07/17 Links Pt2: Jews are routinely being attacked in the streets of New York City; “Intersectionality” has become “a toxic mixture of racial and identity politics where anti-Zionism is the unifying feature” ~ EoZ

From Ian:

According to the New York City Police Department, the city has seen nineteen violent anti-Semitic attacks in the first half of this year and 33 in 2018, compared with only seventeen in the previous year. There is reason to believe many more unreported incidents have taken place. Overwhelmingly, the victims are Orthodox Jews in the ḥasidic Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Williamsburg. Armin Rosen, examining this phenomenon, notes that no discernible pattern can be identified among the perpetrators, who have no links to anti-Israel groups, Islamists, the alt-right, or any known anti-Semitic ideology:

One popular explanation both within and beyond the affected communities is that Jews are being blamed for gentrification. . . But if rising housing prices really are causing the anti-Semitism surge, then it means New York’s harassers and attackers are little different from Jew-haters of centuries past, who have always blamed their Jewish neighbors for whatever the current evils happen to be—whether it’s bubonic plague or the arrival of wealthy newcomers. Nor is there a public record showing dozens of random attacks against gentrifying white hipsters in the same neighborhoods. . . .

Another explanation for the spike is that there is no spike: Orthodox Jews have always been attacked and harassed in New York. The perception of a rise in anti-Semitism may therefore be a function of heightened vigilance and reporting, social media, and omnipresent security cameras in Jewish neighborhoods.

Whatever the explanation, Rosen continues, the official response has been lackluster:

There is scant evidence that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration or local politicians have made stopping physical attacks on Jews in New York City a priority. After [he was nearly strangled to death outside of his synagogue in Crown Heights in 2018], recalls Menachem Moskowitz, “not one politician came to me to find out what happened or comforted me.”

“Intersectionality” has become “a toxic mixture of racial and identity politics where anti-Zionism is the unifying feature”

On July 15, 2019, I spoke at the Department of Justice Summit on Combatting Anti-Semitism, on a panel regarding Anti-Semitism on Campus. My presentation was on “Intersectionality.”

Attorney General William Barr, in his opening statement to the Summit, specifically noted the importance of intersectional anti-Semitism:
Another panel will focus on the problem of anti-Semitism on campus. On college campuses today, Jewish students who support Israel are frequently targeted for harassment, Jewish student organizations are marginalized, and progressive Jewish students are told they must denounce their beliefs and their heritage in order be part of “intersectional” causes. We must ensure – for the future of our country and our society – that college campuses remain open to ideological diversity and respectful of people of all faiths.”

The politics of ethnic & racial identity & grievance are both poisonous. pic.twitter.com/kBftbHWAkW
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 16, 2019

Don’t Compare the Situation on the Border to the Holocaust

As the number of U.S.-bound migrants from Central America continues to overwhelm the ICE officials tasked with detaining them, many Americans — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — have invoked the Holocaust. They’ve described holding facilities as “concentration camps,” used “never again” as a cry of protest against them, and even juxtaposed pictures of the top Nazi brass at a concentration camp with a photo of Mike Pence visiting a migrant detention center. A new organization, “Never Again Action,” has formed to protest the treatment of migrants in American detention facilities, with many across the country getting themselves arrested for illegally protesting outside ICE buildings.

As with most emotionally charged issues, the most vocal tend to be the most radical. There will never be an organization formed, or a mass movement generated, to politely object to the use of a phrase. But I object. The abuse of the phrases “concentration camp” and “never again” are deeply inappropriate, revealing an ignorance of history, the deleterious effects of concept creep on our discourse, and a total lack of argumentative restraint. This toxic mix shamefully belittles the horrors of the Holocaust and amounts to a slander against American border agents facing an impossible situation.

Start with the “concentration camp” charge. Yes, all Americans should agree that conditions for migrants, particularly those seeking asylum at the border, are unacceptable by the high standard to which we hold our country. At least seven children have died in ICE custody this year, and there are credible allegations of sub-standard medical care.

