08/23 Links Pt2: Why Rename Judea and Samaria?; Defund Hillel? Defund Rutgers; The Guardian again promotes Forensic Architecture's anti-Israel vitriol

From Ian:

Why Rename Judea and Samaria?

There is good reason that the Arab world and the anti-Israel left insist on using the mendacious and geographically inaccurate term “West Bank” when they refer to Judea and Samaria.

Think about it: Imagine a human-rights movement built around the slogan: Ban Arabs from Arabia! Such a slogan and movement would raise many questions. For instance, where else would Arabs have a right to be if not Arabia, and who could have a greater claim to Arabia than Arabs?

Although freedom-loving Americans have endless reasons to squirm when contemplating Saudi Arabia (as do freedom-hating Americans), we all tend to agree that Arabs who want to live there have an assumed right to do so. Arabia for Arabs. India for Indians. Russia for Russians. Mongolia for Mongolians—some outer, some inner. Austria for Austrians. Guatemala for Guatemalans. Cuba for Cubans. Sounds right.

Somewhere along the litany it would make sense to say: Yehuda for Yehudim—i.e., Judea for Jews. Even antisemites would find it hard to get behind slogans such as “Ban Jews from Judea! Jews Never Lived in Judea!” The Jews (Yehudim in Hebrew) of the tribe of Judah (Yehudah) gave the land of Yehudah its name: Judea, as transliterated in the King James Version of the Bible.

It has always been preposterous to call Judea and Samaria the “West Bank.” Think of the most famous locations in the Bible: Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Beth El, Jericho, Shiloh, Shechem (Nablus), Galilee, Tekoa—all the places where the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs, the kings and prophets walked and lived. Jesus and the Apostles, too. Their lives all centered in Judea and in Samaria. Those terms are all over the Bible, with more than 100 mentions just of “Samaria” in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and in the Christian Gospels.

JPost Editorial: Don't hijack the Holocaust - editorial

Last week The Jerusalem Post published in these pages an opinion piece which unfortunately failed to go through a sufficient vetting system. We sincerely regret this error. The oped, written by an Australian under the name of David Goldman, was titled: “This disgraceful mocking of the Holocaust needs to stop now.” In it, he ridiculed and belittled Croatian Holocaust scholar Dr. Ivo Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein was given the right of reply which appeared in yesterday’s Post opinion pages under the title “A collage of lies.”

The publication of the original op-ed stemmed from the Post’s policy to offer our readers a broad range of opinions from a wide selection of writers. It is a policy of which we are proud, although it is occasionally and regrettably abused by writers.

The most important lesson we can take from this incident is the need to avoid helping, inadvertently, the battle over the truth of the Holocaust. As fewer and fewer survivors and first-hand witnesses remain to tell their experiences of the greatest atrocity of humankind, the stories have become a battle of narratives, exploited for different purposes.

These specific opinion pieces referred to the roles of the Croats and Serbs. The sensitivity exists equally for almost every country in Europe including Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and western European countries conquered by the Nazis in the Second World War. It can be seen particularly in Poland which recently passed laws making it a criminal offense to blame the Poles for crimes committed in their country during the Holocaust and halted the restitution of Jewish property wrongfully confiscated during the years of the Polish communist rule following the end of World War II.

It is true that concentration and death camps were run by the Nazis, but in many countries, they found willing collaborators among the local population who were more than happy to assist in eradicating Jews. What this has led to are two disturbing trends which are affecting the historical truth of the Holocaust. On the one hand, there is a trend by the countries where the Nazis ruled to portray themselves first and foremost as the victims. This is the case, for example, in Poland which prefers to focus on its own victimhood as opposed to the genocide of millions of its Jewish population.

Turbulent dimensions, years of pushing: Seeking justice with the help of StandWithUs

From an April 2021 Stand With Us announcement headed Bringing Our Child's Murderer To Justice:
In 2001, Malki Roth was murdered in the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem along with 15 other people. Now, Interpol has dropped the international arrest warrant for the mastermind behind this heinous terrorist attack, Ahlam Tamimi. Tamimi, who now lives in Jordan, has shown no remorse for her despicable crimes.

