Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

While their presence at that pro-police and antirioting demonstration was the most blatantly public showing, the organization has been active in the region in recent weeks, with members attending a handful of other local demonstrations, according to analysts and a member of the organization.

Experts describe the group as having a virulently racist ideology.

Youve got a fairly devout group of Neo-Nazis involved in this group, said Carla Hill, a research fellow with the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center On Extremism. They like to trigger people, upset people, and troll people.

Christopher Hood Jr., a 21-year-old who said he grew up in Dorchester, was among the members of the white supremacist group at the rally. Over the phone last week, Hood, who called himself the groups spokesman, said the Nationalist Social Club formed in December and its members had showed up at five demonstrations in Boston in recent weeks, distributing materials at three.

Were asserting ourselves publicly, Hood said.

At the State House rally, one man in the group had a visible swastika tattoo on his calf. He was identified as Anthony Petruccelli, who has ties to Lynn, by Samson Racioppi, a rally organizer; by Hill, the research fellow; and by Ben Lorber, a research analyst who focuses on white nationalism and anti-Semitism for Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank in Somerville.

Lorber said the Nationalist Social Club embraces anti-Black racism and described the group as being deeply anti-Semitic as well.

Asked about the terms used to describe his group racist, white supremacist, and Nazi Hood said at one point, If anyone calls me them, I dont tell them theyre wrong. At a different point during the interview, he said he does not think white people are inherently superior to anyone else. But when asked if he considered himself to be racist, he answered, Sure.

Hood contended his group is not inclined to commit violence, but Lorber described the organizations ideology as combining Neo-Nazism and violent white supremacy with a commitment to street mobilizations and direct action, including sympathy for accelerationist tactics. Lorber said accelerationist white supremacists seek to commit acts of terror intended to incite a race war they hope would lead to the collapse of the existing social and political order, after which they could establish a new all-white society.

They hope to capitalize on the resentment, anger, and alienation felt by some white Americans in this moment, to win new recruits to the violent white supremacist cause, said Lorber, speaking about the Nationalist Social Club.

Hood rejected the accelerationist label for his group, referring to such an ideology as stupid and mental masturbation. He acknowledged being previously involved in two white supremacist groups Patriot Front and The Base before the Nationalist Social Club.

While Lorber said Hood was the leader of the clubs New England chapter, Hood claimed the group has no formal leadership. Hill said Hood has described himself as a founding member of the group, and she said that a founder would be a presumed leader.

Hood was arrested on a weapons charge in East Boston last year after police found a pocket knife in his possession in an incident authorities connected to the posting of fliers promoting white supremacy in that neighborhood. However, in June, a judge disagreed with the premise that the officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct the stop that led to Hoods arrest and found the justification for pat-frisking Hood and others in his group then was meritless.

The judges ruling suppressed evidence seized from the stop, a victory for Hood.

In the recent phone interview, Hood declined to discuss a range of topics.

He did not say why he gravitated toward white supremacist groups and would not disclose the names of other members of the Nationalist Social Club who were at the rally in front of the State House and whether the group was at the violence in the heart of Boston on May 31. Nor did he delve into his Dorchester upbringing. He did not say in which community he currently lives, although he did say he resides in Massachusetts.

Hood wouldnt get into specific numbers concerning the groups membership either.

Hill, the researcher with the ADLs Center on Extremism, said there might be a dozen members in the groups New England chapter, adding that such an estimate could be generous.

Lorber said the club is also active in Tennessee and Central Florida, where their messaging includes explicit support for Hitler and opposition to the removal of Confederate monuments.

During recent weeks, club members showed up at a Black Lives Matter rally in the South End and hung a banner from a Boston overpass reading New England is ours, according to Lorber. They have also placed stickers advertising their group in Worcester ahead of a recent Black Lives Matter rally, among other activities, he said.

In late May, in a message posted to the messaging platform Telegram, a group stated, White men need to be forming tight-knit leaderless & autonomous militant collectives in our inner cities . . . There must be bands of white men everywhere that can secure white well being where we will become an increasing minority in an increasingly hostile climate.

Two experts Lorber and Megan Squire, an Elon University professor told the Globe the page belonged to the Nationalist Social Clubs local chapter.

Jack McDevitt, the director of Northeastern Universitys Institute on Race and Justice, has studied hate crime for 30 years. White supremacy groups tend to splinter, he said, with supremacists forming factions online, where they encourage violence against police and people of color. Sometimes they urge their members to go to rallies to foment antigovernment violence, or at least convey that sentiment, he said. There are many groups, but they tend to be small in size, he said.

McDevitt said we have to understand theyre very dangerous. He added that it would be in law enforcements interest to monitor them. He thought the presence of the Nationalist Social Club at the State House rally was not surprising, but it is depressing.

At the rally, some of the at least half-dozen men in the group had T-shirts that read Nationalist Social Club. At least two wore masks. Another had a T-shirt with a Confederate flag on it.

The June 27 rally was organized by Super Happy Fun America, the group with ties to the far right behind last years controversial Straight Pride Parade.

Speakers at the June State House rally publicly denounced the white supremacists in their midst. Organizers have said they asked police to remove them to no avail.

Nationalist Social Club members have attended Super Happy Fun America events in the past, including a May 30 demonstration calling for the reopening of the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic. John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America, acknowledged in an e-mail to the Globe that the Nationalist Social Club, which he referred to as scum bags, showed up to the reopen rally.

Additionally, Petruccelli marched in the Straight Pride Parade last Aug. 31, carrying a banner advertising T-shirts, according to Racioppi, chairman of Super Happy Fun America. Racioppi said if the group had known who he was, he would have been excluded from that event. Attempts to reach Petruccelli last week were not successful. An intermediary said Petruccelli did not want to be interviewed.

Hood also said he had attended events held by Resist Marxisms, a group with multiple connections to Super Happy Fun America, in years past.

Racioppi said any accusation that his organization is normalizing ideologies like those espoused by the Nationalist Social Club is false.

Hugo, in an e-mail, described himself as a right-of-center Republican who supports limited government. He said he despises Nazis. He also noted his group had people of color speak at the June 27 rally.

But Robert Trestan, the New England regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said Super Happy Fun America has become a magnet in Massachusetts for other extremists.

Every time they do something public, they attract extremists and bigots, anti-Semites and racists, he said.

Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald.

