12/28 Links Pt2: The Democrats must have a ‘Sister Souljah moment’ on antisemitism; War of Independence veterans protest 'defamatory' Netflix movie; Prominent Israeli firms vow to boycott bigots ~ EoZ

From Ian:

The Democrats must have a ‘Sister Souljah moment’ on antisemitism

The recent rise in American antisemitism is the result of a lack of consequences for those engaging in it.

For example, Americans Against Antisemitism studied 194 anti-Jewish assaults and 135 attacks on Jewish property in New York that have taken place since 2018. According to their July 2022 report, only two of the perpetrators actually went to prison.

A similar situation is occurring on college campuses. Students who harass Jews are rarely if ever suspended or expelled, and almost never face any consequences at all. This has emboldened antisemites on campus, with a chilling effect on Jewish and pro-Israel voices.

Colleges have codes of conduct according to which harassment of other students can result in serious ramifications. These codes have not been enforced against antisemites.

In the realm of politics, when Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar engaged in anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments, and expressed support for BDS, their fellow Democrats were initially prepared to take action against them. A resolution passed by the House of Representatives (H.R.183) sought to “ensure safety” for Jews. It stated, “Accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the U.S. constitutes antisemitism.”

The resolution was a response to Omar’s comments, with Tlaib by her side, that supporters of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship “push allegiance to a foreign country.” In Jan. 2019, Tlaib criticized Sen. Marco Rubio’s efforts to punish those who attempt to boycott Israel, tweeting, “They forgot what country they represent.” Rubio posted, “The ‘dual loyalty’ canard is a typical antisemitic line.” Neither Tlaib nor Omar have apologized for these statements.

Instead of making it clear that Tlaib and Omar’s bigoted views are anathema to the Democratic Party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed both for reelection.

Sadly, it is not surprising that several Jewish organizations, including the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Ameinu, along with the left-wing lobby J Street, issued a statement saying they “oppose Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s pledge to strip Representative Ilhan Omar of her House Foreign Affairs Committee seat based on false accusations that she is antisemitic or anti-Israel. We may not agree with some of Congresswoman Omar’s opinions, but we categorically reject the suggestion that any of her policy positions or statements merit disqualification from her role on the committee.”

With Jewish organizations like these, we should not be surprised that antisemitism is rising.

War of Independence veterans protest 'defamatory' Netflix movie

Veterans of the War of Independence, who are currently in the tenth decade of their lives, have joined the furor surrounding the Jordanian film Farha, which depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers executing Palestinian children and babies, demanding Netflix immediately remove it from their library.

"We are Holocaust survivors who defended our country. Remove the defamatory film," the five ex-soldiers called.

The Israel Law Center has sent a warning letter to Netflix on their behalf concerning a potential breach of Israeli defamation laws.

The group consists of 96-year-old Oded Negbi, who served in the Givati Brigade and fought many battles in the Negev and Jaffa; 92-year-old Eitan Yavzory of Kibbutz Afikim, who fought in Gush Etzion and in the Negev; 94-year-old Ezra Yachin, who fought in Jerusalem; 92-year-old Lt. Col. (Res.) Ze'ev (Tibi) Ram, a Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family at Auschwitz and enlisted in the Golani Brigade upon the outbreak of the War of Independence; and 91-year-old Prof. Benny Arad, a veteran of the Haganah, who fought in the War of Independence, among other conflicts, and served as an IDF officer for many years. As a physicist, Arad was one of the founders of the Department of Experimental Physics at the Negev Nuclear Research Center.

"It's an antisemitic movie. When I heard about it, I was appalled. At the thought that this movie is being shown all over the world, I was driven to stand up and protest, and I called in my son. He contacted the Israel Law Center," Arad said.

"Personally, I don't watch television. But when we're defamed like this, I can't let it pass. The world doesn't know what the IDF is, what a moral army we have. So they may think that the lies that the movie shows are the actual truth. All we did is defend our country, our nation, and our nascent state."

