06/12 Links Pt2: Making Holocaust Education About Jews and Anti-Semites; BDS Is about Bigotry; Polish Police Involvement in the Nazi Final Solution ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Making Holocaust Education About Jews and Anti-Semites

Acknowledging the centrality of conspiratorial Jew-hatred to the Holocaust does not preclude also acknowledging the suffering of tens or hundreds of millions of people across Europe who fell victim to Nazi aggression, occupation, and oppression. Nor does it downplay the horror of the millions of non-Jews who perished in Nazi death camps—including Romani, gays, and Poles. It simply highlights the reason those death camps existed in the first place. Without the pressing need to eradicate international Jewry, the Nazis would never have developed their industrial death machinery. And like all other weapon systems, once the Nazis perfected it, they were inclined to deploy it broadly. “Never Again” is not meant to protect only the Jews; it is meant to stave off societal suicide.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is the entity charged with developing educational material under the new law. The museum currently teaches that anti-Semitism has “its origins in the days of the early Christian church.” It traces the Holocaust’s origins only within the context of Christian Europe. But Jews have recorded anti-Semitism, and attempted genocide, for many centuries before the church and in many cultures untouched by Christianity. As described in Jewish literature from the epochs of ancient Egypt, Persia, Rome, and Greece, and until today Jew-hatred has defined a unique, stunningly consistent, niche in the annals of human hatred. Millennia of Jewish literature relate how, in the deranged minds of conspiratorial anti-Semites of all races, creeds and cultures, the real battlefront is always the war against the Jews.

Holocaust education is not getting that message across. It was not merely “hate” that created the Holocaust then or that threatens Jews today. It was not the charismatic leader, the socialist, nationalist, and populist overlays, or even the assertion of racial purity. Nor was it merely a continuation of Europe’s Christian anti-Semitism. Haman is described to have won his bid for Jewish genocide based on claims that the Jews of the Persian Empire were a disloyal fifth column. Today, with the advent of the State of Israel, this argument takes the form of suspicions of Jewish “dual loyalty.” The Holocaust itself was framed as a conscious, strategic response to imagined Jewish manipulations.

For Holocaust education to counter anti-Semitism, it must be reoriented away from hyperfocus on the externalities and mechanics of Nazism toward the inner obsession that remains relevant and dangerous in disparate guises. Teaching the threat of conspiratorial Jew hatred can counter the barbarism of a Europe intent upon atoning for its atrocities against Jews by opening its borders to violent anti-Semites. It can explain why a member of Congress’ paranoid public fulminations about the Jewish State hypnotizing the world and Jewish money manipulating Washington are cut from the same cloth as swastika-brandishing white supremacists chanting about not being replaced. It can halt the accelerating descent of the American intelligentsia into paranoid blood libels that characterize hardcore anti-Zionism and BDS—including the rising obscenity of Jewish groups trafficking in the same delusional psychosis.

Understanding—and holding at bay—the ancient, culture-destroying threat of anti-Semitism lies not in obsessing over the inconstant identities of fungible Jew-haters, but in seeing beyond those details to the unique and consistent nature of toxic anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives.

Understanding history is vital. Fighting bigotry and racism is imperative. But those who take up the “Never Again” banner must not look away from what lurks in the heart of darkness that once again threatens to engulf society. “Never Again” education must focus directly on the dangerous delusions of the anti-Semite and stop providing that beast the narrative tools by which to scapegoat us. Anti-Semitism—including the Holocaust—is always all about the Jews.

Belgian TV show on Holocaust says Jews ‘massacred’ Palestinians

A Belgian state broadcaster claimed in a Holocaust documentary that Jews repeatedly “massacred” and “systematically” displaced Palestinians.

The claim was aired on May 26 in a voiceover narration in the fifth episode of the Dutch-language television documentary series titled “Children of the Holocaust,” produced by the VRT broadcaster.

After seven Arab armies declared war on and invaded Israel in May 1948, “Israel’s army systematically destroyed Palestinian villages, expelled the population and destroyed their homes,” the narrator said about the days following the end of the British Mandate over Palestine.

In the civil war between Arab and Jewish residents of the Mandate that preceded the Arab invasion, “Jewish militias perpetrated massacres in 20 Palestinian villages, prompting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee,” the narrator says in the 48-minute episode.

The series mentions neither Arab killings of hundreds of Jewish civilians in the years 1947-49 nor dozens of Arab settlements that were left intact and incorporated with their residents into the State of Israel.

