Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty ImagesLeader of the Arab-Israeli Joint List parliamentary group Ayman Odeh attending a protest outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, March 23, 2020

A remarkable thing happened in the Knesset, Israels parliament, on April 21, as the assembly was marking the countrys Holocaust Memorial Day. Mansour Abbas, a Knesset member of the Joint List, the bloc of Arab-Israeli parties, took the podium and delivered a speech commemorating the Holocausts Jewish victims. As a religious Palestinian and a Muslim Arab, he said, I have empathy for the pain and suffering over the years of Holocaust survivors and the families of the murdered. I stand here to show solidarity with the Jewish people, now, and forever.

For an outsider, this gesture might perhaps seem a mere formality. In fact, it was a milestone in the process of change currently redefining the countrys future.

For one thing, it was a first: an Arab-Israeli member had never addressed the Knesset on Israels Holocaust Memorial Day before. Year after year, Arab-Israeli representatives had always kept silent on that national commemoration day, honoring a tacit understanding that, in the state of Holocaust survivors, memory remains a Jewish affair.

True, Ahmad Tibi, another representative of the List, did make headlines in 2010 by publicly commemorating Jewish victims before the House, but he was careful to speak not on Israels Holocaust Memorial Day but on InternationalHolocaust Memorial Daya different occasion that is of little symbolic import to Israelis. By contrast, Abbas had dared to insert himself into the very heart of Israels national commemoration rituals.

The speech took place against a dramatic backdrop. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, his rival for that post through three elections over the past year, had just concluded a new coalition pact that cleared the way for Israel to annex a large tranche of Palestinian territory in the West Bank. Abbass pledge of unending solidarity with the Jewish people thus came at precisely the moment when Israels government was poised to deal a death blow to the two-state solution, effectively ending the dream of Palestinian statehood.

That moment is now imminent. Netanyahu has announced his determination to begin the annexation process on July 1. Meanwhile, Gantz, the former chief of general staff of the Israel Defense Forces now in his new role as Israels alternate prime minister and minister of defense, has ordered the IDF to speed up preparations and brace for possible clashes with Palestinians.

For two decades now, the diminishing hopes for such a two-state solution have moved in lockstep with the declining political fortunes of Israels left. The liberal Zionist opposition to the hegemony of Netanyahus Likud party has been dwindling in large part because the two-state solution, which was the once-dominant Israeli lefts defining political agenda, has lost credibility. Back in the mid-Nineties, when two-state politics was in full swing after the Oslo Accords, Israels Labor held forty-four Knesset seats. It now has three, and just took them into Netanyahu and Gantzs coalition. Meretz, once the flagship party of progressive Zionist voters, held twelve seats in Oslos heyday, but in the last elections was too weak to run at all on a separate ticket. Campaigning together with Labor, it holds two seats.

The marginalization process of liberal Zionism started in 1995, immediately after Yitzhak Rabin, the last Israeli premier who looked as though he might actually deliver a two-state solution, was assassinated. By now, the liberal Zionist oppositionmore familiar in recent years from internationally recognized Israeli writers like Amos Oz and David Grossman than domestic politicians of real statureis a mere ghost from the past. To the extent that it exists, it is only in the imagination of progressive American Jews, and perhaps of a few European Union officials. It has virtually no standing in Israels parliament.

So what political alternative, if any, now remains for liberal Israeli Jews?

At just this juncture, we begin to see what made Mansour Abbass speech not just emotionally resonant but also politically consequential. In the last round of Israeli elections, rather than waste their votes on the moribund Labor or Meretz party, liberal Jews began voting for the increasingly influential Arab Joint List. This is a startling development given the new momentum behind Israels right-wing, nationalist, pro-settler movement thanks to President Trumps (or Jared Kushners) so-called Deal of the Century.

People like my father, a lifelong leftist Zionist, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces in reserve, and the son of Holocaust survivors, have been forced to rethink their shrinking electoral options. In the March elections, an unprecedented number of such Jewish voters turned their backs on Meretz, the last bastion of Zionist two-state supporters, and gave their votes to the Joint List.

For many of them, this was a crossing of the Rubicon. Having identified as Zionists their whole lives, they had never imagined casting a vote for a non-Zionist Arab party. But then Arab leaders like Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi could never have imagined publicly sharing Jewish grief on Holocaust Memorial Day, much less pledging eternal solidarity with the Jewish people.

