From Ian:
Douglas Murray: Free Speech: A Motorway Pile-Up of Moral Confusion
Who has the "right" to talk about Islam? The question arose thanks to the response of a Muslim student society at an American university.
Last week saw the latest in the apparently interminable efforts to make the Somali-born human-rights activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali into some kind of pariah. Readers will recall the atrocious treatment of Hirsi Ali by Brandeis University earlier this year, when the "liberal arts university" invited Hirsi Ali to speak and then withdrew the invitation at the behest of certain Muslim students and anti-free-speech activists among the university's faculty staff. As said at the time, the university's dropping of Hirsi Ali was a classic case of dropping a firefighter in order to appease arsonists.
The latest round has already kicked off. The William F Buckley Jr Program at Yale University actually asking Hirsi Ali to speak and did not rescind the invitation. On this occasion, an American university managed to hold firm and not bar Hirsi Ali, but the reactions of two types of students were especially intriguing.
Mordechai Kedar: The Middle East Masquerade Party
The Middle East is one big masquerade party, and all those taking part in it wear masks that are intended to project a false image to the outside world. Each participant changes his mask in accordance with the masks worn by the others around him, acts and speaks as the others do, even if he said and did entirely different things a day earlier – because today he is wearing a new mask. The truth remains hidden, and can only be exposed by expending much effort on research. There are some participants who wear multiple masks, one on top of the other, until they fall off and reveal the true face hiding beneath them.
The most striking example and largest mask of all is that of the "Pan-Arab Nation". Every Arab will tell you that there is a vast Pan-Arab Nation, characterized by a deep feeling of togetherness, based on a common language, a glorious past and joint aspirations. This is the premise behind the founding of the Arab League and its activities.
Except that the reality is very different. The idea of the Pan-Arab Nation never succeeded in replacing the loyalties of many Arabs to traditional, secondary frameworks such as the tribe, religion (Muslim, Christian, Yazidi, etc.) or sect (Sunni, Shiite, etc.). Outwardly, they claim "we are all Arabs", but within, behind the masks, Arabs battle one another, murder one another due to tribal, sectarian and religious differences as well as for reasons of self-interest. The Arab League's weakness derives from the shallowness of the Pan-Arab idea, from the fact that it is nothing but a thin, transparent and easily cracked mask.
Antiwar Activists, 9/11 Truthers Gather In Tehran For Anti-Zionist Conference
A number of American and European antiwar activists and conspiracy theorists have gathered in Tehran for a conference aimed at addressing supposed Zionist control of the United States, according to Iranian press reports and the Anti-Defamation League.
Code Pink chief Medea Benjamin, journalist and former Cambodian genocide denier Gareth Porter, conspiracy journalist and 9/11 truther Wayne Madsen, and PressTV contributor Kevin Barrett are all reportedly at the conference. Other reported attendees include Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the anti-Semitic French comedian whose performances have been banned in several French jurisdictions, several Holocaust deniers, and former congressman Mark Siljander, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to being an unregistered foreign agent for an Islamic charity that the government said was connected to terrorism.
According to a PressTV article about the conference, the gathering’s “goal is to unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics.” The conference’s chairman is Nader Talebzadeh, an Iranian state TV host who previously organized a conference about “Hollywoodism” as a response to the movie “Argo.”
PressTV’s video report from the scene includes interviews with Porter, who is also shown addressing the audience, and with Madsen, as well as Art Olivier, a former California mayor who is a 9/11 truther.
ADL slams Iranian 'hatefest' promoting anti-Semitism
A conference denying the Holocaust and bashing Israel will take place this year in Tehran with a number of foreign guests, despite its cancellation by the Iranian government in 2013.
The 2nd New Horizon Conference bills itself as a "conference of independent thinkers & film makers" while focusing on topics such as the “similarities [between] Nazism and Zionism, America and the Zionist crimes in the world, Hollywood and the Israel lobby … .”