The Forum of Jewish Organizations of the Flemish Region sent a letter to VRT protesting the depiction and disputing its assertion of “massacres” by Jews.

“This objectionable and demonstratively inaccurate presentation implicitly subtracts from the messages of the Holocaust survivors” interviewed, Hans Knoop, the Jewish group’s spokesperson wrote.

Ha'aretz: Polish Police Involvement in the Nazi Final Solution

Polish historian Jan Grabowski's new book, On Duty: The Role of Polish "Blue" and Criminal Police in the Holocaust, published recently in Poland and forthcoming in English later this year, has upset the Polish right wing. Grabowski responded in a Facebook post: "I am glad that the book has had its impact not only among the more enlightened readers but also among those who prefer to build their historical identity on historical fallacies and myths."

"I was surprised to discover the role played by the Polish police in the murder of Poland's Jews," Grabowski told Ha'aretz this week. "Murder, rape, robbery - the scale is incomprehensible," he writes in the book.

The Polish police was reconstituted by the Germans in 1939, immediately after their conquest of the country. Many of the personnel in the new force came from the local Blue Police that had existed before the war. The Polish police under German command, Grabowski explains, became "a murderous and criminal organization which was a key element in the implementation of the Final Solution."

Grabowski provides documents that demonstrate that under German auspices, but with independent initiative and great fervor, the Polish police officers took part in the systematic murder of Jews in cities and villages, in ghettos and in places of hiding. "Without the Polish police, the Germans would not have succeeded in their plan," Grabowski said. "The Polish police became important actors in the German policy of extermination."

The Germans found it difficult to distinguish between Polish Jews and Poles who were not Jews. "The Germans were rather at a loss and did not have a clue about how to distinguish those who were Jewish, once they blended into the outside population and took off their arm bands." In this they were aided by the Polish police, who knew their Jewish neighbors well. Grabowski also documents many other cases in which Polish police officers acted independently and murdered Jews without any German involvement. "They were the people who made certain that there was no way for the Jews to escape."

Ex-Mossad man reveals role in events that led to death of AMIA prosecutor Nisman

Israel’s Mossad provided the intelligence information that enabled Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman to prove that Iran orchestrated the 1994 AMIA terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed, an Israeli TV documentary claimed. And an ex-Mossad agent gave Nisman incriminating information on former Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s alleged efforts to cover up Iran’s role in the blast, in a sequence of events that ultimately led to Nisman’s assassination, the program also said.

The “Uvda” (Fact) documentary, broadcast Thursday night on Israel’s Channel 12, featured a lengthy interview with Uzi Shaya, a former Mossad agent who said he had extensive dealings with Nisman, and who acknowledged that documents he passed to Nisman, allegedly incriminating Kirchner, “may have caused his death.”

Argentine investigator Nisman identified the suicide bomber who blew up the AMIA Jewish center as Hezbollah operative Ibrahim Berro, and in a 2006 indictment traced the commissioning of the blast to a 1993 meeting of the Iranian leadership’s “Committee for Special Operations”; Iran was fuming at then-president Carlos Menem for halting cooperation with its nuclear program and for warming Argentina’s ties with Israel. Nisman’s allegations led to the issuing of international arrest warrants against some of the Iranians the following year for what remains the worst terror attack in Argentina’s history.

The “Uvda” report said it was the Mossad that identified the perpetrators and the orchestrators of the blast, and made the information available to Nisman.

In January 2015, Nisman was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment, a day before he was due to testify to an Argentine congressional panel on then president Kirchner’s role in covering-up Iran’s responsibility for the attack. A government official initially asserted that Nisman’s death — by a single bullet to the head fired at close range — was suicide, but Argentina has subsequently acknowledged it was a homicide.

Kirchner, who has always denied any illegality regarding her handling of AMIA-related matters and her dealings with Iran, is today Argentina’s vice president.

In Thursday’s documentary, Shaya said that he gave Nisman an envelope of documents allegedly incriminating Kirchner — including documents showing transfers of millions of euros from a major Iranian bank to accounts held by her family members in Cyprus, the Seychelles and the Cayman Islands — 10 days before Nisman was assassinated. Those documents prompted Nisman to cut short his vacation in Spain with his 15-year-old daughter, hurry back to Buenos Aires, and arrange to testify against Kirchner in Congress.

Melanie Phillips: The unmistakeable echoes in the culture war against the west

In Britain, statues of historical figures associated with colonialism or slavery are being pulled down or slated for removal.