On this week’s episode of StandWithUs TV Live, Malki’s father, Arnold Roth will join us in conversation with Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs Co-founder and CEO, about terrorism, the impact Malki’s tragic death had on his family and the battle to have Tamimi extradited to the US to face charges.

Join us live on Facebook: Sunday, April 11, 11:00AM Pacific time.

Our great and sincere thanks to Roz Rothstein and her indefatigable team of professionals and activists for their many years of fine work.

A Brother’s Death

The ceremony was brief, over in under 10 minutes. Held under cloudy twilight skies, it commemorated an event so scorched into the consciousness of the community in which it took place, and into the collective memory of New Yorkers and of American Jews, that it felt unnecessary to dwell on the details for too long.

Wednesday night marked the 30th anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Australian Ph.D. student and Orthodox Jew assaulted and stabbed at the corner of President Street and Brooklyn Avenue in Crown Heights on the night of Aug. 19, 1991. A few hours before the attack, a 7-year-old child had died after a collision with a car belonging to the motorcade of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement, an accident that unleashed anger and anarchy on Jewish Crown Heights.

The Crown Heights riots are one of the most controversial and formative events in the modern history of New York, an inter- and intra-communal outburst that altered the politics and psyche of the city, and a saga packed with contradictory messages about how and why and whether vastly different groups can live together in contemporary urban America.

Wednesday night’s memorial distilled this painful and sometimes ambiguous seeming history to its essence. “Thirty years ago, an antisemitic mob screaming ‘Kill the Jew’ chased Yankel Rosenbaum through the streets,” said Rabbi and community activist Yaacov Behrman, opening the commemoration. He stood before the steel black fence surrounding St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School, the eye-catching, Moorish-style building occupying the end of a block of stately free-standing houses, of a size and spacing unusual for such a dense section of Brooklyn. Until his death in 1994, one of them had been home to Schneerson.

Rosenbaum was shoved against the fencing, savagely beaten, and then fatally stabbed not far from where Behrman stood. “Everyone here believes in racial harmony and coming together in common cause, but it is equally important not to distort history or propagate a false narrative,” Behrman continued. “Yankel was killed for being a Jew.”

Defund Hillel? Defund Rutgers.

Far too many Jewish students across the country are already living a kind of forced silence and invisibility when it comes to matters of Jewish identity. To combat this trend, the toolkit employed must be broadened considerably.

When the ZOA filed its complaint in 2011, it was onto something. An even wider, multipronged legal strategy should be part of a comprehensive and invigorated approach to the entire issue of antisemitism.

Rutgers and others must learn that the Jewish community regards this as a civil rights struggle. The university may continue to fail its Jewish students, but it must be made to pay a real price beyond tiresome expressions of disappointment by Jewish groups.

New Jersey’s “flagship” state university has for decades been enriched by the talent, hard work and contributions of countless Jewish students, staff, faculty and donors. It has taken all of this for granted, along with the ongoing presence of a large and vibrant Jewish community itself.

Rutgers must be shown that it can no longer afford to do so.

Will a “defund Hillel” movement ever gain traction? Never underestimate what our adversaries are capable of.

As this academic year begins, however, what a university that benefits from millions in public funding must be made to understand is that a movement to “defund Rutgers” is a real possibility as well.

Over 100 rabbis including -

Simone Zimmerman
IfNotNow
JStreet
Peter Beinart

What a rabbinical roundup ??. https://t.co/yhQAUnVY2U pic.twitter.com/uCWhPwvreK

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) August 23, 2021

UNC Violates Government Agreement by Promoting Antisemitism In Classroom

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has decided that graduate student Kylie Broderick will be allowed to teach the Fall course, “The Conflict Over Israel/Palestine,” despite her long public history of attacking Israel.

Classes began on August 18.

Broderick recently tweeted the term “Zionist dirtbags” which is similar to the commonly used antisemitic slur “dirty Jew.”

Broderick promotes the idea that Israel should not exist, demands “everyone at UNC … boycott Israeli products,” declares that Palestinians are the only legitimate side in the conflict, and pressures “undergrads” to stop hiding and “Do what’s right. Support a #freePalestine now.”

