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Elder of Ziyon
JPost Editorial: Fight the hate together
The shooting incident at the kosher New Jersey supermarket on December 10 – in which two ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed along with a non-Jewish employee and a policeman – was another dreadful reminder that the situation is growing out of control.An American pogrom
The fatal attacks on worshipers in synagogues in Pittsburgh last year and Poway in April this year are a tragic evidence of the extent and dangers of the phenomenon.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a thorough investigation and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, “Hate doesn’t have a home in our city,” promising an increased police presence in Jewish neighborhoods and adding, “Anyone who terrorizes our Jewish community WILL face justice.”
We welcome their support and action.
Part of the problem is that Jews are targeted for attacks from many different directions: the far Right, Islamists and, in the case of the New Jersey attack, members of a marginal community of so-called Black Hebrews. The anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment of the radical Left also fosters hatred. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is another modern expression of antisemitism, singling out Jewish and Israeli businesses.
The wave of antisemitic attacks in the US has grabbed the headlines recently, but there have been incidents throughout Europe, the UK, Australia and elsewhere.
Several Israeli politicians condemned the attacks and urged the Jews to make aliyah. There are many reasons for Jews to move to Israel but it shouldn’t be done out of fear. And Jews shouldn’t have to live in fear wherever they are.
As Moroccan publisher Ahmed Charai wrote in an opinion piece in this paper earlier this month, “Antisemitism is everyone’s problem.” He called for cooperation in fighting hatred, writing, “Arabs and Jews simply must stop hating each other so that together we can face the truly dangerous people who hate us both.”
Zero tolerance for antisemitism cannot be a meaningless slogan. This kind of hatred does not bode well for society as a whole. The Jews will not be the only victims.
Bill de Blasio, a longtime ally of Sharpton’s, responded with the same hypocrisy as the anti-Jewish violence in New York City ran out of control. In February 2017, Jacob Siegel recently noted in Tablet, the NYPD reported ‘an 81 percent increase in hate crimes compared to the same period in 2016, an increase largely caused by a 115 percent rise in incidents targeting Jews’. Questioned a few days after, de Blasio ignored his police department and the growing CCTV evidence: ‘The horrible, hateful rhetoric that was used in this election by candidate Trump and by a lot of his supporters directly connects to an increase since the election in anti-Semitic incidents, anti-Muslim incidents and anti-LGBT incidents.’Batya Ungar-Sargon: Why No One Can Talk About The Attacks Against Orthodox Jews
In June 2019, de Blasio called anti-Semitism ‘a right-wing force’. He continued to deny reality until the Jersey City killings. I’m sure he didn’t meant to incite, but the effect was to connive, just as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders connive when they’re photographed with Al Sharpton as they compete for the Democratic nomination — or, moving from one kind of Jew-hatred to another, Nancy Pelosi connived with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib by posing with them on the cover of Rolling Stone.
A similar connivance has corrupted the pro-Democratic media which uses the killing of Jews by white supremacists to hammer President Trump, only to consistently suppress the embarrassing reality of attacks on Jews by non-whites. On Sunday, Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner described ‘practically begging’ editors to cover anti-Jewish violence that didn’t come from white nationalists, a ‘humiliating spectacle’ made all the worse by consistently negative responses.
‘There’s no one doing this work at the Atlantic,’ Mandel wrote. ‘There’s no one doing this work at the Washington Post.’ Nor, he said, are the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books covering what’s happening on their doorsteps. The same, Mandel said, goes for HuffPost, Slate, Mother Jones, Vox, BuzzFeed, the Daily Beast and NPR.
I hope Mandel is wrong and that all of these publications have assigned resources and reporters to an obvious and serious crisis in American life. Many of them have recently supported and published worthy investigations into the ways in which Republican politicians have mainstreamed the bigotry of white racists. It’s time that they did the same with the Democrats — and past time for the Democrats themselves to address their longstanding complicity with their preferred forms of anti-Jewish incitement.
And therein lies the trouble with talking about the violent attacks against Orthodox Jews: At a time when ideology seems to rein supreme in the chattering and political classes, the return of pogroms to Jewish life on American soil transcends ideology. In the fight against anti-Semitism, you don’t get to easily blame your traditional enemies — which, in the age of Trump, is a non-starter for most people.