But the term “concentration camps” connotes something far worse, especially when it comes amid a slew of Holocaust analogies. Using it downplays what people such as my grandfather, Moshe, dealt with. Here is an excerpt from a letter he and his brother wrote to American relatives in 1946 from a displaced-person camp in Paris, describing the wartime fates of their immediate family members:

The Jews from [Lukov Ghetto] were the first to be destroyed. Among them was our Bobbe [grandmother] Hena, and Faiga with her child. They had been killed and burned in the well-known concentration camp Treblinka. In November 1942, it was our ghetto’s turn. They expelled us in cattle cars to Auschwitz. There they took away our parents and our only sister Hinda to the gas chamber and burned them. My brother and I were sent to a concentration camp. What happened to us from the years 1942–1945 in the concentration camp of Buchenwald-Auschwitz can only be described in a separate book.

Woke assimilation: Teaching our politicians to hate America

Omar doesn’t represent a majority-minority district. She started her elected career, as The Washington Post puts it, by getting to know “older peace-and-justice hippies.”

She attended Black Lives Matter protests and established relationships with all the left-wing groups in Minneapolis.

Most of these people wouldn’t object to, indeed would welcome and expect, her adversarial posture toward the country where she gained more notoriety and power than the vast majority of the native-born.

Her narrative is the narrative of American malignancy. The Washington Post wrote of her ambush of Trump official Elliott Abrams at a hearing: “For decades people like her had been on the receiving end of US foreign policy. Such people typically get ‘beaten into submission,’ she said. Now, Omar was the one delivering the beating.”

Her default is to blame America first. She explained that local Somali Americans attempted to join the Islamic State as a function of “systemic alienation.” She contends that she has met American veterans “who say the most horrendous things, who have complete disregard for life.” And she has accused her congressional colleagues of singling her out for demonization.

Anyone who thinks these attitudes are alien to the United States has never been to a modern college campus or watched MSNBC.

In short, whatever foolhardy things Trump may tweet, Ilhan Omar is not suited to return and fix Somalia — rather to join a segment of the American elite.

‘ANARCHY’: GOP Releases Brutal New Campaign Ad Against ‘The Squad’

The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a brutal new campaign ad on Tuesday against the four far-left congresswomen who many say are driving the agenda of the Democratic Party.

The video starts by showing socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) engaging in Holocaust trivialization by falsely claiming that immigrant detention facilities are "concentration camps" — a remark that was condemned by multiple Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors.

The video goes on to show Saturday's domestic terrorist attack on an ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington, where the attacker allegedly wrote multiple times in his manifesto about the "concentration camps."

Ocasio-Cortez's radical left-wing agenda is highlighted in the video, including her calling for the elimination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is also featured in the ad, specifically remarks that she made earlier this month outside a Texas border facility where she said, "You will see the light. And if you don't, we will bring the fire.”

The ad also shows far-left protesters in Aurora, Colorado, tearing down the American flag and raising up a Mexican flag over an ICE facility.

The video concludes by showing Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Pressley, and Ocasio-Cortez all on camera refusing to condemn the terrorist attack.

Omar: I ‘Do Not’ Regret Past Anti-Semitic Comments

Omar appeared on CBS This Morning alongside three other female progressive Democrats known as the "squad," where she was asked to address her previous anti-Semitic remarks that have received backlash from Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress.

"Often times there are things that you might say might not hold weight for you, but to someone else, the way that we hear and consume information is very different than how the next person might," Omar said.

"So you don't regret your words either?" co-host Gayle King asked.

"I do not, but I have gotten the — I'm grateful for the opportunity to really learn how my words made people feel and have taken every single opportunity I've gotten to make sure that people understood that I apologize for it," Omar said.

King followed up by asking whether Omar would like to make it clear she isn't anti-Semitic.

"Oh certainly not," Omar said.

"Would you like to make that clear?" King asked again.

"Yes, nothing I said, at least to me, was meant for that purpose," Omar said.

Omar to introduce pro-BDS resolution in House

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said that she plans to introduce a resolution this week in support of the anti-Israel BDS movement, reported Al-Monitor on Tuesday.

“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our first amendment rights in regard to boycotting,” the congresswoman told the outlet. “And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement.”

Since entering Congress in January, Omar has made multiple anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks.