This is to appease the Black Lives Matters activists and their supporters, both black and white, who have seized upon the appalling death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody to claim that western society is fundamentally racist.

The destruction of these statues and other similar artifacts, which are part of the cultural memory of a civilization, inescapably calls to mind another act of cultural extermination — the Nazi regime’s burning of books in the 1930s.

They threw into the fire books by Jewish, Socialist, liberal or any other authors they deemed to be inimical to Nazi ideology. They did this to erase a western culture they wanted to destroy and replace by their own horrific ideas.

The removal of Britain’s statues is not just a protest against racism. It’s an attempt to destroy an entire culture and replace it by a society organized according to certain unchallengeable dogma.

Of course, there’s anti-black, racial prejudice in America and Britain. There’s also vicious black antisemitism, just as there are black people who are deeply sympathetic to the Jewish people and Jews who are prejudiced against black people.

The point is that racial prejudice exists in every single society — in the developing world, as well as in the west. To single out the west as endemically racist is therefore a gross double standard and calumny.

NY Jewish neighborhood watch Shomrim slams movement to defund NYPD

Save for the small sign taped to the brown brick apartment building imploring Americans to “Keep Fighting, Black Lives Matter,” it’s hard to tell that just a few days ago protesters were marching down Eastern Parkway, the main thoroughfare in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, demanding justice for George Floyd. The 46-year-old black man was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into the handcuffed man’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

Yet, while the protests might have wound down, calls to defund police departments have ramped up nation wide. Here in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has already vowed to redirect some of the police department’s $6 billion budget to other areas, including initiatives focused on mental health and homelessness.

It’s a promise that has some Jewish residents involved in public safety and law enforcement concerned. Although they decry the killing of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, they also fully support the NYPD.

However, if cuts were eventually approved, it could mean more work for Jewish neighborhood watch groups, called Shomrim. Hebrew for “guards” or “watchers,” Shomrim are a decades-old volunteer organization located in predominantly Orthodox neighborhoods such as Crown Heights, Flatbush, parts of Staten Island, and Borough Park.

The nonprofit groups view their mission as safeguarding Orthodox communities as well as helping the NYPD navigate areas where residents primarily speak Yiddish. This coordination with New York’s finest is a point of pride.

“I am outraged by George Floyd’s murder. I am disgusted,” said Yaacov Behrman, chair of the Crown Heights Community Board 9 Public Safety Committee. “Clearly cops like those in Minneapolis should be fired, and maybe you need stricter accountability, and maybe better recruitment. But you could be disgusted by the murder of George Floyd and still be supportive of the police.”

Jewish groups accuse ZOA president of 'bigotry' for criticizing BLM

A coalition of Jewish and pro-Israel groups have called for Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, to be expelled from Jewish umbrella groups, accusing him of "bigotry" and "hatred" following a number of tweets by Klein in which he accused Black Lives Matter (BLM) of antisemitism and promoting violence.

"As progressive pro-Israel organizations and members of the American Jewish community, we are appalled and outraged by the bigotry and hatred expressed and promoted by Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), at this painful and important moment of reckoning for our country," the signatories wrote. "Klein’s latest outbursts and long track record of bigotry should make him unwelcome in any mainstream Jewish communal spaces and should lead to his expulsion from organizational umbrella groups such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations."

The statement was jointly issued by Jewish student group J Street, the New Israel Fund, Partners for Progressive Israel, Reconstructing Judaism, The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and T’ruah, and joined by Nancy Kaufman, past CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women.

On June 6, Klein urged the Southern Poverty Law Center to put Black Lives Matter on their list of hate groups, tweeting: "BLM is a Jew hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros funded extremist group of haters."

In another, posted two days earlier, Klein accused Black Lives Matter leaders and supporters of being "filled with hatred against Jewish people & Israel."

Palestinians Can’t Believe How Quickly CHAZ Achieved Statehood (satire)

With their own struggle for statehood going on 55 years, Palestinians told The Mideast Beast that they are shocked at how rapidly the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, has achieved independence.

CHAZ, which covers several blocks of territory previously controlled by Seattle, was established earlier this week, with Seattle immediately withdrawing its forces and recognizing the zone’s independence.

“Why the fuck didn’t we just declare statehood in Seattle?” one exasperated Palestinian exclaimed. “We’ve had two intifadas and hundreds of UN resolutions and these fucking Jews still won’t leave. These vegans put up a cardboard sign and threaten to burn down one police station, and boom, the Republic of CHAZ is recognized. What are we doing wrong?”