Of course, the rise in anti-Semitism is not incidental to the times we live in. While the Brooklyn attackers are, at least according to demographic trends, extremely unlikely to be Trump supporters, our president, who has a penchant for anti-Semitic tropes, is a conspiracy theorist, and anti-Semitism often manifests as a conspiracy theory about secretive Jewish power.
But conspiracy theories flourish on the left as well in today’s day and age. They twist and torque those rigid ideologies to which so many are enslaved, reshaping the extremes from polar opposites into a horseshoe whose ends meet — again and again — to justify, excuse, or muzzle criticism of anti-Semitism.
It has resulted in a staggering, shameful silence when it comes to speaking out on behalf of the wave of pogroms against the Orthodox. For many people, it seems when they can’t blame the other side of the political aisle, they would rather say nothing at all.
This is not acceptable. The Jewish community’s most visible, vulnerable members need Americans to stand up and say “no more.” They need us to climb out of our trenches and find common ground to fight this ugly resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred.
We can only fight this fight together, because it is a pox on all of our houses. It is only by remembering what unites us as Americans that we can help our fellow Jews and, as “Maoz Tzur” suggests, hasten the time of salvation.
A Horrifying Machete Attack on Jews in Monsey
People used to say about Monsey that it was a “place where you didn’t have to lock your doors.”Sitting Ducks
The assumption of safety has been changing over the past 10-15 years. Many synagogues are now locked at all times and it is no longer strange to see a security guard standing outside the building. Now, the illusion of safety is completely shattered.
Shimon Pepper lives a few hundred yards away from Rottenberg. Local and state police vehicles drove past his home for hours with their sirens blaring on Saturday night. “I am numb,” Pepper said. “The Forshay neighborhood here in Monsey has been our home for 36 years. Our children freely rode their bikes here and we went for nighttime walks and runs. Now our tranquility has been broken. State police were at every intersection this morning.”
The pain that comes along with this loss of safety is unfortunately familiar to many Monsey residents. A generation of the children of Holocaust survivors who are now parents and grandparents are living in Monsey. Their inherited PTSD has been triggered, and dark thoughts of where this violence might lead invades their imaginations.
Michael Sabo, a former member of the Monsey Fire Department, Chaverim, and Hatzalah (local Orthodox Jewish EMS service) who has lived in Monsey for more than 30 years, said, “We need the ability to protect ourselves and not be held back from self-preservation” by appointing “representatives for each synagogue to train with law enforcement and be totally prepared for dealing with an attack.” For some, the pain is being channeled into a call for Orthodox Jews to apply for gun licenses to arm themselves in order to repulse future violent attacks.
But the spirit of Monsey’s Orthodox Jews is strong and the solidarity of strangers across the world makes it even stronger. Shortly after the attack, Rottenberg hosted a festive melaveh malkah with his community, demonstrating that they remain undeterred in their religious commitment and Jewish pride. The next morning Rottenberg led a special blessing of thanksgiving during Shachris in his synagogue.
Sunday afternoon hours after the attack, Forshay road was closed to traffic once again. This time it was for a celebration with music and dancing to celebrate the dedication of a new Torah scroll in a shul down the block from Rabbi Rottenberg.
Buying an illegal firearm in New York City is no more difficult than procuring MDMA, say, or any other illegal substance. But those of us who wish to be legally armed—to protect ourselves, maybe, against violent anti-Semites like Tiffany Harris, who is currently free to roam the streets and continue to assault Jews, or the Black Hebrews, whose ranting against “fake Jews” resulted in six deaths in Jersey City—are out of luck.
New York City’s ordinances make obtaining and carrying a firearm nearly impossible for law-abiding civilians from communities that are under daily attack. Generally speaking, the city differentiates between several categories of gun permits. The first, and most popular, is a premise license, which allows its holder to keep a firearm in his or her place of business or residence. That is nice, except the anti-Semitic hate crime wave targeting New York’s Jews isn’t happening inside people’s homes. It’s happening on the streets.
Though now challenged in court, the laws pertaining to transporting firearms remain draconian, making it impossible for Jews—or anyone else for that matter—to have a means of self-defense when attacked in the street, at a park, at a Hanukkah party, or anywhere else. If you do obtain such a license, the current law requires you to carry the weapon and ammunition separately, and for both to be locked.