"A disturbing new element in this anti-Jewish gathering is the appearance on the guest list of a few high-visibility US anti-war and anti-Israel activists who claim their positions are not motivated by anti-Semitism," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.
NGO Monitor: Ending the Lancet’s Role in Demonization: Analysis of editor Dr. Richard Horton’s Visit to Israel
As Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal, completes his visit to Israel, and following his statement made this morning at Rambam Medical Center (Haifa), NGO Monitor released the following statement:
Dr. Richard Horton came to Israel following intense criticism of his activities as editor of The Lancet. In this visit, he has expressed regret, condemned the contributors to The Lancet who promoted explicitly antisemitic materials, articulated a new understanding of Israeli realities, particularly the complexities of the Arab-Israel conflict, and pledged a new relationship with Israel.
On this basis, and in light of the revelations regarding antisemitic comments and materials disseminated by Drs. Manduca and Swee Ang, it is urgent that the July 2014 “An Open Letter for the People of Gaza” be removed from The Lancet's website and a formal retraction and apology be published prominently, both on the website and the next hard copy issue.
Furthermore, in examining the past decade of Dr. Horton’s practices at The Lancet and looking forward, it is vitally important that unambiguous guidelines be established and fully implemented, to prevent further instances of the following:
Lancet Editor Has 'Deep Regret' over Anti-Israel Letter
Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet, expressed deep regret Thursday for the publication of an "Open Letter for the People in Gaza" that many readers found to be so harsh as to constitute anti-Semitism.
"First,” he told an audience of hundreds at Rambam Hospital, “I deeply, deeply regret the completely unnecessary polarization that publication of the letter by Paolo Manduca caused."
Rambam invited Horton to see up close the Israeli medical world and its policies, which include devoted treatment of injured Palestinian Arabs and Syrians, cooperation between Jewish, Christians and Muslim hospital staffers, and advanced research and biotech.
Horton, it turned out, is a regular visitor to Israel. However, he said, this is the first time that he was “actually invited to visit an Israeli hospital.” He added that for him, the visit has been a turning point in his attitude to Middle East events.
Pro-Palestinian Groups to Protest Maccabi Tel Aviv Game in US
In October, Maccabi Tel Aviv will play two preseason games, against the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers, marking their fifth visit in 9 years.
During this visit, Pro-Palestinian groups are objecting. Such groups are expected to be standing outside the Barclay's Center protesting the preseason game against the Nets, which will take place next Tuesday. They are arguing that Israel's recent actions in Gaza warrant their presence.
The Jewish Voice for Peace has already set up a facebook event page with the slogan "BROOKLYN DOESN'T PLAY WITH APARTHEID!" as part of the Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. So far, 131 people have confirmed attendance.
Protestors also plan to demonstrate outside the Maccabi vs. Cleveland game on Sunday.
Are Radical Islamic Organizations Operating On College Campuses?
A new student group has produced a video shedding light on a troubling issue which has emerged on college campuses: student organizations, inspired by radical Islamic organizations, operating on American college campuses.
The group, HamasOnCampus.org, "was set up by a group of students from different campuses across the USA and Canada," according to its website.
"We represent both Jews and non-Jews, left and right, liberal and conservative. We value freedom of speech, women’s rights and human rights. For this reason we are disturbed by the increasingly radical behaviour and rhetoric by Hamas supporting organizations on campus," the group explains.
The video highlights the extensive connection between the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and radical Islamic organizations such as Hamas. From Al-Qaeda tied speakers to other speakers to advocate "Jewish genocide," both the MSA and SJP have had a chilling affect on the safety of Jewish students on campus. As highlighted in the video, a female Jewish student was struck with a shopping cart on the campus of University of California Berkeley in 2010.
Hamas On Campus
14 Groups Urge Colleges To Protect Jewish Students From Anti-Semitism
A varied group of 14 organizations has issued a letter to more than 2,500 U.S. colleges and universities that urges them to protect Jewish students on campus in light of rising anti-Semitism in America and abroad.
