mortal enemies of Israel in the west with the opportunity that’s been seized upon by Jew-haters throughout the centuries — to use the Jews to do the haters’ own dirty work as enemies of the Jewish people, work that can then be plausibly denied as being anti-Jew.

The usefulness of this disgusting tactic was promptly demonstrated by John McDonnell, Corbyn’s former shadow chancellor, who tweeted about the 36 letter-writers:
Every signatory should be welcomed into that courageous band of Jewish people who have stood up for peace & an end to the killing.

Got that? The letter is being used to demonise all those Jews who support Israel in its desperate struggle to survive. These 36 signatories have now provided further rocket fuel for attacks on British Jews.

In their ineffable absence of self-awareness, they appear totally unaware that they are classic examples of the “As a Jew” Jews who were mercilessly satirised by Howard Jacobson in his novel The Finkler Question.

Now it turns out that the Board members include 36 Finkler “As a Jew” Jews. They don’t represent Britain's Jewish community. They don’t even represent the Board. They are the Jewish community’s fifth column, they are a menace to both the security and good name of that beleaguered community, and it is a disgrace that they are on the Board at all.

Decent people watching this unsavoury spectacle might well wonder how on earth Jews of all people can behave like this. The tragic reality is that Jews like this who turn against their own people with pathological viciousness have existed in every generation. The most acute threat to the Jewish people comes not from the world’s multitudinous antisemites, nor even from those waging war or genocide against Israel. The gravest threat to the Jewish people comes from Jews like these.
Azerbaijan: Augmenting the Abraham Accords
Two recent media reports underscored the emerging international stature of the Caucasian republic of Azerbaijan and its ties to Israel.

The first relates to the growing involvement of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) in Israel’s energy sector, entailing SOCAR’s first drilling operations outside of Azerbaijan.

The second related to a visit by President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Azerbaijan. This took place after endorsement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a group of prominent rabbis. The rabbis, including the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, urged including Azerbaijan in the Abraham Accords framework and for the bolstering of a trilateral alliance between Washington, Jerusalem and Baku.

Some months ago, the value of such an axis was raised in a previous column of mine, and recognition of its merits, then enumerated, appears to be growing.

Arguably, one of the most fundamental traits of international relations is its inherent uncertainty. Indeed, it is a field where today’s truth is often stranger than yesterday’s fiction.

To illustrate the point, consider anyone in the early 1980s suggesting that:
Within less than a decade and a half, the mighty USSR would disintegrate;
The Warsaw Pact, once a formidable alliance confronting NATO, would crumble, with some of its members even joining the ranks erstwhile foes as part of NATO;
Then-impoverished nations, such as China and India, would become industrial and commercial powerhouses, with the former beginning to challenge America’s global economic hegemony;
There would be a massive shift of industry and commerce to Asia from the West.

Undoubtedly, any such far-sighted prophet would have been dismissed as totally out of touch with reality, if not as borderline deranged.

But that is precisely what transpired, with the world today far closer to the predictions of some outcast eccentric than that of the adherents of the then-prevailing conventional wisdom.
Daughter is born to Chabad rabbi Zvi Kogan, 5 months after his murder in UAE
A daughter has been born in recent days to Rabbi Zvi Kogan, an Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary who was murdered in November in the United Arab Emirates.

Rivky Kogan gave birth to a baby girl five months after Kogan, who was working to expand Jewish life in Abu Dhabi, was murdered by three Uzbek terrorists, according to the COLlive website, which reports on the Chabad community.

Kogan’s body was found in late November in the Emirati city of Al Ain after he had been reported missing several days earlier.

Friends and colleagues of the 28-year-old rabbi spoke fondly of him as a selfless leader who lived to help others.

Last month, the three murder suspects were sentenced to death in an Abu Dhabi court.


Liel Leibovitz: Chuck Schumer, Palestinian
Review of 'Antisemitism in America' by Charles E. Schumer
Like those Palestinian crisis actors who one moment appear to us lying dead and bloody on a gurney only to rise the next moment and smile for the camera, Schumer understands that unreality is precisely the point. He is not interested in the reader fact-checking his claims and finding them wrong. Instead, in this book, he has given us a deathwork—a term coined by the American critic Philip Rieff to describe a work of art that borrows the sacred symbols of a culture only to subvert and destroy them. Just as James Joyce wanted, with his Finnegans Wake, to write a novel that would abolish the future possibility of writing novels, Schumer, with Antisemitism in America, has produced a political tractate that would abolish the future possibility of writing political tractates, giving us—to borrow a phrase from Rieff again—“fictions where once commanding truths were.”

You needn’t bother telling him, as he writes solemnly about the “wrenching scenes” of Jew-hatred at Columbia University, that he himself told the institution’s former president how only Republicans cared about anti-Semitism on campus and advised her to do nothing when she testified before the House of Representatives because only Republicans would be paying attention. He knows you know he did it. And he invites you to leave behind your petty attachments to empirically corroborated reality by offering instead a much more thrilling vision where nothing is true and everything is permitted.

“Chuck,” he writes to himself in internal monologue form, “if you focus mainly on the bad stuff, both in people and in groups, you will end up hating everything and everyone. You’ll be an unhappy person and it will be an unhappy world. The better thing you can do is look for the good in people and try to meet them there.” Except, of course, if you’re a Republican, or a Jewish student at Columbia, or anyone who points out how endemic anti-Semitism has become in the political party Chuck Schumer has been leading for the past four decades.

But now, at least, Chuck Schumer is doing his part. He has given us precisely what the subtitle of his book so grimly promises—a warning. Don’t think, he tells us with his signature side smile, that I and my left-leaning colleagues in Washington take any of this stuff seriously. Don’t delude yourself into believing that we’re keeping track of causes and effects. What we truly want is to use you Jews as yet another cudgel with which to gain yet more power to pursue precisely the policies that end up screwing you over even more.

You think free speech is good for you, giving you the liberty to address your haters? We want to curb it. You think having representation on both sides of the political aisle is healthier and more balanced? We want to make sure you’ll be forever trapped in one party only. You think unequivocally supporting Israel is a key part of your identity? We want to change that by telling you that you may support only the Israeli leaders, policies, and actions we deem acceptable and aligned with our interests. And we’ve got anti-Semitism to lean back on should you sadly decide to be disloyal.

We could’ve asked for no clearer, louder alarm bell. And we must be grateful to Chuck Schumer for so bravely giving us an unvarnished glimpse into his soul. It’s hard to imagine a more pressing warning. We must save ourselves. From Chuck Schumer.
David Collier: Vermont, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Mountains of Useful Idiots
All it takes is two days of digging to unravel an entire story.