Another type of permit is a business-carry license, which applies only to individuals who need armed protection due to the circumstances of their work—carrying around bagfuls of diamonds, say, or possessing large amounts of cash. A third is a carry license designed primarily for security guards, retired cops, and a few privileged, high-profile individuals. In 2011, for example, only 4,000 New Yorkers enjoyed this sort of license, the only one that makes it possible to carry a weapon everywhere irrespective of one’s immediate business considerations.
Add to that the convoluted application process, the steep registration fee, and the discrepancy of the NYPD to refuse a license at will and for any reason it deems fit and the fullness of the paradox becomes clear. If you are a Jew in New York, the police—at the direction of the city’s politicians—can no longer offer you full protection from violent attack. If you are attacked, the courts will set your attacker free, as a matter of public policy. But exercising your constitutional right to defend yourself is forbidden.
New York’s progressive politicians, alongside a host of left-leaning Jewish organizations like the ADL, have spent the last 24 hours releasing statements condemning the attack in Monsey. These statements are utterly meaningless unless followed by concrete action. Anyone wishing to keep Jews safe must first make sure that anti-Semitic attackers are held responsible for their violent acts of hatred, and then help amend the laws and allow Jews the right of self-protection.
PHOTOS: Orthodox Jews seen open carrying rifles in Rockland County, NY following a string of anti-semitic attacks in NYC, including last night's stabbing attack inside a synagogue in Monsey, NY that left 5 stabbed - 1 in critical condition. pic.twitter.com/l3ywnpplrB
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 29, 2019
Honest Reporting: Stabbings in Monsey
There have been attacks against Jews in the New York area every day of the past week. According to the FBI, Jews are the most highly targeted religious group in the United States, despite making up only 2% of the population.
Attackers over the past year have included white supremacists, Black Hebrews, and others. We urge the media, police and political leadership to treat these events with the seriousness they deserve.
Hate against any of us endangers all of us.
Trump slams ‘horrific’ Monsey attack, assails ‘scourge of anti-Semitism’
After almost a day of silence, US President Donald Trump commented Sunday on the stabbing spree at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, the night before that left five injured, calling it “horrific” and wishing the victims a full recovery.Amid rabid anti-Semitism in the US, Left finds way to blame Trump
“The anti-Semitic attack in Monsey, New York, on the 7th night of Hanukkah last night is horrific,” Trump tweeted.
“We must all come together to fight, confront, and eradicate the evil scourge of anti-Semitism,” Trump said. “Melania and I wish the victims a quick and full recovery.”
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the stabbings by urging action against anti-Semitism.
“Antisemitism and hate have no place anywhere in our world and we must continue to stand together against them,” Trudeau tweeted. “Last night’s attack on Jews celebrating Hanukkah in New York is a sad reminder of the rising numbers of such heinous acts. We must all come together to end them.”
It didn’t take very long for the Left to turn Saturday's horrific attack on Jews in a synagogue in Monsey, New York into a partisan issue.An Early Analysis of Black Anti-Semitism
Members of the Left quickly blamed US President Donald Trump for the violent incident in which five people were critically wounded after the assailant, Grafton E. Thomas, stabbed them with a machete.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who in September suspended his presidential campaign for the Democratic ticket in 2020, blamed "an atmosphere of hate" for the recent outburst of violence against the Jewish community in the New York area.
"A lot of it is emanating from Washington and it's having an effect on all of us," he said.
He added that "[New York] is seeing a growth of anti-Semitism in this country that is profoundly dangerous."
