When was the term "holocaust" first used for the Holocaust?

In 2015, The New Republic published an article about the etymology of the word "Holocaust" as it is currently used.

There has long been a rigorous debate among etymologists and historians as to when the lowercased “holocaust,” generically defined as a large-scale calamity usually involving fire, became the proper noun used specifically to name the period of Nazi genocide against European Jews. Yet there is little debate that that formalization occurred years after the war’s end.

...According to a 2005 Jewish Forward piece, a top rabbi in what was then Palestine wrote to a colleague in a telegram about the need for a “day of mourning throughout [the] world for holocaust synagogues [in] Germany” after Kristallnacht, a November 1938 night of terror in which Jewish homes were ransacked and windows broken across Germany.

There were smatterings of usage prior to World War II to refer to mass slaughters, too, including with regard to the Armenian Genocide. And a 1943 New York Times piece about talks regarding Palestine references “the hundreds and thousands of European Jews still surviving the Nazi holocaust.”

Yet for decades after the war, the genocide lacked any formal title in English except, perhaps, “The Final Solution,” the term the Nazis used. In Hebrew, the calamity quickly became known as “Shoah,” which means “the catastrophe.” But it wasn’t until the 1960s that scholars and writers began using the term “Holocaust,” and it took the 1978 TV film Holocaust, starring Meryl Streep, to push it into widespread use.

The 1938 use of the word is interesting, but this article seems to say that the May 23, 1943 New York Times article is one of the earliest uses of that word specifically to refer to the genocide of Jews in Europe.

I have found an earlier mention. 

The Pensacola Journal, March 13, 1943, had an editorial about a mass meeting by Jews in New York to urge the nascent United Nations to publicly deplore the extermination of Jews. The final statement of the meeting included the word "holocaust:"

I had no luck finding the entire statement from the meeting, although the resolutions are reproduced in this same op-ed.

The word had been used often before the Holocaust. A Boston fire in November, 1942 that killed 492 people was universally referred to as a "holocaust" in the months afterwards. But this is the earliest I can find the word "holocaust" referring to the murder of millions of Jews in Europe.

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The British were the first to compare Jews to Nazis as early as 1942. Arabs enthusiastically followed.

The "Jew as Nazi" meme is common among antisemites. To Jew-haters, the grotesque analogy is  delicious: the Jews are just as bad as their oppressors, the Jews are just as guilty of genocide, killing Jews is as moral as the French Resistance, Jews have no right to defend themselves, Jews haven't learned the "lessons" of the Holocaust - as if the Holocaust was merely a university for Jews who keep flunking their classes while the rest of the world who stood by and allowed them to be slaughtered are the professors. 

Who was the first to make this disgusting claim?

The earliest I can find comes from the British.

Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State in the Middle East, engaged in debate in British Parliament on June 9, 1942 about whether Jews in Palestine should be allowed to fight the Nazis. Lord Moyne opposed the idea, forcefully supported by Lord Wedgwood. His arguments sound a lot like antisemitism: he complained that the Jews wanted to allow their fellow Jews to immigrate to Palestine to save their lives:

The Zionist claim has raised two burning issues: firstly, the demand for large-scale immigration into an already overcrowded country, and, secondly, racial domination by these newcomers over the original inhabitants..... The inhabitants of that small country—about the size of Wales, but much less fertile—are already threatened with conditions of grave congestion. At the present rate of increase, the Arab population will double within twenty-seven years. All the fertile soil is not only occupied but very closely cultivated. At the end of the last war, the Jewish community numbered 80,000. It now numbers about 450,000; and yet the Zionist Organization have indignantly refused the terms of the White Paper, under which further immigration should be allowed up to another 75,000 in five years.....

 Lord Wedgwood's effort has a far greater power of mischief in being addressed to America. It must surely have a deplorable effect upon our Allies to be told by an ex-Cabinet Minister that the Palestine Administration do not like Jews, and that there are enough Anti-Semites in Great Britain to back up the Hitler policy and spirit. This suggestion is a complete reversal of the truth. If a comparison is to be made with the Nazis it is surely those who wish to force an imported régime upon the Arab population who are guilty of the spirit of aggression and domination. 

Here, he directly compared all Zionists who wanted to save the lives of millions of Jews to the Nazis.

Lord Moyne also threw in the Khazar theory that Ashkenazic Jews aren't really Jews and don't belong in the Middle East:

It is very often loosely said that Jews are Semites, but anthropologists tell us that, pure as they have kept their culture, the Jewish race has been much mixed with Gentiles since the beginning of the Diaspora. During the Babylonian captivity they acquired a strong Hittite admixture, and it is obvious that the Armenoid features which are still found among the Sephardim have been bred out of the Ashkenazim by an admixture of Slav blood.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill brought up the analogy of Jews to Nazis not as a fact but as a fear after Lord Moyne was assassinated by members of Lehi in Egypt. From November 17, 1944:

This shameful crime has shocked the world. It has affected none more strongly than those, like myself, who, in the past, have been consistent friends of the Jews and constant architects of their future. If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of assassins' pistols and our labours for its future to produce only a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past. 

Lord Moyne's successor, Sir James Grigg, echoed that opinion on January 3, 1945:

The assassination truly shocked England and the world. Unlike Lord Moyne's earlier comments, which were clearly antisemitic,  Churchill's and Grigg's comments can be interpreted as being only against the Jewish groups that attacked the British, not against all Zionists. 

Nevertheless, they opened the door for more disgusting uses of the analogy.

 The next British official to compare the entire Zionist movement to the Nazis was Sir Edward Spears, in 1946 well after the full horrors of the Holocaust were well known. From United Press, January 30, 1946:

Arab diplomats took up the slander around the same time, with the "Jew as Nazi" theme that has remained a consistent feature of antisemites ever since.

The Arab League made the analogy on December 6, 1945, again comparing Jewish immigration to the Nazis: (Manchester Guardian, December 7, 1945)

In September 1947, the Arab delegate accused Jews of Nazi behavior at the very same time he threatened that the Arabs would kill them all:

And in October 1947, the head of the Arab delegation to the partition talks in Lake Success said that Zionists weren't interested in Palestine but wanted to use that as a gateway to take over the entire Middle East - just like Nazis, somehow.

Notice that the exact analogies are all over the place: the specific Nazi actions that the Jews supposedly are guilty of keep changing. To the modern antisemites, comparing Jews to their murderers is the primary goal and the details are not important. The validity of the analogies have no bearing on the analogies themselves. The entire point is to say that Jews are the worst people on Earth and no better than the Nazis who slaughtered them. 