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A fairly devout group of Neo-Nazis. Local white supremacist group has been active in recent weeks - The Boston Globe

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

President Donald Trumps social media adviser posted a cartoon critical of Dr. Anthony Fauci on Facebook over the weekend, sharing the work of an artist who was barred from the White House last year for anti-Semitic imagery.

Dan Scavino, the Trump administration's deputy chief of staff for communications, posted a Ben Garrison cartoon to his Facebook page on July 12. The cartoon depicted the countrys top infectious disease expert as a faucet drowning Uncle Sam and the economy with demands to close schools, impose lockdowns and cancel the NFL season.

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Sorry, Dr. Faucet! At least you know if Im going to disagree with a colleague, such as yourself, its done publicly and not cowardly, behind journalists with leaks. See you tomorrow! Scavino wrote in the posts caption. Scavinos post garnered more than 12,000 reactions and 6,000 shares on Facebook.

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Trump aide shares anti-Fauci cartoon drawn by artist barred from the White House over anti-Semitic tropes - POLITICO

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

Allen Iverson posted a statement on social media Thursday to address backlash he received for sharing a photo of himself with Louis Farrakhan.

On Wednesday, the 45-year-old Hall of Famer shared a photo on Instagram of a meeting he had with Farrakhan. His caption for the photo said I didnt choose to be black, I just got lucky!!! #BucketListMoment #LoveConquersHate #GoodDefeatsEvil.

Farrakhan is the leader of the Nation of Islam, which has been deemed a blacked nationalist and hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In his statement, Iverson said his post was not meant to offend anyone. He said he respects Farrakhan as a powerful voice in the black community, but that he has some different opinions.

Iverson is the latest current or former pro athlete to express support of Farrakhan. DeSean Jackson was fined by the Philadelphia Eagles for sharing some anti-Semitic thoughts last week. Jackson recently was consuming content from Farrakhan, who has a history of anti-Semitic messages, according to the Anti-Defamation League. DeSean Jackson was backed by Stephen Jackson and Shannon Sharpe, among others, who have also expressed support for Farrakhan recently.

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Allen Iverson posts statement addressing photo with Louis Farrakhan - Larry Brown Sports

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

In July 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would commute the sentence of Roger Stone, a political ally who was convicted of seven felony charges, including witness tampering, lying to congress, and obstruction, in relation to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

Shortly after the news broke, a photograph started to circulate online that supposedly showed Stone and members of the Proud Boys flashing a white power gesture at a bar:

This is a genuine photograph of Stone and members of the Proud Boys. Some may argue that this group is merely flashing an OK symbol, but this argument doesnt really hold up, especially when you consider that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group that espouses white supremacist ideals, and that white supremacists have adopted the OK hand gesture as a symbol of hate.

This photograph was taken around the time of the Dorchester Conference, Oregons oldest Republican political conference, in March 2018. The Willamette Week reported that Stone, who was scheduled to speak at the event, hired members of the Proud Boys to be his private security.

The Willamette Week wrote:

Roger Stonethe former political adviser to Richard Nixon and President Donald Trumpappeared without incident at the states oldest Republican conference last weekend.

But an organizer of the Dorchester Conference in Salem says Stone was so worried for his safety that he enlisted a right-wing group as private security.

Patrick Sheehan, a Dorchester board member who booked Stone, says Stone reached out to the Proud Boysa group notorious for its participation in Portland street brawlsafter reading about violent political clashes in Oregon.

He was worried about getting killed, Sheehan says. He gets death threats constantly.

Photos of Stone drinking with a handful of Proud Boys circulated across social media over the weekend, outraging Democrats.

The photograph of Stone drinking with a handful of Proud Boys mentioned in the Willamette Week article was originally posted by InfoWars host Alex Jones on Twitter on March 3, 2020. The image was captioned: InfoWars Roger Stone joined the @proudboysUSA in Salem Oregon tonight. I joined them in spirit!

This is a genuine image of Stone with members of the Proud Boys in March 2018. Although the meaning behind the OK hand gesture is a bit murky it was, and is still, widely used as a harmless symbol for approval or consent this symbol has been adopted by white supremacists as a symbol of hate.

Heres the Anti-Defamation Leagues explanation of the OK hand gesture as a symbol of hate:

In 2017, the okay hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters wp, for white power. The okay gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.

In the case of the okay gesture, the hoax was so successful the symbol became a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals, who would often post photos to social media of themselves posing while making the okay gesture.

Ironically, some white supremacists themselves soon also participated in such trolling tactics, lending an actual credence to those who labeled the trolling gesture as racist in nature. By 2019, at least some white supremacists seem to have abandoned the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy, such as when Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant flashed the symbol during a March 2019 courtroom appearance soon after his arrest for allegedly murdering 50 people in a shooting spree at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

And heres how Southern Poverty Law Center described the Proud Boys:

Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described western chauvinists who adamantly deny any connection to the racist alt-right, insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an anti-political correctness and anti-white guilt agenda.

Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spoutwhite nationalistmemes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known foranti-Muslimand misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside otherhate groupsat extremist gatherings like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Indeed, former Proud Boys memberJason Kesslerhelped to organize the event, which brought together Klansmen, antisemites, Southern racists, and militias. Kessler was only expelled from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of the Charlottesville rally-goers.

Other hardcore members of the so-called alt-right have argued that the western chauvinist label is just a PR cuck term McInnes crafted to gain mainstream acceptance. Lets not bullshit, Brian Brathovd, aka Caeralus Rex, told his co-hosts on the antisemitic The Daily Shoah one of the most popular alt-right podcasts. If the Proud Boys were pressed on the issue, I guarantee you that like 90% of them would tell you something along the lines of Hitler was right. Gas the Jews.

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Is This Roger Stone and Proud Boys Flashing a White Power Symbol? - Snopes.com

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

This article originally appeared on Kveller.

Printed in black and white and bigotry all over, Nazi official Hans Severus Zieglers brochure for his public exhibit in Dusseldorf featured an African American jazz musician with a Star of David on his lapel. Designed to ridicule and belittle Jewish musicians for performing Negro music as another tactic to contaminate German culture, Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) opened in May, 1938 just four months before Kristallnacht.

By then a ban on Negro jazz had already been instated, three years prior, on German radio for its hysterical rhythmic reverses characteristic of the barbarian races.