While the synagogue shootings of Pittsburgh and Poway were carried out by anti-Semites of the white-supremacist variety, the shooting at the kosher grocery store in Jersey City, and Saturday night’s stabbing attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, NY, were the work of African Americans. These incidents come alongside the frequent, but less deadly, verbal and physical assaults on Jews in New York City and some of its suburbs that almost always involve young blacks targeting visibly Orthodox Jews.Monsey stabbing suspect may be tied to another knifing at nearby synagogue
Over 70 years ago, the celebrated essayist and novelist James Baldwin addressed what he termed “the Negro’s ambivalent relation to the Jew” in his essay “The Harlem Ghetto: Winter 1948,” published in Commentary. He was writing at a time when Jim Crow was alive and well in the South, blacks were unwelcome in many areas of New York City, Jewish activists in the area of civil rights were not yet as numerous as they would become, and the state of Israel did not exist:
To begin with, though the traditional Christian accusation that the Jews killed Christ is neither questioned nor doubted, the term “Jew” actually operates in [a religious] context to include all infidels of white skin who have failed to accept the Savior. No real distinction is made: the preacher begins by accusing the Jews of having refused the light and proceeds from there to a catalog of their subsequent sins and the sufferings visited on them by a wrathful God. Though the notion of the suffering is based on the image of the wandering, exiled Jew, the context changes imperceptibly to become a fairly obvious reminder of the trials of the Negro, while the sins recounted are the sins of the American republic.
At this point, the Negro identifies himself almost wholly with the Jew. The more devout Negro considers that he is a Jew, in bondage to a hard taskmaster and waiting for a Moses to lead him out of Egypt. The hymns, the texts, and the most favored legends of the devout Negro are all Old Testament and therefore Jewish in origin. . . . The favorite text of my father, among the most earnest of ministers, was not “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” but “How can I sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
[But] I remember meeting no Negro in the years of my growing up, in my family or out of it, who would really ever trust a Jew, and few who did not, indeed, exhibit for them the blackest contempt. On the other hand, this did not prevent their working for Jews, being utterly civil and pleasant to them, and, in most cases, contriving to delude their employers into believing that, far from harboring any dislike for Jews, they would rather work for a Jew than for anyone else.
The tension between Negroes and Jews contains an element not characteristic of Negro-Gentile tension, an element which accounts in some measure for the Negro’s tendency to castigate the Jew verbally more often than the Gentile, and which might lead one to the conclusion that, of all white people on the face of the earth, it is the Jew whom the Negro hates most. When the Negro hates the Jew as a Jew he does so partly because the nation does and in much the same painful fashion that he hates himself. It is an aspect of his humiliation whittled down to a manageable size and then transferred.
The man accused of using a machete to hack five Hanukkah celebrants is a schizophrenic who is now being investigated in the earlier stabbing of a Jewish man near a synagogue in the same Rockland County town, family friends and police sources said.The moment police captured Grafton Thomas after Monsey synagogue attack
The revelations came Sunday as grisly new details of Saturday night’s assault in Monsey came to light — including that accused attacker Grafton Thomas was covered in blood when cops arrested him in Harlem.
Thomas, 38, apparently tried to “destroy evidence” of his guilt, Rockland District Attorney Michael Dugandzic said in Ramapo Town Court, citing a “strong smell of bleach in the car” he was driving.
Thomas, who lives with his mom in Greenwood Lake, Orange County, was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail after his lawyer entered not-guilty pleas to five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary in the attack.
The rampage marked the latest in a string of attacks targeting Orthodox Jews in and around New York City, including the killing of three people at a Jersey City kosher market this month by two assailants who had fatally shot a local detective.
Authorities, including the FBI, are now investigating whether Thomas is tied to a recent stabbing near a Monsey synagogue, a law-enforcement official briefed on the probe told The Post.
In that case, a 30-year-old man was beaten and repeatedly knifed while walking to Mosdos Meharam Brisk of Tashnad at around 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 20, The Journal News reported at the time.
Closed-circuit television footage from the arrest of Grafton Thomas was released Sunday, showing the moments when police located and apprehended the 37-year-old suspect wanted for Saturday night's machete attack on a Hasidic synagogue in Monsey, New York.
Thomas was arrested in Harlem at around midnight, roughly two hours after he burst into a synagogue brandishing a machete and wounded five who had worshippers gathered in the synagogue for the Hanukkah candle lightning marking the seventh day of the festival.
Thomas was charged with five counts of attempted murder Sunday, along with one count of burglary. He denied the charges.
The NYPD stands with members of the Jewish community. We will continue our increased patrols and the deployment of @NYPDCT officers at key locations to ensure that everyone is safe during this holiday season, and into the new year.