UNC Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz dismissed concerns he received from many Jewish leaders and community members, stating he is “confident” that students enrolled in Broderick’s class “will benefit from a thoughtful presentation of information relevant to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.”

The Chancellor’s response outraged the Jewish community.

Since then, UNC has held many meetings on this issue with multiple Jewish leaders and alumni.

One local rabbi told UNC officials to rename the course “The Palestinian Point of View.”

CAIR Lectures Media About Accurately Quoting Jihadists

On Monday, after Kabul fell, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said that it was “a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years. Thanks to God, the war is over in the country.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is going to have to give him a good talking-to.

In a news release issued Monday, CAIR advised politicians and journalists “Not to Engage in Anti-Muslim Tropes or ‘Misuse’ Islamic Terms When Commenting on Afghanistan.” Among those supposedly misused terms?

“Jihad.”

A mujahidin is someone who wages jihad, so Naeem’s politically incorrect reference should draw a strong rebuke from CAIR.

But its release offers no judgment about the Taliban’s nomenclature, let alone its resurgence. It contained no expression of concern for the grim future facing Afghans who either don’t conform to the Taliban’s rigid rule or are perceived as enemies.

“Jihadist” is a fictional term, CAIR claims in the release. It helps to “misconstrue Islam as a political ideology. In recent years, we have seen the term ‘jihadist’ come to be used as if it means a person who kills people out of a religious motivation, but this is inaccurate.”

The Guardian again promotes Forensic Architecture's anti-Israel vitriol

The University of Manchester on Wednesday reversed a decision to remove a statement of solidarity with Palestine’s “liberation struggle” from an exhibition at the university’s Whitworth gallery by the so-called “human rights” group Forensic Architecture (FA), a group based at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The initial decision to remove the exhibition’s opening statement, which portrayed Israel as an occupation force engaged in ethnic cleansing and apartheid, was taken after fierce criticism of the “factually incorrect and dangerously one-sided” statement by UK Lawyers for Israel, North West Friends of Israel and the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester.

However, in restoring the anti-Israel statement, the museum agreed to post a rebuttal at the entrance to their exhibition, written by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, seen here:

The inclusion of this statement was curiously absent from an op-ed on the row published in the Guardian by FA, (“Our art deals with real injustices, some in Palestine: no wonder we faced opposition”, Aug. 20th).

After spending the first few paragraphs of their Guardian op-ed attacking UK Lawyers for Israel*, a highly reputable mainstream Jewish group which fights BDS and other efforts to undermine Israel’s right to exist, and detailing some of their other projects, the op-ed eventually pivots the the matter at hand:
In May, as we worked on the [Manchester] exhibition, the latest round of Israeli attacks on Gaza began.

As you can see, the group isn’t even trying to be factual or objective, omitting the fact that the “Israeli attacks on Gaza” only began after Hamas decided to launch an unprovoked volley of rockets on Jerusalem. In fact, the word “Hamas” doesn’t appear anywhere in the op-ed.

A Stunning Holocaust Documentary — But Not for Reasons You Suspect

The congregants at Temple Beth Torah in Massachusetts hang on every word of Misha Defonseca’s story. She is a Holocaust survivor who, at the age of 7, walked thousands of miles through the woods from Belgium to Germany. Crazier still, her story included details that she was in part protected by wolves, and would eat leftover scraps from their meals to survive.

Netflix’s documentary, “Misha and the Wolves,” is jaw-dropping — and that’s not hyperbole. We see that Misha’s story became a memoir that was sold all over the world, a movie in France, and was almost acquired by Disney. Oprah Winfrey invited Misha to come on her show, which would have guaranteed huge sales. She went to France, and on a TV interview, explained how she stabbed a man to death. In another interview, she praised the child actress who played her in the French movie, and then appeared at symposiums in her honor where she saw beautiful paintings that students created, which were inspired by her story.

The problems begin when there’s tension between her and her publisher, Jane Daniel. Daniel is astonished when Defonseca refuses to go to Chicago to be on Winfrey’s show, when any author would kill to be on it. Soon there are claims that Daniel is using Misha as a goldmine, and after a lawsuit for lost royalties and other abuses, a court rules against Daniel to the staggering tune of $22.5 million.