Negbi also shares his frustration with the movie and the lopsided fashion in which it depicts his comrades in arms.

"The life I lived alongside the Arabs was completely different. When I heard about that movie, I shuddered. I went through many hardships. My mother taught me to give to others and help them. Not even the concept of killing children could come out of a home like that. The very notion of harming an Arab child was far from our minds. It's sheer slander," he said.

‘Activist’ or Antisemite? Dr. Noura Erakat’s Poorly-Timed Speech at OSU

Several incidents involving swastikas, harmful antisemitic libels, and images of the burning Israeli flag took place on Ohio State University (OSU)’s campus in the months and weeks leading up to the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

One would have hoped that OSU administrators and students could come together to resist this unprecedented and abhorrent increase in antisemitism on campus.

Sadly, those hopes were crushed by the invitation of a speaker to campus who spews the very same libels.

On November 9, the OSU Palestinian Women’s Association hosted Rutgers University Professor Dr. Noura Erakat, who spoke to Ohio State students over Zoom to discuss her new book, “Justice for Some: Law and the Occupation of Palestine.”

Although she is hailed by her university and many anti-Zionist activists as an expert in international law, fallacies in her book can be found as early as the introduction, where Erakat discusses “Zionist militias established Israel by force, without regard to the Partition Plan’s stipulated borders.”

This falsehood negates the indisputable fact that in 1948, most Jews accepted United Nations Resolution 181, which partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. Arabs, on the other hand, vehemently rejected the proposal and tried to eliminate Israel and kill its Jewish inhabitants.

In pushback at discrimination law, prominent Israeli firms vow to boycott bigots

Moneymakers, insurance providers, high-tech firms, local authorities and academic institutions are putting out the message that they will boycott doing business or work with entities deemed to be bigoted, as pushback grows over concerns the incoming coalition government will enact changes to allow the use of discriminatory practices.

The Herzliya Municipality said Tuesday that it would not grant a business license to entities that discriminate against parts of their clientele. Tel Aviv University likewise said it would not cooperate with those “that pursue a policy of improper discrimination,” while dozens of schools across the country displayed a notice at their entrance gates vowing adherence to state education values of equality.

The action came in response to a clause in the coalition agreement between the Religious Zionism and Likud parties, stipulating that the incoming government will seek to amend discrimination laws to allow business owners to refuse to provide a service if it violates their religious beliefs. The deal has yet to be officially signed, but Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman said Tuesday that the controversial clause will be included in it.

On Sunday, fellow Religious Zionism MK Orit Strock, who is set to become a cabinet minister in the incoming government, sparked an outcry by saying that doctors should be allowed to refuse to provide treatments that go against their religious faith, as long as another doctor is willing to provide the same treatment.

Rothman made similar comments the same day, asserting that if a hotel wanted to refuse service to LGBT people on religious grounds, it would be entitled to do so.

Gili Ra’anan, founder of Cyberstarts, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage cybersecurity startups, announced Tuesday that the fund will refrain from doing business with any company or individual that discriminates against people based on their religion, nationality, race, sex, origin or sexual orientation.

“For years, we have been able to maintain a separation between business and politics,” Ra’anan said. “In recent weeks, I have been concerned about the racist legislative initiatives of the new government, which threaten to harm the democratic nature of Israel as well as the economy’s ability to continue to grow and attract foreign investors.”

‘Imam of Peace’ committed to fight against Islamist extremism

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Islamic scholar and thinker, has dedicated his life to fighting Islamic extremism.

Physically attacked for his positions and forced to flee his home in Australia when it was vandalized by extremists, it is perhaps no wonder he began the preface to his 2018 book, “The Tragedy of Islam: Admissions of a Muslim Imam,” with the words: “It is highly likely that you will one day hear that I have been murdered.”

Tawhidi, who describes himself as the “Imam of Peace,” has said “Palestine is Jewish land” and that he doesn’t believe in Islamophobia as “phobia is an irrational fear. Fearing ISIS is not irrational.” He has criticized Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as “absolute frauds and Islamists” who “promote hatred against the Jewish people.”