Let me tell you the real story of Mohsen Mahdawi, the latest student to have been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the PR campaign he launched to publicize his detention and play an entire state of elected officials, turning many into fools, patsies, and mouthpieces to cover his terror-affiliated history.

The bottom line here is really scary. Mohsen has 17 years of university experience in total. Almost a decade of those 17 years were spent around US campuses – starting up anti-Israel groups and radicalising students. He does not appear to have a single degree to his name. If this man was either Chinese or Russian – and had spent a decade radicalising students on campus; if he also had a semi-fictional backstory, came from a family of terrorists, and had spent much of his life promoting extremist genocidal positions, there is not a politician in the US who would be seen anywhere near him. Red flags would be seen by all.

But he is not Chinese or Russian. Mohsen is a Palestinian – and for whatever reason that changes everything. Politicians, activists, NGOs and the media all become blind to an antisemitic genocidal fetish when it comes from the mouth of a Palestinian. It is almost as if their collective brains all just fall out. And this presents a real danger – not just for Jews – but for wider US society as well.

Making up a BS background
Mohsen may have learnt very early on the lesson that most Palestinians in the West come to learn: that he can claim anything – say anything – pretend he had personally experienced anything – and not a single person on the left would have the brains to question any of it.

Mohsen Mahdawi’s background story, as he tells it, is rough and makes you want to hug him instead of ask him questions. His mum left him when he was young. A sibling passed away. He saw his best friend shot and killed. Mohsen had to scale the wall to help his escape to the United States. He was shot himself as a child. There is even a story of 12-year-old Mohsen scraping seven bodies from walls. He narrowly escaped death several times.

Unless of course – most of it isn’t accurate.


Mahmoud Khalil Compares ICE Detention to 'Nazi Concentration Camps'
Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil is comparing his time in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility to Nazi concentration camps.

In an op-ed recently published by the Washington Post, Khalil said he was on a bunk bed in Jena, Louisiana, surrounded by 70 other men who were also in ICE custody.

He wrote:
I pick up my copy of Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” I feel ashamed to compare my conditions in ICE detention with Nazi concentration camps, yet, some aspects of Frankl’s experience resonate: not knowing what fate awaits me; seeing resignation and defeat in my fellow detainees.

I write this letter as the sun rises, hoping that the suspension of my rights will raise alarm bells that yours are already in jeopardy. I hope it will inspire your outrage that the most basic human instinct, to protest shameless massacre, is being repressed by obscure laws, racist propaganda and a state terrified of an awakened public.

In March, ICE officials arrested Khalil, a Palestinian activist and graduate of Columbia University who led radical protests on the campus, Breitbart News reported.

The outlet noted, “President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students who were fomenting anti-Israel and antisemitic protests on campus, which exploded under President Joe Biden in the wake of the October 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas in Israel.”


Kassy Akiva: After Canceling Passover Seder, Boston Hotel Welcomes Anti-Israel ‘Squad’ Member Rashida Tlaib
A Boston hotel owned by an infamous slumlord cancelled two Passover meals at the last minute. It hosted anti-Israel Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib instead.

The Iris Hotel Boston in Brookline — a Boston suburb with a large Jewish population — was supposed to host two Passover Seder meals on Saturday evening. But just two days before the dinners were set to take place, the hotel canceled, a source involved with coordinating the events told The Daily Wire.

The Seders had been referenced on a schedule for staff posted in the hotel, which was reviewed by The Daily Wire.

After canceling the events, the hotel hosted a private screening of a film about Palestinians with Tlaib, a member of the far-left “Squad.” A staff member at the hotel confirmed to The Daily Wire that Tlaib was at the hotel on Saturday night.

One of the hotel’s owners, Anwar Faisal, is a major Tlaib donor who has been criticized for renting “slums” to college students. Boston Magazine once claimed Faisal’s buildings had “as many rats under his roofs as undergraduates.”

Upon welcoming Tlaib, the Iris Hotel flew a Palestinian flag under an American flag on its flagpole, though the flag appears to have been mistakenly hung upside down.
Disturbed Frontman David Draiman Shares Message With Green Day After ‘Palestine’ Lyric
David Draiman, the Jewish frontman of the heavy metal band Disturbed and an avid supporter of Israel, made an “open offer” to Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong on social media this week, after the latter mentioned “Palestine” during his band’s recent performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Armstrong changed the lyrics of the band’s 2004 hit song “Jesus of Suburbia” during their set on Saturday at the music festival in Indio, California. Instead of singing, “runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimized,” the California native changed the lyrics to “runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine.”

In response, Draiman took to X and offered to have a conversation with Armstrong that showed a different perspective of the Israel-Hamas war.

“You know I respect you brother,” the “Sound of Silence” singer wrote Monday on X. “I’d love to have the opportunity for you to hear the Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war. I’m available to discuss whenever you are. No judgement, nothing preconceived. Let me know.”

Armstrong also changed the lyrics of “Jesus of Suburbia” to show support for “Palestine” in November 2024. In the song, Armstrong sings “From Anaheim to the Middle East,” but during Green Day’s performance at the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico, Armstrong changed the lyrics to “from Palestine to the Middle East.”

Armstrong has regularly been vocal about his support for “Palestine” and the Palestinians. During a Green Day concert in February in Malaysia, the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” singer draped a Palestinian flag on his shoulder. He has showcased Palestinian flags in other concerts as well and in the 2009 Green Day song “Peacemaker,” from their album “21st Century Breakdown,” Armstrong sings: “Well, call up the Gaza, hey, hey … Well, death to the ones at the end of the serenade.”
Columbia’s ‘antisemitism’ squad is coming down hard — on Catholics like me
Columbia University has told the Trump administration that it’s cracking down on antisemitic violence and intimidation and winding down DEI.

But behind closed doors, the university’s Office of Institutional Equity, a new bureaucracy supposedly set up to address campus antisemitism, is targeting me for expressing my Catholic faith.

I recently received an email from the OIE accusing me of “conduct that could constitute discriminatory harassment.”

The message included no details, and when I asked for clarification, OIE didn’t provide any.

But I’m familiar with how liberal institutions often operate, and I suspected that the matter concerned my public statements on social media.

I was right.

In a meeting this month with three OIE officials — who identified themselves as “investigators” — I was informed that I had been the subject of “multiple complaints.”