The accusation is not meant to be accurate. It is meant to hurt Jews.

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Cairo Book Fair (again) features antisemitic books

The Cairo International Book Fair is starting. And as it has in the past, it is pushing antisemitic themes.

One of its featured books on the website is a translation of an 1889 work by Gustave Le Bon, his chapters on Jewish civilization in his  "Les premières civilisations." 

For the most part, Le Bon is not impressed with Jewish civilization, and his first paragraph is translated in this Arabic article:

The Jews possessed neither arts, nor sciences, nor industry, nor anything that constitutes a civilization. They have never made the smallest contribution to the building of human knowledge. They never went beyond this state of semi-barbarism of peoples who have no history. If they ended by possessing towns, it was because the conditions of existence, in the midst of neighbors arrived at a higher stage of evolution, made it a necessity for them; but their cities, their temples, their palaces, the Jews were profoundly incapable of raising them themselves; and, at the time of their greatest power, under the reign of Solomon, it was from abroad that they were obliged to bring in the architects, the workmen, the artists, of whom no emulator then existed within Israel.

The description of the book goes on to say that "the goal of the book is based in particular on explaining the failure of the Jews to share in the history of civilization. And on the ethnic disadvantages of the Jews,  and on the fact that the Jews are an unfit people that came to Palestine."

Le Bon's chapters on the Jews are indeed very critical, only praising Jewish literature and poetry. He repeats a variant of that first sentence several times. 

Clearly the only reason that this section of a large book was translated into Arabic is because it is one of the few works of history of the past 150 years outside Nazi Germany and the Arab world that is so critical of Jews. In other words, translating a racist 19th century French intellectual who is best known for his theories of crowd psychology and who believed that cranial size determines intelligence doesn't reveal anything about Jews. It reveals a lot about a culture that goes out of its way to find a history of Jewish civilization that hates Jews almost as much as the culture surrounding the Cairo Book Festival does. 

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The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is Back (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Do human stupidity and wickedness have any bounds?

After reading the comprehensive Wikipedia article about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, I have to answer a resounding “no.”

The Protocols, from its its first publication in Russia in 1903 by Pavel Krushevan, an antisemitic activist, publisher, and politician whose newspaper articles instigated the notorious Kishinev Pogrom, to its employment by Henry Ford, the Nazis, and Hamas, has been one of the most effective tools for spreading Jew-hatred throughout the world.

Supposedly a transcript of secret meetings of Jewish conspirators, it is not clear who the authors were. Much of it was plagiarized from various sources, including large chunks of dialogue from an 1864 (non-antisemitic) work called Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, by Maurice Joly, with anti-Jewish material interpolated. The work was translated into numerous languages, including of course English, German, and Arabic. It appears in various versions on the internet, and is a best-seller in print as well. The Jerusalem Post reports that “Walmart, Book Depository, Thrift Books, Hudson Books, and Barnes & Noble are each selling dozens of versions,” including some with introductory material that suggests that it may be genuine.

Let me repeat: introductory material that suggests that it may be genuine. The bogus nature of this document was conclusively documented in the 1920s, but in some quarters it is still considered “controversial!”

The document strikes every antisemitic chord possible. It presents the Jews as arrogant, dishonest, corrupt, greedy, sneaky, murderous, promiscuous, manipulative, and cold. It lays out their alleged plans to destroy the family, the state, the church, and the national economy. It presents their conspiracy to control the minds and bodies of gentiles, to trick and force them into doing their bidding. It tells how they foment war and insurrection in order to achieve their goals. And of course it describes the great octopus of hidden Jewish control over all the important institutions in society that the stupid gentiles believe are independent.

It’s a perfect theory, because it accounts for everything bad that happens to those who believe it. Business reversal? The Jews cheated you! War? The Jews started it! Your spouse has an affair? The Jews introduced immorality into art, literature, and media! Are you conservative? The Jews are responsible for the destruction of traditional values everywhere, in government, business, and the family! Are you liberal? The Jews are the most privileged of the privileged, exploiting the oppressed classes! They are rebellious communists and rapacious capitalists, godless libertines and God’s purported chosen.

Almost every antisemitic act that hits the headlines echoes the Protocols. Robert Bowers murdered eleven old Jews in Pittsburgh because he believed that the Jews are responsible for uncontrolled non-white immigration into the US. Malik Faisal Akram took Jewish hostages in Texas because he believed that the Jews could pull strings to get a terrorist released from Federal prison. John Earnest killed a woman and injured several other people when he shot up a synagogue in Poway, California in 2019 because he thought Jews were executing a “meticulously planned genocide of the European race,” apparently by encouraging interracial relationships.

Recently, Jewish conspiracies have been “found” everywhere. In one of the most egregious violations of the principles of logic and evidence, cases of American police abusing black citizens are attributed to some American police officials participating in programs to study counter-terrorism in Israel. But even if significant race-based police mistreatment of minorities exists (in fact, it may not), it long predates such training programs, which in any event are related to intelligence gathering or SWAT training and not to techniques of apprehending suspects. And certainly there is no racial content! Nevertheless, the theory – pushed by a “Jewish” anti-Israel organization – became wildly popular. Because nothing “fits” like  a Jewish conspiracy.

Such conspiracy theories have been popular since the Middle Ages (killing Jesus, poisoning wells, the blood libel, etc.). But the grand conspiracy to rule the world that is expressed so comprehensively in the Protocols may date to the late 19^th century, and I think it’s fair to say that nothing did more to popularize it than the publication of the Protocols. While it may or may not have affected the thinking of Hitler and other Nazis – there is no evidence that Hitler believed that it was genuine – they certainly used it to great effect as a propaganda tool. And other antisemites continue to do so today. In 2002, the Protocols was made into a dramatic series called Horseman Without a Horse, aired on Egyptian TV. It was rerun in 2012, and was also shown on Lebanon’s Hezbollah-linked Al Manar channel.

There’s no doubt that a book or other work of artistic expression can have malign effects. But does it make sense to say that it can be inherently evil?

I think the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an argument for that proposition.

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Egyptian state newspaper denies the Holocaust, says Hitler wasn't an enemy of the Jews

Al Gomhuria is one of Egypt's three most popular state-owned newspapers. 

It is peddling Holocaust denial.

An article on Tuesday was very angry at the UN for passing a resolution against Holocaust denial, and especially upset at the German delegate who supported the resolution instead of screaming about how Jews have extorted billions from Germany.

