Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

This story originally appeared on The Nosher.

American Jewish food is most typically defined as pastrami sandwiches, chocolate babka or bagels and lox. But I am here to argue that the greatest American Jewish food may actually be the humble hot dog. No dish better embodies the totality of the American Jewish experience.

Whats that you say? You didnt know that hot dogs were a Jewish food? Well, thats part of the story, too.

Sausages of many varieties have existed since antiquity. The closest relatives of the hot dog are the frankfurter and the wiener, both American terms based on their cities of origin (Frankfurt and Vienna, respectively).

So what differentiates a hot dog from other sausages? The story begins in 19th century New York with two German-Jewish immigrants.

In 1870, Charles Feltman sold Frankfurt-style pork-and-beef sausages out of a pushcart on Coney Island, Brooklyn. Sausages not being the neatest street food, Feltman inserted them into soft buns. This innovative sausage-bun combo grew to be known as a hot dog (though Feltman called them Coney Island Red Hots).

Two years later, Isaac Gellis opened a kosher butcher shop on Manhattans Lower East Side. He soon began selling all-beef versions of German-style sausages. Beef hot dogs grew into an all-purpose replacement for pork products in kosher homes, leading to such classic dishes as franks and beans or split pea soup with hot dogs. Though unknown whether Gellis was the originator of this important shift, he certainly became one of the most successful purveyors.

Like American Jews, the hot dog was an immigrant itself that quickly changed and adapted to life in the United States. As American Jewry further integrated into society, the hot dog followed.

In 1916, Polish-Jewish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a hot dog stand to compete with Feltman, his former employer. Feltmans had grown into a large sit-down restaurant, and Handwerker charged half the price by making his eatery a grab joint. (The term fast food had yet to be invented, but it was arguably Handwerker who created that ultra-American culinary institution.)

Nathans Famous conquered the hot dog world. Like so many of his American Jewish contemporaries, Handwerker succeeded via entrepreneurship and hard work. His innovative marketing stunts included hiring people to eat his hot dogs while dressed as doctors, overcoming public fears about low-quality ingredients. While his all-beef dogs were not made with kosher meat, he called them kosher-style, thus underscoring that they contained no horse meat. Gross.

The kosher-style moniker was another American invention. American Jewish history, in part, is the story of a secular populace that embraced Jewish culture while rejecting traditional religious practices. All-beef hot dogs with Ashkenazi-style spicing, yet made from meat that was not traditionally slaughtered or kosher, sum up the new Judaism of Handwerker and his contemporaries.

Furthermore, American Jewry came of age alongside the industrial food industry. The hot dog also highlights the explosive growth of the kosher supervision industry (industrial kashrut).

Hebrew National began producing hot dogs in 1905. Its production methods met higher standards than were required by law, leading to their famous advertising slogan, We Answer to a Higher Authority.

While the majority of Americans may be surprised to hear this, Hebrew Nationals self-supervised kosherness actually was not accepted by more stringent Orthodox and even Conservative Jews at the time. But non-Jews, believing kosher dogs were inherently better, became the companys primary market. Hebrew National eventually received the more established Triangle-K kashrut supervision, convincing the Conservative movement to accept its products. Most Orthodox Jews, however, still dont accept these hot dogs as kosher.

But over the last quarter of the 20th century in America, the Orthodox community has gained prominence and its opinions, and food preferences, hold more weight in the food industry.

The communitys stricter kashrut demands and sizable purchasing power created a viable market, and glatt kosher hot dogs hit the scene. Abeles & Heymann, in business since 1954, was purchased in 1997 by current owner Seth Leavitt. Meeting the demands of the Orthodox communitys increasingly sophisticated palate, A&H hot dogs are gluten-free with no filler. The company has begun producing a line of uncured sausages and the first glatt hot dogs using collagen casing.

Glatt kosher dogs are now available in nearly 30 sports arenas and stadiums. American Jews have successfully integrated into their society more than any other in history. So, too, the hot dog has transcended its humble New York Jewish immigrant roots to enter the pantheon of true American icons. So when you bite into your hot dog this summer, you are really getting a bite of American Jewish history and the great American Jewish food.