It is hard to accurately determine how many Jews actually voted for the List, because many of them live in mixed urban centers such as Haifa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. But we do know that in Septembers elections, the List received 9,918 votes in areas where Jews comprise at least 75 percent of the population. Five months later, in the same areas, it more than doubled that electoral take, to 20,652 votes. In absolute numbers, this doesnt sound like much, but it is much more significant than it seems. Israels voting cohort is small to begin with, and left-liberal voters comprise a small fraction of it. Meretz, for example, gleaned its two Knesset seats from about 70,000 votes nationwide.

Strengthened by a growing turnout of Arab voters as well as by first-time Jewish supporters, the Joint List achieved its best result in Israels history. With fifteen seats, it is now the only party that still stands as a left opposition to the new Netanyahu-led government. At Israels main anti-annexation rally, in Tel Aviv last Saturday, the lists leader, Ayman Odeh, was easily the most senior and significant Israeli politician to speak. Delivering the opening speech, he declared:

We are at a crossroads. One path leads to a joint society with a real democracy, civil and national equality for Arab citizens The second path leads to hatred, violence, annexation and apartheid were here in Rabin Square to pick the first path.

US Senator Bernie Sanders followed Odeh with a recorded video message. In the words of my friend Ayman Odeh, he said, the only future is a shared future. The political project of the Joint List, the only credible alternative to Israels current drive toward a permanent one-state outcome with separate legal systems for Arabs and Jews, depends on liberal Zionism reinventing itself and creating a genuine collaborationa bridge between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

*

How far can this project go? Is a new coalition really in the making? What does it mean for Jewish voters and liberal Zionists to back the Joint List? And what are the obstacles to its bridge-building?

In February, as an avalanche of op-eds in Haaretz made clear that the trend was growing, its editor-in-chief, Aluf Ben, wrote a column that dismissed the prospect of this realignment of Israeli politics as messianica leftist delusion of what Dmitry Shumsky, one of Haaretzs top political commentators, had earlier hailed as civil equality between the Jordan River and the Sea. Shumsky responded that Bens argument was based on a false political picture. The Joint List, Shumsky pointed out, formally supports the idea of separate states. A vote for the List, he argued, is a vote for the two-state solutionan idea that remains the only rational choice, as utopian as it now seems.

Actually, for a collaboration of Arabs and Jews to succeed in filling the vacuum left by the disappearance of liberal Zionist parties, it will have to supersede both Shumskys and Bens positions. For one thing, clinging to the two-state solution can no longer be presented as rational; increasingly, it seems a willful denial of the facts. In the combined populations of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, there now exists a Palestinian majority. In spite of that, the two-state solution purports to give this majority about 22 percent of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This utopian idea is untenable, and not merely because it is unjust.

It should be rejected because penning in the majority of the population in a small, crowded, and discontinuous territory is not the type of compromise that can ever bring peace. And that is before we consider the 650,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, complex border adjustments that would purportedly enable Israel to evacuate only 350,000 of them, and pockets of territory annexed to Israel, which, according to all two-state plans, remain at the heart of Palestines would-be territory in order to leave in place settlements like Ariel, which are too large to dissolve. If the Joint List is going to offer voters the two-state solution as its main political vision, it will disappear into the same black hole that has already swallowed Israels liberal Zionist parties.

As for Aluf Bens objection, on the other side, the idea of full civil equality in one statefor example, within a federated system, in which Palestinians and Jews would be equal citizens but exercise national self-determination in separate, autonomous regionscannot be dismissed out of hand. No doubt, this political vision is a distant dream, the road to achieving it long and arduous, but as Zionist Jews begin to vote for Arab parties, it can no longer be considered messianic. Only trust of a much deeper kind than a mere tactical alliance can make Jewish voters see their representation as not dependent simply on their national identity, and instead feelthats the right wordthat an Arab List represents them better than any other group in Israels parliament. By that token, when Jewish Israelis vote for the List, they are not just expressing trust but building it. They demonstrate that it is possible to imagine a bridge to a political future beyond the supposed necessity of a two-state separation that is, in point of fact, no longer viable.

Over recent years, the Joint List has invested much energy in cultivating this trust. One need only consider the name, designed to dispel the notion that it is an exclusively Arab bloc: while Israels constantly re-forming center-left parties have in recent years gone for patriotic, not to say nationalist, names like The Zionist Camp, Blue White, or Israel Resilience Party, this Arab grouping branded itself in Hebrew as Hameshutefet, meaning the shared or the common.During a recent Democracy Conference convened by Haaretz, the Lists leader, Ayman Odeh, pointed out that the blocs chief handicap is that it has too many Arab representatives: it must start featuring more Jews as prominent representatives on its list.