And yet, in spite of this, a curious historical phenomena transpired the same year this exhibit opened its doors: Hitlers Germany was obsessed with Bei Mir Bist du Schn (To Me You Are Beautiful), the 1937 song that catalyzed the era of Yiddish swing. A sub-genre of jazz, swing music is more upbeat and easy to dance, or swing, to than the style of jazz that originated in New Orleans that was born out of African music. In its golden age, Benny Goodman, the Jewish King of Swing, fought for integration in Tin Pan Alley and hired African American musicians to bring the new musical style to the masses.

The fundamentals of jazz are the syncopation and rhythmic accents of the Negro, American music theorist Henry Cowell wrote in 1930. Their modernization is the word of New York Jews So jazz is Negro music seen through the eyes of the Jews.

Hailed by Jewish music scholar Neil W. Levin as the worlds best-known and longest-reigning Yiddish theater song of all time, Bei Mir Bist Du Schein was written by Jews, performed by Black musicians, popularized by a Lutheran trio of Norwegian sisters, and beloved by the Nazis until they discovered its Jewish roots, that is. (Under its Germanized title, Bei Mir Bist du Schn, many assumed the language was a southern German dialect.)

A song so powerful that even the Third Reich couldnt resist, Bei Mir Bist Du Schein launched the Andrews Sisters to fame overnight, fueled a growing counterculture against German fascism, and by way of blending American music with sounds of the shtetl, it helped ease Jewish immigrants assimilation into American society.

The song was originally written by Sholem Secunda for a Yiddish operetta in 1935. After hearing the African American jazz duo Johnnie and George perform the song in the Catskills, Jewish lyricist Sammy Cahn bought the rights and rewrote the lyrics in English, preserving just the titular chorus in Yiddish. Within a month of the Andrews Sisters recording of the song, some 250,000 records and 200,000 copies of sheet music were sold. (Hilariously, American fans couldnt quite catch the songs title, confusing it for Buy a Beer, Mr. Shane or, my personal favorite, My Mere Bits of Shame.)

The lyrics were revamped for popular release to transcend the songs Jewish roots and celebrate Americas melting of multiple languages and cultures, writes Charles B. Hersch in his book, Jews and Jazz: Improvising Ethnicity. As the songs lovestruck protagonist imagines saying bella bella or sehr wunderbar, each foreign tongue is simply a vehicle to express how grand the beloved is.

In America, the success of Bei Mir helped Jews feel they made the right choice in fleeing pogroms of Europe through theatre and music they could, and did, cement themselves in the New World. Benny Goodman furthered the Yiddish jazz craze with his iconic 1938 performance of Bei Mir at Harlems iconic Apollo Theatre within months, a myriad of popular artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Belle Baker, Kate Smith, and the Barry Sisters recorded covers, hoping to cash in on the fad.

To highlight the new musical fusion of klezmer and jazz, New Yorks WHN created Yiddish Melodies in Swing, a program that lasted two decades. The feat was a sense of mastery over the challenge of integrating in the American mainstream while maintaining ties to their distinctive immigrant heritage, writes Hersch.

Back in Germany, swing music was hardly a relief from the woes of war and Nazi violence. While Hitlerjugend Hitler Youth, the Nazis youth organization grew in popularity, so did the countermovement known as Swingjugend. Rejecting societal oppression, uniformity, and police brutality, these teens separated themselves from the Nazi state by dancing the Charleston in speakeasy bars filled with the sounds of swing music, a genre that emulated free love, independence and peace.

Members of Swingjugend let their hair grow long. The men carried umbrellas, the women wore heavy makeup and collectively they mocked Hitlerjugends infamous Sieg Heil with proclamations of Swing Heil. With songs like Bei Mir beating in their hearts, the 1993 movie Swing Kids depicts the counterculture German rebels as they are confronted by the Nazis. The movie is fiction, but the historical atrocities are chillingly accurate: In 1941, 300 swing kids were punished for praising the degenerate music of Jewish and Black people some were given haircuts, others were sent back to school, many were deported to Nazi concentration camps.

But even in the Nazi-drawn ghettos, the popularity of swing endured. In 1942 Theresienstadt the model concentration camp, designed to fool the world into believing all was well and dandy in the Third Reich Eric Vogul led the Ghetto Swingers, a jazz orchestra forced to perform in the main square for long hours. A disturbing charade, the Jewish musicians still found joy in performing jazz and swing music. In their darkest hours it was an escape.

When I played I forgot where I was. The world seemed in order, the suffering of people around me disappeared life was beautiful, wrote Ghetto Swingers guitarist Coco Schumann in his autobiography. We knew everything and forgot everything the moment we played a few bars.

Bei Mir Bist Du Schein, of course, was one of the songs that tranquilized ourselves into the dream world produced by the Germans for reasons of propaganda, Vogel said. Filled with notes of hope and love that transcend language, that blissful bubble burst in 1944 when the camp was cleared and most of the remaining prisoners were sent to Auschwitz.

By the end of World War II in 1945, swing music was replaced with new sounds like Bebop and rhythm and blues. As Jews embraced a state of their own in 1948 with Hebrew as the lingua franca, Yiddish was swept to the side, left to gather dust along with the memories of pogroms and gas chambers.

Israel was happening and Israelism was a way for Jewish people to be more American, more assimilated, more macho, more cowboy-like than the old skinny, left-wing, intellectual type so common with Yiddish culture, Alicia Svigals, a founding member of the Klezmatics, tells The Washington Post.

Nearly a century after the golden era of klezmer-meets-jazz, I think the song that started it all is due for a comeback. So much of the landscape that gave way to Yiddish swing has returned, and the parallels are chilling: recent acts of police brutality launched a fiery wave of Black Lives Matter protests; anti-Semitism is at an all-time high; the crushed economy in the United States is being likened to the Great Depression, the very historic crisis that gave way to the swing era.

Made most famous by three non-Jewish sisters, Bei Mir Bist Du Schein is hardly the only Yiddish swing tune we should revere and revive as an unlikely protest song. But its the rich history of Black and Jewish musicians who made this degenerate music irresistible to the Nazis that makes this shtetl swing melody an ultimate song of resistance.

Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Stringer/ Getty Images

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The Yiddish song that kicked off the Swing Era is due for a comeback - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

WASHINGTON (JTA) Israels potential annexation of parts of the West Bank may not be a top election issue for American Jews, or even a top issue right now for most Israelis.

But some evangelical Christians in America are hoping to make it an animating issue for evangelical voters in this falls presidential election.