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Hot dogs are the greatest American Jewish food. Here's why. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

The famous 19th century British missionary and explorer David Livingstone once wrote, It wasnt the lions and tigers that got us, it was the gnats. (He died of malaria in 1873 in what is today Zambia). The point he was making was very powerful: Sometimes, and often unexpectedly, its the little things that make the biggest difference.This past winter humanity got a big dose of that lesson with the COVID-19 pandemic. The world was faced with something it hadnt seen in 100 years. The last time this happened was between 1918 and 1920 when the Great Influenza, also known as Spanish Flu, struck. That pandemic was far, far worse than COVID-19. An estimated 500 million were infected and between 50 million and possibly up to 100 million people may have died. In 1918, the world was deeply divided and fighting what was the first of the great conflicts of the 20th century: World War I. (Some historians believe that the virus actually ended the war prematurely, as the German Army lacked enough healthy troops to launch its final great offensive.)COVID-19 was a very different experience. There was no world war and no taking sides. In many sci-fi movies War of the Worlds, Independence Day, Battle: Los Angeles nations put their differences aside and unite to fight off the existential threat of an alien invasion. But this winter the enemy came from within. In the space of a few weeks, virtually every country on the planet was under attack. It took a microscopic virus to do it, but suddenly everything else was out of the news and the entire human race, with a lot of help from the Internet and the mainstream media, was all on the same page, focused on the same threat and working together to win the war against an unseen enemy that threatened the whole world.This could well have been the silver lining in this terrible event a tiny virus pushed the world into an awareness of our shared vulnerability and the need to work together for a common good. The enemy did not recognize borders and didnt care about race or creed. It was the human race versus COVID-19.The death of George Floyd changed everything.LITERALLY OVERNIGHT difference was in the spotlight and difference was sowing division and disunity, especially in America, where the country was suddenly ripping itself apart more divided than it has been for half a century. Black Lives Matter and white privilege were all over the Internet and mainstream media.Science tells us that ALL human beings share 99.9% genetically identical characteristics. Between you and me and everyone else on the planet, there is .01% physiological difference. Anthropology teaches us that all Homo sapiens (the fancy scientific term for humans which in Latin means wise man) originated in the same place (Africa) and migrated over millennia to all corners of the planet. The racial differences we see today: Caucasoid (white), Negroid (Black), Mongoloid (Oriental) etc. are all a by-product of a long period of separation and adaptation to different geographic areas and climates. Bottom line, despite superficial difference in the color of our skin, hair and eyes, we really are all part of one giants extended family and are remarkably similar to one another.The origins of this understanding of common ancestry go way back before modern science. Some 3,700 years ago, in the Middle East, a man named Abraham brought a radically transformative concept into the world one God the infinite creator of the universe and the father of all humanity. The beginning narrative in the Bible, the story of Adam and Eve, makes a foundational point that all humanity shares common physical and spiritual origins and despite any differences in our appearance, there is a fundamental equality among all of us.Abrahams mission was not only to teach the world about one God but also to teach the world about one common destiny a world living in harmony, united by universal, God given values and principles. That, in a nutshell, is the Jewish, messianic vision for humanity.It took thousands of years, but this concept of ethical monotheism transformed the vision and values of the world, and served as an ideological foundation for the political evolution of much of modern civilization as clearly stated in 1776 in the Declaration of Independence of the United States:We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.In practice, it didnt work out exactly as preached. The majority of the Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, were slave-owners, and its practical implementation has proven to be a long, hard, uphill struggle, but this statement enshrined the concept of equality as the fundamental principle of liberal democracy.THE JEWISH people the nation tasked with the unique responsibility of teaching the world these concepts have also not always found it easy to practice what they preached. Fractiousness and divisiveness have plagued the Jewish people for millennia. We all know the joke about a Jew stranded on a desert island who builds two synagogues one he prays in and one he refuses to enter. We have spent way too much time focusing on what divides us: Reform. Conservative, Orthodox, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, etc. and not enough on what unites us. We must always remember that Jew-haters make no such distinctions. In Auschwitz there was only one line and one final destination for all of us.Maybe all the recent events that have so shaken up our world should serve as a warning and wake-up call that we all need to make a paradigm shift in how we look at ourselves and others. Rather than focus on difference, which only leads to divisiveness, we must start to focus on how much we all share and how much we all have in common. Maybe the Jewish people who first introduced these concepts to the human race should make the first move.Perhaps it is fitting to close with the words of the great Rabbi Akiva in Ethics of the Fathers. They are as relevant today as when they were first written almost 2,000 years ago:Beloved is man for he was created in the image [of God]. Especially beloved is he for it was made known to him that he had been created in the image [of God], as it is said: For in the image of God He made man (Genesis 9:6). Beloved are Israel in that they were called Gods children... as it is said: You are children of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 14:1). Beloved are Israel in that a precious vessel was given to them [the Torah]. Especially beloved are they for it was made known to them that they were given a precious vessel through which the world was created, as it is said: For I give you good instruction; forsake not my Torah (Proverbs 4:2).The writer is a rabbi, historian, author and tour guide. He lives in Jerusalem, where he teaches at Aish HaTorah in the Old City. His classes and writings can be accessed on kenspiro.com.