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) 29 December 2019
There is no place for hate in NYC, or anywhere. pic.twitter.com/SObQw3ypYp
"Today we are going to talk about antisemitism within the black community. It is an epidemic and it has to be addressed. A major source of this antisemitism epidemic in this particular community lies mainly at the feet of one man, Louis Farrakhan." https://t.co/GhYXlOXC2P
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) December 30, 2019
In Monsey after Hanukkah terror stabbing, fear and then an insistent celebration
The morning after an assailant tore through a rabbi’s house in upstate New York with a machete, slashing at Hanukkah celebrants, residents huddled outside smoking cigarettes, rehashing the attack.
By evening, many Monsey, New York, residents would be dancing through the streets to welcome a Torah in a defiant act of celebration.
More than 100 people were inside the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg on Saturday night for the holiday celebration when the attacker stormed in, wounding five people, two critically.
Survivors and neighbors returned Sunday morning, gathering outside Congregation Netzach Yisroel next door. One of them had fought off the attacker, others had fled, and everyone knew someone who had been inside.
Children stood on the roof of a car across the street to watch the action as police waved vehicles through. Residents and reporters chatted in a mix of English, Yiddish and Hebrew.
After covering the aftermath of violent incidents in Israel, this reporter found the scene familiar, recalling terror attacks in Jerusalem and rocket strikes in Ashkelon. The cadre of Israeli reporters outside the rabbi’s home seemed like the foreign journalists covering news events in Israel.
Monsey residents described the foreboding, confusion and resignation following the attack on their rabbi’s home. Most members of the insular community were eager to talk, but didn’t want their names or photos published.
Just hours after 5 Jews were stabbed in anti-Semitic attack, hundreds are out on the street at the very spot where the attack took place to celebrate a Hachnasat Sefer Torah. (Inauguration of a Torah scroll)
— Benny Polatseck (@BPolatseck) December 29, 2019
The message is clear, hate will not stop us, fear will not paralyze us! pic.twitter.com/ViJLCtKsXt
De Blasio Blames Washington For Recent Spate of Anti-Semitic Attacks In and Around NYC
Readers of LI are well aware that anti-Semitism has been on the rise in the U.S. and across Europe for many years. It seems that the media and politicians are starting to figure it out, too.Woman accused of assaulting 3 Jewish women arrested again day after release
As is so often the case, however, they are focused very narrowly on the recent spate of attacks in and around New York City and fail to see the forest for the trees.
An example of this occurred this weekend when New York City mayor Bill de Blasio appeared on Fox News and blamed an “atmosphere of hate has been developing in this country over the last few years.” He went on to note, quite rightly, that a “lot of it is emanating from Washington and it’s having an effect on all of us.”
I doubt, however, that de Blasio means that the “atmosphere of hate” he sees “emanating from Washington” includes Democrats. Back in June, he infamously called anti-Semitism a “right-wing movement.”
A Brooklyn miscreant accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women last week struck again on Sunday and was busted for assaulting another woman, police said.
A day after she was released without bail on charges stemming from the Friday attack, Tiffany Harris was charged with assault for slugging a 35-year-old in the face on Eastern Parkway near Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights at about 9:15 a.m., according to police.
It’s unclear if Sunday’s victim is Jewish — and police weren’t treating the incident as a hate crime. The victim suffered swelling and bruising to her right eye from the pummeling, police said.
On Friday, Harris allegedly assaulted three Orthodox women on Eastern Parkway near Kingston Avenue — one of at least eight anti-Semitic incidents in the city last week.
“Yes, I slapped them. I cursed them out. I said ‘F-U, Jews,’” Harris admitted to cops after that attack, according to a criminal complaint.
The two assaults occurred about a mile from each other.
Bill de Blasio says giving people like Tiffany Harris, who slapped 3 Jewish women in the face and shouted “F–k you, Jews!,” 2 debit cards and a *burner cell phone* upon release is not “soft on crime.” If they attack more people on bail, it’s “missing the forest for the trees.” pic.twitter.com/jI0pp4XrH2
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) December 30, 2019
Victim of Antisemitic Attack in Brooklyn Decries Release of Perpetrator, Blasts ‘Unwillingness to Sympathize With Orthodox Community’
A young Jewish woman whose antisemitic attacker was released without bail on Saturday despite admitting to her crime, voiced anger over the failure of law enforcement to protect future potential victims.Man Who Threatened To Kill In 770 Arrested
It’s “a win for the criminals, and a big fail for the protection of the vulnerable targets they’re going after,” Dalia Shusterman told The Algemeiner on Sunday.