They insisted that their goal wasn’t to discipline me but to “make sure this doesn’t escalate into a disciplinary outcome.”

This process, they assured me, was “for my own benefit.”

How kind of them.

They then showed me screenshots of my social media posts, treating my public Catholic beliefs as if they were prohibited.

I smiled when I saw them.

I had nothing to regret.

One post read: “God does not teach us that we can change our gender.”

Another referenced a conversation with a Catholic friar in which I questioned his use of pronouns and challenged whether he believes in transgenderism.

In several posts, I celebrated how Republicans like Mike Pence and Nikki Haley supported bans on gender transition surgery for minors.
What It’s Like to Be a Non-Jewish, Zionist Student at the University of Minnesota
“The vast majority of Israelis are bad people,” claimed my pro-Palestinian classmate during a discussion a few weeks ago.

The discussion was about the legitimacy of Zionism — the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. According to my classmate’s repugnant belief, most Israelis are inherently bad people because they are both “settlers” and racists. Another one of my pro-Palestinian classmates subsequently chimed in, asserting that Jews don’t have the right to self-determination in the Land of Israel, and that Israel should never have been created.

While these are two fairly insignificant instances of hate perpetuated by pro-Palestinian activists, they are representative of the widespread bigotry and ignorance plaguing the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.

Although I’m not Jewish (I was raised as a Greek Orthodox Christian), I have always identified as a liberal Zionist. I’ve always believed that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. I’ve always believed that Israel’s right to exist is incontestable. Since the Palestinians have lived in the Land of Israel (which they call Palestine) for generations, I have always believed that Palestinians also have a right to live on the land. In my ideal world, the two peoples would figure out how to both overcome the trauma that they have experienced, and live in peace with one another. I don’t think any rational person would argue that these beliefs are radical or unreasonable.

Certainly, every activist advocating on behalf of Israel that I’ve encountered has understood and welcomed my views. The same can’t be said for the pro-Palestinian demonstrators that I’ve conversed with at the University of Minnesota.

Every time that I mention my Zionist convictions, pro-Palestinian activists become outraged. When pro-Palestinian demonstrators hear the word “Zionism,” many of them wrongly assume that it inherently equates to the oppression of Palestinians. When I remind pro-Palestinian activists that Zionism is simply the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in the Land of Israel, many of them never cease to tell me that I’m wrong.
US to vet social media accounts of visa applicants who visited Gaza after 2007
The Trump administration on Thursday ordered a social media vetting for all US visa applicants who have been to the Gaza Strip since January 1, 2007, an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters showed, in the latest push to tighten screening of foreign travelers.

The order to conduct a social media vetting for all immigrant and non-immigrant visas should include non-governmental organization workers as well as individuals who have been in the Hamas-ruled enclave for any length of time in an official or diplomatic capacity, the cable said.

“If the review of social media results uncovers potential derogatory information relating to security issues, then a SAO must be submitted,” the cable said, referring to a security advisory opinion, which is an interagency investigation to determine if a visa applicant poses a national security risk to the United States.

The cable was sent to all US diplomatic and consular posts.

The move comes as US President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked hundreds of visas across the country, including the status of some lawful permanent residents under a 1952 law allowing the deportation of any immigrant whose presence in the country the US secretary of state deems harmful to US foreign policy.

The cable, dated April 17, was signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in late March that he may have revoked more than 300 visas already.


Georgetown University Identifies Suspected Perpetrator of Antisemitic Graffiti
Georgetown University has identified the person suspected of graffitiing an antisemitic message in a residence hall, an incident that has caused alarm at an institution that was recently scrutinized over its student government’s scheduling a referendum on the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement to take place during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

“The Georgetown University Police Department has identified a suspect in this case and is investigating it as a bias incident and hate crime,” said a statement addressing the incident that was signed by four high-level university officials — excluding interim president Robert Groves. “We strongly condemn antisemitism in all its forms, and this act of hatred has no place in our community.”

It continued, “We stand together with our Jewish community. We recognize the effect that this deeply troubling incident has on our community, including the impacts on individual students and employees.”

The officials added that other incidents of vandalism have been perpetrated on campus in “recent days,” prompting investigations by the institution’s police department. They noted that political disagreement is causing students to devalue one another to the point that they are willing to commit “discriminatory actions” for which there is “never justification.” They encouraged students to refer to the university’s Speech and Expression Policy for guidance on how to engage in civil political expression.

On Thursday, Students Supporting Israel (SSI) Georgetown — a Jewish advocacy group that is fighting to normalize the pro-Israel movement on campus — implored the university to impose a disciplinary measure on the perpetrator of the graffiti that matches the severity of the offense.

“SSI Georgetown is deeply concerned by the antisemitic graffiti recently found on campus — an act of hate that threatens the safety and dignity of Jewish students,” the group said. “We call on the university to hold those responsible accountable and make clear that antisemitism has no place at Georgetown. SSI stands proudly with the Jewish community and all communities that are recipients of hate, and we remain committed to ensuring students can live and express their identity without fear.”

The antisemitic incident comes amid a moment of turbulence at Georgetown University.


How Canadian Universities Are Allowing Jewish Students to Be Doxxed and Harassed
With the rise of the digital age, an entirely new form of harassment and intimidation has emerged. Nameless accounts run by faceless adversaries comment on, post about, and attack others — their identities hidden behind a digital mask.

What’s worse than this anonymous harassment is the increasingly common practice of doxxing, where one’s personal information is released to the public in an effort to intimidate and silence them.

That’s the situation that pro-Israel Jewish Canadians have been facing for over a year — and it threatens free expression, academic integrity, and open discourse.

In the year and a half since October 7, 2023, this harassment has become a common practice on college campuses for students who dare to voice any support for Israel, or criticism of Palestinians or Hamas. My school, McGill University, is no different. Pro-Israel students, Hillel staff, and even McGill security guards have been followed, photographed, and videoed.

A prime example of this phenomenon is the Instagram account “Shart-Up Nation,” which regularly targets pro-Israel activists and the McGill administration by sharing photos and videos of Jewish students and professionals, and asking followers to find information about them so that they may release it to their 800+ followers.

Their feed and stories are flooded with vicious photos of McGill’s pro-Israel community accompanied by horrible insults, stating that “all Zionists look like this to a certain degree” and comparing Jewish students to an unflattering emoji.

Memes are drenched in antisemitic sentiments — such as one regarding a former hostage’s nose job paralleling the trope of a Jew with a large hooked nose, one suggesting Jews are constantly surveilling people (suspiciously close to the sentiments put forth in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), or even another suggesting that Jews “want to swim in the blood of dead Palestinians,” echoing the age-old blood libel.