After the verdict, knowing that her finances and reputation are ruined, Daniel goes over Misha’s story in her head, and enlists the help of others to uncover discrepancies in the story. One genealogist examines a picture of Defonseca, where she claimed to be seven years old, and says she is years younger. Another photo — allegedly of a grandfather who is a farmer — shows that his hands are manicured and don’t look like he’s done farming work. Defonseca said she knew her parents’ first names but not the family’s last name — yet the bank records show that Defonseca has written her mother’s maiden name.

Holocaust survivor Evelyne Haendel is brought in and sees there are more discrepancies with Defonseca’s story. After putting in tons of time and research, Haendel uncovers records from a school that are staggering.

London Police Release Image of Suspect in Brutal Assault on Orthodox Jewish Man

The London Metropolitan Police on Monday distributed an image of the suspect in a brutal assault on a Jewish man in the Stamford Hill neighborhood on Friday.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the 64-year-old Orthodox Jewish victim was on his way to synagogue before being struck by the unidentified man, who appeared dressed in traditional Muslim garb.

The victim was knocked to the ground and left with facial injuries and a broken foot. He was hospitalized and then released.

The police said the incident is being treated as a hate crime.

The image of the suspect distributed by the police shows a bearded man in black-rimmed glasses, wearing a white skullcap and a dark green jacket.

The attack on the adult man came hours after a similar alleged assault on a child.

The Stamford Hill Jewish security force Shomrim posted two videos of the incidents on Twitter.

Police investigate after video released showing spate of physical attacks by one assailant against religious Jews, including a child

Police are investigating after a spate of physical attacks against religious Jews in North London, all apparently at the hands of one assailant.

At least two of the attacks against religious Jews in the heavily Jewish neighbourhood of Stamford Hill have been caught on video.

One incident took place at 19:10 on 18th August on Holmdale Terrace, where the suspect slapped the back of the head of a child (crime reference number CAD6568 20/08/2021).

Another incident took place at 20:30 on the same day at the junction with Colberg Road, where the 64-year-old victim was one his way to synagogue for the Friday night service before being struck and left unconscious on the ground. He suffered facial injuries and a broken foot (crime reference number CAD4492 20/08/2021).

Both incidents were reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch patrol.

The suspect in each video is a man dressed in religious Muslim garb with a black beard, dark skin and dark and thick-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a dark green bomber jacket, white kufi and thwab.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, condemned “this appalling attack,” adding: “Let me be clear, racist abuse and hate crime, including antisemitism, have absolutely no place in our city.” He urged anyone with information to contact the Metropolitan Police.

?? Brooklyn - an elderly Jewish man was punched in the face, attacker thankfully was quickly arrested. https://t.co/K3sS01KTm5

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) August 23, 2021

Long Beach Police and @NassauCountyPD have arrested Alexander McElrath in connection to this weekend's vandalism of a newly renovated Chabad synagogue.

Charges include burglary, criminal mischief and grand larceny.

2 Sefer Torahs are still unaccounted for. https://t.co/tPgZTRiMlv pic.twitter.com/EHrdooBZet

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) August 23, 2021

Man jailed for nine months after daubing swastika and racist slogans on side of hairdressers in Wales

It was reported on Thursday that a man in Wales has been jailed for nine months after daubing swastikas and racist slogans on the side of a hairdressers. David Elwyn Richards, 52, admitted to shouting abuse and racially harassing Reece Nash in Johnstown, Wrexham on 14th December. Mr Richards also admitted to racially aggravated damage after he painted the hairdressers that Mr Nash resided above with swastikas and racist slogans. It was also reported that Mr Richards had Nazi-related tattoos on his body, and when police visited his home, they found that his bedroom was covered in “racist and antisemitic symbols and slogans”. Judge Niclas Parry reportedly had to send Mr Richards out of the courtroom during the sentencing due to multiple disruptions. Addressing the defence’s suggestion that a rehabilitation activity programme may be a more effective means of addressing Mr Richards’ issues, Judge Parry disagreed, stating: “This is a case about blatant ugly racism. It must be understood that racism will not be allowed to flourish.”