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COVID-19 brought the world together George Floyd's death tore it apart - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

The popular TikTok video-sharing service is being used for more than just awkward dances by users, according to a new study in Israel.

Anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and other far-right extremists are going on the social media platform to reach young people,researchers from the University of Haifa and Israels Institute for Counter Terrorism found in a report titled Spreading Hate on TikTok.

From February through May, it said, there were 196 postings related to far-right extremism, with one-fifth of them related to anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

In the same time frame, the study also found 14 postings of Adolf Hitlers speeches; 11 postings of the Sieg Heil victory salute used by Nazis; 17 videos encouraging violence that featured Nazi or neo-Nazi symbols such as the swastika and sonnenrad, or black sun; and 26 accounts featuring the numbers 88 in their username, the white supremacist numerical code for Heil Hitler.

The study first appeared in the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism journal.

TikTok, based in China, has gained popularity with its short videos of users dancing and lip syncing, among other talents.

Although the platforms Terms of Service prohibits users under age 13, many who appear in videos are clearly younger.

While similar concerns were with regard to other social platforms, TikTok has unique features to make it more troublesome, the study says. First, unlike all other social media, TikToks users are almost all young children, who are more naive and gullible when it comes to malicious contents. Second, TikTok is the youngest platform, thus severely lagging behind its rivals, who have had more time to grapple with how to protect their users from disturbing and harmful contents.

The researchers identified TikTok accounts of known extremist groups, then collected posts that featured hashtags associated with extremist movements. Finally they examined the identified accounts and posts, as well as accounts that showed interest in extremism through liking, commenting or following the accounts.

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Anti-Semites and Holocaust Deniers Are Using TikTok to Target Youth, Study Shows - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

Google will start applying fact check labels to the search results in its Images section in a bid to curb the spread of doctored photos contributing to fake news online.

The search giant will display a few lines of contextual information below certain images in the Images section of search and within fact checking articles that contain pictures, the company confirmed in a blog post.

Fact check labels appear on results that come from independent, authoritative sources on the web that meet our criteria, said Harris Cohen, Googles group product manager for search.

These sources rely on ClaimReview, an open method used by publishers to indicate fact check content to search engines.

The application of a fact check wont affect an images ranking within Images, as Googles algorithms are designed to highlight the most relevant, reliable information available, including from sources that provide fact checks, he added.

Doctored photographs are a common element of online conspiracy theory and viral fake news discourses, commonly circulated on social media to spread misinformation to millions of users.

The measure is Googles latest tool in its ongoing efforts to suppress the spread of misinformation across its platforms.

The company hired 10,000 contractors in March 2017 to evaluate its search resultsin terms of relevance in order to improve Googles algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) services in promoting fact and downgrading the prominence of untrue articles masquerading as fact.

Its first fact checking tools for search results were launched the following month, displaying what Google called an authoritative result to search queries prominently at the top of the web page, alongside a summary of the claims and the body which has fact checked it, such as PolitiFact.

Later that month it confirmed it was adjusting its core search engine to counter fake news, updating its algorithms and creating new methods for users to report problematic results.

Weve adjusted our signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content, so that issues similar to the Holocaust denial results that we saw back in December are less likely to appear, Ben Gomes, Googles executive in charge of search, said at the time.

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Google adds fact checking labels to its images to combat spread of doctored photos - iNews

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

THE Tory right has tried for a very long time to avoid the inconvenient truth that Adolf Hitler and his mass murdering fanatical regime was an expression of extreme right-wing nationalism.

In this sad tradition Norman Tebbit former Tory Cabinet minister, ex-chair of the party and long-time Thatcher ally in a Daily Telegraph column earlier this week called Hitler extreme left clearly a continuation of this long and dishonourable practice.