Thats especially true for Mike Evans, the evangelical writer who founded a museum celebrating Christian supporters of Israel, the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem. His Jerusalem Prayer Team Facebook page has more than 73 million followers.

This year, Israel is going to be the number one thing they take into the voting booth, and Ill tell you why, Evans told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week. The one thing that unites all evangelicals concerning Israel is Genesis 12:3: I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. So Ive got 73 million evangelicals on my Jerusalem Prayer Team Facebook site alone, and I know them. The only thing they believe they can do to get God to bless them is to bless the land of Israel.

The flipside, Evans said, is that if Trump stands in the way of annexation, he could face a backlash from evangelicals at the voting booth.

But exactly how many evangelical voters there are, and how much they are animated by the annexation issue, is unclear.

Gallup citing the proportion of people who answer yes to the question Would you describe yourself as born-again or evangelical? says evangelicals have for decades comprised just over 40% of the population. And a 2017 poll commissioned by pro-Israel evangelicals found that the percentage of evangelicals who believe that the establishment of Israel was a fulfillment of prophecy was astronomically high 80%.

Elizabeth Oldmixon, a University of North Texas political scientist who studies evangelicals and their relationship to Israel, has estimated that about a third of evangelicals are likely to put Israel policy at the center of their electoral decision-making. (Other issues that drive evangelical voting include abortion rights and religious liberty.)

Oldmixon told Vox in 2018 that a subset of the evangelical community for whom the status of Israel is really, really important because of the way they understand the end of time would constitute about 15 million people.

But many of those voters might have been satisfied by Trumps moves already. Sarah Posner, an author who has written about the evangelicals affinity for Trump, said evangelicals were not likely to be preoccupied with the ins and outs of annexation.

Theyre very happy with the embassy move and are not going to give up on judges and policy they have long sought to enact (here) over annexation, she said. Honestly, I think most evangelicals dont truly understand the annexation issue and were more wowed by something like the embassy move.

Last month two pro-Israel evangelical leaders, Robert Jeffress and Joel Rosenberg, told The New York Times that evangelicals were indifferent to annexation and that they even might turn on Trump if he blesses annexation and it triggers regional turmoil.

I dont see any pickup among evangelical voters for this move, and theres a risk that you could lose some evangelical votes, in the very states where you might be more vulnerable, Rosenberg told the newspaper.

Notably, these figures might be heeding whispered counsel from the Israeli leaders with whom they are close who, despite their public statements, may be eager to avert a drastic step at a time that Israel is coping with a second wave of the coronavirus, and increased tensions with Iran.

But Rosenberg outlined in a detailed paper posted on his website that it was conversations with Palestinian and Arab leaders that had given him the most pause. He wrote that unilateral annexation would heighten instability in the country that evangelicals care so much about.

Now would be a good time to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem and the region, and praying that Israeli and American leaders will have true wisdom at this critical moment, Rosenberg wrote on his website. Please pray for the Palestinian people who are feeling increasingly hopeless and left out of the process and seeing the U.S. and Israel make decisions without them. And pray, too, for the leaders and peoples of the moderate Arab states who are increasingly in favor of peace with Israel and see extraordinary opportunity for enhanced prosperity for all sides if treaties can be signed and trade relationships opened. Strange times in the Epicenter these days.

With both the United States and Israel facing a surge in coronavirus cases, annexation feels far less pressing than it did July 1, the first date that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have formally proposed the move. A top Israeli official said this week that issue is landing on the back burner because the United States was paying it little attention.

Still, Evans said his followers, too, would be praying for annexation to move forward, aggrandizing the land under Israels control.

These people are terrified right now, that God is not happy with America, he said. Theyre looking at the riots, theyre looking at the plague of corona, and theyre worried, Is God unhappy, is he cursing us? Theyre not sure, and they want God to bless them.

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A leading evangelical says nixing West Bank annexation could cost Trump the election. Others disagree. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

None of that seemed so bad to her. Black people could celebrate their roots, Hispanic ones too. It stood to reason, Ms. Olsen thought, that white people should be able to do the same. Stormfront users presented this as if it were a mathematical proof, not a notion freighted with racist, violent history.

Ms. Olsen wrote a post introducing herself and asking, Is there something wrong with being a white supremacist? I dont outwardly profess hatred for other races; I have to work with them and also serve clients of other races in my industry, and I am very good at what I do. I dont advocate violence toward other races. She continued, What is wrong with seeing our race as superior to that of the blacks? Dont we all?

The responses were plentiful and affirming. There is nothing wrong with having a personal opinion, one read. A commenter with the handle Thoughtful Patriot wrote, Lets face reality: People self-segregate by race. Race, the person added, is an intrinsic part of who we are.

To Ms. Olsen, these people seemed smart. Just as important, she told me, they seemed immensely interested in me and my life, and they wanted to be my friend. To someone who grew up without friends, that was very appealing. It made me feel like I must be doing something right.

She wasnt always sure that she believed what she said when she echoed her new friends views, but what mattered was that they wanted to keep talking to her; all she had to do was log in and start typing. If playing a part graduated to instinct, maybe they would like her even more.

The most basic definition of hate is personal animus, but there is a more useful, and frightening, description: Hate is a social bond a shared currency and it abhors a vacuum.

Kathleen Blee, a sociologist and expert in racist activism, writes that social camaraderie, a desire for simple answers to complex political problems, or even the opportunity to take action against formidable social forces can coexist with, even substitute for, hatred as the reason for participation in organized racist activities.

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White Supremacy Was Her World. And Then She Left. - The New York Times

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His comedy club, Madame Sarfati, is named after one of the most famous characters in French comedy: The parody of a Jewish mother played by lie Kakou, who died in 1999. Modeled after North American clubs, it is one of only a few venues in Paris that offers near-daily performance opportunities for French comedians. It took the investors, who include the theater mogul Jean-Marc Dumontet, two years to find and renovate the venue, a former restaurant chosen partly for its location near the Chtelet station, a transit hub easily accessible for suburban visitors.

Before Madame Sarfati opened last November, Fary and Dumontet imagined a number of catastrophic scenarios. Fary admitted wryly that they didnt include a pandemic: The club was closed for nearly four months as France went into lockdown, at an estimated cost of around $110,000, according to its manager, Jennifer Soussan.