The organizations—including Alpha Epsilon Pi, AMCHA Initiative, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Christians United for Israel, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), David Horowitz Freedom Center, Hasbara Fellowships, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, and the Zionist Organization of America—say in the letter that “none of us should tolerate a campus climate of fear or disrespect, which can seriously impair the physical and psychological health of students and create conditions that negatively affect their learning and their ability to achieve their full potential.”
In particular, the letter raises concern over the actions of the anti-Israel campus group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which the letter’s signatories note has a history of “harassing and intimidating Jewish students.” The letter goes on to cite several incidents on campuses, including a recent one at Temple University in which a pro-Israel student was physically and verbally assaulted by SJP members, as well as SJP’s planting of anti-Israel mock eviction notices under students’ dorm rooms.
South African Group Threatens to Bar Nurses From Using Israeli Circumcision Device
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), an ally group of the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and a proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, is protesting South Africa’s consideration of approving an Israeli-developed circumcision device.
“We have a problem that the device comes from Israel. We need to boycott everything that comes from that pariah state,” Sizwe Pamla, a spokesman for a public sector union that is part of COSATU, told Reuters.
Many South Africans undergo traditional circumcision as a right of passage to manhood, especially in the Xhosa culture, but many die as a result of blood loss or infection caused by the procedure. The South African government is studying the Israeli device, PrePex, to determine whether to officially sanction its use in the country.
PrePex, developed by the Israeli company Circ MedTech, is a non-surgical and disposable device that has been endorsed by the World Health Organization. PrePex is being used in several other African nations such as Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.
Freedom of Speech – Just Watch What You Say
In the wacky world of campus debate, it seems that calling for academic boycott against Israel is an acceptable expression of one’s free speech, even though the practice itself – applying political criteria on who can and can’t be part of the debate – is an inherent violation of free speech.
But to compile a list of professors who support academic boycott, as a watchdog called AMCHA did in the beginning of September, is “deplorable” because it’s “designed to stifle debate” and “deaden” academic exchange, according to 40 Jewish Studies professors in a public letter published this week.
Why is Chicago Jewish Group Supporting Anti-Israel Activist on College Campus?
A major American university is currently hosting a visiting novelist who says that Israel is a deeply racist country and that its creation was a “catastrophe.”
And the Chicago Jewish Federation is helping to foot the bill.
The Israel Studies Project at the University of Illinois, which was created by, and is funded in part by, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, invites Israeli writers and academics to spend time at American universities. This year’s choice, Sayed Kashua, certainly has some interesting things to say.
Kashua is an Israeli Arab novelist, newspaper columnist, and television sitcom writer. He has strong opinions about Israel and is not shy about expressing them.
Writing in the British newspaper The Guardian on July 19, 2014, Kashua declared: “I despair to know that an absolute majority in the country does not recognise the rights of an Arab to live.”
Egyptian Anti-Semitic Activist Loses Sakharov Prize Nomination
A coalition of left-wing parties in the European parliament has withdrawn its nomination of an anti-Semitic Egyptian activist for the prestigious Sakharov Prize, awarded annually in honor of the late Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov.
Alaa Abdel Fattah, a secularist blogger and online advocate who played a prominent role in the demonstrations that brought an end to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, had been nominated for the prize by the GUE/NGL, a bloc which brings together green and socialist parties from across Europe.
Announcing the withdrawal of the nomination, GUE/NGL Group President Gabi Zimmer claimed to have been unaware of Abdel Fattah’s lengthy record of anti-Semitic statements, including a tweet in which he called for the murder of “a critical number of Israelis.”
Despite Combative Interruptions, Rutgers Hillel Event Brings Attention to Human Rights Abuses
On Tuesday evening, Muslim students at Rutgers University protested a presentation by human rights activists Brooke Goldstein and Qanta Ahmed on the plight of Muslims under radical Islamist regimes.