The author at times seems to consider that maybe a lot of Jews were killed, but he always goes back to denying that millions of Jews were killed.

Hitler was not an enemy of the Jews, as they portray him, with evidence that he allowed 40,000 German Jews to immigrate to Palestine annually over a period of three years (1933-1935.) [These numbers are exaggerated - EoZ.]

Assuming that he killed Jews, were the Jews only his victims?.. His victims were from many peoples, led by the German people themselves, he executed more than 63,000 of their sons. And there were Gypsies or Roma who were turned into guinea pigs by the Nazis. We in Egypt did not escape the scourge of the Nazis because of the minefields that claimed the lives of many Egyptians or left them with disabilities. Why should he compensate the Jews alone and not compensate others, even the Germans?!.

Even if the Jews were subjected to massacres, what was the fault of the Arabs and the people of Palestine to bear the consequences of a crime they did not commit? .. 

Some time ago, an American researcher proved that the gas chambers were in fact clothes sterilization rooms. This is proven by scientific evidence that does not accept doubt. He visited the gas chambers in Auschwitz, Poland, and took samples from their walls without anyone noticing him, and returned to analyze them in America. The analysis did not show any trace of the gas that the Germans were using in the execution, so he came to the conclusion that they were not execution chambers. And he was persecuted after he announced the result of the discovery.

It is noticeable that Israel resorts to indirect methods to promote its lies as being more effective. It is assisted in this by the international media under Jewish influence. Western newspapers, for example, focused in recent days on a book published by a German-Dutch Jewish girl named "Anne Frank", a genius writer whose literary talent appeared at an early age after her birth in 1929 and extinguished with her death in 1945 at the age of 16. The book sets off a "surprise" that Frank was killed...

What is important here is the story indirectly implies that there were gas chambers. 

Sometimes these lies are made by some Arabs and Muslims, such as statements made by "Fina Malik", the Pakistani actress residing in the United States. The Israeli press highlighted her in her report on her attack on the Jews when she said that Hitler killed half the Jews and left the other half to tell what happened!!!. Her statement implies that the gas chambers story actually happened.

If this was just a Egyptian tabloid, it would be bad enough. But Al Gomhuria is an official Egyptian state newspaper. On the same day that an official Holocaust Memorial Day event was held in Egypt (sponsored by the US Embassy,) the official Egyptian response is that it was a lie.

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Who Would Have Guessed Jews Could Be So Popular In The Arab World? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

It's one of the great patterns in Jewish history ever since the Jews were invited into Egypt and then enslaved there.
Rabbi Ken Spiro, History Crash Course, Aish.com

How often is a people personally invited to come be part of a country? 

In 1264, Poland's King Boleslav issued a charter inviting Jews to come live there. According to the charter, in matters pertaining to Jewish money or property, the testimony of a Christian was insufficient -- it had to be accompanied by the testimony of a Jew as well. It decreed that any Christian who desecrates a Jewish cemetery would be severely punished. It also allowed Jews the freedom to buy and sell merchandise just as a Christian could.

The charter even included some items that we only wish were being enforced today, especially in France and New York City:

o  "If a Christian should attack a Jew, the Christian shall be punished as required by the laws of this land."

o  "We affirm that if any Jew cry out in the night as a result of violence done to him, and if his Christian neighbors fail to respond to his cries and do not bring the necessary help, they shall be fined."

Of course, King Boleslav was not the only one to see the benefit of having Jews in his country, especially for the economy. He was, however, the most successful. The Polish leaders who came after him followed his example to the extent that by the middle of the 16th century, 80% of world Jewry lived in Poland.

Now, invitations and gestures of friendship are again being offered, to Jews in general -- and to Israel in particular.

From Arab countries, no less.
And for a variety of reasons.

According to The Economist, The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews. And it is not solely based on fear of Iran on the one hand, or on economic benefits on the other, though of course that is part of it. Other reasons given are:

o Failure of radical Islamism has led to a rethinking of attitudes
o The need to modernize
o The Palestinian issue is no longer central to how they think of Israel
o Israel/Jews as a model for success
o There is a new generation of Arabs who didn't live through the Arab Israel wars of the last century
o Israel as a key to better relations with West

In Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman -- the crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- may not be ready to follow the example of the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in joining the Abraham Accords, but he is taking measures to attract Jewish tourists. Towards that end, he has sponsored archaeological digs at Jewish sites. Bin Salman is also planning a $500 billion high-tech city to be called Neom, on the northwest coast -- the location intended to attract Israeli expertise. Meanwhile, last year an Israeli opened Habitas, a luxury hotel in Al Ula.

The changes in Saudi Arabia seem to go beyond external projects.

Not only are Jews being welcomed into Saudi Arabia -- Israelis are too, though only if they have a foreign passport. Hebrew is spoken at fairs and festivals. Antisemitic statements about Jews are being removed from textbooks. There is even an Israeli rabbi, Jacob Herzog, who often visits the Saudi capital, where he can be seen in public, dressed as an Orthodox Jew and handing out prayer books.

Rabbi Herzog's comment on all this is interesting. He says:

Jews used to be afraid of saying they were Jews in the kingdom. Now we’re getting embedded.

Contrast that with the situation Jews find themselves in today in the US and Europe.

In 2019, Germany’s commissioner on anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, said, "I cannot advise Jews to wear the kippah everywhere all the time in Germany."

That same year, an American Jewish Committee survey showed that nearly a third of American Jews were afraid of publicly wearing anything that would indicate they were Jewish, because of rising antisemitism. Attacks on Jews have only reinforced that fear.

In 2016, Tzvi Amar, the president of the local office of the French Jewish community’s organization responsible for religious services told Le Figaro that Jews should “remove the kippah during these troubled times” because “the preservation of life is sacrosanct.” The situation in France since then has only gotten worse.

Last year, it was predicted that 2021 would be the worst year on record for antisemitism in the UK

Yet of all places, there are now Arab countries where Jews are openly welcome and can walk there without fear.

As Middle East commentator Tom Gross put it:

I’ve witnessed far more hostility towards Israel among leftists in London and Paris and by some European-born Muslims, than people I have got to know who actually live in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq.

This move towards welcoming Jews is not limited to just the Gulf states.

The Economist also reports that in Egypt, al-Sisi is renovating Jewish cemeteries after having renovated the 14th-century Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Alexandria, which at one time was the largest synagogue in the Arab world.