Shusterman was among three women who were attacked by Tiffany Harris on Thursday in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Harris was released over the weekend as a result of new bail reform legislation just passed into law and set to take effect on January 1, the New York Post reported. A law enforcement source told the Post, however, that “the de Blasio administration has made it clear that we all need to get into compliance with bail reform now.”
Harris admitted her crime to police officers, according to the criminal complaint against her. “Yes, I slapped them,” she said. “I cursed them out. I said ‘F-U, Jews.’”
According to Shusterman, the decision to release Harris was also symptomatic of the authorities’ broader failure to adequately protect the Jewish community. “It’s a malignant growth out of their unwillingness to sympathize with the Orthodox Jewish community, which has always been relegated as the other, stereotyped as oppressors, and treated as unworthy of societal protection,” she asserted.
“There are too many voices encouraging this very specific hatred and not enough efforts to call it out as the evil that it is,” she said.
The man who made death threats inside of 770 [World Headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic] Friday morning has been arrested by the police.Man threatened to bomb Jersey City Jews just days after Kosher store attack: authorities
The police were able to track the man as he made his way onto the train by Utica Ave. From there he was identified as a man living in a homeless shelter in the Bronx.
He was arrested by the NYPD over Shabbos.
A Jersey City man is accused of threatening to “bomb all of the Jews” in Jersey City less than a week after the deadly attack on a kosher grocery store in Greenville, according to court documents.“Deadly Exchange”- It’s time to speak out against anti-Zionists who seek to turn Blacks against Jews
Darryl Jacobs, 47, allegedly made the threat during a Dec. 13 phone call with a county welfare worker and was arrested three days later. Police did not recover any explosives, but seized two cell phones, the criminal complaint states.
The defendant told the welfare employee, who did not know him, that he “was going to come down and bomb all the Jews in Jersey City,” according to the court document.
Darryl Jacobs is accused of threatening to "bomb all the Jews" in Jersey City three days after the deadly attack on a kosher supermarket.
Jacobs appeared to be intoxicated during the call, authorities said.
Hudson County Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable ordered that he be detained throughout his prosecution during a Dec. 20 detention hearing. He faces a third-degree charge of making a terroristic threat.
The recent spike in attacks on Jews in the greater New York City area follows a pattern that does not fit with the media portrayal of violence against Jews being solely a ‘white nationalist’ problem. All or almost all of the attacks were perpetrated by non-whites, including the deadly shooting in Jersey City, street attacks in Brooklyn, and the machete attack in Monsey.
While this seems to come out of nowhere, in fact there has been a highly organized and aggressive campaign to stoke and exploit pre-existing racial tensions against Jews as part of anti-Israel activist tactics. The effort goes back decades to Louis Farrakhan, who serves as an inspiration for “intersectional” activists like Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour, formerly of the Women’s March.
But more than anything in recent years, anti-Zionist groups, including anti-Zionist purportedly Jewish groups, have sought to turn Blacks against Jews for the purpose of demonizing Israel by blaming Israel and American Jewish groups for domestic police violence and other policing problems.
Leading the way has been the anti-Zionist non-Jewish group calling itself “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), which launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign in 2017 falsely tying anti-terrorism training of U.S. police chiefs during short visits to Israel with police violence in the U.S. That “Deadly Exchange” campaign now has spread more broadly to the anti-Israel community, where various groups led by JVP seek to disrupt and terminate U.S.-Israel police exchanges.
As detailed below, the recent deadly shooting of Jews in Jersey City was by a Black supremacist group which espoused conspiracy theories eerily similar to the Deadly Exchange propaganda. While not all of the recent attacks can be tied to such conspiracy theories, what cannot be denied is that JVP and the other anti-Zionist groups promoting Deadly Exchange are playing a deadly game by promoting false claims of American and Israeli Jewish responsibility for police shootings.