Madame Sarfati reopened to the public last week, and while social distancing rules meant an audience of 75 people instead of the usual 100, the all-male group of comics that took to the stage for the reopening night were visibly hungry to try out new material. Jokes about lockdown, racism and police violence came thick and fast. Madame Sarfati keeps its programming a mystery, which means there is no telling whether youll see Fary, Brokerss or newcomers strut onto the stage designed by JR. I want people to come for stand-up, not for me, Fary said.

He is arguably only now approaching maturity in his own career. The evolution between Fary is the New Black and Hexagone is palpable, with the latter leaning more into social commentary and personal material about his family. Its like a date. At the beginning you show a version of yourself that you imagine to be more seductive, a little haughty, he said. Then you reveal more. Im becoming myself.

Jokes about race may be coming to him less easily at the moment, but he has just starred in a new comedy feature, Tout Simplement Noir (Simply Black), directed by Jean-Pascal Zadi. In the mockumentary, which resonates presciently with current events, Fary plays an opportunist version of himself who latches onto the main characters plan to organize a protest for only Black people.

Despite the success of the recent real-life demonstrations in Paris, Fary isnt convinced that meaningful change is on the horizon. France is a country that sees its culture as fixed, not as something that evolves and adapts, he said.

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Fary Isnt Joking About Race in France Right Now - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

Mark your calendars, because you dont want to miss these deliciously fun culinary happenings:

Caracol, 2200 Post Oak, has added two botana (meaning appetizer or snack) family meals to its menu, spotlighting the coastal Mexican kitchens popular seafood items. Features include the Botana Caracol, with a dozen camarones a la talla (wood-grilled head-on shrimp), half-dozen ostiones asados (wood-roasted Gulf oysters with chipotle butter), pulpo al carbon (grilled octopus with chipotle tomatillo sauce) and a dozen small blue corn tortillas; or the Botana Costea, with a pint of red snapper ceviche, a pound of boiled shrimp with chipotle mayo and cocktail sauce, and a half-dozen Gulf oysters on-the-half-shell with salsa bruja and lime. Other offerings include family meals to-go, a la carte dishes, desserts and new seasonal items from fire-roasted Ruby Red shrimp to peach and blueberry empanadas. The restaurant is open for both dine-in and takeout.

Backstreet Cafe is bringing Friday Night Date Night to you.

Photo by Paula Murphy

Backstreet Cafe, 1103 South Shepherd, is offering a new Friday Night Date Night Package for $68 plus tax. The three-course dinner for two features a watermelon salad with arugula, feta cheese, red onion, lemon vinaigrette; braised short ribs with red wine sauce, bbq baked beans and sauted kale; and a choice of butterscotch bread pudding or blueberry-peach crisp for dessert. Order online or by calling 713-521-2239 for curbside pickup (and tack on to-go wine and cocktail kits, too). Orders can also be delivered via Favor, Postmates, GrubHub, UberEats and Waitr, and the restaurant offers direct delivery to the following areas for a $7 delivery fee: 77006, 77019, 77098, 77007, 77002, 77010, 77008 and 77009.

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, 2101 Summer, is turning its annual Christmas in July celebration into the 12 Days of #XMASINJULY event, kicking off Saturday, July 25, with limited capacity dine-in reservations available for Santas stop each day.

Guests are invited to a Summer Wine Dinner at Ouisies Table, 3939 San Felipe, on Thursday, July 30. The four-course dinner ($55++ per person) will feature five paired ros wines from around the world, with dishes including grilled prosciutto figs and watermelon salad, seafood bastille crisp, braised short ribs with bourbon reduction and an artisanal cheese plate. Unlike wine dinners held in the past, this one can be served at any time that evening reserved by the guests (parties no larger than six allowed). Masks are required going to and from tables and when moving about in the restaurant. Call 713-528-2264.

Throughout August, Kenny & Ziggys,2327 Post Oak, will once again join Jewish delis across the nation in National Deli Month, a month-long effort to recognize the great American heritage of New York-style delicatessens. The famed Houston deli will be raising funds for Holocaust Museum Houston, offering a multi-choice, three-course menu during lunch and dinner for $38 plus tax and gratuity, with 10 percent of each meal sold going to the HMH. The special menu is available for both curbside pick-up or dine-in at the Post Oak location only (the West U location off Buffalo Speedway location will remain closed until a later date).

Brooke Viggiano is a contributing writer who is always looking to share Houston's coolest and tastiest happenings with the Houston Press readers.

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Things to Do: Upcoming Food & Drink Events in Houston this Summer 2020 - Houston Press

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Posted By admin on July 17, 2020

Nayla Rush is a senior researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies.

In an appearance on French television at the end of May, French-American journalist and author Anne Toulouse reacted to the violent protests that followed the death of George Floyd in the United States. Toulouse said (my translation):1

Her words, deemed controversial by some, were criticized on social media (see here3 and here4). But that's not the point of this report.

It is true that the majority of the black community in Minneapolis (the largest city in Minnesota) is of Somali origin. Around 150,000 Somalis live in the United States. The Minneapolis population is around 425,000, of whom 18 percent (or 80,000) are Black or African-American.5 The Somali community in Minneapolis is estimated at 74,000 or more.6

Toulouse is also right to wonder about Minneapolis as a choice of residence for this specific community. Here's why: While migration is mostly conditioned by job opportunities and networking the meat industry in Minneapolis, for example, employs unskilled migrants and refugees, including Somalis refugee placement is in fact orchestrated by a number of resettlement agencies and not by refugees themselves.

Most Somalis who came to Minneapolis in the early 1990s (following the beginning of a long civil war and clan violence), including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, were admitted here as refugees. According to the U.S. Refugee Processing Center portal, the United States has resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees since fiscal year 2001.7

The reception and placement (R&P) of refugees is explained in this "Report to Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2020":

Nine religious or community-based organizations, called resettlement agencies, have contracts with the Department of State to resettle refugees inside the United States.9 These agencies (formerly known as "volags") maintain nationwide networks of local affiliates to provide services to refugees, including reception on arrival in the United States, placement, support with housing, community orientation, help accessing health services, enrollment in various benefits and welfare programs, employment, etc.

Resettlement agency representatives determine where refugees are resettled in the United States:

Under the reception and placement program, "initial resettlement services are provided to newly arriving refugees by a local affiliate of one of the participating resettlement agencies. Thus, as a general matter, refugees are not resettled in states that do not have any local affiliates or in parts of states that do not have local affiliates within an allowable distance."11 (Emphasis added.)