California school district votes to renew ethnic studies contract with vendor accused of antisemitism
A yearslong debate in a California school district over ethnic studies education culminated on Wednesday night with a unanimous vote to renew a contract with a controversial consultant whose curriculum has sparked antisemitism allegations among local Jewish leaders.

The move has fueled concern by some of those leaders that the vote could potentially lay the groundwork for other school districts to follow suit.

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 7-0 in favor of returning to Community Responsive Education (CRE) as the vendor to provide consultation on teaching ethnic studies in the district, which is near Santa Cruz. “CRE has produced some frameworks that have [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel] in the curriculum, with no balance about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, told Jewish Insider.

Several local Jewish leaders pushed the district for months to secure a more inclusive ethnic studies training provider — and three of them gave public testimony at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Roz Shorenstein, a retired physician whose grandchildren are students in the district, was one of those advocates. She told JI that some of the board members used “classic antisemitic tropes” at the vote. This included an accusation that the Jewish community is not using their “privilege and power” to help underprivileged communities, according to video footage obtained by JI.
StandWithUs Condemns PVUSD contract with "Liberated" Ethnic Studies Consultant
StandWithUs condemns the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) board's decision to approve a $90,000 contract with Community Responsive Education (CRE) - a consultant that promotes "liberated" ethnic studies in K-12 schools. We are also deeply concerned that the district used a California Department of Education (CDE) anti-bias grant to pay for this contract, even though the purpose of these CDE grants included fighting antisemitism. While PVSUD insists that its curriculum is free of bigotry, multiple school board members fueled hostility towards the Jewish community during the debate over this ethnic studies contract.

"CDE grants that were meant to fight hatred against Jews should never be used to pay consultants who have promoted antisemitism, anti-Israel narratives, and other forms of bias," said Oleg Ivanov, Executive Director of StandWithUs Northern California. "PVUSD's promises about their curriculum are of little comfort, considering ​the ignorance displayed by multiple district leaders. We have received many reports of misinformation and hate being taught 'under the radar' in ethnic studies courses, and will use all tools at our disposal to prevent this from happening in PVUSD."

CRE is an official member and co-founder of the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies, a group that openly celebrated the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7th. The founder of CRE co-chaired the committee that wrote the first draft of California's Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), which was rejected by the State Board of Education (SBE), CDE, and Governor because it promoted bias and bigotry. She co-wrote an article, which says that "studying Israeli settler colonialism in comparison to US settler colonialism" is "at the heart of... Ethnic Studies." This dehumanizing narrative erases 3,000 years of the Jewish people’s history, identity, and connection to their ancestral home in Israel. CRE is also consulting for Jefferson Union High School District (JUHSD), whose ethnic studies course promotes that same bias and bigotry. According to the head of CRE, "schools are battlefields where war is waged."

PVUSD previously used an ethnic studies grant from the California state government to sign contracts with CRE in 2021 and 2022. A similar contract came up for a vote in 2023, but was rejected after PVUSD community members raised concerns about antisemitism. "Liberated" ethnic studies activists then launched a campaign demanding that the district ignore the Jewish community and continue paying CRE, which resulted in antisemitic harassment targeting a Jewish school board member. The district gave in partly due to the election of new board members who support "liberated" ethnic studies in November, 2024.


Five Students Arrested After Unruly Anti-Israel Protest at Berlin University
German police arrested five students who participated in an anti-Israel protest at Humboldt University in Berlin, where they chanted antisemitic slogans and vandalized school property.

The unruly demonstration came as authorities in Germany continued to work to address the growing surge in antisemitism and pro-Hamas activism across the country.

On Wednesday, a group of students took over several buildings at Humboldt University, a public research university in central Berlin, and staged a demonstration against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. They also called on the state government to halt the deportation of four Hamas sympathizers who participated in raucous anti-Israel protests and, according to German authorities, “pose a threat to public order.”

In the buildings, the students put up banners bearing slogans such as “You are complicit in genocide,” “There is only one state, Palestine 48,” and “Intifada until victory.”

They also defaced university property with banned slogans, including “Zionism is fascism” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which the German government prohibited last year for promoting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.


Posters denouncing antisemitism at Belgian university torn down
Posters denouncing hatred of Jews were torn down from the walls of the Université libre de Bruxelles (“Free University of Brussels”) campus on Wednesday, Belgian daily La Libre reports.

These acts were condemned by the Union of Jewish Students in Belgium (UEJB), which has launched a poster campaign to denounce antisemitism and the passivity of university authorities.

(There are two universities whose names mean the “Free University of Brussels” in English: the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel.)

The students’ campaign echoed another by the university, dating from March, in which the school said it wished to “fight against all forms of discrimination,” and reiterated this through posters featuring slogans such as “Ici, on sème la liberté” (“Here, we sow freedom”), “Ici, on cultiver la tolérance” (“Here, we cultivate tolerance”), and “Ici, on se remet en question, on doute, on débat, on nuance” (“Here, we question, we doubt, we debate, we nuance”).

Taking up the codes of the university’s posters, the Union of Jewish Students posters read “Ici, on exclut, on agresse, on insulte des Juifs” (“Here, Jews are excluded, attacked and insulted”) or “Ici, on traite les Juifs de sales sionistes” (“Here, Jews are called dirty Zionists”).

On its social networks, including Instagram, the Union of Jewish Students expressed dismay after its posters were removed.

“All the UEJB posters denouncing antisemitism have been torn down. As have all those which, since October 7, [2023], evoke—directly or indirectly—Judaism, Jews, memory or the fight against antisemitism.”


New York Times Reader Comments Shows a Global Readership Shifting Against Israel
In March 2022, the New York Times unveiled a global strategy that spoke of targeting “every curious, English-speaking person” and playing “an even bigger role in the lives of tens of millions of people around the world.” It didn’t speak of being a New York or American newspaper.

The paper was following through on an effort it announced in 2016 as “an ambitious plan to expand its international digital audience and increase revenue outside the United States.”

The Times reported then, “Just as The Times pushed beyond its local boundaries to become a national newspaper in the 1990s, the executives said in the memo that they now saw the “opportunity to become an indispensable leader in global news and opinion’ by expanding its presence outside the country’s borders.”

How far has the Times gotten toward achieving its objective of shifting its prototypical customer from a housewife in the Westchester County, New York, suburb of Scarsdale to some college professor in Berlin or bureaucrat in Brussels?