In February, she accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobbying organization, of paying members of Congress to back Israel, saying it was “all about the Benjamins.”

The following month, she pointed fingers at her “Jewish colleagues” for attacking her and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for labeling their criticisms as anti-Israel because of the Muslim faith of the two congresswomen, in addition to slamming her critics regarding “the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” (h/t IsaacStorm)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tells me she's traveling to Israel and Palestine "in a few weeks" and looks forward to learning more, specifically about occupation. "Everything that I hear points to both sides feeling like there is still an occupation.”
— Laura Kelly (@HelloLauraKelly) July 17, 2019

Ilhan Omar invokes boycott of Nazi Germany in resolution supporting Israel boycotts

Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced a resolution in support of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement saying it was in a long tradition of U.S. boycotts.

"Americans of conscience have a proud history of participating in boycotts to advocate for human rights abroad including ... boycotting Nazi Germany from March 1933 to October 1941 in response to the dehumanization of the Jewish people in the lead-up to the Holocaust," Omar said in the resolution introduced Tuesday.

The 1930s boycott by the U.S. Jews of German goods came during the lead up to Holocaust starting in part with Germans boycotting Jewish businesses.

In the resolution and also in a committee hearing, Omar also compared the BDS movement to the Boston Tea Party.

Omar announced her resolution Tuesday in an interview with Al-Monitor.

“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our first amendment rights in regard to boycotting,” the Minnesota Democrat. “And it is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement.”

Omar said she plans on introducing the BDS resolution this week around the same time House Democratic leaders plan on voting on a resolution condemning the movement.

During her election campaign, she claimed "not helpful in getting that two-state solution" before changing her position days after winning a House seat.

Apparently we can analogize acts by Israel to this glorious list - to quote a Jew, out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. pic.twitter.com/ZVUZ7Fjtc6
— BV (@vt2tamu) July 17, 2019

Nancy Pelosi at AIPAC: “We must also vigilant against bigoted or dangerous ideologies masquerading as policy and that includes BDS ... it does not recognize the right of Jewish people to national self-determination"”

“I simply declare to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-American” pic.twitter.com/rbMqU23IX0
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 17, 2019

Ilhan Omar: Greatest Threats to America Are Racism and the Jews (satire)

In response to comments from President Donald Trump urging her and three other freshmen Congressmen to “go back” to their countries, Representative Ilhan Omar called racism and bigotry the biggest threat facing America, along with the Jews.

“It is horrifying that in 2019, an elected leader like Donald Trump could question our loyalty to our country based solely on our race and nationality,” Omar said in a press conference. “Besides, it’s the Jews who hate America.”

Other far-Left lawmakers, known collectively as “the squad,” were quick to echo Omar’s appeal for civility.

“You have to be an ignorant bigot to challenge the loyalty of your political opponents,” declared Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “And if you disagree with Congresswoman Omar questioning the loyalty of Jews, then you are a Nazi who is literally putting her life in danger.”

64 Labour Lords Say Corbyn ‘Failed the Test of Leadership’ over Party Anti-Semitism

Sixty four Labour House of Lords peers—about a third of Labour’s members in the House of Lords, this week took out an ad in the Guardian they headlined: “The Labour Party welcomes everyone* […] (*except, it seems, Jews).”

The ad accuses Labour chairman Jeremy Corbyn of having “failed the test of leadership” over his handling of anti-Semitism complaints within the party.

The socialist lords addressed Corbyn saying the party was “no longer a safe place for all members” and suggested that thousands have already resigned “because of the toxic culture you have allowed to divide our movement.”

The 64 Labour peers accuse Corbyn of not opening his eyes and taking responsibility for the complaints about anti-Semitism within the party. They also say he does not tell the whole truth about the sheer scale of the problem.

“We are not asking if you are an anti-Semite,” the ad says to Corbyn. “We are saying you are accountable as leader for allowing anti-Semitism to grow in our party and presiding over the most shaming period in Labour’s history.”

Israeli minister accuses UK's Corbyn of Jew-hatred

Netanyahu's rightist government has largely reserved comment on the furor over Corbyn – a veteran and vocal pro-Palestinian campaigner – with aides citing reluctance to be perceived as meddling in Britain's internal affairs.