But trust and mutual representation will not come on the cheap. In order for Arabs and Jews to engage in a joint political project, they will need to invent that common or shared Israeli identity and recognize that the relationship between identity and citizenship in the country must begin to change. With the disappearance of the last liberal Zionist parties, this process isnt just necessary; it is already in full swing. A clear sign of it was Mansour Abbass Holocaust Memorial speech: it signaled to Jewish voters that Arab members can indeed represent them in the Knesset. Even on Holocaust Memorial Day.

At the same time, by honoring a pan-Israeli duty to remember the Holocaust, Abbas was asserting the right to live among Jews as a fully equal Israeli citizen. His speech also introduced a challenge to liberal Zionists because it includes an invitation to invert their priorities. While purporting to incorporate non-Jews as equals in Israel, liberal Zionists have always reserved the privilege of sovereignty for Jews. But Arabs and Jews can only participate in a joint political project if they agree to give primacy to the shared and equal sovereignty of all citizens, while incorporating a shared and mutual recognition of Holocaust commemoration as historically and permanently integral to the duties of citizenship. By signaling his commitment to that, Abbas was also inviting Jewish Israelis to make the reciprocal pledge.

Israeli Jews would have to listen not just to what Abbas said in the speech, but also to what he didnt say. He remained silent about the Nakbathe mass expulsion and displacement of the majority of Palestines population during Israels War of Independenceand the fear that this history, as the governments annexation program is being officially announced, now threatens to return with a vengeance. While avowing eternal solidarity with Holocaust survivors and the Jewish people, Abbas mentioned neither Israels role in expelling his people nor its failure to guarantee that such a mass expulsion event can never recur. His restraint demonstrated not just the ability to commemorate and commiserate with his Jewish compatriots, but also a willingness to forget, for a moment, his own perspective as a Palestinian.

It is incumbent now upon the Israeli lefts Jewish leaders to respond to Abbass powerful gesture by supplying what he refrained from saying: namely, that just as Arabs, no less than Jews, must remember the Holocaust, so Jews no less than Arabs must remember the Nakba; that, in both cases, doing so is, and must remain, a civic duty.

*

It is impossible to overstate the challenges that the Joint List still faces in its struggle to persuade Israeli Jewish voters to accept this priority of citizen sovereignty. One immediate difficulty lies in Israels Basic Laws, which stand in for a constitution. According to these laws, the Knessetcharged with regulating the countrys electionsdeclares that a list of candidates shall not participate in elections if it explicitly or implicitly negates the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Arguably, a list of candidates that explicitly asserts that sovereignty must belong to citizens generally rather than Jews specifically does just that. Even if allowed to run in electionsand this cannot be taken for grantedan Arab-Jewish coalition will still have to argue for its very legitimacy.

This wont be easy. In June 2018, just as Netanyahus government was pushing through its notorious Nation-State Law, which makes explicit that in the Jewish State, Arabs cannot enjoy the same political standing as Jews, members of the Joint List proposed their own counter-legislation: Basic Law: Israel the State of All of its Citizens. The Knesset did not even vote on it; instead, it exercised its power to reject proposals deemed unlawful without a vote. A Joint Arab-Jewish coalition would have to insist not just on canceling Israels racist Nation-State Law, as the Joint List already does, but also on returning to legislate its own Basic Law proposal.

If the obstacles facing the Joint List cannot be overstated, what of the alternative? It is a commonplace nowadays to warn that Israel cannot remain a democracy with an annexation program that will lead to apartheid. Unfortunately, this is too optimistic. Since the population in the areas now claimed by Israels government is about 50 percent Arab, we are not in fact witnessing a slide toward apartheid but rather the rapid rehabilitation of the idea of forced population transfers, a laundered phrase for ethnic cleansing.

Trumps Deal of the Century already contemplated the possibility of population swaps and the denaturalization of Arab-Israeli citizens, notably in the so-called Triangle Area of Israel. As Israels former defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, posted on social media on January 29: In 2004, when I suggested a plan for population swaps, everybody raised an eyebrow. But just now President Trump adopted the full plan standing by your principles and being patient pays off. In fact, as recently as 2014, when he was Israels foreign minister, Lieberman ran on a platform calling for the transfer of Arab Israelis from Acre, Haifa, and Jaffa to the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries. Lieberman was once considered an outlier, an extremist; today, he is seen as a pragmatist, a moderate, indeed a pillar of Israels center.