The only supporting evidence Tebbit provides is the schoolboy debating point that the full name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Normally, right-wing deniers mention the scale to which Nazis expanded the state, that like Roosevelt they did public works and built autobahns, and that they brought those they regarded as pure Germans together in summer camps and Hitler Youth.

It is a meagre set of arguments compared to the compelling evidence that Hitler and his henchmen were unashamedly on the extreme-right. Hitlers political agenda once in power was in hock with big business who made millions in profits from his programme of increased state spending and militarisation.

Nazis attacked and killed socialists, communists and trade unionists in street battles prior to coming to power in 1933, and systematically after taking power, arrested them and put them in concentration camps.

The Nazis waged war on democracy at home and internationally, with Spain the first country to be a victim of Nazi military aggression in the Spanish Civil War. Here Hitler and Mussolini supported Francos armed uprising against the democratically elected left-wing Republican Government.

The Nazi regime in its genocidal racism, antisemitism and pursuit of the Holocaust which killed six million Jews, as well as countless others such as Gypsies, Roma people, disabled people and homosexuals, pursued an extreme white supremacist nationalism.

READ MORE: Brexiteerfumes at big tech after Google suggests he buy Mein Kampf

Historians such as Mark Mazower have noted that the Nazis bought the methods and practices of European imperialism back home to brutal effect on the European continent. The Nazis practiced systemic mass murder similar in many respects to the European empires of Britain, France and Belgium, which the British right and the likes of Norman Tebbit long approved of when done far away, but in this case inflicted upon their fellow Europeans.

Hitler had many admirers and sympathisers in Britain on the right: Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader, the Mitford sisters, and Lord Rothermere and his Daily Mail who penned the infamous Hurray for the Blackshirts headline in January 1934. It is less well-known that the admiration was reciprocal with Hitler saying of Rothermere that he was one of the greatest of all Englishmen and of the Daily Mail that: His paper is doing an immense amount of good.

Hitler admirer Sir Oswald Mosley

In recent years the British right have displayed a fixation with Hitler and the Nazis seeing modern Germany through blinkered eyes, stooping to compare the European Union and its ambitions with the Nazi project of world domination.

Nicholas Ridley was a key Thatcher ally in the 1980s, Tory minister and architect of the poll tax. In 1990 he gave a now infamous interview to The Spectator where he compared plans for further European integration with the Nazis, stating the idea that one says, OK, we'll give this lot our sovereignty, is unacceptable to me ...You might just as well give it to Adolf Hitler. This led to huge controversy then and he had to resign as a minister, but such misguided sentiment has become commonplace on the right.

In 2016, Boris Johnson wrote, in a piece with the untactful title The EU wants a superstate, just as Hitler did, of democratic plans for European co-operation today, saying: Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.

READ MORE:Gerry Hassan: This is how we defeat the far right

Whether Boris Johnson on Europe, or Norman Tebbit denying that Hitler is on the right, these are infantile interpretations of history. In an age where having a greater knowledge and understanding of history has come centre stage many on the right exhibit a deliberate denial of European and British history.

The aim is to give voice to British exceptionalism and a narrow, dogmatic British (and in reality, mostly English) nationalism which is xenophobic, racist, intolerant of others, and that presents a fantasyland version of history to disguise and deflect from todays failures.

The Nazis matter in this and are a warning from history relevant to the here and now. Brunhilde Pomsel, the secretary to Nazi minister for propaganda Joseph Goebbels, gave a powerful call to arms just before her death at the age of 106 a few years ago, when she looked back on her life as a young woman working with a regime of evil. She said: Hitler was elected democratically, and bit by bit he got his own way. Of course that could always repeat itself with Trump or Erdogan.

We must never forget the crimes of the Nazis, or let the Tebbits away with their evasions, while standing up for democracy, the rule of law and minorities, and never ever let Nazis and fascists away with what they are: the grubby hate-filled politics of a white supremacist and nationalist ultra-right.

Dr Gerry Hassan is Senior Research Fellow in contemporary history at the University of Dundee and can be followed at @gerryhassan and contacted via http://www.gerryhassan.com

This article is part of a new digital-only section of our website we are trialling, where well bring you reaction, analysis and opinion pieces by our best writers in real-time, without you having to wait for the newspaper to be printed. Please send any feedback to callum.baird@thenational.scot!

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Norman Tebbit and the Telegraph can't be let off the hook for rewriting Nazi history - The National

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

Online harassment remains one of the internets hardest problems to fix, and new data suggests the problem is only getting worse for minority groups. According to a representative survey of American citizens conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), some 35 percent of respondents reported being harassed online because of their racial, religious, or sexual identity; a three percent increase compared to last years data.