But two Israeli officials parted from that reticence on Tuesday when asked about the BBC Panorama findings.

"We don't decide for the British who to vote for, of course, but we have to state our position. I think Corbyn has proven himself, more than once or twice, to be a figure who quite hates the State of Israel and hates the Jewish people," Environmental Protection and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet and Likud party, told Israel's Army Radio in an interview.

"People often try to hide behind this anti-Israeli mantle and say, ‘We are not anti-Semitic, we're only criticizing the State of Israel and its policy.' And the example of what's happening in the Labour Party under Corbyn shows the extent to which this cover is no true cover."

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said of the BBC Panorama findings: "We certainly see this as a very grave matter."

"There is no doubt that Labour, in Corbyn's image, is a very big problem for Israel's foreign relations," she told Israel's Reshet 13 TV.

Pictured:
A man who has been on the salary of the world's most tyrannical, terror-supporting regime and who would like to see the genocide of the world's only Jewish country.

And the Foreign Minister of Iran. pic.twitter.com/z6tzYTzwBl
— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) July 16, 2019

Human Rights Watch Gives ‘Well-Deserved Tribute’ to PFLP Figure’s Organization

Human Rights Watch paid tribute on Monday to Shawan Jabareen, a senior figure in the US-designated terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and his organization, Al-Haq, on its 40th anniversary.

“Al Haq has done all of this work while consistently being maligned, attacked, receiving death threats and receiving travel bans, including on Shawan himself,” said Omar Shakir, director of HRW’s Israel office, who has been accused of supporting the anti-Israel BDS movement and has been fighting deportation from the Jewish state.

“We have to be honest as a human rights movement,” he continued. “Today, in Year 52 of the occupation, that we have failed to end systematic rights abuse, including Israel’s institutional system of discrimination.”

Shakir also said:
As a human rights defender, I’m an optimist. I’m optimistic that one day settlements and the two-tiered discriminatory system that accompanied them will be dismantled. I’m optimistic that one day the walls will fall. I’m optimistic that one day Palestinians will be free and will be equal. And when that day comes, and it will come before many more anniversaries pass, many will have played a role in bringing about that outcome. But few as significant as Al-Haq.

Sarah Whitson, executive director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division, tweeted, “A well-deserved tribute from @hrw @OmarSShakir to the invaluable work of @alhaq_org and its leader and my friend Shawan Jabareen for human rights of #Palestinians on the group’s 40th Anniversary!”

Official SFS University FB page posts 'Zionism = racism," 80 org's protest

On an official university Facebook page, an admin posted a picture of a poster that states "Zionism = racism; silence = death; Palestine is a Queer issue; Boycott! Divest! Sanction!"

The picture was posted on the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies at San Francisco State University page in early July. The same picture was posted by a senior scholar of the initiative’s, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, personal page.

In response, eighty organizations wrote to the California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy White to alert him and the university of the "hateful" posting.

"While Prof. Abdulhadi has the right to express religious, ethnic or political hatred on her personal platform, it is a flagrant breach of academic conduct for her to use her administrative position and the Facebook page bearing her academic unit’s logo -- which includes the name “San Francisco State University” — to do so," the letter said. "Prof. Abdulhadi’s flagrant and unlawful conduct requires your immediate attention."

The letter was organized by the AMCHA Initiative, an organization with the focus of investigating and condemning antisemitic incidents. Some of the organizations that signed the letter include Alpha Epsilon Pi, Alumns for Campus Fairness, California Association of Scholars, Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors, ACTA, B’nai B’rith International, Iranian American Jewish Federation, NCSY, Rabbinical Alliance of America, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

.@NetureiKarta you are a disgrace! I am sure G-d sees you as desecrating His name with your evil deeds! https://t.co/cH7n7P6bQM
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) July 17, 2019

Welcome to Burgerim: Halal burgers served with BDS tears.