And in Syria, Assad is not only restoring synagogues -- he reached out last year to the Syrian Jewish community in New York and hosted a delegation of 12 Syrian Jews in Damascus. No one is fooled that Assad's motives are altruistic.

According to David Lesch of Trinity University in Texas:

Syria is engaging with its Jewish exiles in order to buff up its image as a protector of religious minorities and to connect with communities who might possibly give it some political leverage in Washington at a time when it has very little of it.

It is a motive that might entice other Arab countries to welcome Jews and maybe even join the Abraham Accords, assuming Biden makes it worth their while to seek leverage with the current administration.

But there is the flip side -- the effect that this welcoming attitude in the Arab world is having on Israel.

According to The Economist, this is an opportunity for Mizrahi Jews in Israel who feel marginalized because of a larger focus on European Jewish history. The Abraham Accords provides an opportunity to travel to Morocco and the UAE, and maybe even to move there.

But more than that:

Those who stay put are more open about their heritage. In contrast to their grandparents, who listened to Umm Kulthum, an Egyptian diva, in secret, young Mizrahim blast Arabic music in public. In 2015 three sisters of Yemenite origin released Israel’s first Arabic chart-topper. “Coldness is turning to curiosity about the region,” says Liel Maghen, who runs the Centre for Regional Initiatives, a think-tank in Jerusalem. “There’s an Arabisation of Israeli culture.” [emphasis added]

What Maghen means by 'Arabisation' is not clear. Nor is it clear what the implications are. 

While The Economist says that Maghen runs the 'Centre for Regional Initiatives', actually the organization's full name is the Israel Palestine Center for Regional Initiatives. While one popular view of the Abraham Accords is that it may help Arab Israelis similarly develop a more positive view of Israel, Maghen might be hinting at developments in the other direction, of Israeli Jews becoming more sympathetic and open to Israeli Arabs, and to the Palestinian Arabs as well. And not necessarily that the Accords are only something that will leave Palestinian Arabs isolated. 

And yet with all the positives in the Abraham Accords and the varied reasons for its success, there is the matter of Jewish history.

Because for all the invitations to Jews over the centuries, there were also the expulsions.

Rabbi Ken Spiro gives a partial list:

o  the Jews were expelled from England (1290)
o  the Jews were expelled from France (1306 and 1394)

o  the Jews were expelled from Hungary (1349 and 1360)

o  the Jews were expelled from German states (1348 and 1498)

o  the Jews were expelled from Austria (1421)

o  the Jews were expelled from Lithuania (1445 and 1495)

o  the Jews were expelled from Spain (1492)

o  the Jews were expelled from Portugal (1497)

Following the expulsion from Spain, many Jews found new homes within the Ottoman Empire.

But that didn't last forever. 

After all, the title of The Economist article is "The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews." Jews have lived there before in Jewish communities, some that dated back to the time of the Talmud.

Rabbi Spiro's list reminds us, even when Jews were re-invited back, that second invitation sometimes ran out as well.

But for now, it is hard not to be optimistic.

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Modern antisemites at USC defend hate - and even violence - against Jews

The Daily Trojan of the University of Southern California gives an overview of recent events there:

USC will establish an Advisory Committee of Jewish Life and ensure Jewish representation in the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, President Carol Folt announced in a Jan. 13 email to the “USC Jewish community and supporters.”

The announcement follows months of faculty open letters, accusations of antisemitism and “racial & ethnic harassment” toward a Palestinian student that highlights persistent conflict on college campuses across the country, including navigating free speech issues, protecting students with various identities and disputes surrounding Israel and Palestine. 

At USC, the most recent controversy stems from civil engineering major Yasmeen Mashayekh’s tweets last spring and summer that included statements such as “I want to kill every motherfucking Zionist,” “I fucking love hamas” and “yel3an el yahood,” — which directly translates to “curse the Jews” — though Mashayekh later on Twitter said she referred to the “apartheid regime” and that yel3an means a “request for God to cast judgment,” rather than “curse.

The article goes on to quote Mashayekh's defenders:

Mashayekh and online supporters circulated a letter addressed to Folt and Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis Yortsos on Dec. 2, writing that “the language of the oppressed towards their oppressor is a form of personal resistance” against “colonial violence,” and urging the University to “stand in support of an oppressed student.”

So if you define yourself as "oppressed," you can literally do whatever you want to your "oppressors." Whom you can define as well.

Mashayekh wrote on Twitter that she and her family have received death threats as a result of online harassment, as well as an FBI visit.

“Today my mom received a phone call from someone threatening to kill me, her and my entire family because of my tweets; the person claimed to know where I live. I do not feel safe on campus. This school has done nothing but cater to my oppressor,” wrote Mashayekh in a Dec. 14 Tweet.

Mashayekh did not respond to multiple interview requests from the Daily Trojan.

If she received death threats, then she should have called the police. Did she? Perhaps she doesn't want to talk to the Daily Trojan because she fears basic questions like that. 

Emad Askar, who graduated from USC in 2021 and is a past member of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the University has not properly supported Palestinian students, nor allowed for their recognition on campus. To Askar, it is “preposterous” that a girl tweeting “I want to kill Zionists” is inappropriate. 

“You have every right as an oppressed group to violently rebel against your oppressor,” Askar said.

This SJP member just said that any Palestinian in America can violently attack any Jew that they perceive to be an oppressor. Not just tweet antisemitism, but physically attack Jews whom they believe are Zionist.

Where are the condemnations of this statement? Where are the "woke" people who should be deploring a call for violence on campus?

They are curiously silent.

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A Jewish woman rips apart an antisemite, 1922. (The antisemite has a dorm named after him in a Maryland college, today.)

The Baltimore Evening Sun reported on April 5, 1922, about an antisemitic sermon given by the Albert Norman Ward, president of Western Maryland College, at the opening of the Maryland Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church.

He said that the Jews controlled New York City and have taken the Bible out of the public schools. 

 

A Jewish woman wrote a letter to the editor of the Evening Sun, where she politely destroyed Ward's speech:

By the way, even today, there is a dormitory at what is now called McDaniel College named after the bigoted Albert Norman Ward.

I wonder if the people who are upset over buildings named after Jefferson or Washington would object to Albert Norman Ward Hall.  Somehow I don't think they would. 

But I'm willing to be proven wrong. 

I filled out a complaint at McDaniel College's Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, asking why they still have a dorm named after an antisemite. We'll see if they contact me. 