US Congresswoman
— FJnyc (@FJnyc) December 29, 2019
Rashida Tlaib
Fundraising Letter for INN@SethAMandel @EinatWilf @bariweiss @WarpedMirrorPMB @kweansmom @AviMayer @DavidHarrisAJC @bungarsargon @tabletmag @Imamofpeace @LahavHarkov @ASAProject_ @StandWithUs pic.twitter.com/G37Io0Oa2k
Typical Palestinian Victimhood mentality! Abbas Hamideh @Resistance48, @RashidaTlaib terror-affiliated supporter, claims Jews stealing American sympathy while all Jews killed in injured in recent attacks in NJ and NY were anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian! https://t.co/NcSoACcrkI pic.twitter.com/i18GM6z1l1
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) December 30, 2019
Guardian describes 1991 antisemitic Crown Heights riots as two communities “clashing”
A Dec. 29th Guardian report on the brutal Monsey stabbings which targeted Chasidic Jews on Saturday included the following passage, noting comments by NYC mayor Bill De Blasio:
De Blasio invoked the Crown Heights violence of the early 90s when black and Jewish communities in Brooklyn clashed violently.
To describe the Crown Heights Riots, which has been aptly characterised by some as the first anti-Jewish pogrom in US history, as merely two communities “clashing violently” is obscene.
The incident in question began after a Jewish driver accidentally hit two black immigrant children, killing one of them. Later that evening, based on unfounded rumors involving police and Jewish culpability in the boy’s death, blacks began rioting and chanting antisemitic slogans. Some incited the crowd to kill a Jew, which they ultimately did. Yankel Rosenbaum, a young Australian Orthodox Jew, was beaten and stabbed to death by a mob of up to twenty young black men on the first night of the two day riots.
The @guardian has well and truly outdone itself here.
— Dr Rakib Ehsan (@rakibehsan) December 29, 2019
Mentions the anti-Semitic terrorist attack on a kosher market in #NewJersey, along with the recent Hanukah stabbings in #Monsey - without mentioning the background of the perpetrators.
I wonder why.https://t.co/4JiaQ6isU0
She locked her account. pic.twitter.com/zPKh3GJJNj
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) December 29, 2019
PreOccupiedTerritory: American Jewish Orgs Condemn ‘Stabbing In All Its Forms’ (satire)
Prominent Jewish groups all over the United States reacted over the weekend to the Saturday night stabbing attack at a Monsey, NY Rabbi’s home, by issuing a sweeping denunciation of stabbing in all its forms. The attack left five people injured.Jewish, Black Residents in Jersey City Unite for Charity Drive After Deadly Shooting
Statements by the Anti-Defamation League, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, and other high-profile Jewish organizations all condemned stabbing, calling the phenomenon “a violent act that undermines the security and civility of a functioning society” and “a wake-up call to our communities to address the issue.”
The attack at a Hanukkah event involved a machete, but the Jewish groups took pains to make clear they oppose the use of sharp objects of other kinds, as well. “It would be irresponsible to suggest we harbor more tolerance for other implements or varieties of stabbing,” a spokesman for J-Street stated. “Therefore our statement did not single out the machete as an important element in the message. We would oppose this kind of behavior whether it involved a sword, dagger, butcher knife, knitting needle, carving knife, fireplace poker, pitchfork, or flatware of any sort. I’m sure our counterparts across the spectrum of American Jewish organizations share the sentiment.”
African-American and Jewish volunteers in the Jersey City neighborhood of Greenville on Monday partnered up on a charity drive to deliver food and other goods to hundreds of local families in need.Turkish NBA star defends fearful US Jewish community
Trucks full of pretzel challah, soup mix, hummus, turkey, chocolate, toys and more, provided by nearby Jewish vendors, were handed out to families lined around the block.
Just a few blocks away was the site of a deadly shooting at a Jewish-owned kosher supermarket on Dec. 10.
The idea for a charity drive came was proposed during an informal meeting last week between Jewish community leaders and local Jersey City officials, reported JTA.
By Dec. 23, with the help of the Jewish soup kitchen and food pantry Masbia, a network of soup kitchens, kosher-food vendors, Jewish-owned toy companies and a nonprofit from Brooklyn, NY, teamed up to gather supplies for those in need.
“We’ve been in communication since the tragedy on Dec. 10 trying to find ways to work together as a community,” said Pam Johnson, one of the drive’s organizer and the leader of the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition Movement. “We wanted to make sure that we sent a clear message of solidarity, that we are all in this together.”