Overall harassment not related to the individuals identity was also higher for these groups. LGBTQ+ respondents reported the highest levels of harassment, with 65 percent of these respondents saying theyd been harassed online, followed by 42 percent of Muslim respondents, and 37 percent of African-American respondents. The most common perceived reason for harassment, though, was the targets political views, with 55 percent of respondents who had been harassed citing this as the motivation for their antagonists.

But the survey also found that overall harassment seems to be dropping, with 44 percent reporting being harassed online compared to 53 percent last year. Incidents of severe harassment, which includes sexual harassment, doxing, physical threats, and stalking, also fell from 37 percent to 28 percent. And although harassment of LGBTQ+ individuals was the highest of any group, it had still fallen from 76 percent last year.

So, while it may be safer to live online in general this year as compared to last, ultimately, it is harder and less safe to be online as a member of a marginalized group, write the surveys authors. Specifically, LGBTQ+ individuals, Muslims, Hispanics or Latinos, and African-Americans faced especially high rates of identity-based discrimination.

The survey is based on a representative sample of around 2,000 Americans and is the first annual follow-up to the ADLs 2019 report Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience. As the surveys authors note, data regarding online harassment is particularly relevant at a time when a global pandemic has forced more people to work from home while simultaneously disrupting the jobs of social media moderators. Reports suggest a greater reliance on automated moderation systems leads to more mistakes, though the survey was conducted before the pandemic hit.

This survey represents a snapshot of a moment in time prior to the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd, and we believe that if the same survey were conducted today even more people might report negative online experiences, said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt in a press statement. Severe online harassment was a significant problem before, and in our current climate, its even more important for platforms and policymakers to take action.

Of the online platforms covered by the report, Facebook was found to have the highest incidents of harassment, in both absolute terms and as a percentage of daily users. 77 percent of respondents whod been harassed online said that at least some of the harassment had taken place on Facebook, up from 56 percent last year. The next most common platforms for harassment were Twitter (27 percent), YouTube (21 percent), and Instagram (20 percent).

The survey also found that respondents overwhelmingly (79 percent) wanted social media companies to do more about tackling online harassment. The biggest problem, though, does not seem to be the policies these companies maintain, but their willingness and ability to enforce them. As weve seen with reports about the work of moderators at companies like Facebook, the job is an extremely draining one that some of the richest companies in the world seem unwilling to support through proper training and resources.

In addition to proper enforcement, the ADL recommends new tools for users that make it easier to flag multiple incidents of harassment, and regularly scheduled external, independent audits of platforms to make it clear how their policies are affecting users. Until companies put in more effort, the hate that grows on their platforms will continue.

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More Americans are being harassed online because of their race, religion, or sexuality - The Verge

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with plotting a mass attack on his unit by sending sensitive military information to an occult-based white supremacist group, the Justice Department announced Monday.

Ethan Melzer, 22, allegedlysharedsensitive details about his unit, including information about its location, movements and security to members of the Order of Nine Angles, the Justice Departmentsaidin a release.

Melzer, whojoined theArmy in 2018 and the Order of Nine Anglesin 2019,relayedthe information to members of thegroupand a related group called RapeWaffenDivisionshortlyafter learning in April 2020 that his unit, based in Europe,was deployingto another foreign country, according toa 14-pageindictmentunsealed Monday.

Melzer and his co-conspirators planned what they referred to as ajihadi attackduring the deployment, with the objective of causing amass casualtyevent victimizing his fellow service members, the Justice Department said.

The FBI and the U.S. Army thwarted Melzers plot in late May.Melzer was arrestedin New York onJune 10.He faces six charges, including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

According to the indictment, during a May 30 interview with investigators, Melzer confessed to his role in the conspiracy, admitting that "he intended for the attack to resultin the deaths of as many of his fell servicemen as possible..."

The Order of Nine Angles, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC)as an enigmatic Satanic occult group, is based in Britain with affiliates around the world.

The groups most extreme adherents promote human sacrifice, Nazism and Fascism and Aryan myths, and have been reported to praise Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden, according to the SPLC.

The groups spiritual leader, using the pseudonymAnton Long, is a notorious British neo-Nazi leader with a violent criminal history, according totheAnti-Defamation League.