Officials were especially amazed at how quickly CHAZ’s leader, rapper Raz Simone, has achieved international legitimacy.

“Yasser Arafat won a Noble Peace Prize, addressed the United Nations, and met with President Clinton at Camp David, and people still don’t consider him a statesman,” complained Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “This Simone guy shows up handing out mixtapes with a megaphone and a gun, and now he is the head of state of the newest nation in the world.”

For second day, Health Ministry reports over 200 new coronavirus cases

The Health Ministry on Friday evening reported 226 new coronavirus cases over the past day, continuing the recent upward trend in the infection rate, the second day in a row with more than 200 infections.

According to the ministry, there were 3,185 active cases, out of the 18,795 recorded since the start of the pandemic.

Of those who were sick, 34 were in serious condition, 25 of whom were on ventilators. Another 41 were in moderate condition and the rest had mild symptoms.

There were no new fatalities, with the death toll remaining at 300.

The ministry said 15,482 tests were performed Thursday.

After a sustained decline that saw the number of new cases each day dropping to low single digits, Israel has seen a spike in the infection rate over recent weeks. On Thursday, over 200 cases were recorded in a 24-hour period for the first time since late April, before the government began easing restrictions meant to contain the virus.

Health officials have attributed much of the recent rise in new cases to schools, which reopened in May after a two-month closure.

A pair of students in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan tested positive for the coronavirus Friday, leading to the closure of two elementary schools in the city, the Ynet news site reported.

Over 165 educational institutions have been shuttered due to infections.

HAPPENING NOW! Jewish kids from Brooklyn NY are protesting against Bill de Blasio for keeping NYC's parks closed

Absolutely beautiful 👍 pic.twitter.com/lRLMTWLOHo
— Joel Fischer (@JFNYC1) June 12, 2020

NPR: How "Hotel Corona" Brought Israelis and Palestinians Together

The guests at the Dan Jerusalem Hotel from mid-March through early May included Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, and Arab residents of Jerusalem - all Covid-19 patients in quarantine, forced to live together until they were no longer infectious. They called it the "Hotel Corona." The life the patients created together - shared widely on social media - became the envy of the rest of Israel: sunbathing, yoga classes, Zumba sessions, singalongs by the grand piano, and room parties. Outside the hotel, everyone else was under lockdown at home.

Aysha Abu Shhab, 19, who is Muslim, noticed everyone was sticking with their own kind at dinner. She wanted to branch out. So she sat down with a Jewish couple, Amram Maman, 66, and his wife Gina. "They were laughing all the time, so I chose them," she said. By the end of the meal, they were singing "Inta Omri" ("You Are My Life"), a popular Egyptian song from the 1960s.

Noam Shuster-Eliassi, a comedian, performed stand-up for an audience of Jews and Arabs. She told her jokes in Hebrew and Arabic, surprising the audience. As the days went by, Shuster-Eliassi noticed the Arab and Jewish guests began intermingling more. "I was like, wait, where is the racism? Where's all the problems? Where's all the prejudice? Everybody's getting along here in this hotel."

Far-right extremists spreading antisemitic conspiracies about COVID-19

A new report released on Wednesday by the watchdog group The Canary Mission, has revealed that a large amount of antisemitic conspiracies relating to the coronavirus are being spread by a relatively small group of far-right conspirators and organizations,
According to the report, coronavirus antisemitism is largely being spread online by the far-right individuals and organizations. "Without their activities, a significant proportion of coronavirus antisemitism would not exist."

The report exposed a network of 26 white supremacists who have been spreading the majority of online antisemitic conspiracies relating to the coronavirus across various platforms, including six websites.

Podcasts were found to be by far the most prevalent medium for spreading the conspiracies. 17 of the 26 far-right activists investigated in the report (65%) use podcasts to spread their message, most of whom use it as their primary medium.

However, through the process of identifying the 26 leading white supremacists responsible for coronavirus antisemitism, the watchdog group found 12 other equally extreme white supremacists.

The most common conspiracy of the five which studied in the report claims that “the 'Jewish-controlled government’ is exploiting the virus to serve Jewish interests."." This conspiracy appeared in 73% of antisemitic posts studied by the watchdog group.

BDS Is about Bigotry

In the wake of international protests over the murder of George Floyd, we are reminded that hate has no place in civil society. When bigotry is hidden under the mask of human rights, it is important for the real goal be exposed—and for good people do the right thing.