Again, Toulouse's query was well founded. In general terms, when we're not dealing with family reunification, refugees cannot pick and choose the state/city they are to call home (let alone their country of resettlement). Of course, they can always move to another location later on (at their own expense), but their initial placement is, in reality, imposed on them.

Even state and local governments don't have a real say in this matter. In principle, the federal government (and the resettlement agencies it works with) needs to consult with states and localities about welcoming refugees into their communities, but reality is quite different, as my colleague Mark Krikorian explained:

In an attempt to correct such omissions, President Trump issued an executive order on September 26, 2019, allowing state and local authorities to opt out of the refugee resettlement program altogether.13 This was later blocked by a Maryland judge.14 Three resettlement agencies (HIAS, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service) filed a lawsuit "challenging [the] Trump administration executive order allowing state and local officials to block refugee resettlement."15

Following Trump's executive order, 42 governors (including Republicans) expressed their commitment to resettling refugees in their communities. Only Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas announced that his state would not be participating in the refugee resettlement program in FY 2020. However, and as explained in a Star Tribune post last January, "a governor's decision doesn't preclude local officials from refusing to give their consent. For instance, the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts, has refused to give written consent for refugees to be resettled in the city."16

Resettlement agencies are indeed concerned about the limitations this executive order if it survives court challenges would impose on their authority over placement, as reported in the Star Tribune:

In short, until further notice, refugees' initial placement into one American community and not another remains in the hands of resettlement agency representatives.

These agencies, as I underlined a couple of years ago, are mostly funded by the U.S. government, i.e. by American taxpayers.18 Their leaders have been very critical of the Trump administration's refugee policy that has lowered refugee admissions ceilings; but, bear in mind, for these organizations, lower resettlement admissions also means less federal funding.

My earlier calculations of the share of these agencies' budgets coming from government funding and the salary of their directors/presidents/CEOs needed updating. I do so here, using the most recent publicly available Form 990 federal tax returns (from 2018, and 2019 when available). I also retrieved, when possible, financial data from the agencies' websites. Finally, I share a brief biography of the heads of these organizations and some of their public stands on the Trump administration's migration and refugee policies.

These resettlement agencies are funded, for the most part, by the U.S. government. Government funding ranges from a low of 41 percent to a high of 96.1 percent. (Some services provided, and government funds received, by these organizations may be non-refugee-related.)

Yearly compensations for the heads of these organizations range from a low of $151,666 to a high of $911,796.

All have been very critical of the Trump administration's migration and refugee policies, many even going as far as suing the Trump administration and lobbying against many of its rulings.

On May 29, 2020, CWS20 announced that McCullough "will be stepping down from his post as President and CEO in June 2021. ... The CWS Board of Directors has begun its search for an experienced and inspiring leader to serve as the organization's next President and CEO and lead the organization into the next decade."21

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018:

About Rev. John L. McCullough:

An ordained minister in The United Methodist Church, he has served pastorates in the United States and Kenya and has held leadership positions at the denomination's global mission agency before joining CWS in 2000.

As architect of the CWS Africa Initiative, he presented to members of the United Nations HABITAT community his vision to guide the establishment of School Safe Zones.

McCullough has overseen the agency's concentration on sustainable access to food and water in the face of climate change.

McCullough has remained outspoken in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, DREAMers, and the rights of the displaced.23

In April 2019, McCullough wrote: "Trump Wants More Cruelty at the Border" following Kirstjen Nielsen's resignation from her post as Homeland Security secretary. Accusing President Trump of pursuing his "anti-immigrant agenda", McCullough stated: "We know that President Trump forced Secretary Nielsen to resign to find someone willing to enforce even more cruelty at the border."24

On October 15, 2019, McCullough was "one of 18 leaders arrested on the Capitol steps while protesting the destruction of the U.S. refugee resettlement program."25 (Emphasis added.) He was also very vocal against President Trump's plan to set FY 2020 refugee admissions at 18,000:

With one final blow, the Trump administration has snuffed out Lady Liberty's torch and ended our nation's legacy of compassion and welcome. The darkness of this day will extend for years, if not decades, to come. It will destabilize key allies and destroy what is left of our nation's moral example. Congress must not continue to stand by as the Trump administration systematically blocks all vulnerable people from accessing protection in our country. Congress should support the GRACE Act (S.1088 and H.R.2146), which would set a minimum refugee admissions goal at 95,000 and restore the resettlement program to historic norms. [Emphasis added.]26

On November 21, 2019, CWS, along with HIAS and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, filed a lawsuit against President Trump's executive order that gives state and local authorities the option to pull out from the refugee resettlement program altogether.27

Here's McCullough's statement on that issue:

This executive order is a thinly veiled attempt to play political games with the lives of the most vulnerable. Local support for newly arriving refugees in the communities where we work is already robust and clear. ... There is no justification for allowing local officials to shut down a proven program and block these faith communities from carrying out their mission to welcome the stranger. [Emphasis added.]28

Following reports stating that President Trump was about to announce new border controls because of the coronavirus,29 McCullough issued the following statement in response to what he called "reports that the administration seeks to violate U.S. and international law by turning back all asylum seekers at the southern border" (emphasis added):

The administration's decision is wrong and immoral and will endanger more lives. Closing our southern border to people asking for protection from persecution is about President Trump's nativist policy goals not public health." [Emphasis added.]30

Churches do not have to file 990 forms; there were none filed for this resettlement agency and no financial data is available on its website.31

According to an Episcopal News Service 2017 blog post, "EMM receives very little money from the church-wide budget, instead receiving 99.5 percent of its funding from the federal government. Its main office is housed at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. Stevenson [Mark Stevenson, EMM's director at the time] has said that 90 percent of the contract money directly goes to resettling refugees. EMM retains about $2 million for administrative costs, including all national staff salaries. Any unused money goes back to the government." (Emphasis added.)32

Stevenson, who served as the director of Episcopal Migration Ministries since May 2016, was named in August 2018 as canon to the presiding bishop for ministry within the Episcopal Church. The agency was "searching for a new director, as the incumbent has been promoted to a senior position on the presiding bishop's staff."33

Demetrio Alvero, Stevenson's deputy director, was named interim director of EMM.

On January 23, 2019, Alvero, a veteran staff member of Episcopal Migration Ministries, was appointed director of operations for the refugee resettlement area.34

Alvero "began his career with EMM in 2005 as grants and compliance manager and was appointed deputy director in 2010. His knowledge and experience in the areas of refugee and migration matters spans over 40 years in the United States and abroad, working primarily in Kenya, Guatemala, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Costa Rica."35

Alvero was the Costa Rica representative of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the mid 1980s.36

No data is available regarding the financial compensation of Stevenson or Alvero.