He is “a passionate defender” of the Jews—“Now I take antisemitism personally.” In 2019, he visited Auschwitz “to take a stand against antisemitism.”

Tawhidi commands an impressive social media presence with more than 800,000 followers on Twitter alone.

Tawhidi was born in Qom, a holy Shia city in Iran. He went through his own journey into fundamentalism and back. The groundwork for that fundamentalism was laid at a private Muslim school in Australia, where he moved with his family at age 12. When he returned to Iran in 2007 to complete his Islamic studies, he became still more radicalized.

“Due to my Australian citizenship, I was seen as an asset….I became a close ally, travel partner and adviser to officials within the Iranian regime.

“I was completely radicalized, and willing to kill anyone who spoke a single word against [Iran’s Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei, whom I saw as the link between myself and God,” Tawhidi said.

He loved the Iranian regime and “detested” the United States. “The ideology of the Iranian regime was simply part of my religion, to the point that we would twist the religion to benefit the Iranian regime.”

However, it was also as a student in Iran that he first became aware of the Islamic regime’s corruption, particularly the way female students were preyed upon. He saw that students could engage in highly immoral behavior just so long as they were loyal to the regime.

Christian Zionist groups slam Ye’s antisemitism

Prominent Christian pro-Israel organizations are speaking out against Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) after the rapper used Christianity to justify a months-long series of antisemitic statements.

“Christians are mandated by God to stand with the Jewish people,” Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), told JNS. “One cannot be antisemitic and follow the teachings of Jesus.”

Among many other antisemitic statements, Ye tweeted that he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people, accused Jews of giving Hitler a bad reputation and that they should forgive the Nazi dictator and trumpeted tropes about Jewish control of the media and the entertainment industry.

Ye also stated that he believes “Jews are very intelligent, but they don’t deserve to be in charge of everything because they don’t put Christ [first].”

“They need to work for Christians. Jews should work for Christians,” he said in an interview with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes.

Ye also claimed he could not be antisemitic because he and all black Americans, “as the blood of Christ,” are also Jewish. Condemnation of Ye’s associates

Ye’s associates, white supremacist Nick Fuentes and far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos—with whom he controversially dined at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump—have also used Christianity to justify their antisemitic beliefs.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called out Fuentes’s past statements, which include Holocaust denial and “I piss on your Talmud. Jews get the f***k out of America.”

Yiannopoulos has said that secular Jews “all should be hanging from city hall.”

“We’re done putting Jewish interests first,” Yiannopoulos posted on Telegram. “It’s time we put Jesus Christ again first in this country.”

Christian Zionist organizations condemned Fuentes and Yiannopoulos along with Ye.

“It is not hard to recognize that none of the comments align with the Christian faith,” said Serene Hudson, vice president of advocacy at Passages. “Yiannopoulos’s comment promoting the lynching of Jews is evil, and the image of Jews hanging in front of city hall promotes a concept of state-sponsored persecution. Such calls for anti-Jewish violence should be utterly condemned.”

Indiana University Dean apologizes for inviting Jihadist Sam Al-Arian to a panel

Sami Al-Arian promotes one of his reports to a Dec. 14 Indiana University philanthropy panel.

An Indiana University (IU) dean admits its School of Philanthropy "failed in our due diligence" when it invited deported Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) board member Sami Al-Arian to participate in a program about the war on terrorism and its impact on Muslim charities.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) reported on the panel discussion Dec. 20, detailing Al-Arian's prominent history of PIJ involvement and his antisemitic speech, prompting readers to complain to IU President Pamela Whitten. Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, wrote back to apologize.

"Though he had been recommended to those developing this session due to his academic work and recent efforts organizing a global conference on Islamophobia," Pasic wrote, "we failed in our due diligence to consider his past comments and actions prior to extending an invitation to him. As a result, we have further strengthened our protocols."