*

For the time being, the Joint List remains an isolated power in Israel. In the coalition-building negotiations that followed the recent series of general elections, parties of the center-left still chose to ally with the prime ministers party or with a hard-right politician like Lieberman, rather than join forces with the Joint List in order to topple Netanyahu, who had been indicted on multiple charges of corruption. Yet the inescapable if remarkable conclusion is that the Joint List is the bestreally, the onlyrepresentative in Israeli politics not just for bereft liberal Zionist voters, but also for progressive pro-Israel international Jewish organizations such as J Street and the New Israel Fund. The same is true for the Democratic Partys younger generation and for the EU. The international community would do well to start recognizing that, as annexation begins and the post-two-state reality rapidly takes shape, a joint Arab-Jewish politics is the model for any democratic future in Israel; its only viable option is to start lending this nascent alliance legitimacy and support.

With their strong and growing turnouts, Arab voters alone could account for almost twenty parliament seats. If the Joint List can succeed in fielding a slate of candidates that would include a new generation of charismatic Jewish representatives, and campaign effectively in Hebrew, it could win up to five more seats with the support of liberal Zionist voters. Meretzs base is worth about four seats, and Labors vestigial left support about one. While none of these voters had a true home to turn to in the previous elections, many of them would be tempted to join those who already crossed the Rubicon and next time vote for a joint Arab-Jewish party that featured, unlike the Joint List, a strong Jewish presence. This will not be enough to form a governing coalition, but it is easily enough to become the largest opposition party in the Knesset and appoint Israels official opposition leader.

According to Israeli law, the prime minister must consult the opposition leader on vital state matters as necessary, and no less than once a month. The opposition leader also has the right to speak immediately after the prime minister in parliament and at official ceremonies. For the leader of an Arab-Jewish coalition to play this part, and enjoy international backing, is a development that would carry enormous weight and help bring into being an alternative future for the two peoples who must now finally learn to share a single land. It was the founding father of modern political Zionism Theodor Herzl who coined the motto that best suits this prospect: if you will it, it is no dream.

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After Liberal Zionism, the One Hope for a Democratic Israel - The New York Review of Books

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

As S. Lee Kohrman looks back on 24 years of leading the David and Inez Myers Foundation, he reflected on a small, moment of personal connection in Istanbul, Turkey.

I was visiting the Jewish community there, he said. They have a system in their senior homes where they dont use paid employees. People in the Jewish community volunteer. So all the housekeeping and all of the support services in these senior homes were maintained by the Jewish community, Jewish women.

Kohrman said he was touched.

I was very much moved by the devotion of the community, he said.

He said he posed a question to the volunteers.

At the end of the day, I asked them if they had a modest sum of money I cant remember what it was what would they do with it? he recalled. And they said, well there was an area where they would create a garden so that the senior people could sit out in the garden. I said that sounds like a great idea.

When he returned to Cleveland, he spoke about his conversation to Inez Myers about his observations in Istanbul.

I said to her, Inez, these people are going to build a garden, what do you think about that? Well she was delighted by it.

Prior to planting the garden, Inez Myers died.

So I asked them if they would put a plaque in the garden noting that it was in memory of Mrs. Inez Myers.

A number of years later he returned to Istanbul.

And there was this magnificent little Japanese-style garden, which had before just been an old trash dump, he said. And (it) was dedicated to Mrs. Myers, and a number of elderly people were sitting out in this garden, and it just moved me tremendously that we had created this wonderful memorial to Inez at the same time serving these people in a wonderful fashion. And certainly David had been very much interested in the care of the elderly.

The Myers Foundation has contributed $150 million to organizations in Cleveland, Israel and beyond in the 24 years Kohrman has been at its helm.

Kohrman, 92, has passed the baton of volunteer leadership.

And while he said the priorities and values of David Myers have largely shaped the direction of the foundations allocations, Kohrman has also played a crucial and creative role in funding decisions, specifically with an eye toward Israel.

For decades, Lee Kohrman has been a candid, valued and enduring friend to the Shalom Hartman Institute. Lee shares our commitment to supporting and sustaining the important work of rabbis in and on behalf of our community, and we would not have been able to do our work of educating rabbis without his steadfast support. We are grateful for decades of his partnership and wish him only health and happiness in his retirement.

Yehuda Kurtzer,President

The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

On June 1, after 24 years at the helm, Kohrman retired from the presidency of the Myers Foundation, passing the baton to Leslie Dunn. Kohrman said he felt the timing was right.