Since its beginning in 2005, the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been hiding behind the façade of a "peaceful" effort to influence Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and forge ahead with a two-state paradigm. This is the narrative espoused by leftist college students, progressive activist groups and mainstream media outlets. But if they would listen to the words of its co-founder, Omar Barghouti, they would know that BDS is about ending Israel's very existence.

In a May 21 interview on The Gazan Voice Podcast, Barghouti clearly explained the goals of the BDS movement.

"If the refugees return to their homes [in Israel] as the BDS movement calls for, if we bring an end to Israel's apartheid regime and if we end the occupation on lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, what will be left of the Zionist regime? That's the question. Meaning, what will the two states be based on? International law and the right of return? There won't be any Zionist state like the one we speak about. There will be two states: One democratic for all its citizens here [Palestine] and one democratic for all its citizens there [Israel]. The Palestinian minority will become a Palestinian majority of what is today called Israel."

This is not the first time Barghouti has gone on record admitting unequivocally that peaceful co-existence is the last thing BDS is about.

"Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine," declared Barghouti at a conference on socialism. "Palestinians and Arabs in general have never, and will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

To garner support for his determination to end the Jewish state, Barghouti resorts to blatant lies.

U. Arizona Defends Misuse of Federal Funds for MidEast Studies

Those concerned with the state of Middle East studies have a litany of common complaints: politicized professors that teach fringe academic theories, rampant anti-Semitism masking as criticism of Israel, instant capitulation to political correctness concerning radical Islam and so on. One aspect that is less often discussed is the total lack of transparency into how Middle East studies is financed.

Take the recent case of the University of Arizona's Center for Middle East Studies (CMES).

In late February, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) sent a letter to the Department of Education and CMES, concerned that funds concerning Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA) were going to "support biased, anti-American, pro-BDS faculty and research." This, he rightly claimed, would be violation of the purpose, and even the letter, of the law concerning Title VI funds. Title VI funds are intended to "develop a pool of international experts to meet national needs," in the field of "international studies and world languages," and must "reflect diverse perspective and a wide range of views."

Gosar listed a number of issues, among which are professors openly supporting the BDS movement. The law requires Title VI centers to "promote access to research and training overseas, including through linkages with overseas institutions," which would be directly counter to the principles of BDS. Other professors have taken actions that also raise eyebrows, such as supporting the brazenly anti-Semitic Students for Justice in Palestine. These actions, he notes, are allowed under the First Amendment, but ought not be paid for by taxpayer funds and are not in accordance with the purpose of Title VI. Furthermore, Gosar notes that CMES has received significant funds from places like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Given that Title VI is intended to improve American national security, this dynamic creates a conflict of interest.

A month later, UA responded to Gosar's letter. Rather than taking this issue with the seriousness it deserves, however, the letter obfuscates more than it enlightens.

Specifically, two professors at Arizona, Maha Nassar and Linda Darling, were mentioned in Gosar's letter. They openly support BDS and have written in defense of those that have called for the destruction of Israel. Rather than take this issue head on, UA claims that Nassar and Darling are "not employees" of CMES, and do not receive Title VI funds.

The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Roger Waters

So — what does Roger Waters think of music, his critics and the normal life we all want to get back to? We find out in Frank Barat’s recent interview with musicians Roger Waters and Brian Eno. Barat, a French author and filmmaker, has edited books with Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Ken Loach, and Angela Davis. He was also the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, which declared Israel an apartheid state, from 2008 to 2014. So that should give you a hint of how the interview goes.

As the co-founder of the progressive rock group Pink Floyd, Roger Waters is well-known to multiple generations for his philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows. He is also notorious for his antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Israel politics.

Fellow Englishman Brian Eno may be less of a household name, but he is a widely respected composer and producer within the music industry. He shares Waters’ rabid anti-Zionist politics, and along with director Ken Loach and musician Thurston Moore, is one of the most outspoken artists supporting the BDS campaign against Israel. Eno denied permission to the Batsheva Dance Company, one of Israel’s most critically-acclaimed performance groups, to use his music for performances in Italy when he discovered that the Israeli embassy was sponsoring the event.

From the interview, it seems that both Waters and Eno have developed a sadly-cynical view of music. Instead of celebrating it as the universal language that bridges cultures and fosters understanding, Waters worries that “music can lull us into complacency.” It is a “tool of the propaganda machine,” he opines, and a “tool of the Ministry of Information … that is being used to destroy the world.” What propaganda machine and which Ministry of Information remain unclear, but, yes, that is a direct quote. Eno tells us that appreciating art does not make you a good person. After all, Heinrich Himmler, he offers cryptically, was a great fan of opera.