As described in the Daily Targum, Goldstein and Dr. Ahmed “described child soldiers’ harrowing journey from childhood to becoming suicide bombers at the hands of terrorist groups.” Goldstein spoke of her experience interviewing the families of Palestinian terrorists and her knowledge of radical Islamist regimes, while Dr. Ahmed discussed her first encounter with "sexism in Islam" in Saudi Arabia and "oppression and human rights violations in Islam."
“The Rutgers Hillel Center for Israel Engagement was very proud to have sponsored last night's program, which created a safe space for students to engage with difficult issues in a serious way," explained Andrew Getraer, the Executive Director of Rutgers Hillel. “The presentations were exceptional: reasoned, articulate, compassionate – but no tip-toeing around the issues. I would characterize it as a powerful and moving experience for the standing-room-only crowd of students, about half Jews and half Muslim. The speakers, one Jewish, one Muslim, testified to their own experiences living, working, and researching in Muslim areas under the rule of religious extremists. The litany of child abuse and oppression of women and minorities was tragic and chilling.”
When the formal presentations concluded, however, tensions escalated.
Telegraph Refuses to Place Jerusalem in Israel
The Daily Telegraph’s travel section has published a photo slideshow of “the world’s 20 oldest cities.” It includes places such as “Athens, Greece,” “Beirut, Lebanon,” “Larnaca, Cyprus” and “Damascus, Syria.”
But look at the caption for the photo of Jerusalem:
“Jerusalem, Middle East.”
One HonestReporting reader contacted the Telegraph to ask why this was the case. The response:
To avoid controversy we referred to it as the Middle East as it is contested under international law. East Jerusalem is not recognised as Israeli by the UN. Therefore we tend to try to stay neutral and use Middle East.
Guardian writer George Monbiot: “Time for an air war against Israel.”
In a deeply ironic article The Guardian’s George Monbiot asks why, in light of NATO’s current air war against Islamic State, the west doesn’t “bomb the Muslim world – all of it” and possibly “flatten the entire Middle East and West Asia” his thesis being that with there being so many human rights abusers in the region why concentrate solely on Islamic State/ISIS.
No article like this for The Guardian would be complete unless it contained a totally unjustified attack on Israel. Soon into his piece Monbiot writes:
“In Gaza this year, 2,100 Palestinians were massacred: including people taking shelter in schools and hospitals. Surely these atrocities demand an air war against Israel?”
Monbiot adopts the usual hard-left line of Israel having committed a “massacre” in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. He is doing the work of Hamas’ propaganda arm for them. Civilians were the main victims of Operation Protective Edge, as they are in any war. Civilians are already being killed by NATO in Syria.
But a significant proportion of those 2,100 dead in Gaza are likely to have been the Hamas fighters who had fired rockets at Israeli citizens from nearby to those schools and hospitals, who had dug attack-tunnels under Israel and who came out of those tunnels with the aim of killing as many Israelis as possible.
Monbiot goes on to suggest air attacks against Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Shia militias in Iraq due to the horrendous treatment of many citizens in those countries by their governments.
Exclusive: Reporting attacks against ISIS and against Hamas
Exclusive: Reporting attacks against ISIS and against Hamas
In case anybody was thinking that there might be some double standards in the way the media is reporting US and British attacks against the terrorists of ISIS compared to Israeli attacks against the terrorists of Hamas, the following exclusive media reporting guide should quell any concerns you have:
Why the US and the West should help Syrian Kurds
Last week, Islamic State waged a massive offensive on the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria.
Since then thousands of civilians from the eastern part of the city have fled to Turkey in an Exodus-like scene. The situation is considered by UN officials to be the largest influx of refugees since the Syrian conflict started in March 2011.
This new crisis provides another rationale for why the US and other Western countries should be supportive of the Kurds in Syria.