In recent years, researchers have linked O9A to a violent neo-Nazi group calledAtomwaffenDivision.

According to ADL,Atomwaffendraws some of its influences from satanic ideas and beliefs and that its website, Siege Culture, promotes Longs book.

Thebook,Hostia: Secret Teachings of the Order of Nine Angles,encourages satanic novices toengineera personal transformation to achieve a more revolutionary mindset, according to ADL.

Suggestions include enlisting in a police force, championing heretical views, becoming a professional burglar and joining the armed forces (in wartime) to gain combat experience, the ADL said.

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US Soldier Charged With Plotting Deadly Attack on Own Unit - Voice of America

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

Dozens attended a demonstration in support of Black Lives Matter in Branson Sunday. Several also attended in counter-protest. Springfield News-Leader

Editor's note: This story has been updated with the correct last name of a woman who spoke to reporters and was caught on video.

More than 100 people took to the sidewalks and parking lot in front of Dixie Outfitters in Branson on Sunday evening. Morethan 65 were there to showsupport for the Black Lives Mattermovement and to protest the store. Nearly 50 people came to support the store and the Confederate flag.

At timesheated shouting matches broke out, but Branson police officers stood between the two groups and the demonstrations ended peacefully around 7:30 p.m.

Similar protests against police brutality and racismhave been happeningacross the nation following thekilling of George Floyd while he was in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.

This was the second Black Lives Matterprotest to be held near Dixie Outfitters.

Organizers said they chose to protest near the store after reading a 2015 News-Leader story about the store owners' history with the Ku Klux Klan.

The Black Lives Matterdemonstrators chanted and used a megaphone to talk about racism in America. The anti-demonstrators in the store's parking lotused a loudspeaker to play Southern-themed music like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Song of the South."

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When the anti-demonstrators played the Star Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace, the Black Lives Matterdemonstrators took a knee.

"We need to show the cowards and the complacent that justice matters," said a woman named Audrea, who declined to give her last name. "If we stay at home and say it to ourselves, nothing is going to change."

Dixie Outfitters is located on Branson's busy strip at 1819 W. 76 Country Blvd.

Throughout the rally, which began around 4 p.m., countless motorists drove by and showed support for one side or the other. Many shouted, "all lives matter" and waved Confederate flags. Others waved homemade Black Lives Matter signs and shouted support for the protesters. Even more drove by shooting video with their cell phones.

"It's disgusting," protester Jessi Lorenz, said of the store. "I've been in there once when I was 16, and I hated it."

"We are not that," she said, motioning tothe counter-demonstrators in the store's parking lot. "We are not them. We are about love. We care, and we love everybody."

Jessi Lorenz's mother, Terri Lorenz, was nearby and carried a homemade Black Lives Matter sign.

Terri Lorenz said she was there to protest "against police brutality and against the Klan."

Dawnsha'maine Rowley stood with the Black Lives Matterdemonstrators alongside her two young boys and husband. The Black woman held high a sign that read "Black lives matter, Black children matter, Black mental health matters, Black dreams matter, Black futures matter." The other side of her sign read, "The color of skin is not a weapon."

Rowley said she's lived in Branson for 21 years. She and her husband, who is white, own a sports bar and mini golf venue in Branson.

The Rowleys live not far from the Dixie Outfitters store, which sells Confederate flag memorabilia and has been located on Branson's strip since 2007.

In her view, the store is "an eye sore."

"I got numb to it," she said. "I don't let it affect me."

Rowley said she's never had any trouble with local law enforcement but she's experienced racism in herrestaurant by people who apparently didn't realize she was the owner.

Once an older couple remarked, "They are letting the monkeys work today," Rowley recalled.

More: Hundreds protest death of George Floyd at Battlefield and Glenstone

Rowley said she doesn't want to be sad about it, but feels it's important to educate her kids about racism in America.

"Branson is moving the needle," Rowley said. "I commend every single person that is out here trying to fight for change.

"It's beautiful," she said, holding her hand to her heart. "I never thought I would see this."

Kathy Jenkins cloaks herself in a Confederate flag outside of Dixie Outfitters in Branson Sunday, June 21, 2020.(Photo: SARA KARNES/NEWS-LEADER)

Across the street, a man who declined to give his name said he and the others in the store's parking lot were there to "protect the store."

"It's been here for years, and there havebeen threats made," the man said. "As you can see we are all here peacefully."