Pasic issued a similar statement to the IPT, but did not answer questions about who recommended Al-Arian or what changes have been made.

The IPT since has discovered several people on IU's Muslim Philanthropy Initiative's advisory board whose organizations have been investigated for terror financing, or have been supportive of Al-Arian for years.

Pasic did not respond Tuesday to follow-up questions about those board members.

In his email to Whitten, Daniel Trigoboff, a New York psychologist, noted Al-Arian's "despicable track record of associating with a recognized terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad." He also cited Al-Arian's antisemitic statements, including calling Jews "monkeys and pigs."

University of Nottingham event featuring controversial cleric who described Jews as “a cowardly nation” is postponed

An event organised by a society at the University of Nottingham which was set to feature a controversial cleric, who had previously described Jews as “a cowardly nation”, has been postponed.

Nottingham University Islamic Society invited Sheikh Asrar Rashid, a controversial cleric in Birmingham, to give a talk on “The End of Times”.

Mr Rashid, who is reported to have said that Hitler did Jews “a favour”, was initially advertised by the Society in a Facebook post on 7th December, scheduled to appear at the University’s Law and Social Science building.

However, on 10th December, a further announcement was made stating that the event would instead be held at the Lenton Muslim Centre.

The next day, the Society wrote that the event was “postponed until further notice due to unforeseen circumstances”.

A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham Students Union said that it had been “made aware of an invitation issued by the Islamic Society to Asrar Rashid to address its members. The Students’ Union has requested a postponement of the event to ensure that the agreed process for issuing such speaker invitations has been followed and allows us to determine whether the event can be held peacefully and safely for all those concerned,” adding: “Our priority is, and always will be, for all of our student members and it is of the utmost importance to us that we make sure all Students’ Union activity is safe, inclusive, dignified, respectful, and responsible.”

However, a Nottingham Jewish Society spokesperson said that its members were “appalled” by the invitation of Mr Rashid, and said that “This invitation should never have been approved in the first place, and our complaints should have been taken seriously and been treated discretely by the University and Students’ Union. Speakers who seek to incite hatred should not be invited to speak at our university.”

Mr Rashid has reportedly claimed that “By the 1940s, Hitler did a favour for the Jews that the Jews now were favoured by Europe.” Last year, the cleric stood by his description of Jews as “a cowardly nation” and call for a “jihad” on Israel.

Florida Muslim Private School Tied to Rabid Antisemitism Gets Taxpayer Funded Vouchers

Reviver Academy is a Muslim children’s private school based in Miami, Florida. The school is part of the North Miami Islamic Center (NMIC), which also includes a mosque whose imam, Fadi Kablawi, uses his pulpit to preach violence and target Jews, gays, Christians, women and fellow Muslims with the worst of bigotry. This same school/mosque receives taxpayer funded vouchers from the state of Florida to lower tuition costs for its students. Given the violent and hateful nature of NMIC, its educational apparatus should cease receiving school vouchers and be forced to give back those vouchers it received previously.

Though Reviver and NMIC have separate corporations, they are essentially the same organization. According to the NMIC website, “North Miami Islamic Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Corporation in Miami, Florida. The Organization owns a Masjid (Masjid As-Sunnah An-Nabawiyyah) and an Academy (Reviver Academy, LLC).” The Reviver logo, many times, is presented with the words “Assunah AnnabaweyaRevivers” written under it. All three entities operate out of the same facility, located at 560 NW 165th Street Rd. in Miami, and prior to February 2015, they used the Miami address of 431 NE Circle Ter. #102-24.

The building housing Reviver and NMIC has three floors. The mosque is on the first level. The school uses the second floor. Currently, NMIC is actively raising funds to renovate the third floor to expand the school. Apparently, a good chunk of these funds are coming from Florida’s taxpayers.

As stated on Reviver school registration instructions, “We accept Step Up For Students Scholarship.” Step Up for Students is a Florida nonprofit organization that works with the state to provide scholarships to help pay tuition for private schools. The scholarships average around $7000 per student. During this past Ramadan, soon-to-be Reviver administrator Nabil el-Shukri told the NMIC congregation that he would help them get “vouchers” to assist them in paying for their children’s education.