Stevenson has been quite vocal against President Trump's migration and refugee policies. In 2017, "Rev. E. Mark Stevenson, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, issued the following statement in response to two federal judges' actions to block President Donald Trump's travel ban limiting entry to people from six Muslim countries":

On behalf of Episcopal Migration Ministries, I give thanks that the courts have once again acted in defense of refugees and immigrants by restraining the implementation of the recent executive order to ban certain nationalities, cultures and religions from entering this country. We recognize that the struggle to walk the moral path is far from over, but for today we rejoice that America will continue to welcome those in great need to a place of safety and opportunity. [Emphasis added.]37

On September 26, 2019, following President Trump's proposed FY 2020 refugee ceiling of 18,000, EMM released a statement on the "White House Decision to Reduce the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program". Excerpts below:

The Episcopal Church condemns the administration's decision to reduce the number of refugees and further dismantle the refugee resettlement program. We also strongly condemn the decision to allow states and localities to reject refugees. The historic average for annual refugee admissions has been 95,000. The FY2020 determination of 18,000 refugees is the lowest in the forty year history of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

...

"This decision will substantially hamper the vital work of Episcopal Migration Ministries to show the love of Christ to some of the most vulnerable people in the world" said The Rev. Dr. C.K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop for ministry beyond The Episcopal Church. ...

Communities wholeheartedly value the opportunity to welcome refugees. It sends the wrong message to turn our backs on refugees who could enrich, strengthen, and revitalize our cities and towns. ?allowing>

We urge Congress, and all people of goodwill, to make their voices heard in opposition to this decision." [Emphasis added.]38

Another statement, released on January 11, 2020, "condemns [Texas] Gov. [Greg] Abbott's decision to reject refugee resettlement in 2020."39

Form 990, 2018:

About Tsehaye Teferra:

A native of Ethiopia, he came to the United States in 1972. His commitment to helping refugees adjust to their new homeland in the United States spans close to two decades. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1977 and earned a doctorate in social linguistics. Before starting ECDC, Mr. Teferra worked at Georgetown University and Howard University as a researcher in linguistics and African studies.41

Teferra was designated by the Obama administration as one of many "Champions of Change", "people doing extraordinary things to make a difference in their communities".42

In September 2017, ECDC responded to the Trump administration rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and called on Congress to find a permanent solution.

Teferra said, "We recognize the strength, resilience and contributions of immigrants to the United States, and we count among these contributors the nearly 800,000 individuals who have accessed DACA since the inception of the program. Ending this program without a replacement action threatens the future of young undocumented immigrants brought to America as children. ECDC urges Congress to follow through with its commitment to govern by passing legislation to help create a permanent solution for DACA recipients." (Emphasis added.)43

In 2019, ECDC called the decision of the Trump administration to set the FY 2020 refugee admissions ceiling at 18,000 "a clear abandonment of the world's most vulnerable people", while Teferra defined resettlement as "a life-saving program that contributes toward making the United States a powerful nation."44 (Emphasis added.)

Form 990, 2018:

Financial data from their 2018 annual report on their website:

Mark Hetfield, originally from Watchung, N.J., was named president and CEO of HIAS, the Jewish immigration group on February 4, 2013:

Hetfield succeeded Gideon Aronoff, a South Orange resident who led HIAS for six years until his resignation at the end of May [2012]. Hetfield has been leading HIAS on an interim basis since June [2012].

An expert in the field of refugee protection, Hetfield has experience at many levels of HIAS, where he has worked on and off since graduating from Georgetown University [in 1988]. ... He has worked in Rome and Haiti, as an immigration attorney, as an officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He worked for HIAS four times in three different cities, including a stint in the New York office.47

On February 7, 2017, HIAS and the International Refugee Assistance Project, with legal representation from the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Trump's executive order on "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States" that ordered a review of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and halted the issuance of visas from many countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) citing national security concerns.48 The temporary "travel ban" was denounced by many as being nothing short of a "Muslim ban". The HIAS president and CEO explained why they were suing the Trump administration:

We cannot remain silent as Muslim refugees are turned away just for being Muslim, just as we could not stand idly by when the U.S. turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Germany during the 1930s and 40s. Our history and our values, as Jews and as Americans, require us to fight this illegal and immoral new policy with every tool at our disposal including litigation. [Emphasis added.]49

On January 30, 2017, three days after President Trump signed the executive order mentioned above, Hetfield told MSNBC: "What we saw unfold on Friday [January 27] was the most vile thing I've ever seen come out of the White House in my 28 years of working in this field. This executive order which was so un-American by slamming the door in the face of refugees when they need it the most." (Emphasis added.)50

In February 2020, HIAS announced that "the U.S. government entered into a major settlement with plaintiffs in Jewish Family Service v. Trump, a lawsuit filed in 2017 that challenged the third version of a ban on certain refugees entering the United States. The ban set back scores of refugees who were on the brink of resettlement to the United States, miring their cases in delays for more than two years. This settlement requires the government to expedite the refugee resettlement applications of over 300 refugees who were affected by the ban."51

HIAS is also one of the three resettlement agencies that filed a lawsuit in 2019 challenging the "Trump administration executive order allowing state and local officials to block refugee resettlement."