Syrian Kurds have been fighting IS for well over a year, long before the terrorist group came to prominence in Syria and Iraq. Since that time Kurds have been largely able to protect their regions from the IS brutality that is so widespread elsewhere in the eastern parts of Syria. The armed Kurdish group People Protection Units (YPG), has emerged as the most powerful group in Syria to continuously engage IS in battle. Regardless of YPG’s affiliation with the PYD – the Syrian offshoot of the Turkish-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – many have come to believe that this well-trained and disciplined force can play a crucial role in fighting the terrorists.
Where Islam Treads, It Leaves a Desert
Of the four great cities of the Roman empire (Rome, Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch), only the first still belongs to the West. Antioch has just a few mosaics; Alexandria (in ancient times, famous for its library) doesn’t resemble its once incomparable splendor; and the immense Carthage, with the amphitheater comparable to the Colosseum or the Baths of Antoninus, is traumatic for visitors.
Islam has deleted everything else.
Around the year 645 A.D., Omar Ibn Al Khattab, the second caliph and a successor of Muhammad, set fire to the library of Alexandria, according to a fatwa: “Or the books that are here are in accordance with the Qur’an, and therefore these are useless to us; or are not in accordance with the Qur’an and then they are bad”. The world lost several centuries of knolewdge and thought due to that Islamic fire.
Today another caliph, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, has issued a fatwa against the World Heritage Sites of the Middle East. The much vaunted Middle Eastern richness is shrinking to a cultural desert, a single religion and a handful of languages.
Turkey Vows to Protect Suleyman Shah Tomb Against ISIS
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is known to destroy tombs and sacred temples held dear to Christians and Muslims in Iraq and Syria because the buildings, they claim, are idolatrous. Their next victim might be the Suleyman Shah tomb in Aleppo, Syria, built in Turkish territory in 1921 under a treaty with France when the French ruled Syria.
Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was founded in 1299. It expanded to southeast Europe, western Asia, Caucasus, north Africa, and the Horn of Africa. It collapsed after World War I and evolved into modern day Turkey.
'Sharia Road' Vandalism: Blame Game as Muslim Leader Implicates 'Right-Wingers', and Locals Blame Islamists
The Viennese Muslim community has expressed “great concern” at the defacement of five street signs near a city Mosque, renaming local roads with politically charged phrases such as ‘Sharia Road’, ‘James Foley - beheaded’ and ‘ISIS Recruitment Street’.
The signs, which were altered using adhesive overlays designed to precisely mimic the original design with new names have been blamed on “right-wing” locals by Syrian-Austrian Tarafa Baghajati, who runs the local group Islamic Community in Austria.
Isis Threat to Crucify Lebanon's Christians as Islamic State Prepare to Cross Syria Border
Christians in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley have begun arming themselves in preparation for an Isis (now known as the Islamic State) offensive as it seeks to expand its territorial control outside of Syria.
Up to 3,000 militants from the Islamic State and other jihadists occupy the mountain range between Lebanon and Syria near the Sunni town of Arsal.
As IS seek to grab land outside of the mountain caves and farms they currently control, Christian volunteers have now created village defence forces to protect against the Sunni militants who have taken up to 21 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage.
"We are a minority and we are under threat by the jihadists," Rifaat Nasrallah, a commander of the volunteer guards in the Greek Catholic town of Ras Baalbek, said.
Denmark votes to send fighter jets to Iraq
Danish lawmakers have confirmed the government’s proposal to send seven F-16 fighter jets to join an international coalition to take part in airstrikes against the Islamic State extremist group.
In a 94-9 vote with 76 absentees, lawmakers on Thursday sent four operational planes and three reserve jets along with 140 pilots and support staff for 12 months. The fighters will be based in Kuwait and will not deploy in Syria.
The Danish contribution also includes some 120 military trainers to school Iraqi and Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group on the ground.
RAF Fires £150,000 Anti-Tank Missile in Iraq - At a Pickup Truck
The RAF has made its first attack on ISIS ground forces in Iraq, dropping a single laser guided bomb on a “heavy weapon position” and using an anti-tank missile to take out a pickup truck in support of Kurdish fighters in North-West Iraq yesterday.