An indication is available in the reader comments on a Times news article headlined “Autopsies of Gaza Medics Killed by Israeli Troops Show Some Were Shot in the Head.”

Many of the Israel-bashing comments on the article come from readers based outside of the United States.

“There appears to be no law at all when it comes to Israel’s prosecution of war. No constraints. No real international pressure to try and contain these all too frequent violations,” writes a Times commenter identified as Richard Smith from Edinburgh, U.K. He called Israel’s behavior “sickening.”

Another Times commenter, Hélène Volat of Paris, writes, “each time I thought of having seen the worst, Israel surprises me.”

Another commenter, “Melan” from Berlin, writes to call for sanctions on Israel similar to those on Russia: “Freeze assets, ban travel, and block arms deals for officials behind the killings.”

A Times commenter Michelle from Montreal writes, “I will never buy anything made in Israel ever again.”


Syria and Lebanon Are Burdens for Europe, and Europe Must Take Responsibility
American endeavors are not succeeding. These hazardous vanity projects should be terminated.

Syria and Lebanon are not national security priorities. An ocean and seven-thousand miles separate the United States from the two countries. The US ability to influence lasting outcomes in both environments is limited. The US and Syria have never enjoyed warm relations. The de facto government in Damascus with Islamist origins is not an improvement. How many more times must a US envoy visit Beirut to defuse an Israeli-Hezbollah escalation? The faces in Beirut change but the absence of accountability and agency endure.

The ISIS ideology is not disappearing because of American troops. It requires a regional solution. The United States cannot disarm Hezbollah. It requires the action of the Lebanese state and the support of the people. All the US tax dollars in the world cannot make the LAF an effective fighting force unless Lebanese society undergoes a profound and prolonged national revitalization.

The burden of monitoring and engaging Syria and Lebanon needs to shift to Europe. The reasons are obvious. Europe’s close proximity and recent history makes it sensitive to developments in the Lebanese and Syrian milieus.

Europe is the obvious destination for most Lebanese and Syrian refugees if their environments deteriorate. They will seek to join sizable expat communities that reside in Germany, France, and elsewhere. Given the problems created by sudden influxes of refugees in the past, it is critical for Europe to prevent a recurrence.

Effectively addressing the ISIS phenomenon is an utmost European security priority. ISIS targeted Europe multiple times. A significant number of European nationals languish in the US-funded ISIS detainment camps. Europe can ill afford an ISIS resurgence.

France’s historic relationship with Lebanon and role in monitoring the Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire make it a logical partner in facilitating stability in Lebanon. Unlike the US, it speaks with Hezbollah members.

It is long overdue for the US involvement and attention to Syria and Lebanon to be dramatically reduced. The two countries are European priorities. The burdens of monitoring and engaging Syria and Lebanon must shift to Europe.


Pakistani authorities arrest over 170 for anti-US, anti-Israel attacks on KFC stores
Police have arrested scores of people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 mob attacks on outlets of US fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-United States sentiment and opposition to its ally Israel’s war in Gaza, officials said.

Police in major cities in the Islamic nation, including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalized. At least 178 people were arrested, the officials said this week.

KFC and its parent company, Yum Brands YUM.N, both US-based, did not respond to requests for comment.

A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one KFC employee was shot and killed this week in a store on the outskirts of Lahore by unknown gunmen. The official added that there was no protest at the time and that they were investigating whether the killing was motivated by political sentiment.

In Lahore, police said they were ramping up security at 27 KFC outlets around the city after two attacks, while five others were prevented.

“We are investigating the role of different individuals and groups in these attacks,” said Faisal Kamran, a senior Lahore police officer, adding that 11 people, including a member of the Islamist religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), were arrested in the city. He added that the protests were not officially organized by TLP.
Hezbollah ‘will not let anyone disarm it,’ vows leader Naim Qassem
Hezbollah “will not let anyone disarm” it, the Lebanese group’s leader Naim Qassem said Friday, as Washington presses Beirut to compel the Iran-backed movement to hand over its weapons, and as Israel continues to strike operatives in southern Lebanon on a near-daily basis.

“We will not let anyone disarm Hezbollah or disarm the resistance” against Israel, Qassem said in remarks on a Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel. “We must cut this idea of disarmament from the dictionary.”

Qassem said his group was ready for dialogue on a “defence strategy,” “but not under the pressure of occupation” by Israel.

“Israel must withdraw (from south Lebanon) and cease its aggression, and the Lebanese state must begin the process of reconstruction,” he added.

His comments came hours after another Hezbollah official said the group refused to discuss handing over its weapons unless Israel withdrew completely from south Lebanon and halted its “aggression.”

“It is not a question of disarming,” Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Nur radio station. “What the president said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy.”

In his inauguration in January, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun vowed to assert the state’s monopoly on weapons. He has made similar comments last week, asserting that “2025 will be the year in which the Lebanese state alone holds weapons.”

Safa, said by experts to belong to the movement’s most radical faction, said Hezbollah has conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought “to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state” alone.
Libya Gave Up Its Nuclear Aspirations Completely. Can Iran Be Induced to Do the Same?
In 2003, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, spooked by the American display of might in Iraq, decided to destroy or surrender his entire nuclear program. Informed observers have suggested that the deal he made with the U.S. should serve as a model for any agreement with Iran. Robert Joseph provides some useful background:
Gaddafi had convinced himself that Libya would be next on the U.S. target list after Iraq. There was no reason or need to threaten Libya with bombing as Gaddafi was quick to tell almost every visitor that he did not want to be Saddam Hussein. The images of Saddam being pulled from his spider hole . . . played on his mind.

President Bush’s goal was to have Libya serve as an alternative model to Iraq. Instead of war, proliferators would give up their nuclear programs in exchange for relief from economic and political sanctions.

Any outcome that permits Iran to enrich uranium at any level will fail the one standard that President Trump has established: Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Limiting enrichment even to low levels will allow Iran to break out of the agreement at any time, no matter what the agreement says.

Iran is not a normal government that observes the rules of international behavior or fair “dealmaking.” This is a regime that relies on regional terror and brutal repression of its citizens to stay in power. It has a long history of using negotiations to expand its nuclear program. Its negotiating tactics are clear: extend the negotiations as long as possible and meet any concession with more demands.