For Reviver/NMIC to be involved in securing funding linked to Florida’s taxpayers is a huge problem, as it has significant links to terror and is involved in propagating the worst of violence and bigotry.

Now that she's in graduate school @TheNewSchool pursuing a career in politics, don't forget that Asma Barakat engages Jews on Twitter with “get the f**k off our land and eat s**t you stupid dog.”https://t.co/yxNbI81uIF pic.twitter.com/pdIqu0dR6R
— Canary Mission (@canarymission) December 27, 2022

Gil Troy: New York Times' reporting on Israel must be ignored

Initially, the Times was anti-Zionist. Adolph Ochs and his heirs defined Judaism as a religion. This demotion confirmed the Judeo-Christian American vision while dismissing Zionism’s Jewish nationalism. During the Holocaust, the Times so downplayed the Jewish nature of Hitler’s targets that critics mocked the paper’s motto “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” as “All the Jews That’s Fit to Hint.”

After 1945, the Times’ anti-Zionism ended. Its editorials and most columnists accept Israel as a Jewish state. But especially since 1967, when Israel dared to win a war for its existence as Times worshipers were idealizing the world’s losers, the approach has seemed like “Not Enough Zionism That’s Fit to Commit.”

This Zionism-lite is a probationary Zionism. Israel’s OK as long as it doesn’t embarrass, doesn’t inconvenience, doesn’t slow the American Jewish rush to fit in, with that Zionist willingness to stand up – and stand out. It’s often a tortured toleration of Israel, reinforced by blind spots about Palestinian brutality and Iranian threats.

Much of what Israelis need to survive is increasingly politically incorrect in the world the Times hopes to spawn. This gap grows as journalists become churnalists, committed to distorting, not reporting, pushing a line not navigating complexity objectively.

Israeli society is unapologetically family-oriented, communal, traditional, religious, nationalistic and ready to defend itself against illiberal enemies, even if they con today’s illiberal liberals. These red-white-and-blue-blooded Jews risk worshiping the “I” over the “us,” and the “today” over “yesterday.” Israelis happily risk worshiping the “us” over the “I,” and the “yesterday” over the “today.” And if Israel must choose between embarrassing red-white-and-blue-blooded Jews by defending itself or losing citizens but not losing face among liberals, most Israelis choose life, patriotism and pride over progressive popularity.

Even worse, Israel is now populated by many Jews who are not the “sophisticated,” “acculturated” heirs to America’s Jewish boat people red-white-and-blue-blooded Jews have become. An Israel of Mizrahim and ultra-Orthodox and religious and Ethiopians and Jews from the former Soviet Union who are decidedly not woke is not the Exodus-Israel that Times-Jews decided they could stomach.

Today’s Israel is more multicultural, liberal-democratic, tolerant, success-friendly, functional, and happier than the Israel-as-one-big-kibbutz Times-Jews grudgingly romanticized in the 1950s. But with Israel as the Jewish people’s proud, particularistic nation-state, red-white-and-blue-blooded Jews find it easier to join the pile-on. Israel now is not only defying the anti-nationalist tide, progressives accuse Israel of the West’s worst crimes – from racism to colonialism to imperialism.

THE FRUSTRATIONS and distancing, therefore, go deeper than this unwelcome incoming government – and did not diminish under Naftali Bennett. Red-white-and-blue-blooded Jews need to be disappointed with us so as not to be disappointed in themselves.

Like most Israelis, let’s stop caring what the Times says. Instead, focus on what we, our neighbors and our leaders do to keep Israel strong, safe, Jewish, democratic, and politically incorrect in all the right ways.

Honest Reporting: Our Editorial Director, Simon Plosker, speaking live on Modiin - and Beyond with Rolene Marks.