The “armed reconnaissance mission” which consisted of two of RAF Akrotiri’s six Tornado fighter-bombers, presumably with the support of an aerial refuelling tanker, was tasked to support Kurdish troops who had come under fire from ISIS forces. The RAF in a press release this morning said: “On arriving overhead, the RAF patrol, using the Litening III targeting pod, identified an ISIL heavy weapon position which was engaging Kurdish ground forces.
Fliers posted at UC Santa Barbara blame Jews for 9/11
A series of fliers posted on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, accused Jews of being behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The fliers, which appeared around campus during last weekend when students were moving in for the fall semester, declared that “9/11 Was an Outside Job,” with a large blue Star of David. The text urged readers to visit websites arguing that the attacks were the result of an international Zionist conspiracy and to Google terms such as “9/11 Was Mossad.”
Rabbi Evan Goodman, executive director of UC Santa Barbara’s Hillel, estimated that up to 10 fliers were posted around campus, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal reported. In a posting on the blog for the Santa Barbara Hillel, Goodman said that Hillel and university staff along with students had taken down the fliers, and that there was no indication that any students or student groups had put them up.
Berlin: Anti-Semitic Attack on Tourist over Rosh Hashanah
A 31 year-old tourist was attacked in Berlin last week, according to the Judisches Forum fur Demokratie und gegen Anti-Semitism (Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism), during the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
At about 6:00 pm Thursday, the organization stated, an attacker shouted anti-Semitic insults at the tourist and mugged him, snatching the Star of David necklace he wore around his neck.
The attack occurred in the Kreuzberg district, local De Welt added, in Gorlitz Park.
Germany's national police have launched an investigation into the incident, it said.
Cafe’s map of Israel sparks outrage
The Cofizz coffee chain angered costumers this week after an ad showing its new branch locations featured a pre-1967 map of Israel.
The ad, which was uploaded to Cofizz’s Facebook page on Tuesday, was noticeably absent the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
Not only did the map omit the Golan Heights and the entire West Bank, it also incorrectly placed Tel Aviv near the Gaza Strip, Ramat Gan south of Rishon Lezion, and Jerusalem in the Beersheba area.
The ad, which Cofizz termed an “unfortunate oversight,” triggered a social media uproar, with thousands calling for a boycott of the discount coffee chain in protest.
Bushwick Coffee Shop Goes On Instagram Rant About "Greedy" "Illuminati" Jews
Bushwick's rents and property values have been skyrocketing over the past few years, a phenomenon that's understandably distressed longtime and even newer residents. Unfortunately, though, someone manning the Instagram account for a local coffee shop took out his or her frustrations with the Bushwick real estate scene by going on a multi-paragraph rant about "the Jews" and their "greed and dominance." And it only got 23 likes! Haters are slipping.
Brokelyn spotted the Instagram, posted to the account of The Coffee Shop this morning, just a few days before Yom Kippur.
Car explodes at Atlantic City synagogue, arson suspected
A synagogue leader’s car exploded in a suspected arson attack in Atlantic City, NJ.
Early Saturday, several hours after the close of Rosh Hashanah, police discovered a Ford Explorer engulfed in flames outside Congregation Rodef Sholom, an Orthodox shul. The fire caused severe damage to the parking lot and the synagogue’s outer walls, according to the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia.
The car belonged to David Kushner, who serves as spiritual leader of the southern New Jersey synagogue though he is not an ordained rabbi. Kushner, who runs a wedding hall in Lakewood, NJ, learned about the fire when he showed up for Sabbath services the next morning.
London bus service probes driver’s response to anti-Semitism
The London public transport authority said Wednesday it was investigating a bus driver’s failure to respond to an anti-Semitic attack in mid-September, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
A man had shouted at passengers that he would “burn the bus” and the “Jews,” in the presence of children. However, when complaints were brought to the driver, he said: “There is nothing I can do,” failed to allow the police to board, and permitted the culprit to stay on the bus.