The Devil Take Him
The play, which takes place in real time, is set in the sitting room of Dahl’s home, Gipsy House, in Buckinghamshire, on a day of sultry English summer heat. The place is being renovated under the aegis of Dahl’s new wife to be, Felicity Crosland. He has just divorced the Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, who had had a stroke at 39 and through which he nursed her by showing her “tough love”—which Neal later said had simply been sheer vicious brutality.

Dahl is checking Quentin Blake’s illustrations for his new book The Witches. Visiting him in a state of some concern following the Literary Review piece is Tom Maschler, head of Dahl’s British publisher, Jonathan Cape. He was a real person, a Jew who had left Vienna with his parents for the UK following the Anschluss in 1938. With him is Jessie Stone, a fictionalized representative of Dahl’s American publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Robert Gottlieb, the editor who was then running Knopf, had just let Dahl go. He later told Dahl’s biographer that Dahl had been “unmatched in my experience for overbearingness and utter lack of civility.” Stone is young, female, and also Jewish. Maschler and Stone are there to try in various ways to persuade Dahl to make some kind of apology.

The title alludes ironically to Dahl’s book The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), and of course Dahl was (and is) a very big money-spinner for his publishers everywhere. (In September 2021, Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company for something over $500 million.)

Much has been said of the play’s “evenhandedness.” Its author and director seem proud of this, but they are being delicately disingenuous. The play, according to Rosenblatt, asks, “At what point does criticism of Israel become antisemitic?” But he defines no “point,” and hence there is no direct answer. Since it is at pains to avoid the clunkiness of “polemical messaging,” Giant instead gradually but unambiguously reveals the depth of Dahl’s vile prejudice and thereby undermines the legitimacy of his criticism of Israel.

The poison is administered with plenty of sugar, but by Giant’s end, it is hard not to feel ashamed of the pleasure one initially takes in Dahl’s cleverness and wit (just as many people find it difficult to stomach Dahl’s unforgettable writing for children given the nature of his embrace of the world’s oldest hatred). Still, in the end, it is to the credit of Mark Rosenblatt and his provocative play—especially at this moment—that there is no avoiding the giant’s monstrosity.
Mural Honoring Holocaust Survivors in Milan Gets Vandalized Again With Swastikas, ‘Nazi’ Messages
Another mural in Milan celebrating Holocaust survivors by Italian contemporary pop artist AleXsandro Palombo has been targeted in an antisemitic attack, this time being vandalized with a swastika and Nazi-related messages.

The mural features real-life Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck as characters from “The Simpsons.” Above their heads, vandals spray painted in black the message “Israeliani Nazis,” which is Italian for “Israeli Nazis.” Vandals also defaced the mural by spray painting a Star of David and equating it with a Nazi swastika. The mural additionally depicts Pope Francis holding a sign that says, “Antisemitism is everywhere.” His face was spray painted over and the words on his sign were defaced as well.

The vandalism took place shortly after a national pro-Palestinian demonstration in Milan.

“In Milan, people protest the war in Gaza with vandalism throughout the city, shouting every possible antisemitic insult and even defacing a pop artwork that honors three of the last great Holocaust witnesses and symbols of peace,” commented Palombo after the latest vandalism of his artwork. Several of his murals depicting Holocaust survivors have been repeatedly vandalized in antisemitic attacks, some even completely painted over.

The latest vandalism took place days after the April 7 inauguration of another of Palombo’s murals, “The Star of David,” which features Bruck. The original mural was vandalized in January in another act of antisemitism but was recently restored and has now been acquired for the permanent collection of the Shoah Museum in Rome. It is displayed alongside “Anti-Semitism, History Repeating” — another mural by Palombo featuring Segre and Modiano, that was also vandalized last year and acquired by the museum in January. Both artworks are now exhibited in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto, in front of a synagogue and the archaeological site of the ancient Portico of Octavia, built under Emperor Augustus.
Palestinian sentenced to jail in Germany after assaulting Munich massacre victim's relative
A German court on Thursday sentenced a Palestinian student, identified as Mustafa A., to three years in prison for the antisemitic assault of Lahav Shapira, the grandson of Amitzur Shapira—one of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The attack took place late at night in early February 2024 in Berlin and was found by the court to have been motivated by antisemitism. Mustafa punched Lahav Shapira and kicked him while he was lying on the ground. As a result, Shapira suffered severe facial fractures, a brain hemorrhage, and significant eye damage. He underwent several surgeries and was unable to eat solid food for a month.

The two had known each other from a teacher-training program, where Shapira managed an internal WhatsApp group. Shapira claimed that he had removed dozens of group members for posting antisemitic content and had asked students to avoid sharing such material. Mustafa argued that Shapira had treated him unfairly.

The physical altercation occurred outside a bar, where Mustafa accused Shapira of tearing down pro-Palestinian posters. Shapira responded that the posters included slogans calling for Israel’s destruction and referred to the October 7 massacre by Hamas as a “freedom operation.” Mustafa later claimed in court that he had lost control in an emotional outburst, denying any political or antisemitic intent.

However, video evidence contradicted that claim. A video found on Mustafa’s phone the day after the attack showed a friend saying, “Mosti beat the shit out of that Jewish son of a bitch,” a statement the court considered key in determining the antisemitic nature of the crime.

Mustafa’s lawyer said his client expressed remorse, had previously attempted suicide, and had since dropped out of his studies. A preliminary compensation payment of €5,500 was offered to the prosecution but was rejected. The judges questioned the sincerity of Mustafa’s remorse, noting that his official statement included hobbies such as reading and football—but failed to mention his training in kickboxing.

During the trial, Shapira testified that the university campus had become increasingly hostile toward him following the October 7 attacks, with flyers labeling him a “Zionist” and “devil.” He said he now moves around campus with a bodyguard and has faced harassment due to his activism against antisemitism.


Court Denies Antisemitic Harassment Order, Affirming Free Speech in Online Advocacy
On April 10, 2025, a Washington State King County Superior court denied a civil protection order sought against Ari Hoffman, a local media personality and community advocate, ruling that his actions were constitutionally protected free speech.

The case stemmed from a series of events in late September 2024, when attorney Diala Abed-Rabbo attended an anti-Israel music festival in Seattle’s Seward Park, where the musician Macklemore infamously yelled “F*** America.” Following the event, she posted on the neighborhood platform Nextdoor: “Dear Zionists at [location]: We had an amazing festival today in community for a free Palestine. I hope you feel good about wasting your money on private security. We do not care about you or your stuff. That’s your thing – stealing things that aren’t yours – not ours.”