Maine Lawmaker Denounced for Attending Event Hosted by Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorist

A group of lawmakers in Maine condemned a state representative for participating in an event hosted by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist. A total of 53 members of the state legislature signed a letter expressing their solidarity against antisemitism and denouncing Rep. Heidi Sampson (R-Alfred) for speaking at an event in the city of Belfast on July 27 that was co-organized by Robert David Steele, Maine’s WABI reported on Tuesday. The event, part of the “Arise USA! Resurrection Tour,” reportedly featured several controversial speakers that support Holocaust denial and embrace conspiracy theories, including retired gynecologist Christiane Northrup, who has become a leading voice of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in the United States. The group of lawmakers said in their letter, “Our state has a long history of extremist activity, including hosting the first Ku Klux Klan event in New England. However, what sets recent events apart is the involvement of elected officials and their de-facto sanctioning of extremist groups that pose a fundamental threat to our democracy.” Steele has previously said that “elite Jews” are responsible for the Holocaust. He claimed Zionists funded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, “control the American media” and belong to the “Synagogue of Satan.” He also promoted the conspiracy theory that “satanic Zionists” kidnap children and are plotting against white people, according to the group of lawmakers.

Chief Executive of MEND warns that anyone who says his comparison of Israel to “Hitler” in 2014 Facebook post was intentionally antisemitic will be “challenged”

It has been reported that the Chief Executive of the controversial organisation Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) compared Israel to Hitler in a Facebook post. MEND claims to seek to “encourage British Muslims within local communities to be more actively involved in British media and politics.” In a 2014 Facebook post, Azhar Qayum, MEND’s Chief Executive, is alleged to have written: “So generous, push four million Palestinians off their land, then relinquish a tiny corner of it, whilst maintaining a crippling blockade even on that, invade every few months killing a thousand or two at will…Israel’s generosity is like the ‘generosity of Hitler’.” According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis is an example of antisemitism.” The comment was reportedly made in a Facebook debate in relation to the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, and is it is understood that he made the comments before he joined MEND. Mr Qayum reportedly addressed the post, saying: “I used the word as you would of any nation that had recently used its armed forces to kill thousands of unarmed civilians and NOT as an insult to any people. Having had a huge amount of anti-racism training in my MEND years I would now not use the word ‘Hitler’ in this context, particularly as I now know how some have made antisemitic comments when making comparisons to Nazi Germany.

$1.50-a-day lipid-lowering drug helps COVID patients in small Israeli trial

A $1.50-a-day generic drug appears to have strong COVID-fighting ability, Israeli researchers say, after inflammation levels “fell like a rock” among coronavirus patients in a small clinical trial. A research team from Hebrew University of Jerusalem proposed early in the pandemic that fenofibrate, a generic fat-lowering medication and one of America’s most prescribed medicines, could help COVID-19 patients. It saw the drug effectively fight the coronavirus in-vitro a year ago, and has conducted data studies since. Now, the team has given the drug to 15 serious COVID-19 patients at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. All were receiving oxygen, yet all were discharged during the course of the 10-day trial. “We saw that it works,” Prof. Yaakov Nahmias of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told The Times of Israel. “This is very promising, and it’s exciting as this is a very cheap generic drug with minimal side effects.” He stressed that further research involving a placebo group is getting underway, and is needed to draw firm conclusions, but said there is clear comparison data for the 15 patients, in the form of medical records from 144 others who were similarly sick with the coronavirus. Based on these records, he expected just 28.5% of patients to come off oxygen in under seven days. He found that 93% — all but one patient — in his trial came off oxygen in this timeframe.

First US Army Iron Dome Battery Completes Live Fire Test in New Mexico

The first US Army Iron Dome Battery has completed a live fire test at New Mexico’s White Sands test range, according a statement from the Israeli Defense Ministry. The US acquired the missile defense technology from Israel with the Israel Missile Defense Organization and Iron Dome developers Rafael, IAI Elta and mPrest supporting the test. The live fire test marked the first time that US soldiers intercepted live targets employing the Iron Dome system, according to the statement. The US and Israel signed an agreement in 2019 for the procurement of two Iron Dome batteries. The first battery was delivered in September 2020 and the second delivery was completed in early 2021. “The US Army Iron Dome System is designed to defend supported forces against a range of threats including cruise missiles, unmanned aircraft systems, rockets, artillery and mortar threats,” the statement said. Israel defense technology company Rafael Advanced Systems is the main contractor, with Elta Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, developing the radar. The command and control system was developed by mPrest Systems. The Israel Missile Defense Organization leads the development of Israel’s missile defense system, which includes Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow-2 and Arrow-3.