Five months on, BBC Arabic corrects east Jerusalem inaccuracy

A post by CAMERA Arabic

On November 14th BBC Arabic editors finally amended a May 29th report which mislabelled east Jerusalem as “Palestinian.”

Relating to Israel’s Jerusalem Day events and repeating the same-day wording of AFP, that report originally read:
“Israeli security forces were intensely spread in East Jerusalem on Sunday in order to accompany the annually organised march, on the anniversary of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian portion of the city”

However, east Jerusalem was not the “Palestinian portion” of the city in 1967. From 1948 to 1967, it was illegally occupied by Jordan. Before that, just like the western part of the city, east Jerusalem was part of Mandate Palestine. The 1947 partition plan – rejected by the Arabs – had called for Jerusalem to be a corpus separatum; an international city administered by the United Nations for 10 years, at which point the city’s status was to be decided by a referendum. Before the British Mandate, the city was under Ottoman control, and so on. Going back through history, at no point has east Jerusalem ever been “the Palestinian portion of the city.”

Furthermore, until Israel gained control of east Jerusalem in 1967, even the PLO – charged by the Arab League in 1964 with the task of mobilising Palestinian Arabs to “liberate their homeland” and practice “self determination” – did not consider east Jerusalem as part of Palestinian “regional sovereignty.” Article 24 of its 1964 Charter clearly states:
“This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.”

In fact at the time the PLO sought to exert Palestinian sovereignty only over western Jerusalem, together with the rest of internationally recognised territory of Israel (see also here.)

CAMERA Arabic secured a correction from AFP to its own report as well as a correction to the American public channel Alhurra’s syndicated version of it shortly after publication.

Happy to see @washingtonpost has now changed the picture. Perhaps an apology would not go astray either @SallyBuzbee @bylenasun? https://t.co/F6wYYoXOzA pic.twitter.com/OpQQCpVs5H
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 28, 2022

If this is real, the @washingtonpost reporter wants you to know that it's important to falsely stereotype Orthodox Jews as vectors of disease because she really thinks they are. https://t.co/q2pm5v0gbx
— The Meturgeman (@HaMeturgeman) December 28, 2022

Google apologizes, fixes antisemitic definition of 'Jew' following uproar

Google users who typed the word "Jew" in the search feature on Tuesday found that the top definition was an antisemitic stereotype. The search engine's first listed definition of "Jew" was: "to bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way."

Further down in the search results were several conjugations of the word, as "jewed" and "jewing." Jewish advocacy groups flagged the offensive definition to Google and demanded an explanation.

"This is shocking. If you Google 'Jew' the dictionary definition that comes up can be seen below," tweeted Aviva Klompas, former head of speechwriting and Israel's Mission to the United Nations in reference to a screenshot of the offensive definition.

"This is unacceptable Google," tweeted StopAntisemitism in reference to the antisemitic trope.

"Deeply troubling that Google's artificial intelligence fails to recognize obvious antisemitic hate speech in featured search results for the term 'Jew.' the World Jewish Congress tweeted. "We expect corrective action to be taken immediately."

After fixing the error, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan took to Twitter to apologize on behalf of the search engine company.

"Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts," Sullivan posted. "We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review."

A Jew is a person. Not a verb. Except if you are perpetuating antisemitism, even unconsciously.

I commend those who recognize antisemitism and work to address it when it occurs on their platform. We are all responsible for fighting Jew-hate. Individual acts of advocacy matter.
— Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) December 27, 2022

That time searching "Jewish Baby Stroller" brought up images of barbeques. pic.twitter.com/bNkyflQBab
— The Mossad: The Spies Who Loved You (@TheMossadIL) December 27, 2022

If anyone wants to Google images "Israeli children playing" this is what they see instead. pic.twitter.com/X22iaArc3P
— The Mossad: The Spies Who Loved You (@TheMossadIL) December 27, 2022

It might be because Google thinks we have an "insatiable appetite for war". Who would know better than Google's diversity head?https://t.co/fgmUtM9rKW
— The Mossad: The Spies Who Loved You (@TheMossadIL) December 27, 2022

Absurd clickbait bullish%t from @haaretzcom. Criticize the government make-up all you want (which is seemingly the only thing Haaretz wants). But to imply that Zionism as a whole is racism, is racist and absurd in and of itself. https://t.co/3Re3AiZnEu
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 28, 2022

Holocaust survivor, among last prisoners of Auschwitz, passes away

Mordechai Papirblat, prisoner number 46794, one of the last prisoners of the Auschwitz camp, died on Tuesday at the age of 99. His funeral will be held on Thursday.