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01/24 Links Pt2: Has the Palestinian 'apartheid assault' backfired?; Robert Kennedy Jr: COVID-19 vaccine mandates worse than Holocaust

From Ian:

Has the Palestinian 'apartheid assault' backfired?

Today, as Israeli Arab affairs commentator Jackie Hugi has noted, Abbas and the PA sit isolated, alienated, and bankrupt among the leading members of the Arab League.

The PA committed political harakiri in 2020 when Abbas condemned Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords including United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Morocco and Sudan, for normalizing relations with Israel. In Abbas’ unprecedented public assault against Arab allies, he accused them of “stabbing the Palestinians in the back and betraying the al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian cause.”

Palestinian fury at Arab-Israel normalization brought the Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheik Mohammed Hussein, to issue a fatwa -an Islamic religious ruling- prohibiting leaders from Arab states, or any Muslim who normalized relations with Israel, from worshipping at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque. Arab countries reacted with unparalleled contempt towards the PA. Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan branded the PA and its leadership “failures,” and called Abbas’ snub a “transgression” and “reprehensible discourse.”

Abbas convened Palestinian terror group leaders including arch-rivals, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to coordinate responses and actions in opposition to the accords. Arab powers viewed Abbas’ destabilizing moves with contempt, particularly his outreach to Arab League's adversaries Turkey and Iran.

In 2022, Arab countries continue to loosen ties with the PA while tightening them with Israel. The UAE recently announced a 100-million-dollar investment in Israel’s high tech sector. Morocco seeks security cooperation. Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, reportedly met with the Mossad Chief Barnea in Jordan to discuss normalization and security cooperation. Even Saudi Arabia, that quietly “green lighted” the Gulf states’ normalization agreements, has itself moved closer to Israel, reportedly weighing normalization.

Palestinian apartheid propaganda may still find supporters in the West where Jew hatred has reached new heights and animosity towards the Jewish state poses as political criticism.

However, from a Middle Eastern perspective, the Palestinian leadership and its ongoing political assaults have hit a brick wall both among the Israeli public and most of its Arab neighbors. The PA’s weakened position among the Arab powers and its pivot to the “rejectionist front” led by Turkey and Iran, cast an even darker shadow over its already fading prospects for political viability and independence.

Human Rights Watch: Australia, Like Israel, Is Guilty of Apartheid

The title of this article is a teaser. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has not labelled Australia guilty of apartheid. I also do not believe that Israel is remotely guilty of apartheid. However, based on the criteria that HRW outlined in its recent report stating the Israel is guilty of crimes of apartheid, there is no doubt that Australia is an apartheid state. HRW’s charge against Israel is based on a newly invented definition of apartheid and a deeply flawed analysis of the conflict that willfully ignores vast evidence that contradicts their thesis. The purpose of this article is not to provide a direct rebuttal which has been handled well elsewhere[1] but to demonstrate the absurdity of HRW’s charge against Israel by demonstrating that the same criteria applied equally to other nations – in this case Australia – would show that many, and not just dictatorships, would also have to be considered apartheid, rendering their report against Israel as grossly biased garbage solely intended to isolate and punish Israel.

An April 2021 report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) titled “A Threshold Crossed, Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution” concluded that Israel commits crimes of apartheid, both within Israel and the West Bank & Gaza, a charge that is eagerly endorsed by anti-Zionists and those who loathe Israel.[2] The report suggests aggressive international sanctions against Israel and its officials for these alleged crimes. The misuse of the word apartheid and the inflammatory language against Israel has infiltrated the conversation where even a poll of American Jews showed a higher than expected number believe that Israel is an apartheid state.

The only country in history that has been universally recognized as an apartheid state is South Africa, where this Afrikaans term originated, and no other nation except Israel has ever been similarly labelled by recognized organizations. In order to formally apply this term to Israel, HRW unilaterally developed a new set of criteria to assess what constitutes apartheid. These criteria are of course completely subjective, decided upon solely by HRW, flagrantly contradicts international law that clearly defines apartheid, and importantly, have never been used before to evaluate any other nation.

HRW deliberately avoids comparing Israel to South Africa, which would be the most obvious method to evaluate if a nation is currently apartheid. HRW deals with this logical flaw by claiming that South Africa is conveniently no longer the model for apartheid: “The international community has over the years detached the term apartheid from its original South African context.” HRW does not explain how or when this “detachment” from the South African precedent of apartheid occurred, who comprises the “international community,” or why this new definition emerged but was never used to examine another state. In a report that HRW touts as extensively researched with over 800 footnotes, not one source is provided for the supposed shedding by the international community of the South African precedent for apartheid. In fact, a key source that HRW relies upon to support its definition of apartheid, the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (the “Apartheid Convention”), specifically states that the crime of apartheid “shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa.” HRW admits that “Few courts have heard cases involving the crime of persecution and none the crime of apartheid, resulting in a lack of case law around the meanings of key terms in their definitions,” but still decides that the only know precedent enshrined in international law – South Africa – is not useful in evaluating Israel. To further obfuscate its strategy of ignoring established international legal language defining apartheid, HRW offers this vague explanation attempting to separate “crimes of apartheid” from “apartheid state” as if an entity could commit “crimes of apartheid” but somehow not be an “apartheid state”:

The report does not set out to compare Israel with South Africa under apartheid or to determine whether Israel is an “apartheid state”—a concept that is not defined in international law. Rather, the report assesses whether specific acts and policies carried out by Israeli authorities today amount in particular areas to the crimes of apartheid and persecution as defined under international law.

??- Jewish activist hedge fund billionaire Nelson Peltz acquires sizable stake in struggling Unilever after shareholders lose $26B under the failed leadership of CEO @alanjope

Will Jope step down and the antisemitic Ben and Jerry’s boycott be reversed? https://t.co/4wYIHtvoG6

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) January 24, 2022

PreOccupiedTerritory: Fund Makes Bank By Investing Only In Stocks BDS Urges To Divest (satire)

A securities-trading firm announced today that its most successful package of equity issues for the last five years consists only of shares in companies that have resisted the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement targeting Israel, outpacing its next-most-profitable offering by nearly eight percent in an already-lucrative period for the firm’s clients.

Diamond-Romm, LLP, which handles portfolios that include private equity, government-issue bonds, corporate bonds, and stocks, among other fiduciary assets, reported Monday that their Blue and White Fund, which restricts itself to stocks of enterprises that BDS has targeted, grew a cumulative 341% over the last half-decade, dwarfing the achievements of even its most profitable aggressive-growth fund, which grew by a comparatively paltry 195% over the same period.