Supposedly about music and politics in the COVID-19 world, it did not take long for the conversation to stray to their love-to-hate topic: Israel. When Barat asks why there are so few musicians and other artists supporting BDS, Waters blames the “powerful Israel lobby,” and then quickly segues to besmirching the character of his fellow artists. Any musician who does not want to get involved in Israeli-Palestinian politics, according to the famous bass player, “could not possibly care about people anywhere else in the world. … The Rolling Stones (who played in Israel in 2014) don’t care about human rights. Of course, they don’t. They care about the money.”

Only at the School of Organised Antisemitism (SOAS) would a “Centre for Jewish Studies” hold a 2 day event on this topic.
Yes 2 whole days of academically endorsed antisemitism. 1 just is never going to be enough.
Even better - the public purse pays for it. Hooray! pic.twitter.com/cBQzDqVVDC
— Nuddering (@NudderingNudnik) June 11, 2020

Behold London's statue of Churchill who saved Britain and the world from Hitler and the Nazis pic.twitter.com/2wpqFBUmuf
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 12, 2020

March of the Living program to air, giving hope in face of antisemitism

The March of the Living is hosting an online program which will feature notable public figures such as Whoopi Goldberg and Mayim Bialik, set to resonate with today's rising antisemitic challenges whilst commemorating the anniversary of the end of World War ii and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The program is set to air on June 14 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, (7 p.m. in London, and 9 p.m. in Israel) on the March of the Living's website, and is titled "We Are Here" after the Partisan song "Zog Nit Keyn Mol."

The song, "which binds together those who fight for justice" starts with the words, "Never say this is the final road for you," and ends with the lyrics "We are here."

The program intends to offer hope amidst the current crisis the Jewish public faces in the face of antisemitism, while commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 77th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Renowned actors musicians and civic leaders will be featured, as well as an interview by The Forward editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren with Nancy Spielberg, Roberta Grossman, and Sam Kassow about their film Who Will Write Our History.

Explosive new investigation shows household brands are profiting from racist entries and offensive jokes on the website Urban Dictionary

An explosive investigation has revealed that household brands are profiting from racist entries and offensive jokes on the website Urban Dictionary.

In new research seen by Campaign Against Antisemitism and conducted by Dr Daniel Allington, who is Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King’s College London and a volunteer with Campaign Against Antisemitism, Dr Allington shows that many entries in Urban Dictionary appear to have been written by white supremacists and other bigots and that well-known brands are profiting from their racism.

Dr Allington, an expert on hate speech and extremism, has published the research in the peer-reviewed Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, explains that Urban Dictionary, a website that explains Internet slang and which has been embroiled in controversy over antisemitism in the past, carries adverts for household brands such as DFS and Sky, but that it is also a hotbed of antisemitism.

One Urban Dictionary entry defines the word ‘Jew’ as a verb meaning “To steal something from someone and never return it”, while another on the same page defines a Jew as “A cheap ass n*****”. The top definition for ‘Zionist’ is “One who believes in a political ideology that hijacked Judaism, soon to hijack Christianity’, while the fifth-from-top is “A pig in the temple of God” and the third-from top states “I hate Zionist kikes”.

DFS CEO moves to stop brand being advertised next to racist material on Urban DIctionary after being alerted by CAA

DFS, a leading British furniture retailer, has reacted immediately after learning that its brand is being advertised next to racist material on the website Urban Dictionary.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has contacted numerous household brands after they were discovered to have been advertising on the controversial website by Dr Daniel Allington in peer-reviewed research published yesterday and seen in advance by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Dr Allington, who is Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence at King’s College London and a volunteer with Campaign Against Antisemitism, showed that many entries in the Urban Dictionary appear to have been written by white supremacists and other bigots and that well-known brands are advertising alongside their racism.

Dr Allington said: “I realised that hardcore racists were exploiting Urban Dictionary’s ‘anything goes’ philosophy to promote their extremist views. It wouldn’t matter so much if it was an obscure website that nobody’s heard of, but the Urban Dictionary is one of the most popular websites in the world and it carries adverts for household name brands.”

Protest against statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, Oxford turned antisemitic, according to college’s Equality and Diversity Officer

The Equality and Diversity Officer at Oriel College, Oxford, has claimed that a protest against the statue of Cecil Rhodes at the college turned antisemitic, according to the JC.