Paul Edwards, correspondence manager for Transport for London, said he was “sorry” the bus driver had acted in this manner, and said the incident was being investigated.
German politician posts anti-Semitic video of 'Rothschilds controlling the world'
The working circle of Jewish Social Democrats blasted on Wednesday a German social democratic politician for posting a crude anti-Semitic conspiracy video about the Rothschild family on her Facebook page.
“This morning we became aware that the SPD regional politician Sabine Wölfle posted an anti-Semitic and conspiratorial video on her Facebook page. We are shocked that a regional politician lacks basic knowledge about the connotations of conspiracy theories, in which the frequently mentioned, all-encompassing, financial power of the Rothschild family stands at the center. We demand a clear apology for the spreading of anti-Semitic propaganda.”
Wölfle serves as a member of parliament for the Social Democrats in the government of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg.
80 death squad members still at large, Nazi hunter says
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has identified dozens of former members of Nazi mobile death squads who might still be alive, and is pushing the German government for an investigation, The Associated Press has learned.
The Wiesenthal Center’s top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, told the AP on Wednesday that in September he sent the German justice and interior ministries a list of 76 men and four women who served in the so-called Einsatzgruppen.
Australian Ceremonies Honor the Victims of Babi Yar Massacre
Hundreds gathered at ceremonies in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre. 34,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust massacre which happened over a 2 day period in Ukraine in 1941.
Malcolm Turnbull, Federal Member for Wentworth, addressed the crowd at Waverley Memorial Gardens, calling for zero tolerance for racism, and insisting we cannot treat the the Holocaust as something only in the past. “It is not an ancient tale. Yes, [it happened] decades ago, but the lessons must be learnt and relearnt, again and again."
The memorial ceremony comes a few days after anti-Semitic leaflets were distributed in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Woollahra and Edgecliff.
The leaflets propagated classic anti-Semitic stereotypes such as that Jews are a "leering hooked nosed race … [stealing] billions of our money through the Federal Reserve Bank they own," and also called for "white genocide."
Turnbull, at the time of the incident, described the leaflets as “poisonous”, and the decision to circulate them on Rosh Hashanah “a contemptible effort to frighten and intimidate Jews at one of the holiest times in the Jewish calendar."
Museum Dedicated to the History of Polish Jews Opens in Warsaw
The museum is located in the heart of what was the Warsaw ghetto facing opposite Natan Rapoport’s Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The museum building was designed by Finnish architect, Rainer Mahlamaki. His design was chosen for its simple geometric exterior, which does not overshadow the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, as well as its vast, soaring and beautiful interior.
The core exhibition, spanning 4500 square meters, presents the life and culture of Polish Jews throughout 1000 years of history, from the beginning of their presence in Poland up to the present. It was developed by a team of over 120 historians from Poland, the United States, and Israel, assisted by a team of curators. The Program Director of the Core Exhibition is Prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.
The exhibition's eight galleries are divided into time periods and set up in chronological order: The Forest, First Encounters (the Middle Ages), Paradisus Iudaeorum (15th centuries), The Jewish Town (17th and 18th centuries), Encounters with Modernity (19th century), The Street (the interwar period), Holocaust, and the last gallery, Postwar, focusing on the years after the end of the Second World War until today.
Joan Rivers’ High Holy Day Sermon
Saturday, Yom Kippur, marks thirty days since Joan Rivers’ passing. She may not have been a rabbi (her rendition of the blessing over the Shabbat candles went like this: “Baruch atoh Ado-noy Elo-henu—what’s the rest?”), but she had a thing or two to teach us about Jewishness. And so, as we mark her shloshim in the midst of the High Holy Days, I’d like to share something I learned from Joan Rivers about being Jewish.
(Like all High Holy Day sermons, it’s a bit lengthy; unlike most others, you can grab a snack while you take it in.)