DR executives attributed the success of Blue and White to a number of factors. “To begin with, Israel is just an excellent investment market,” explained Vice President for Research Vincenzo Giamatti. “The tech sector, and not only high-tech, keeps innovating in imaginative, lucrative ways. But its not only Israeli enterprises per se – international companies that partner with, or do significant business with, Israeli entities both civilian and governmental, report tremendous gains. The Israeli economy in general weathered the financial crises of the last decade-plus better than almost anywhere else. The growth potential remains enormous. Real estate alone is exploding. Any reasonably smart Israel portfolio is going to do well, and any reasonably-conceived presence of a multinational in Israel is going to do well.”

Robert Kennedy Jr: COVID-19 vaccine mandates worse than Holocaust

Addressing an anti-vaccination rally in Washington, DC, American environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday compared COVID-19 vaccination mandates to the Holocaust, saying that "Even in [Adolf] Hitler's Germany... you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did," according to a tweet by NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins.

Kennedy, who is a son of assassinated senator Robert. F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has been outspoken in his opposition to vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kennedy's organization Children's Health Defense has disseminated various conspiracy theories regarding the coronavirus pandemic, particularly via social media; Its COVID-19 vaccine-related posts have been shared more often on Twitter than vaccine-related reports from mainstream sources such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CNN, Fox News and NPR, according to a report by the Associated Press.

At the Washington rally, dubbed "Defeat the Mandates: An American Homecoming," another speaker, TV producer Del Bigtree, suggested that there should be a Nuremberg trial for medical workers and journalists, referencing the war crimes trials for Nazis that were held after World War II, according to the independent.

Throughout the pandemic, numerous public figures have drawn comparisons between COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates to the genocidal Nazi regime.

All it took was a little bookending with far-right supervillains Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates, but this speaker got the antivaxxers to loudly and repeatedly cheer and agree with Louis Farrakhan. pic.twitter.com/XJl4YXJV6w

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 23, 2022

Israel's Foreign Affairs Min.: Is Holocaust denial dangerous?

UN Resolution to combat Holocaust denial & distortion:

80 years ago, the Wannsee Conference laid the groundwork for the systematic murder of Jews throughout Europe.

On January 20, 2022, the UN adopted a resolution (led by Israel and Germany) against Holocaust denial and distortion.

This is an important step in the fight against antisemitism.

Wagner and the Anti-Semitism of ‘the Ring’

Sir Roger Scruton’s passing almost exactly two years ago reminded me, sadly, of a conversation that we never had. Scruton and I did not know each other, despite the fact that we shared a number of friends and enthusiasms in common. Of the latter, the most obvious was political philosophy, but perhaps the most interesting was a preoccupation with the Ring operas of Richard Wagner. Scruton addressed this dauntingly vast subject in The Ring of Truth, which I read with admiration on its release in 2016. There was, however, one aspect of Wagner’s art about which I thought Scruton was importantly wrong: the relationship between the composer’s anti-Semitism and his music dramas, chief among them the Ring itself. I by no means took Scruton to be alone in this respect, but in his case I felt instinctively that, if I could lay out my argument for him over a glass of whiskey one evening, I would be able to bring him around.

The experience of reading his posthumously-published Wagner’s Parsifial: The Music of Redemption has now converted my instinctive feeling into a near-certainty. For in the opening pages of this new book, Scruton recognizes that “in his mature operas” Wagner meant to reject the bourgeois, liberal “world of deals and transactions”—a world characterized, as Wagner saw it, by the perverse “‘commodification’ of human relations,” rather than the longed-for “dissolving of the self in the experience of community.” This is indeed a central ideological preoccupation of the Ring. Scruton misses only the crucial fact that, for Wagner, this pathological world of bargains was essentially “Jewish.” Wagner’s anti-Semitism was therefore inextricably bound up with his critique of bourgeois liberalism. And since this distinctive style of Jew-hatred has recently returned to prominence on the political left, getting to grips with its character is, alas, no longer an imperative for deranged Wagnerians alone.

For those who have been fortunate enough to miss the past 70 years of scholarly debate about Wagner’s anti-Semitism, a brief primer is in order. Combatants have, in general, defended one of three positions. According to the first, Wagner was not an anti-Semite at all, despite whatever unpleasant things he may have said or written about particular Jews. This claim is so absurd that no serious Wagner scholar has defended it for quite some time. The second position, in contrast, goes as follows: Yes, Wagner was an anti-Semite, but, then again, so was Chopin, so was Degas, so was Virginia Woolf. The important fact, on this view, is that Wagner’s anti-Semitism had nothing to do with his music dramas, which must be seen to have completely unrelated artistic and philosophical ambitions. This is the position that Scruton defends in The Ring of Truth, thereby echoing many distinguished Wagnerians who have argued similarly over the years. The popularity of this position in the literature is partly to be explained, I think, by the highly problematic nature of the third position on offer. For beginning in the 1980s, some scholars began to argue, following Theodor Adorno, that Wagner’s undoubted anti-Semitism does in fact inflect his operas, insofar as certain characters within them are intended as sinister caricatures of Jews. Thus, Alberich and Mime, the two dwarf protagonists of the Ring, are meant to appear Jewish; ditto the pedant Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the seductress Kundry in Parsifal, and several others.

Is bureaucracy stumbling Israel's fight against BDS?

Israel is treading water in the fight against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, over stalled budgets and cumbersome bureaucracy, Israel Hayom has learned.

Created in 2006, the Strategic Affairs Ministry's main mission was heading Israel's public diplomacy efforts on the global stage, and in 2015 it was tasked with leading the campaign against the BDS movement.

The ministry's efforts to counter the BDS movement's efforts to delegitimize the existence of the Jewish state saw it invest tens of millions of shekels in setting up intelligence, research, and information systems to combat the phenomenon. These efforts, for example, allowed Israel to expose links between various charities and terrorist organizations.

The latter led to last year's decision by the government to designate six groups affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as terrorist organizations and to a subsequent decision by several European nations to suspend their donations to these groups.

The ministry was shuttered in 2021 and merged into the Foreign Ministry as part of the 36th government's downsizing efforts. Only 30 staff members were brought on to the corresponding department in the Foreign Ministry, its budget was dramatically slashed, and many of the Strategic Affairs Ministry's running initiatives have been suspended – all while Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has warned that "2022 will likely see Israel designated an apartheid state."