A few feet away, a woman namedKathy Jenkins, who previously told reporters her last name was Bennett, saton the tailgate of a truck with a Confederate flag attached and wore a camouflage Make America Great Again cap. Jenkins said she's lived in Branson for six years and was there because, "it's not just Black lives matter."

Viral video: Videofrom BLM protest in Branson shows woman honoring KKK

"It's about white lives matter. Cops lives matter," she said. "Our officers are being f***ing beaten and killed, and they are not being recognized at all."

When the Black Lives Matterdemonstrators chanted, "Black lives matter," Jenkins shouted back, "Cops lives matter."

When demonstrators chanted, "Ban the Klan," Jenkins shook her head.

A few minutes later during aconfrontation with a Black Lives Matterdemonstrator, Jenkins stood up in back of the truck and shouted, "I will teach my grandkids to hate you all."

With that, Jenkins said, "suck on this"and shrouded herself with a Confederate flag. She then turned around, made a fist and said, "KKK belief."

The moment was caught on video and has since been shared more than 3,000 times on Facebook.

The story continues below.

Around 6:15 p.m., a man emerged from the store to hand out free Confederate flags. Many used the flags as cloaks.

The group in the parking lot then held a short "prayer circle" as Amazing Grace began to play.

Someone from the Black Lives Matterprotest asked, "How can you play that song without Jesus in your heart?"

'We made history':Thousands gather downtown for Black Lives Matter protest

A message left for store owner Anna Robb on Friday has not yet been returned.

In 2015, Anna Robb told the News-Leader that she had attended KKK events in the past, but that was "years ago." Her husband Nathan, co-owner of the store, once tried to adopt a highway in Arkansas on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan, and that Nathan Robbs father is Thomas Robb, the national director of the KKK.

Anna Robbdenied that she or her husband were ever a part of the KKK, but did say she had attended KKK events in the past.

I have years ago, she said in 2015. That was years ago, and that is not even something that comes up anymore.

More: Dixie Outfitters responds to Black Lives Matter protest, calls demonstrators 'thugs'

She alsospokeabout what she felt was the wrong impression many people have about the Confederate flag.

It has nothing to do with slavery, which the media always want to bring in, she had said.

But the Anti-Defamation League and other's have pointed to the flag's connection to the Civil War and its history as "a symbol of white supremacy and slavery."

"Which is why white supremacists throughout the years have flown the flag themselves because they, too, acknowledge it as a symbol of white supremacy, saidMark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism.

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'Branson is moving the needle': Black Lives Matter takes to Dixie Outfitters - News-Leader

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

He was once one of Hollywoods most bankable stars, an unrivalled A-lister who took hits like Braveheart and Lethal Weapon to the top of the box office charts.

But since Mel Gibsons career was mired by a string of abusive incidents and vile anti-Semitic remarks, hes landed in an unofficial movie jail with producers too anxious to go near him.

The 64-year-old actor has most recently been reportedly left out of plans for the Netflix Chicken Run sequel after Winona Ryder accused him of anti-Semitism.

He was the voice of Rocky, one of the main characters in the original Chicken Run in 2000.

Ryder claims Gibson asked her at a party in 1995 if she was a Jewish oven dodger an apparent reference to the ovens used to burn the bodies of Jews murdered in Nazi death camps.

The Stranger Things star also alleged that at the same party Gibson asked a gay friend of hers: Oh, wait, am I gonna get AIDS?

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Ryder said the Mad Max actor later tried to apologise for the remarks, but a representative for Gibson said the allegations are 100 per cent untrue.

But even that alleged incident is just one of many public disgraces attached to Gibsons name which have damaged his reputation and made him a pariah for many Hollywood executives.

Heres how the father-of-nine landed himself in movie jail from stomach-turning domestic violence to a racist drink-driving rant.

A DRUNK-DRIVING TIRADE

Gibsons career has been hampered by his battle with alcoholism and he claims to have started drinking at the age of just 13.

He was first banned from driving for three months when he drunkenly crashed his car in Toronto, Canada, in 1984.

Although he took a year off to battle his demons, his struggles with booze continued and he confided that he would drink five pints of beer with breakfast.

In the early 90s, he took more time off acting and sought professional help for his problem.

But his most high-profile incident involving alcohol came in 2006 when he was caught driving under the influence in California.

As he was being arrested, Gibson launched into an anti-Semitic tirade directed towards the officer arresting him which was recorded in his arrest report.

F***ing Jews, Gibson yelled. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?