She included a photo of the home flying an Israeli and American flag and mentioned its cross-streets. The post was limited to her neighborhood’s verified users, making it viewable only by those living nearby. Later that evening, the Israel flag was stolen from the Jewish family’s flagpole.

The Jewish community in the area reacted with concern. Ari Hoffman, a local media personality, reposted the image and commentary on his public social media accounts, describing it as “doxxing.” He also posted screenshots from Abed-Rabbo’s public Facebook and LinkedIn pages, contacted her employer (Mastercard), and filed a complaint with the Washington State Bar Association. In response, Abed-Rabbo filed for a civil protection order, claiming Hoffman’s actions amounted to harassment, doxxing, defamation, and caused her emotional distress.

The court held that Ms. Abed-Rabbo’s post on Nextdoor was “done ‘especially as a way of getting revenge.’ Here, Ms. Abed-Rabbo refers to her neighbors as Zionists and further states ‘We do not care about you or your stuff. That’s your thing—stealing things that aren’t yours—not ours.’ In the context of the events in September 2024 the Court finds that this was intended to incite a response and reaction and criticize and condemn her neighbors. Thus, on its apparent definition of doxxing, the Court finds that Ms. Abed-Rabbo did dox and Mr. Hoffman was not creating or posting false statements.” [King County Superior Court Denial Order]
X says Kanye West’s Hitler ‘GOAT’ post did not break safety rules
X has said a post by Kanye West showing a photograph of Adolf Hitler alongside the GOAT emoji does not violate its safety policies, despite widespread backlash and accusations of antisemitism.

The post, shared last week on West’s official account, featured a black-and-white portrait of Hitler with the emoji commonly used to mean “Greatest of All Time”. It was viewed more than 1.7 million times and sparked renewed outrage over the rapper’s history of inflammatory statements.

In a statement to the Jewish News, X said, “After reviewing the available information, we want to let you know Kanye West hasn’t broken our safety policies.”

The platform’s rules prohibit content that threatens or promotes violence, encourages harassment, or targets people based on protected characteristics, including religion.

West, who now goes by “Ye”, was previously banned from the platform in 2022 after praising Hitler in interviews. His account was reinstated in 2023 following a shift in moderation policies under Elon Musk.

The post has since been deleted by West.
Former child star breaks his silence after hurling antisemitic slurs at cops during shocking drug arrest
Former child star Haley Joel Osment is apologizing for using antisemitic slurs when cops arrested him for public intoxication earlier this month.

Osment, 37, exclusively told The Post on Thursday, “I’m absolutely horrified by my behavior. Had I known I used this disgraceful language in the throes of a blackout, I would have spoken up sooner.”

“The Sixth Sense” star continued, “The past few months of loss and displacement have broken me down to a very low emotional place.”

The actor recently lost his home in the Altadena wildfire in January, during the Los Angeles wildfires that devastated the area and claimed the homes of other celebs like Joshua Jackson and Billy Crystal.

Sources told TMZ that the “Secondhand Lions” actor had “been going through it recently,” as he lost “everything” in the Altadena wildfire and has since had difficulty with his insurance. After recently finding a “replacement” home, Osment learned his insurer denied his claim, the outlet said.

Osment continued in his statement to The Post, “But that’s no excuse for using this disgusting word. From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to absolutely everyone that this hurts. What came out of my mouth was nonsensical garbage – I’ve let the Jewish community down and it devastates me.”

He concluded: “I don’t ask for anyone’s forgiveness, but I promise to atone for my terrible mistake.”

On April 8, Osment was arrested for public intoxication and possession of a controlled substance at a California ski resort.

He was taken into police custody in Mammoth Lakes, California, after law enforcement received a call shortly before 2 p.m. that day, for an allegedly intoxicated person at Mammoth Mountain resort.

In bodycam footage of his arrest, which The Post obtained on Thursday, Osment called a police officer an antisemitic slur and a “Nazi.”


Reason to Believe
The title of Ross Douthat’s new book, Believe, is a verb in command form referring to God. Yet the ambition of the author is hardly on par with that of a revivalist preacher or a biblical prophet warning of God’s coming justice. Rather than a command, Douthat offers an invitation—to set aside the modern secular prism through which most of our assessment of contemporary morals, manners, and politics refracts and to reopen our eyes to the possibility of reasonable belief that God created our world and ourselves, has intervened in it from time to time in the past, may be doing so now, and may again.

Discourse that isn’t avowedly religious these days is instead thoroughly secular. Douthat, a believer and a columnist for the New York Times whose work often takes up religious matters, is the exception who proves the rule. I wouldn’t proffer the claim that no one else at the Times believes in God. But if they do, they certainly don’t let it affect their work. The world the journalists describe is one of natural causes exclusively, straight back to the Big Bang or some other “forever.” They believe human existence itself, including the thoughts we harbor and the actions we choose to take, emerges from an evolutionary process that began with life far less than human. History is one thing after another, perhaps bending toward progress, but certainly not providential. The Times will report as needed on opinions human beings have about supernatural or God matters—the fact that people believe. But the truth or falsity of any such belief is a nullity with regard to explaining how the world works.

For example, as Mark Lilla remarks in a discussion of modern religious revivalism in his recent book Ignorance and Bliss, “A national poll in 2012 revealed that well over half of all Americans believe in the possibility of demonic possession.” He notes, “The exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis told a journalist in 2018 that he had received seventeen hundred phone or email requests for exorcisms in that year alone.” He adds: “Which is madness.” I have little doubt Lilla is mostly correct in his judgment. But entirely? It falls to Douthat to inquire whether one reason the numbers are rising is that demonic possession is real. He holds that possibility open—and even cites the profusion of such beliefs and cases in a supposedly secular age as evidence that we are missing something. That something would be the ongoing “enchantment” of a world supposedly “disenchanted,” that is, done with God and the supernatural.
The practising Jew who’ll be singing for Muslim Azerbaijan at Eurovision
Jewish history in Azerbaijan stretches back over two millennia, with communities first arriving and settling in the region in the 5th century BCE when much of the Caucasus was controlled by the Persian Empire.

When he is not practising with Mamagama (the band rehearses several times a week), he teaches guitar and vocals to children at the local Jewish music school. He also practises his Judaism.

“I do tefillin every day and go to the synagogue,” he says, adding that he went to a yeshivah as a teenager. “So, I am truly living in Judaism. My mother is a Jew, my father is a Jew, my grandpas and grandmas are Jewish.”

The singer says he feels safe as a Jewish person living in Azerbaijan. “No matter what your religion or nationality, everyone lives here in peace and love. Azerbaijan is one of these places where you can be Jewish,” says Mishiyev.