CAIR Not Only Inspires Terrorists. It’s Historically Linked to Them

A recent report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), "Islamophobia in the Mainstream," is a case study in projection—the psychological process of attributing one's own defects to others. In this case, the defect is hate, and the target is an all-too familiar one: the Jewish people and their allies.

It is not difficult here to discern the hater from the hated: Just days after CAIR issued its report, Malik Faisal Akram pursued CAIR's antisemitic agenda by entering a Texas synagogue with a gun. In a speech delivered to a Muslim audience in November, the executive director of CAIR's San Francisco office, Zahra Billoo, identified "Zionist synagogues" like Congregation Beth Israel and all "polite Zionists"—essentially all Jews—as "your enemies," both Islamophobic and opposed to "human rights." Billoo further advised those listening and watching to "fight back."

Rather than disavow her hateful and antisemitic remarks, CAIR claimed that Billoo was "misquoted" and the victim of an "online smear campaign." Sadly for CAIR, the video is available for all to see.

In just the past two months, CAIR also organized a series of rallies in Texas for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, just as Akram demanded. The connection between CAIR's statements and Malik Akram's beliefs is undeniable—and this is true regardless of whether Akram watched Billoo's speech or was aware of the rallies. This is because CAIR is part of a global network that promotes a hateful agenda that has targeted both Jews and democratic institutions for decades.

CAIR's report is an exercise in disinformation, dishing out terms like "hate group," "misinformation" and "propaganda" without, in most cases, even a single purported example of "Islamophobia." It is just a projection of CAIR's own bigotry, which frequently takes aim at a list of prominent pro-Israel advocates, the Israel Defense Forces and the international Jewish community at-large.

Canary Mission: The Antisemitic Trope That Inspired The Texas Synagogue Siege

Colleyville Synagogue Terrorist, Malik Faisal Akram took Jewish hostages because he believed "Jews control everything." This antisemitic trope is shared by the Far-Left, the Far-Right and anti-Israel leaders alike. This old myth is still very much alive and antisemitism can have deadly consequences. Share this video to expose the antisemites that keep spreading this dangerous trope.

Sickening - @TempleUniv employee Marc Lamont Hill stands with an antisemite that pushes the same dangerous rhetoric that inspired Colleyville TX synagogue gunman Malik Faisal Akram. https://t.co/XgdkUyj70u pic.twitter.com/UMKtufbPEG

— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) January 23, 2022

Sky News Australia: Anti-Semitism 'lurking behind' campaign against Sydney Festival

Sky News host Rowan Dean says anti-Semitism is “lurking” behind the anti-Israel boycott of the Sydney Festival.

The boycott began after the Sydney Festival accepted $20,000 from the Israeli embassy for a dance performance.

“Events this month have proved militant activists like nothing better than getting useful idiots to do their bidding,” Mr Dean said.

Mr Dean pointed out one of the organisers behind the festival boycott was Sara Saleh, who sits on the board of the far-left activist group GetUp, but was introduced by the ABC as a Palestinian poet and writer.

“If you can't see this hypocrisy for what it is, or the anti-Semitism lurking behind this BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign, you are an even bigger fool than the cowardly artists that she and her ilk manipulate,” Mr Dean said.

Basically it’s a green light to attack any #Jew that condemns #Antisemitic attacks by a particular community and that is what is happening in #NY and elsewhere from another minority community - Silence of the Lambs (Jews) @campaign4t (2)

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) January 23, 2022

Anti-Zionism = antisemitism part 456,234,564

Image taken from 'Palestine Solidarity Campaign' rally near the Israeli embassy in London on Friday 21 (h/t @jhrwatch)

Israel = the Devil. Classic antisemitic messaging - out on London's streets. pic.twitter.com/OqqTWLzknn

— David Collier (@mishtal) January 24, 2022

Toronto Caribbean Newspaper Must Apologize For Publishing Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory

On the heels of the antisemitic terror attack at Colleyville’s Beth Israel Synagogue last week, the Toronto Caribbean (TC), a paper which regards itself as “Canada’s leading Caribbean newspaper,” has published a column which outrageously utters an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that “Canadian, American and British politicians continue to kowtow to their populations Jewish Lobbyists…”

A January 19 column by reporter Steven Kaszab makes this odious claim in a commentary that also draws the offensive and inaccurate comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa and that supports the one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also known as a ploy to destroy Israel demographically by allowing the so-called Palestinian “right of return” which would make Israel no longer a Jewish state due to the influx of millions of Palestinian-Arabs.

This situation is further compounded by the fact that we know that the terrorist who attacked Beth Israel synagogue last week did so as he believed that Jews have the power to control world governments and to that end, he thought that the Jewish worshipers could call President Biden who would do their bidding by releasing Aafia Siddiqui, an Al-Qaeda operative who was convicted for attempting to murder American soldiers and officials in Afghanistan.

Aside from its print distribution which it claims reaches major Ontario cities including, but not limited to North York, Vaughan, Scarborough, Brampton, Ajax and more, Toronto Caribbean News has over 77,581 combined followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

BBC presentation of JC recording of Texas gunman’s last phone call

However also on January 20th, the same 21-second clip was published separately on the BBC News website’s ‘US & Canada’ page under the title “Texas synagogue: Last phone call between hostage-taker and brother”.

“This is believed to be the last conversation between the Texas synagogue hostage-taker and his brother.

Gulbar Akram pleaded with gunman Malik Faisal Akram to surrender and come back to his hometown Blackburn.

Listen to the recording of the phone call obtained by the Jewish Chronicle.

The BBC is unable to vouch for its authenticity but experts believe it to be genuine.”

That report makes no effort to inform viewers that there are parts of the recording that the BBC chose not to promote and that they include “an antisemitic rant” in which “Akram rails against Jews”.

That of course means that BBC audiences viewing this report are not provided with an accurate representation of its content which would help them understand the whole story.

AP Corrects Former US Consulate Not in East Jerusalem

CAMERA Israel’s office last week prompted correction of an Associated Press article which erroneously placed the former American consulate in the eastern part of Jerusalem. The Jan. 20 article, (“Palestinian minister: Biden moving too slow on pushing peace”), had erred:
But while the Biden administration reversed several ”unlawful and ill-advised” Trump policies, he said it has been slow to act, especially on the U.S. commitment to reopen the U.S. consulate in east Jerusalem which would restore Washington’s main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the contested city.

In fact, the Palestinian Affairs Unit of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem was located on Agron Street, in the western part of the city, not in east Jerusalem.