While hardly authentic Israeli cuisine, the Burgerim franchise is making a splash nationwide. Donna Tuchner, an Israeli native, opened the first Burgerim in Tel Aviv. The concept is customized mini-burgers, with ground meat, vegetarian and fish offered in burger form. Oren Loni, Burgerim's current owner and president purchased Burgerim's name and rights and is selling franchising rights worldwide. Burgerim is slated to open its 500th store by the end of the year. In the East Bay alone, there are Burgerim locations in Walnut Creek, El Cerrito, Concord, Vallejo, San Ramon, San Pablo, Livermore, Antioch and Newark.

Its strange to imagine that the locally operated and locally owned franchises of a concept restaurant that originated in Israel would attract the BDSer's ire, but their choices have never been logical. After all, this was the group that instituted a boycott of "made in New Jersey" Sabra hummus, because the name kinda sorta reminded them of Israel.

The Burgerim boycott is in the true spirit of the Sodastream boycott, where hundreds of Palestinian workers lost their well paying jobs for their "own good" . The Burgerim boycott is as much of an "own goal".

The Burgerim franchise proudly, respectful promotes its Halal burgers, providing a dining out opportunity to traditionally observant members of the Islamic faith.

In observance of Ramadan, the Dearborn, Michigan Burgerim (owned and operated by an Arab-American) set up a tent, was open until 3am, and gave out free burgers.

Email by Guardian’s Steve Bell attacks editors for being overly sensitive to antisemitism charges

We’ve been tweeting about cartoons by Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell published over the last two days which are predictably dismissive of charges of antisemitism against the Labour Party, in mocking the party’s deputy leader Tom Watson, an outspoken critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the crisis.

We observed that such cartoons are “predictable” because Bell has a long history of openly mocking charges of antisemitism, and was responsible for one cartoon in 2012 that evoked nearly Der Sturmer style classic antisemitic imagery in suggesting Jewish control of non-Jewish world leaders. The cartoon wasn’t removed, even after widespread complaints of antisemitism, but it did elicit a rare rebuke by their then readers’ editor.

Also, see this Bell cartoon from 1998, which suggests that the Jewish God is vengeful and supremacist.

Since 2015, Bell has consistently defended Jeremy Corbyn from charges of antisemitism, and even came to the defence of Ken Livingstone in 2017 after the former London mayor was expelled from the party for suggesting that Hitler was once a Zionist.

Today, it emerged that Bell sent an email to the Guardian staff complaining that editors allegedly decided not to run his latest attack on Watson – which would be the second time in a year that a Bell cartoon was rejected.

A New Book Seeks to Whitewash the Complicity of German Journalists in Supporting Hitler

After the Nazis came to power in Germany, hundreds of journalists fled the country; some who criticized the regime were sent to concentration camps or murdered. In his book Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer, the Columbia University historian Volker Berghahn focuses on several journalists who remained active in the Third Reich, arguing that they played a crucial role in West Germany’s “moral reconstruction” following World War II. Yet, argues Richard Evans, none of Berghahn’s subjects has the clean record he suggests. Take, for instance, Hans Zehrer, a prominent newspaperman in both the 1930s and the 1950s:

Under the Weimar Republic, as editor of the magazine Die Tat (“The Deed”), [Zehrer] criticized Hitler for trying to win power through the ballot box, proposing instead the establishment of a dictatorship that would bypass the moribund parliamentary system. He praised the Enabling Act, [which dramatically expanded then-Chancellor Hitler’s powers], for creating the legal basis for such a dictatorship. It would, he wrote, help the government “exterminate” liberalism and carry out “cleansing actions” in the civil service.

Since this is exactly what Hitler was doing, it hardly seems accurate to speak, as Berghahn does, of Zehrer’s “opposition to Hitler.” . . . In April 1933, . . . he condemned the “Golden International” of “Jewry, Money, and Trade” and called for the “removal of Jewish influence from the key institutions of the nation.” Anyone who considered this unjust, he added, should remember that “raison d’état can never be humanitarian.”

In 1938, . . . to underline his obedience, Zehrer agreed that his Jewish wife should emigrate to London. He didn’t go with her: that would mean, he said, “that I would be going over to the Jewish side, and I say no to that!” He divorced her. In 1943, he joined the Luftwaffe, staying there until the end of the war.