The protest to remove the statue, held by the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign reportedly in solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, featured a speaker from the University of Leeds who blamed Israel for the racist American police brutality that killed George Floyd. The speaker claimed that “the American police are trained by the Israel oppression army. They are united against us.” He went on to accuse his university “like many others” of “invest[ing] in Israeli apartheid”.

However, the Equality and Diversity Officer of Oriel Middle Common Room told the JC: “A speaker stood up and started bringing up Israel in a context where you wouldn’t really expect Israel to be relevant. He started talking conspiratorially about how Israel was responsible for racism and he used the antisemitic tropes of bringing Israel in where Israel is not relevant”. The officer, in attendance at the protest, raised his concerns to those around him but in return “received threatening stares” and opted to leave the protest after being made to feel “uncomfortable”.

It is understood that numerous Jewish and non-Jewish students subsequently approached the officer in his official capacity about the protest, saying that they were “hurt and concerned” following the remarks by the inflammatory speaker.

Heritage NGO rejects Jewish offer to buy Egyptian Torah scrolls

Nebi Daniel, a group of Egyptian Jews living in France, the UK, Switzerland, Australia and the USA, has had its offer to buy a number of Torah scrolls still in Egypt rejected.

The Egyptian government has forbidden Torah scrolls more than 100 years old to leave the country as they are classified as antiquities. But just under half of the Torah scrolls in Cairo out of the total identified by Nebi Daniel are less than 100 years old, and are worth repairing for further use. There are 140 Torah scrolls in the whole of Egypt.

The offer to buy the scrolls was made to the Drop of Milk, a NGO resurrected in 2016. The Drop of Milk was originally set up to care for poor and orphaned Jewish children. Its articles of association were modified to include safegarding Egypt's Jewish heritage.

The Drop of Milk has long complained of lack of funds to preserve the Bassatine cemetery in Cairo, although the restoration of the three cemeteries in Alexandria was largely funded by Jews outside the country.

The sale of the scrolls would be a 'win-win situation', says Yves Fedida of the Nebi Daniel association.

But the offer seems to have been rejected after the Drop of Milk consulted with Magda Haroun, head of the tiny Cairo Jewish community of less than five people.

Despite pandemic, top Israeli defense firm reports record first quarter results

In recent weeks, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, the largest national military and civilian security company reported the most lucrative quarter in its history, marking $1.018 billion in defense sales, the company said.

Export sales accounted for 71% of sales, while sales in Israel made up 29%. The overall gross profit made by IAI in Q1 was $170 million.

The company also had a first-quarter order backlog worth $13.2 billion – 79% of which of "is held for sale to foreign customers that are widely geographically dispersed, based on a large variety of projects, and [which] secures about 3.2 years of operations," IAI said in a statement.

IAI develops a range of air, land, sea and space defense systems, including the Arrow anti-ballistic missile, loitering munitions, laser and GPS-guided weapons, radars, drones and observation satellites.

Speaking to Jewish News Syndicate, an IAI source described the results of the first quarter as the continuation of a major change in the company's business strategy, which began in 2019. The strategy called for streamlining and efficiency, creating a lengthy backlog, as well as technological versatility.

U.S. Army to Receive First Israeli-Made Air Defense System in December

Two Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense batteries are scheduled to arrive in December 2020 and February 2021 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to undergo an equipment fielding and training program, said Brig.-Gen. Brian Gibson.

The rigorous testing of each system will end with a live-fire engagement to shoot down a surrogate cruise missile target.

After this, the Iron Dome batteries will be available for operational deployment.

The Iron Dome system is a battle-proven, highly-accurate weapon and for years it has helped safeguard locations around Israel from rocket fire.

The new @Microsoft campus in Herziliya will be inaugurated on a street named after Dr Alan Turing.

He was a pioneer of computer science whose work helped defeat the Nazis, ensuring the freedom of others.

His legacy has paved the way for a more equal society for #LGBTQ people🏳️‍🌈 pic.twitter.com/QqBptA46Y6
— Israel in the UK 🇮🇱🤝🇬🇧 (@IsraelinUK) June 12, 2020

Back from space odyssey, astronaut Jessica Meir adapts to Covid-plagued Earth

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir misses hugs. She had looked forward to embracing her loved ones upon returning to Earth on April 17 after spending 205 days in space. But because of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, she’s resigned herself to waiting a little longer.