Hetfield had this to say on this issue:

It was not that long ago that Jews and African-Americans were banned from living in certain neighborhoods and towns. We fought to end that discrimination and humiliation. Now the Trump Administration has issued an executive order which allows states and localities to ban resettled refugees? We won't tolerate such intolerance. We are, once again, suing the federal government to end this unlawful and immoral state and local refugee ban. After all, Jewish tradition, and American tradition, compel us to welcome the stranger. [Emphasis added.]52

Form 990, 2018:

David Miliband, a former British Labour Party politician, walked away from British politics in March 2013. He became the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee on September 1, 2013. Today, according to the New York Times, he "works to bring food, aid and education to refugees around the world."54

Born in London, Miliband is the "eldest son of immigrant parents, Belgian-born Marxist sociologist Ralph Miliband and Polish-born Marion Kozak, both from Polish Jewish families. He was given the middle name of "Wright" after the American sociologist C. Wright Mills."55

According to IRC, "Miliband's parents fled to Britain from continental Europe during World War II and its aftermath. As the son of refugees, he brings a personal commitment to the IRC's work."56

IRC has been an outspoken critic of President Trump's efforts to pause the refugee resettlement program for assessment. In January 2017 it called on its supporters to: "Oppose President's Trump's ban on refugees" because "[t]hese changes fly in the face of our country's best values of freedom, fairness and compassion. ... Slam the door on hate. Oppose President Trump's unjust refugee Executive Order. ... Take Action. Call your members of Congress." (Emphasis added.)57

IRC later issued a press release applauding the Fourth Circuit ruling against the travel ban:

We are very pleased that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the Trump Administration's harmful order banning Muslims including refugees from seeking entry and protection in America, because it is blatantly unconstitutional. The courts have been key to preventing the enforcement of President Trump's hasty and harmful executive order. [Emphasis added.]58

In 2019, Miliband issued a "scathing critique of the Trump administration's handling of border issues". President Trump, alarmed by what he viewed as a border crisis with increasing numbers of illegal crossings from Mexico into the United States, called for emergency funds toward the border wall. Miliband said: "The US government is failing in its most basic responsibilities, never mind as a global leader but as a local example of how a civilized country should behave". He called "the national emergency declared by the US president in February to bolster his plans for a border wall a "manufactured crisis". He added: "By no standards of national or international precedent would you describe it as a crisis, even in the communities affected in the southern US." (Emphasis added.)59

On the decision of the Trump administration to set the FY 2020 refugee admissions ceiling at 18,000, Miliband said: "This is a very sad day for America."60

In a January 20, 2020, op-ed titled "The Legality of Trump's Assault on Refugees", Miliband wrote:

Refugee resettlement has traditionally been a bipartisan issue. Refugees are referred first by the United Nations to identify their vulnerable refugee status, for example victims of torture or those with urgent medical issues. The Trump administration, however, has upended that commitment in three ways. First, it has reduced the number of refugees to be admitted to 18,000, a dramatic departure from historic norms. Furthermore, it has halted U.N. referrals all but eliminating the needs-based bias of the program. Lastly, it has tried to give localities a choice about whether they want to be part of the federal system. [Emphasis added.]61

Form 990, 2018:

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah is the current president and CEO; she was appointed to the post on February 13, 2019.

Financial data from their website for the year ended December 31, 2018:

Reports of financial mismanagement, fraud, and harassment led to the departure of Linda Hartke and calls for an external investigation. According to Breitbart news, the board of directors fired Hartke in early February 2018 after eight years of service, a "consequence of the findings of the internal investigation into her tenure as CEO". A source familiar with the operations of the refugee resettlement industry told Breitbart that issues related to LIRS "are widespread but are rooted in the main areas of financial mismanagement and the incompetence of leadership." Other "key areas" were the focus of the internal investigation: "Financial mismanagement, failure to address financial irregularities discovered by independent audits, wasteful spending, concealment of taxable income, timesheet fraud, budget grant fraud, large severance and settlement payouts to avoid public and board reporting."64

On January 25, 2017, LIRS released a statement condemning the Trump administration's actions "against refugees and migrants". Linda Hartke, LIRS president and CEO at the time said: "As the world has its eyes on us, it is imperative that President Trump uphold the values that America has always lived by: compassion, empathy, family, human rights, and protection for those seeking a safe haven from danger and persecution." (Emphasis added.)65

Vignarajah has served as LIRS president and CEO since February 13, 2019. According to LIRS, this choice "represents a new generation of leadership". She is "the second refugee and first non-Lutheran in its 80-year history" to lead the organization. Vignarajah "previously served in the Obama White House as Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama and at the State Department as Senior Advisor under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry."66

On January 8, 2020, Vignarajah wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun titled: "The courts should declare Trump's refugee order unconstitutional". She denounced President Trump's executive order enhancing state and local involvement in refugee resettlement, from her position as "the leader of one of the country's largest faith-based nonprofits, which works with religious communities in every state and as someone who, as a nine-month-old, fled violence and persecution in Sri Lanka with my parents and brother to find refuge in a welcoming America". Vignarajah said:

The president's executive order, however, is simply illegal and unconstitutional and that's why, this week, we went to court. In November, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding the very executive order. The president's executive order undermines the Refugee Act of 1980. The act established clear rules for state and federal cooperation on refugee resettlement, including allowing states to opt out of the program. This doesn't mean states can block resettlement. Instead, private nonprofit organizations handle all services the state would normally deliver. [Emphasis added.]67

In a 2019 public statement announcing the lawsuit filed by LIRS, CWS, and HIAS against President Trump's executive order, Vignarajah stated the following:

Imagine coming to this country after years of violence, persecution and desperation, only to be told you cannot join your family because the state or city must clear new political hurdles in order to welcome you. Imagine being part of a welcoming community where both the local economy and its cultural heritage are bolstered by the presence of refugees only to have the door slammed shut by xenophobic and bureaucratic confusion. This dystopian vision could become our American reality if this unconstitutional executive order is allowed to stand. We will not allow this Administration to further endanger children and families by exploiting fears and stoking nationalism. [Emphasis added.]68

Form 990, 2018:

Financial data from their website for the year ending September 30, 2018:

After Lavinia Limon retired as CEO and president of USCRI, effective October 13, 2017, after over four decades of service, the board of directors appointed Eskinder Negash as acting chief executive officer. On April 2018, Negash became the president and chief executive officer of USCRI. Before taking the reins of the organization, Negash was the executive senior VP of USCRI.71

Negash is a "recognized Senior Executive leader and brings nearly 40 years of proven non-profit management experience. He served as Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the largest government funded refugee resettlement organization in the world, from 2009-2015. Prior to his appointment by the Obama Administration, he served as the vice president and chief operating officer of USCRI."72 Negash is himself a refugee himself from Ethiopia.73

On April 21, 2010, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) issued a statement in which it "strongly opposes the Administration's pending announcement that it plans to suspend all immigration into the United States until further notice."74 Negash said:

It is in the best interests of our country to restore historic levels of immigration to fuel our economy, enrich our way of life and adhere to the values and principles that have made America a global leader. The U.S., a nation built by immigrants, owes much to our immigrant past and present. We should not be shutting the door to our future. [Emphasis added.]75

On January 15, 2020, USCRI issued a statement on President Trump's executive order "requiring state consent for refugee resettlement":

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