Returning to journalism after 1945, . . . had Zehrer learned his lesson and become an advocate of a democratic Germany? . . . . It is hard to resist the conclusion . . . that he had abandoned almost none of the hostility to democracy that had led him to support Hitler. But this pales before Berghahn’s attempt to rescue the reputation of [another] subject, Paul Sethe. . . .

French prosecutors omit hate crime charges against burglars said to target Jews

Prosecutors in France did not include the aggravated element of a hate crime in the indictments of three men who allegedly singled out a Jewish family for a burglary at their home.

In the 2017 incident, the suspects are accused of breaking into the Paris-area home of Roger Pinto, the president of Siona, a group that represents Sephardic Jews.

The attackers, two of whom were wearing masks, beat Pinto’s son and wife in the home in the northeastern suburb of Livry Gargan. One of the burglars said “You Jews have money,” according to the family members.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, said Tuesday that it was “astounded and indignant” over the indictment filed this month against five defendants who were arrested in 2017. They are to stand trial for burglary, BNVCA said.

Israeli students tabbed to produce new Netflix documentary

Alongside popular Israeli shows "Fauda" and "Shtisel" on Netflix, Israel Hayom has learned that Tel-Aviv based Studio Free Media has received an offer from the streaming giant to produce an eight-part documentary series.

The show will be filmed and produced in Israel and the United States by Israeli students and creators and will appear on Netflix.

The initiative began nearly half a year ago when a delegation of Israeli students visited Hollywood and met with Vice President of Content Acquisition at Netflix Larry Tanz.

"The positive impression the students left on Tanz did the job," said Studio Free Media director Dekel Sharur, who led the delegation.

According to Sharur, the Israeli students also met with Joseph Bechor, the owner of WonderWorks Films, which produces dozens of movies and shows for Netflix.

Bechor, the son of Israelis who grew up in Los Angeles, not only extended his help to the Israeli students but also arranged for the next delegation, which is already in the works, to meet with his friend, Jewish-British actor Sacha Baron Cohen.

Anti-Semitic Flyers Posted On Marblehead Temple/synagogue pic.twitter.com/vPmElabab7
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) July 17, 2019

A unique monument pays tribute to the victims of the AMIA bombing

THE MURAL is 1.8 meters tall by 1.2 meters wide (approximately 6’x4’), composed of two crystals between which prayer book sheets found in Auschwitz, Treblinka and the Warsaw Ghetto are displayed. A Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead) score can also be seen as well as the covers of two books: one of fables in Yiddish, found among the rubble of the AMIA, and another from the Book of Samuel, found in the ruins of the Embassy of Israel in Buenos Aires. The piece is complemented by a copy of the Passover Haggada rescued from a concentration camp in 1942, donated by Miriam Kesler, daughter of one of the victims.

An interior plaque reads: “In memory of our Jewish brothers assassinated and annihilated during the Shoah (Holocaust) and the martyrs of the attacks on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA). Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Primate of Argentina, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, endorsed on April 14, 1997, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.”

On the exterior plaque there is an inscription written by Zvi Kolitz in his work Yosel Rácover Speaks to God: “I believe in the Sun even when it does not shine. I believe in love even when I do not feel it. I believe in God even when he remains silent.”

Originally installed in the Chapel of Santa Teresa, at the express request of Monsignor Quarracino the mural was later moved to the Chapel of the Virgin of Luján.

The mural was visited throughout its short history by prominent personalities from Argentina and the world, including president Raúl Alfonsín; president Barack Obama; Cardinals John O’Connor and Angelo Sodano; the archbishops of New York; the secretary of state of the Vatican; Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa; and the French intellectual Guy Sorman, among others; in addition to the students of numerous schools, and more than 3,000 people who visit the main Catholic temple of Argentina every day.

After the death of Quarracino, his successor, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (better known today as Pope Francis), continued the task of preservation and dissemination of the mural, following the express wish of his mentor and predecessor.

Rescued twice: The archive that survived the Holocaust and the AMIA attack

Abraham Lichtenbaum was getting ready to leave his house on July 18, 1994 when, at 9:53 a.m., he heard an explosion: The headquarters of Argentina’s 200,000-strong Jewish community, the AMIA, located less than four miles from his home, had been bombed.