Papirblat was born in 1923 in the city of Radom, Poland, to a Jewish tradition-keeping family. When he was 10 years old, he immigrated with his family to the capital city of Warsaw, where he attended school until moving to the city ghetto at the outbreak of World War II.

Together with his brother and sister, he managed to escape from the ghetto and reached the village where their family members lived, but their parents stayed behind and died.

Papirblat was captured on July 10, 1942, and taken to the Auschwitz labor camp, where he received the prisoner number 46794.

He was a prisoner and worked in hard labor for a period of about 900 days until he managed to escape from the death march at the end of January 1945. Papirblat was one of the few who managed to survive for such a long time in the camps.

"I survived several selections," Papirblat said in his testimony, "I was employed in very difficult jobs. In January 1945, the German guards took all the camp prisoners on a death march towards Germany. About a week later, on the verge of exhaustion, I managed to escape."

Former Nazi camp secretary, 97, appeals her conviction

A 97-year-old former Nazi camp secretary has filed an appeal against her conviction of complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people, a German court said Wednesday.

Irmgard Furchner was the first woman in decades to be tried in Germany for Nazi-era crimes.

She was last week handed a two-year suspended sentence for her role in what prosecutors called the “cruel and malicious murder” of prisoners at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland.

But her defense, as well as a co-plaintiff, have since “filed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court against the judgment of the regional court of Itzehoe,” said a spokeswoman for the court in a statement.

The legal challenge could only question if the sentence had been based on a violation of the law, said the spokeswoman.

The supreme court would examine if “proceedings have been conducted properly and substantive law has been applied correctly,” she said, adding that evidence would not be taken again.

Pending the appeal, the verdict was not legally binding, she added.

Furchner had expressed regret as the trial drew to a close, telling the court she was “sorry about everything that happened.”

Between June 1943 and April 1945, Furchner took the dictation and handled the correspondence of camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe while her husband was a fellow SS officer at the camp.

An estimated 65,000 people died at the camp near today’s Gdansk, including “Jewish prisoners, Polish partisans and Soviet Russian prisoners of war,” prosecutors said.

Delivering the verdict, presiding judge Dominik Gross said that “nothing that happened at Stutthof was kept from her” and that the defendant was aware of the “extremely bad conditions for the prisoners.”

Menorah in Coney Island Destroyed Amid Wave of Antisemitic Vandalism Incidents Across the World

A menorah in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York was vandalized this week.

Others across the world have met the same fate, according to several reports by StopAntisemitism, a US-based watchdog group, with similar incidents occurring in New York City, Beverly Hills, Berlin, as well as in Rockland, Maine, and Temuco, Chile.

“We are saddened to hear the Coney Island Chabad Menorah has been vandalized, adding to those globally that have also been broken or destroyed this Hanukkah season,” the group tweeted on Tuesday.

In another incident reported by StopAntisemitism on Thursday, a menorah that Chabad Israel Center had sculpted from ice and mounted on 93rd Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan, New York, was destroyed.

We are saddened to hear the Coney Island Chabad Menorah has been vandalized, adding to those globally that have also been broken or destroyed this Hanukkah season.

Others include NYC, Beverly Hills, Maine, Germany, Chile pic.twitter.com/Zbfgsh1E5l
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) December 28, 2022

Black Jewish Rapper Says Writing Songs About His Experiences With Antisemitism Is ‘Therapeutic’

Jewish rapper Noah Shufutinsky, who goes by the stage name Westside Gravy, spoke in a recent podcast interview about antisemitism in the hip-hop industry, how he uses music to discuss anti-Jewish bias and the discrimination he has faced for being a proud black Jewish man.