For most of her 81 years, Rivers was hard to ignore: she made her mark as a comedienne, a television personality, a fashion icon, and — in her later years — a champion of Israel.
Rivers delighted many (and infuriated some) by coming to Israel’s defense in several recent television appearances. In January, she went on the Israeli satire show Matzav HaUmah to share ten (NSFW) ways to say “I love Israel.” In July, she was approached by a TMZ reporter who asked her to comment on the escalation in Gaza and southern Israel. Rivers let loose: “Let me just tell you,” she said, raising her hand for effect, “if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe ‘em out. If we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York, we would get rid of Jersey.” In a less-noticed video taken a few days later, she was even more emphatic. Asked when she was planning on visiting Israel, she said, “I called the embassy. Sooner the better. I’m outta here. I plan to get a gun and stand next to anyone that throws a rocket near my cousins’ house.”
Trick your eye with Bulbing optical-illusion lamp
Graphic designer Aya Brin is in a bit of a pickle as she tries to figure out how she’ll send designer lamps by her husband, Nir Chehanowski, to Kuwait, Dubai and Malaysia from Israel.
Of course, the packing boxes that have taken over her parents’ backyard are not only earmarked for countries without ties to Israel, but also for the Caribbean, North America, China, Europe and everywhere in between.
Chehanowski’s energy-efficient LED lamps are a bright spot in the world of lighting design right now.
He’s the guy behind the amazingly cool, mind-bending Bulbing lamp that started as a Kickstarter crowdfunding project and is now found in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store in New York City.
The lamps are thin acrylic glass frames in interchangeable patterns including a skull, balloons and a classic bulb shape, fitted into a birch base. The 2D wire frame lamps create an optical illusion and appear to be three-dimensional even though they are completely flat. Moreover, the LED light doesn’t overheat and lasts up to 50,000 hours.
Israel Daily Picture: The U.S. Navy Saved Jews of Eretz Yisrael Exactly 100 Years Ago (October 6, 1914)
The United States retained its neutrality in the war until 1917. Its consulate in Jerusalem, headed by Dr. Otis Glazebrook,remained open. The Americans were the only ones left to help the Jews of Palestine.
On August 31, 1914, the American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, sent an urgent telegram to the New York Jewish tycoon Jacob Schiff. “Palestinian Jews facing terrible crisis,” he wrote.
“Belligerent countries stopping their assistance. Serious destruction threatens thriving colonies. Fifty thousand dollars needed by responsible committee. Dr. Ruppin chairman to establish loan institute and support families whose breadwinners have entered army. Conditions certainly justify American help. Will you undertake matter?” Signed “Morgenthau.”
Realizing the difficulty in bringing money into Palestine past corrupt Turkish officials, Morgenthau also appealed to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan for assistance. It came in the form of U.S. Navy ships.
Medieval inn, bathhouse under Jerusalem’s Old City to open to public
Beneath the houses of Old Jerusalem’s Cotton Market neighborhood, a massive series of ancient buildings excavated by Israeli archaeologists is set to open to the public. Connected to the Western Wall tunnels by a warren of former cisterns, the jewel in the crown is a recently refurbished 14th century caravansary just 20 meters from the Temple Mount.
The complex, named “Ahar Kotlenu” — Hebrew for behind our wall, a reference to Song of Songs 2:9 — by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, features a grand hall roughly 3,500 square feet (325 square meters) in size whose cross-vaulted stone roof is held aloft by six reinforced pillars. The limestone walls include spolia — material pilfered from old ruins for construction — such as Crusader capitals. It once served as the storerooms and stables of the Mamluk caravansary, or inn for caravans, built in 1337, abutting the Cotton Merchants Market.
The inn was part of the Mamluks’ massive reconstruction of Jerusalem, which had fallen into disrepair by the mid-13th century and was in a state of “urban disarray,” as historian Nimrod Luz wrote. The slave kings of Egypt built schools, caravansaries, public baths, hostels and markets in a city suffering from years of economic decline.