He pleaded no contest to a drink driving charge and, after the report was leaked to the media, he apologised for his despicable behaviour.

The incident saw him effectively blacklisted for a decade in Hollywood.

But it was by no means his last controversy.

CLAIMS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Gibson has repeatedly been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, and even forwarding anti-Semitic ideas in his films.

In 2012, Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas accused Gibson of shelving a film they were working on together about Jewish hero Judah Maccabee because Gibson hates Jews.

In a nine-page letter sent from Eszterhas to Gibson about the film, which was made public by The Wrap, Eszterhas said: I believe you announced the project with great fanfare a Jewish Braveheart in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism which have dogged you, charges which have crippled your career.

He also accused Gibson of using Jewish slurs including hebes, Jewboys, and oven-dodgers.

Gibson called Eszterhas accusations utter fabrications.

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But there have been other troubling incidents.

Fox News reported in 2015 that Gibson, during a 2013 interview for speechwriter Peggy Noonans in Readers Digest, downplayed the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

He said: I mean when the war was over they said it was 12 million. Then it was six. Now its four. I mean its that kind of numbers game.

Even his father, the late author Hutton Red Gibson, once gave an interview in which he said the Holocaust was fiction.

And Gibsons cinematic work has also attracted criticism.

In 2004, Gibsons independently funded film about the last hours of Jesus life, The Passion Of The Christ, was accused of being anti-Semitic, in part for its demonisation of Jewish characters.

The Jewish group Anti-Defamation League even issued a statement saying: The Passion could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLAIMS

Its not just anti-Semitic slurs that have led some to accuse Gibson of bigotry.

In 2010, Gibson was accused of using racist and misogynistic language by gossip site Radar Online.

The publication claimed to have heard the audio of a seething voicemail left on the phone of Gibsons Russian pianist ex-partner, Oksana Grigorieva.

In it, Gibson allegedly said: You look like a f***ing pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n*****s, it will be your fault.

He was also reported to have threatened Grigorieva by saying: I am going to come and burn the f***ing house down.

In the same year, Grigorieva took out a restraining order against Gibson and accused him of domestic violence later claiming it left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Although the felony charge of domestic violence against him was ultimately dropped, he did plead no contest to a misdemeanour charge of battering his former girlfriend.

BLACKLISTED FROM THE BIG TIME

Gibsons legal and reputational troubles have repeatedly made it difficult for him to recapture the kinds of roles he enjoyed early in his career in blockbusters like Mad Max and Lethal Weapon.

The Grigorieva voicemail scandal came less than six months after the release of Edge Of Darkness, which looked set to be his Hollywood comeback.

It was his first major lead role since Signs in 2002, but he went back into relative obscurity during the fallout of his 2011 courtroom drama.

His professional gloom was compounded when talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped him shortly after the racist tape was made public in 2010.

But a comeback to the mainstream looked to be on the way in 2016 with his biographical war film Hacksaw Ridge after effectively being blacklisted for years.

Critics lavished praise on the film and even Gibson himself was nominated for the Oscar for Best Director.

But with Ryders accusation putting Gibsons disturbing link with racism back in the public eye, he might never see himself freed from the movie jail of his own making.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

York University in Ontario, Canada. Photo: Andrei Sedoff via Wikimedia Commons.

A top Canadian Jewish group called on Tuesday for action to be taken against a York University professor who defamed Zionism and downplayed Holocaust denial.

On June 10, Faisal Bhabha an associate professor at Yorks Osgoode Hall Law School said during an online debate, Zionism isnt about self-determination, its about Jewish supremacy.

Challenged on his statement, Bhabha added, Im equating white supremacy with Jewish supremacy.

Going even further, Bhabha commented, Accusing Israel of exaggerating the Holocaust could be, for some, a plausible argument.

In an online petition to York University President Rhonda Lenton published on Tuesday, Bnai Brith Canada called for Bhabha to be removed from teaching a course on human rights at the school, saying, Any version of human rights that does not include a firm rejection of antisemitism is ethically and morally bankrupt.

Michael Mostyn chief executive officer of Bnai Brith Canada stated, Now is the time for York to show that its commitment to fighting antisemitism includes concrete actions, not just words.

In our opinion, someone who believes that the vast majority of Canadian Jews subscribe to Jewish supremacy and that the Jewish State might plausibly have exaggerated the Holocaust is clearly unfit to teach anyone about human rights, he added.

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