“I think it’s important for our people to share our experiences as part of our story,” he told The Algemeiner. “My personal story is one of resilience that was passed down from generations before me who struggled to give me the opportunities to cherish my roots, and we all have the responsibility to continue that legacy.”

“It is important to support Jewish voices in all aspects to showcase our story and normalize the Jewish narrative in artistic spaces,” he added. “This means supporting and uplifting music and art created by Jewish artists that speaks about Jewish issues and the diverse history of Am Yisrael [the nation of Israel] from the Diaspora to the homeland we’ve always maintained a connection to.”

In an interview earlier this month on the Podcast Against Antisemitism, Westside Gravy said that after he released his song Diaspora in 2019 — in which he raps “Check out the flag that I’m waving, two blue stripes and a huge star of David” — he began receiving antisemitic death threats. He pushed forward though and earlier this year released a track called Wish You Would 2, whose lyrics include “Why do I gotta be the one to pay the price and change my life? It just ain’t right to trade my sight and see myself through hatred’s eyes.”

“A lot of times, there’s a conversation about the talk that Black parents have with their Black children regarding how to interact if you’re getting profiled or harassed by anyone, really, but especially people talk about it when it comes to issues of police brutality,” said the California native, who now lives in Israel. “And there’s also a similar thing to do with being Jewish, publicly identifying as Jewish.”

For Israeli Athletes, 2022 Was a Banner Year

You may not be aware, but 2022 was quite the year for Israeli athletes and sports teams.

With apologies to all those omitted, let me outline just some of Israel’s many incredibly sporting accomplishments.

Athletics — Marathon runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter finished second at the New York Marathon, and third at the World Championships, while fellow marathon runner Maru Teferi won the Fukuoka Marathon. Israeli runner Blessing Afrifah also won the 200 meter race at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships, a title previously won by no less than Usain Bolt.

Badminton — Misha Zilberman won bronze at the European Championships.

Cycling — Israel-Premier Tech won two stages at the Tour de France.

Fencing — Israel won silver in the team epee at the European Championships.

Soccer — Israel finished second at the U19 European Championships, in the process qualifying for the 2023 U20 World Cup; Maccabi Haifa defeated the champions of Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia to become the first Israeli team to qualify for the Champions League in 7 years. In the Nations League, the Israeli team topped their group containing Iceland, Albania, and a banned Russia to win promotion to the A League.

Judo — Israel won bronze in the team event at the World Championships.

Karate — Ronen Gehtbarg won bronze at the European Championships.

Israeli Volunteers Repair Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira’s Egypt Tomb in Covert Operation

A group of Israeli volunteers traveled to Egypt on Monday as part of a covert mission to rehabilitate Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira’s tomb, which has been neglected for years.

The work at Damanhur was carried out in collaboration with Egyptian officials, with volunteers cleaning the tomb site and its perimeter, restoring damaged windows and repainting the tomb’s walls, according to Ynet.

The repairs took several hours to complete, and came after Abuhatzeira’s family had lobbied Egyptian officials for several years to authorize the refurbishment.

The Abuhatzeira family hopes that Egyptian authorities will now be more accommodating of potential Israeli pilgrims who visit the burial site once a year, a ritual that Egyptian officials banned in 2012 due to “moral offenses” allegedly perpetrated by Jewish visitors.

Following the restriction, former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt David Govrin was the first to visit the site in 2017, photographing the grave’s deplorable condition.

"He who saves a life, saves an entire world."

We applaud Rania for her bravery, kindness and quick thinking which prevented a horrific tragedy from occurring.

Thank you Rania ??

??Yehiel Gorfein, United Hatzalah Spokesperson and Media Unit
— Israel ????? (@Israel) December 28, 2022