Eighty-five people died and 300 were injured in what has become Argentina’s biggest terror attack. Lichtenbaum worked in the building and typically arrived there at 9 a.m. But he had been up the night before recording a weekly radio show at Radio Chai and on Monday mornings would usually come in at 10:30. This is what saved his life.

That January, after 25 years working at the Sholem Aleichem School, Lichtenbaum had been named director of IWO (Idishe Wiesenshaft Institute), the nation’s largest Jewish archive. Hosted on the third and fourth floor of the AMIA building, IWO — the equivalent of New York’s YIVO — contained thousands of books, paintings, art collections, audio records, letters and Judaica artifacts documenting Jewish life in Argentina and Eastern Europe.

No record or artifact is more valuable than any of the lives lost on that day. But thanks to Lichtenbaum and others, the attack by terrorists linked to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah could not snuff out the Jews’ devotion to their history. In the days following the attack, they and a small army of volunteers managed to preserve not only pieces of Argentine Jewish history but memories that survived the century’s greatest Jewish tragedy.

India Says Russia's Missiles Don't Work (And Wants to Buy Israeli Ones Instead)

India is now looking to Israel, from whom it has purchased numerous weapons, such as the Heron drone and the Derby, a radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile with a range of 50 kilometers (31 miles).

After losing one of its fighters to Pakistani jets armed with American-made missiles, India is not happy with its Russian-made missiles.

In fact, it wants to replace its Russian air-to-air missiles with Israeli weapons, according to Indian news site NDTV.

“In two years from now, the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 fighters may be re-armed with Israeli Derby air-to-air missiles after the jet's Russian-made R-77 missiles were found wanting in air combat operations over the Line of Control on February 27 this year,” NDTV said.

During air battles along the Kashmir border on February 26 and 27, an Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-21 was shot down, apparently by a U.S.-made AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) fired by one of Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) American-built F-16 fighters. India claims to have downed a Pakistani fighter – which Pakistan denies – but India was still embarrassed by the capture of its MiG-21 pilot, who was shown on Pakistani television and later returned.

Israeli tech firms raise $2.32 billion in 2Q, highest amount since 2013

Israeli high-tech companies raised $2.32 billion in the second quarter of 2019, the highest quarterly amount since 2013, bringing the amount raised by Israeli tech firms in the first half of the year to an all-time high.

The figures were boosted by 10 mega deals, of over $50 million each, for the quarter, which totaled $1.26 billion and accounted for 54% of the total capital raised in the second quarter of the year, a report by IVC Research Center and advocates Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer & Co (Zag-S&W) said.

The three largest deals in the quarter totaled $670 million. Online insurance firm Lemonade raised $300 million in the quarter; Monday.com, which has developed a team management platform, raised $250 million; and cybersecurity firm SentinelOne raised $120 million.

During the first half of this year, Israeli high-tech companies raised $3.9 billion in 254 deals, the report said.

Venture capital-backed deals accounted for 78% of the total amount raised in the second quarter of 2019, the report said, reaching a record $1.81 billion in 73 deals. In the first half of the year, VC-backed deals accounted for $3.16 billion in 148 deals, and almost doubled the amount raised in H1/2018 — $1.86 billion in 142 deals.

“Just when we thought the investment growth in the first quarter of 2019 had broken every record, along comes the second quarter and registers the most significant leap in the total amount raised in the last six years,” said Shmulik Zysman, managing partner & high-tech industry leader at ZAG-S&W.

MEMRI YouTube Channel Reaches Over Five Million Views – With Two Million Views In Last Three Months

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Netflix Unveils The Red Sea Diving Resort Trailer and It's Intense

If you thought Chris Evans was done saving the world, you were only partially correct. He’s actually just moved on to saving very specific parts of the world, and he has also grown a cool new beard. In the new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming film The Red Sea Diving Resort, Evans plays a Mossad agent working with an Ethiopian national, played by Michael Kenneth Williams, to rescue Jewish-Ethiopian refugees from Sudan in 1981. Based on a true story, the trailer is pretty intense, like, Ben Kingsley-icily-explaining-hard-facts intense. But if you just focus on Chris Evans’s beard, you should be fine.

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