“And feel no harassment about it,” Heydar adds. “You can live freely as a Jew here.”

For Mishiyev, it means keeping the Jewish holidays as well as the Azerbaijani ones. “My Azerbaijani friends come to me for my Jewish holidays, and I come to my friends for the Azerbaijani holidays.”

Mishiyev cites Jewish singer-songwriters Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse and Asaf Avidan as musical inspirations, as well as Elvis Presley, John Martyn and Nick Drake.

But in Mamagama’s music you will hear a mix of Azerbaijani traditional sounds mixed in with modern indie-rock and alternative pop.


The Unexpected Guest at a Painted Passover in Jerusalem
Reuven Rubin’s 1950 painting “First Seder in Jerusalem” at first glance seems like a simple but moving representation of a diverse group of Jews at a Passover table. There are secular-looking kibbutzniks, a Hasidic rabbi, two IDF-uniform wearing soldiers, immigrants from Africa, and a young Haredi boy with sidelocks. But at second glance, one notices what makes the assembled group really diverse. Seated to the left, with his palms turned upwards, is, yes, Jesus.

Rubin, né Zelicovici, was born in Romania in 1893, and would later serve as the nascent Jewish state’s first ambassador there. As a child, he demonstrated a precocious artistic ability and at age eighteen the local Zionist leader Dr. Adolf Stander sponsored his studies at the Bezalel school of art in Jerusalem. But, upset at being assigned to an ivory carving workshop, Rubin dropped out and continued his artistic studies in France before returning to Romania. In 1923, he returned to Mandatory Palestine where, five years later, returning from one of his art shows in New York, he met his wife Esther, a young woman from the Bronx who had won a free trip to Palestine in a Young Judea competition.

Two years after Israel’s founding, Rubin painted “First Seder in Jerusalem,” inspired by the hope and potential of the developing Promised Land. It is steeped in symbolism. Jerusalem’s Old City walls can be seen through the windows. The white-haired figure embracing his son on the right is the artist himself. Behind him stands Esther, pouring some wine. And as even lay art historians might notice, the figures are positioned to mirror Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” That famous image depicts Jesus with his disciples, the evening before his execution by the Romans.

As Tsvi Sadan writes in “Flesh of Our Flesh: Jesus of Nazareth in Zionist Thought,” the revival of the modern Jewish state negated nearly two millennia of Christian thinking that the Jews had been supplanted on the stage of history. Rubin is therefore purposely playing off of the most famous rendering of Jesus’s Paschal meal. As the art historian Gabriel Goldstein has suggested, “the inclusion of the resurrected Jesus is to remind the world that the Jewish people also suffered and died but yet rose again to life in their own land. Rubin’s title stands in contrast to da Vinci’s – this is a first Seder not a last supper.”


Harry Truman’s Seder Message
Alluding to the horrors of the Holocaust and millennia of prior persecution, Truman expressed admiration for not only Jewish resilience but for the support Jews have given to others experiencing discrimination:
Having suffered persecution for centuries, the Jewish people steadfastly adhered to their ancient faith—the faith which gave them courage and fortitude to withstand man’s inhumanity to man. Furthermore, the Jews were frequently in the vanguard of the fight to aid other oppressed minorities.

Truman then turned to Hitler and his hateful dehumanization of the Jews. Hitler, Truman said, sought their destruction as a means to “pave the way for his plans for world domination.” Yet, he added, Hitler did not “reckon with the courage and endurance of a race hardened by centuries of oppression, and strengthened by a firm faith that ultimately another Moses must come to lead them out of their modern bondage and into the Promised Land.”

Identifying the American worldview with the desert aspirations of the liberated ancient Hebrews, Truman expressed the collective seeking of a “Promised Land, where intolerance and bigotry do not exist.” In such an era, there would be “peace and security, where all good people can dwell together in harmony as brothers.” This, Truman argued, could only be achieved by proper planning to counter ignorance and the intolerant.

Perhaps alluding to the Passover Seder’s emphasis on education from generation to generation, Truman emphasized that the “general education” that would be needed in a post-Hitler world would be a “long and endless process.” The journey, like that arduous march out of Egypt, would require those of good will to “work together for the promotion of racial and religious harmony among all people, so that we may ultimately achieve the Promised Land on this earth which our Creator surely expects.”

Truman then concluded with another call for all Americans to appreciate their blessings on this day, and to pray for lasting peace.

According to the Truman Library Institute, among those who heard the speech were two Jewish American soldiers stationed in Dahn, Germany. Chaplain (Maj.) Eli Bohnen was a rabbi serving with the U.S. Army’s 42nd Infantry Division. Cpl. Eli Heimberg was his assistant. That night, they would lead their division in the recitation of the Passover service using a Haggadah the two had designed especially for the occasion. Their prayer book is believed to be the first printing of a Jewish liturgical text in Germany since the Nazis rose to power in 1933.

The Passover story, described by Vice President Truman and recited that evening by Bohnen and Heimberg’s troops, continues to serve as the prism through which Americans may envision fulfillment of their nation’s promise. Its tale of miraculous liberation and the divinely inspired aspiration for the moral betterment of mankind serves, ever still, as a source of faith for those seeking freedom for the benefit of all.
Huckabee to JNS: America ‘benefits a great deal from Israel’
Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived at the Western Wall on Friday morning during the Passover holiday, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to insert a handwritten note from President Donald Trump between the stones of the ancient Jewish edifice.

It was the ambassador’s first action, less than 24 hours after arriving to take up his post, and even before he presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Huckabee, speaking to a group of reporters, told JNS that “Israel is an incredibly important ally to us, and … the United States and its citizens are directly the beneficiaries of some of the extraordinary achievements and accomplishments and innovations of the people here in Israel.

“People sometimes only think that Israel benefits from the United States,” he explained. “The truth is the United States benefits a great deal from Israel, and not just militarily. We certainly benefit from the technology, from the innovation, from defense systems that were developed here, but there’s a much more important and long-lasting side where Americans benefit in agriculture, technology, medical advancement.

“It is not a one-way street,” Huckabee told JNS.

“The relationship between the United States and Israel is not ceremonial. It’s deep. It’s rooted in our love of democracy and our love of the Judeo-Christian understanding that every life has worth and value,” he said.

Asked about demands on Israel to resume aid in Gaza amid a now 18-month war in the Strip, Huckabee did not press Israel, saying that Hamas “brought this upon themselves.”




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

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