Reuters and Haaretz have previously corrected the identical error.

In response to communication from CAMERA, AP commendably removed the erroneous reference to the eastern part of the city. The corrected text now refers to “the U.S. commitment to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem.” CAMERA’s quick follow up in the same news cycle meant that secondary media outlets which carried the AP story, such as US News & World Report, published the correct information.

Antisemitic attacks continue in NYC: A Black male sucker punched a Jewish person, Saturday early morning in the heart of Crown Heights. Local security are working with police to identify the perpetrator pic.twitter.com/GGl1xJwBro

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) January 23, 2022

Knesset speaker to address Bundestag on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy arrived in Berlin on Monday for a state visit that will include an address to the Bundestag in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Levy’s visit is also slated to include meetings with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. He is also scheduled to visit the historic House of Wannsee, the Berlin villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, as well as meet with two of his European counterparts, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas and Austrian National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka.

His slated address to the Bundestag on Thursday will mark the first time a Knesset speaker has addressed the full German parliament.

“For the first time in history, the Speaker of the Knesset – the democratically elected parliament of the only Jewish state – will stand where more than 80 years ago Nazi oppressors called for the annihilation of our people before executing the most horrific crime in mankind’s history — the Holocaust,” said Levy following his arrival in Berlin. “I will stand proud being Jewish, with six million silent souls by my side and deliver the speech in Hebrew, the eternal language of the Jewish people.”

On Thursday, Israel and Germany served as “co-facilitators” on a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly aimed at combating Holocaust denial.

“It is Germany’s historical responsibility to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and we are fully aware that we carry a special obligation in this regard,” the country’s UN envoy Antje Leendertse said in a statement after the adoption of the resolution.

Growing Antisemitism Around the World

From the KKK To Human Rights Activist

Only Finland Ignores the Jewish Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day

On January 27th, most western countries mark the liberation of the concentration camps as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On that very day in 1945, the Allied Forces entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near Krakow, Poland, which started a domino effect that exposed the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis throughout Europe.

In 1995, The European Commission recommended that all its member states mark January 27th as Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ten years later, in 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27th as the international commemoration day in memory of the Holocaust victims.

The Government of Finland adopted Remembrance Day in 2002. Unfortunately, they translated it in Finnish as “Remembrance Day for the Victims of Persecutions.”

It seems Finland is the only European country whose official name for the international Remembrance Day fails to refer to the Holocaust. However, and as a notable discrepancy, the government uses the name “Holocaust Remembrance Day” in its communication in English.

For years, the Finnish Holocaust Remembrance Association has tried to lobby Finnish authorities to change the name, albeit in vain. The argument has been that, under the existing name, people will forget the Holocaust and be able to hijack the day to mark any persecution, big or small.

Australian Jewish Group Calls for National Ban on Nazi Memorabilia After Latest Discovery at Antiques Market

A top Australian Jewish group is calling for a blanket national ban on the sale of Nazi memorabilia after the grandson of Holocaust survivors discovered Nazi items being sold in New South Wales.

The items were seen at Dirty Jane’s Antique Market in the town of Bowral, Australia. Advertised as “militaria,” they included Nazi insignia such as a Luftwaffe pilot’s patch and coins from the Nazi era bearing swastika symbols.

Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, which is involved in a campaign to ban such items, said Saturday, “You would think that by now, antique stores would understand that it is perverse to put a price tag on extermination, and if they took the time to think about the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazis, perhaps they would think twice about trafficking in these instruments of death.”

“If Hitler were alive today, he would be applauding them for glorifying his barbaric crimes and keeping his monstrous legacy alive,” he asserted, adding that contemporary white supremacists would likely be inspired by such items and use them as recruitment tools.

Trade in such items, he stated, “is poisoning our society and violating our nation’s core values.”

“We know very well that in the real world, antisemitic propaganda, as represented by these items, often results in violence and deadly attacks, and as we monitor the growing threat of extremist organizations, we know that such groups have an appetite for these satanic relics,” he noted.

Everyday Antisemitism. Jew Hate in San Francisco

Antisemitic propaganda has moved from the social media into our neighborhoods.

From the NextDoor Neighborhood App Posted earlier today.

I picked up 20 of these weighted baggies filled with antisemitic COVID propaganda at ~8:30am today along Pacific Ave. (mostly between Baker and Scott). There were quite a few more I couldn't grab. Apparently the acting organization (Goyim Defense League) has carried out the same campaign several times in Berkeley (beginning during the week of Hanukkah). I texted SFPD's tipline with pictures; not sure if there's anything else I should do? Check your lawns, driveways, and sidewalks if you live nearby!

If you receive one of this packets, please report it to the ADL's tipline. And please check your security cameras for footage of those spreading this trash.

Actual flyers distributed in Miami beach last night.

Sickening that this antisemitism has become so mainstream in America pic.twitter.com/DOpW0Fazye

— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) January 24, 2022

Holocaust Memorial Day January 27, 2022 #HMD2022 pic.twitter.com/Lt4ZZ8B7k0

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) January 23, 2022

Cartographer views Auschwitz from the air

In the years following World War II, historians and many others have examined the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

Now, on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 – Pavel Belsky will turn his attention to the layout and function of the camps from his unique perspective as an Israel Air Force veteran and cartographer.

His virtual talk is being hosted by Holocaust Museum LA, the oldest survivor-founded museum in the United States, and will take place on January 27 at 6 p.m. (4 a.m. Israel time) in partnership with the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles. It will also feature remarks by Dr. Hillel Newman, Israeli Consul General to the Pacific Southwest Region of the US.

To register for the virtual talk, visit: https://ift.tt/3KJ6QW7

Belsky, 34, an expert in GIS (Geographic Information Systems), specializes in planning and architecture. He first became familiar with aerial imagery while serving in the Israel Air Force from 2006-2010. He received a B.A. degree in Geography from Bar-Ilan University.

#HMD2022 This Thursday marks 77 years since the liberation of #Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Explore our many resources related to the camp, including online exhibitions, artifacts, educational materials, video testimonies, and more >> https://t.co/jiUEsxwZ20 pic.twitter.com/Q2Ra5xHdPc

— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) January 23, 2022

I wrote a poem for Danny called "The Lion Den" https://t.co/2yLxvwzlqZ
It ends:

And when Daniel was lifted from the den,
So the Bible tells us,
No wound was found on him,
Because he stood his ground
'Cause he stood our ground
So the Bible tells us.
(Daniel 6:28)

— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) January 24, 2022

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