“That was the hardest part of me; not getting to hug anyone for seven months and then coming back to Earth and still not being able to hug anyone,” Meir said.

The Times of Israel interviewed Meir nearly two months after she landed safely in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft following a seven-month stint aboard the International Space Station. It was Meir’s first space mission, and the fulfillment of a childhood dream, long before she was selected as a member of NASA’s eight-member class of 2013.

While on the mission, Meir made history as a member of the first all-female space walk, when she and fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch exited the ISS on October 18, 2019 for more than seven hours to replace a power controller. Meir subsequently completed another two spacewalks with Koch, for a total of 21 hours and 44 minutes outside the Space Station.

Following an unusually complicated process to retrieve and return Meir and NASA colleague Andrew Morgan to Houston due to COVID-19, the two went directly into a weeklong quarantine at the Johnson Space Center.

“One of the big reasons for the weeklong quarantine was that astronauts can sometimes have a dysregulation of the immune system in flight, or sometimes post-flight. We can have a reduction in the number of T cells in our immune systems, and we sometimes have a reactivation of latent viruses that manifest themselves during the mission, or after it. Essentially we are a little bit like immunocompromised individuals, and of course, they didn’t want us to come into contact with COVID-19 in that state,” Meir explained.

Although Meir is now back at her own home, she interacts only with a limited number of NASA personnel. Her family members, including her 75-year-old mother, have been unable to fly in to see her because of flight restrictions stemming from the pandemic.

A spike in young professionals interested in making aliyah

‘I’m really excited,” says the voice at the other end of the line, speaking from the East Coast of the United States.

Naomi Javitt from Elizabeth, New Jersey, has a good reason to feel enthusiastic. Javitt, 22, a freshly minted graduate from Cooper Union, is packing for her Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah flight, which will depart less than 24 hours after our interview.

Javitt received her degree in mechanical engineering in May, and already holds a US patent for a device that she invented which uses multisensory biofeedback to improve the stability of those with peripheral neuropathy.

She typifies the latest wave of professional, highly trained olim headed for Israel’s shores.

“I grew up in a Zionistic home, visited Israel many times, and by the time I graduated high school, I was dead set on making aliyah. It was just a matter of when,” she says, matter-of-factly.

Javitt says that Nefesh B’Nefesh has been extremely helpful in the entire process, from her early preparation two years ago – “I attended a mega event a year or two ago which helped get me ready” – to organizing her flight and staying in touch beforehand.

After arriving in Israel, Javitt will enter the mandatory corona isolation period, but shrugs off the inconvenience, saying that “it’s just another price to pay.” She is optimistic about her future and, with her entrepreneurial bent, is confident that she will soon find employment.

10-day-old Syrian baby flown to Israel for emergency heart surgery

A 10-day-old Syrian baby boy was flown into Israel from Cyprus on Thursday morning for an emergency procedure to correct a congenital heart defect, according to the Sheba Medical Center.

The infant received the surgery and was moved to a recovery ward, on a respirator, later in the day, a spokesman for the Ramat Gan hospital told The Times of Israel.

It was the first time that Sheba — often ranked as one of the world’s top hospitals — received such an emergency case from abroad since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the spokesman.

Such situations were common before the outbreak, and they involved not just allies of Israel, but also countries with which the government in Jerusalem does not have diplomatic ties, like Syria and Iraq.
A 10-day-old Syrian baby is flown from Cyprus to Israel for emergency surgery on June 11, 2020. (Sammy Revel/Twitter)

The baby’s father will be staying at the hospital until doctors determine that the child is was well enough to travel, which will likely take several weeks, the spokesman said.

Israel’s ambassador to Cyprus, Sammy Revel, said the effort to bring the boy to Sheba required “special approval” from Jerusalem and coordination by Cyprus’s health ministry.

From 2013 to 2018, Israel maintained a program along the Syrian border allowing residents of the area, who were affected by the country’s civil war, to enter Israel for medical treatment. That effort formally ended in the summer of 2018 when Syrian dictator Bashar Assad took control of southern Syria.

Jewish doctors bring 10 day-old Syrian Muslim child to Israel for an emergency heart surgery.

Costs to fly plane:

$50K* fuel
$30K* insurance
$2K landing/departure, parking, layover fees. + pilots, crew, doctor fees.

Free treatment. Flown back.

Try and convince me they hate us pic.twitter.com/wgCFAF8dbz
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) June 11, 2020

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