Rabbi Recites Jewish Prayer as He Is Sworn in to Western Australia’s Supreme Court

The first Orthodox Jewish rabbi to be appointed to an Australian supreme court recited a Jewish prayer at the end of his swearing-in ceremony. Rabbi Marcus Solomon, a 58-year-old commercial litigator and arbitrator, was sworn in on Wednesday to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The Perth resident, who also serves as leader of the Dianella synagogue, said at the end of the swearing-in that he wanted to conclude the ceremony “with an old Jewish custom”—the Shehecheyanu, which is typically recited to celebrate new experiences. In a video taken at the ceremony, Solomon is heard saying, “At moments of importance in one’s life and the life of the community, whatever one’s belief, or indeed—non-belief, we humbly acknowledge and never take for granted life itself, the values and freedoms we enjoy, and the good fortune we share in having been sustained to come together on such an occasion.” Before saying the Hebrew prayer, he added that “if the chief justice can use Hebrew,” referring to an earlier speech, “then I am not going to be outdone.”

Bahrain’s Jewish Community Celebrates Its First Bar Mitzvah in 16 Years

The Jewish community of Bahrain celebrated the country’s first bar mitzvah since 2005. The bar mitzvah ceremony took place in the House of the Ten Commandments in Manama, the kingdom’s only operational synagogue, according to a release from the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, which coordinates and promotes Jewish life in the region. The bar mitzvah boy, who was not named in the release, read from a Torah scroll donated by Jared Kushner, the adviser to former President Donald Trump. The bar mitzvah ceremony comes about a year after Bahrain signed a normalization accord with Israel that Kushner helped broker. Israel has signed or committed to similar agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan. There are currently about 50 Jews living in Bahrain. According to the release, Jews in Oman recently celebrated a bat mitzvah, though it did not provide further details in order to protect the family’s privacy. “It is a very exciting time for Jewish life in the GCC as more families celebrate Jewish milestones more publicly,” read a statement by Rabbi Eli Abadie of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional alliance. “This is an affirmation of the continued growth of Jewish life in the region.”

On this day: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Battle of Stalingrad

August 23 marks 82 years since the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, otherwise known as the Nazi-Soviet Treaty of Nonaggression, and 79 years since the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. On May 3, 1939, Stalin fired Russia's Jewish Foreign Minister Maksim Litvinov and replaced him with Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. Molotov began negotiating with the Nazi foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and the two drew up the Nazi-Soviet Treaty of Nonaggression. The treaty was a win-win for the two powers because it allowed the Soviet Union to buy time to rebuild the military after the purge of the Red Army in 1937, while the Nazis could invade Poland without the opposition of a major power and then focus on Britain and France in the west. The terms of the pact were all in favor of preventing any aggression between the two parties. Neither party was permitted to attack the other or support or cooperate with any third party that may attack either party. Disagreements and common interests were to be discussed and negotiated, and the pact was meant to last ten years with automatic extension for a further five years unless either party gave notice of termination one year before its expiration. The pact was signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939 by Ribbentrop and Molotov in the presence of Stalin. A secret protocol was added to the pact that divided the entirety of Eastern Europe into German and Soviet territories. Poland east of Narew Vistula and San rivers belonged to the Soviet Union along with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. A map showing the borders of eastern Europe according to the secret protocol added to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (credit: MaGioZal/Wikimedia Commons)

Zionist Congress in Geneva learns of the Hitler-Stalin pact signed on this day in 1939.

“They do not look like people who have just heard a piece of political news. They look like people who have heard a death sentence pronounced on members of their family.”
(C. Cruise O’Brien) pic.twitter.com/TE5VM2BPIB

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 23, 2021

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