The Boston Celtics’ Swiss-born, Turkish professional basketball player Enes Kanter, sent a message of support – via Twitter – to the United States’ Jewish community in the wake of the latest anti-Semitic attack.11-year-old daughter of Jersey City hero calls rabbi in solidarity after Monsey
Kanter tweeted, “America has no place for hate. Our Jewish sisters and brothers should not be living in fear. Antisemitism will NOT be tolerated.”
This is a significant moment. There have been plenty of players from different sports, who show solidarity with the black community over alleged police brutality. However, this is a rare instance where a superstar athlete publicly stands up for the Jewish community that is currently living in fear from outlier members of the black community – particularly in the tri-state area.
It is also not the first time that the NBA star has spoken out about social and political issues. Kanter is a fierce critic of Turkish strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who in recent years has grown both increasingly authoritarian and Islamist – moving sharply away from Turkey’s more democratic and tolerant beginnings.
Kanter has paid for his opposition to Erdoğan; he has not been able to set foot in the country since a 2018 declaration that the Turkish government was a friend of "armed terrorist groups." That same government deprived him of his Turkish passport and declared him a fugitive, particularly for his support of the Gülen movement. Kanter even recently missed a game against the Toronto Raptors in Canada, fearing for his life.
Less than a month ago, 11-year-old Amy Rodriguez lost her dad, Miguel, in the shooting that targeted a kosher supermarket in Jersey City. Rodriguez, 49, was an employee at the store. Before succumbing to his wounds, he saved a customer.Bethany Mandel: In Light of Anti-Semitic Attacks, What Can You Do to Help?
"After being shot, he opened the back door for a customer to be rescued and unfortunately, he died at the footstep of that door," Rabbi David Niederman of the Brooklyn-based United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg told reporters in the aftermath of the tragedy, according to CNN.
He called Rodriguez a "hero."
When Amy heard what happened in Monsey on Saturday, when five people were wounded in a horrific attack in a rabbi's house, Amy called Rabbi Avi Weiss to make sure that he was ok and to express her solidarity with the Jewish community at large.
"Amy is the daughter of Miguel who was killed saving the life of Chaim Deutsch in the Jersey City antisemitic attack, where Moshe Deutsch and Mindy Ferencz were also killed. I attended Miguel's funeral and spoke with Amy and her mom, leaving them my phone number," the rabbi wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.
"This morning, I was overwhelmed when Amy called. She had heard what had happened in Monsey and with great emotion, wanted to make sure I was ok. Tears welled up in my eyes," he added. "Her words touched the depths of my soul. Here is a youngster, just eleven years old, in the midst of her own grief, calling to express concern – not only for me, but for the larger Jewish community."
In light of the most recent anti-Semitic attack in a suburb of New York City, where a man broke into the home of a prominent rabbi holding a Hanukkah celebration with a machete, I’ve heard from many friends “What can I do to help?” I wanted to offer some tangible suggestions for those horrified by the slow-moving pogrom happening in New York City and wishing to act:
1 Contact your local Jewish community and ask if they would accept volunteers from outside the community to provide security.
2 The cost of upgrading security has been enormous for many Jewish institutions across the country. Off-duty police officers are paid to work shifts on holidays and on Shabbat, but many buildings have undergone serious renovations to install new security systems, panic buttons, auto-locking doors, new windows, and more. Consider donating to your local synagogue, Jewish community center, Hillel, schools or Jewish Federation’s security fund.
3 Another worthwhile organization worth noting is the Community Security Service. You can donate to their efforts to train Jews to protect their community, or contact them to ask how you can get involved in their work.
4 Shop at Kosher supermarkets and restaurants. It’s a scary time to run a business that is a potential terror target, and it’s encouraging for those working there to have the support of the wider community.
5 Contact your local representatives and ask them to step up to the plate, especially if you live in a district with a Jewish population.
6 Lend support and encouragement to officials doing the right thing,
7. And hold feet to the fire of politicians who refuse to do more than tweet (if they’re even doing that).
8. Encourage your faith leaders to take a stand and give them ideas of what that looks like: a statement to the congregation, a joint-vigil or gathering with the local Jewish community, or merely a public statement of support.
9. When you see biased or toxic representations of Jews in popular culture, the media, or in your daily life, say something. Dehumanizing Jews is a root cause of the violence we’re now seeing.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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