Id served for 24 years and no ones immortal, Kohrman said. I understand. It was time to turn it over to someone else to do it. Dave (Myers) left when he was 96. I left when I was 92. And Ive got a great successor, so it worked out well.

It is difficult to put into words our gratitude for Mr. Kohrman. We turned to his leadership and generosity at several critical points over the last two decades during which we have experienced much growth and transformation. Each time, his response was thoughtful, informed and generous. We are very grateful.

Tom Gill, President

Urban Community School

David and Inez Myers established the David and Inez Myers Foundation in 1954 at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. A Cleveland native, David Myers first worked as a barrel maker, went into the asphalt business and finally went into investments.

David came from a generation that was under threat, Kohrman said. Or perceived, and it became real obviously in the Shoah. Jews were insecure in the early 1900s and during the time that David lived, he believed Jews would be most secure in America in an America that was open and not constrained. He believed in strengthening America. He was a very forward-thinking guy.

Kohrman first connected with David Myers when the two served on the Mt. Sinai Hospital board. They also connected through Federation work.

Myers asked Kohrman to become his lawyer and later to serve as one of nine trustees on the board of the Myers Foundation. Five trustees at the supporting foundation of the Federation are designees of the Federation; four are donor members, initially designated by David and Inez Myers.

In 1996, when Myers was 96, Kohrman became president.

By the time I became president, the agenda had been set by David during his lifetime, Kohrman told the CJN in a June 4 interview. It was pretty much to maintain his charitable giving, his philanthropy that he had started during his lifetime. He created the foundation to be the conduit for his many facets of philanthropy. We continued that.

S. Lee Kohrman reflected on his work with the David and Inez Myers Foundation. Kohrman, who has been president for 24 years, retired from the post June 1.

Kohrman, as the volunteer at the helm, also helped shape the direction of allocations, with an eye toward Israel.

He said Myers believed that Jews in America were likely to prosper I dont mean just financially but socially and have all the opportunities that everyone else had if theres a free, generous, progressive society. So, while he was a conservative in his business matters, I think hed be described as a progressive in social matters.

Myers believed in supporting education and arts in Cleveland, in Jewish life in Cleveland through the Jewish Federation and its partner agencies, and in supporting Jewish continuity in America and throughout the world.

He had some interest in Israel, not as great as mine, Kohrman said. There was also a minor interest of his, which weve continued, which was support of basic research in the life sciences.

Through his position at the helm of the Myers Foundation, Kohrman saw a way to both support Israel and research in the life sciences by directing money toward universities in Israel.

Weve currently for up to the last decade weve been making grants on the order of about $8 million a year. Were not a large foundation, a modest sized foundation, Kohrman said, estimating that the foundation now has assets totaling about $200 million and has made $150 million in allocations in his 24 years as its president.

The Myers Foundation has two grant cycles per year, June and December.

I make the recommendations, Kohrman said. I do the study work over the year. I bring to the board recommendations at each grant cycle. I explain why Im making the recommendations. Sometimes theyre discussed. Sometimes theyre accepted based on what I say.

Kohrman said he could not recall an instance when a recommendation he made was rejected.

I dont think its of great value to bring things of great contest, he said. Were not a debating society. Were trying to do some good. If its not fairly evident, fairly persuasive on its face, I wouldnt bring it forward.

Through the annual support of Lee and the Myers Foundation, the Cleveland Eye Bank Foundation was able to create our website, support our local physicians and scientists in finding cures and treatments for blinding eye diseases, and inform our community about the importance of eye donation for transplantation and research.We are eternally grateful.

Debbie May-Johnson, Executive Director

Cleveland Eye Bank

Kohrman said the Myers Foundation allocates about $1.5 million a year to each of its five priority areas.

It is a key supporter of jHUB, created by the Federation and the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland, which reaches out to interfaith families with Jewish programming, an investment Kohrman called worthwhile.

Similarly, the Myers Foundation supports Jewish camping for children of families who would otherwise not be able to attend camps, often single-parent families with no organizational ties to Jewish communal life.

Weve tried to capture those kids, Kohrman said, and bring them more strongly toward Jewish life. Thats been very successful for us.

In terms of Jewish continuity nationally, the Myers Foundation has invested heavily in BBYO.

Theyve had a resurgence over the last 10 or 15 years, and weve participated strongly in that, a great investment to us, Kohrman said.

Abroad, the Myers Foundation allocates to the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

In Israel, he said that investment in Israels universities to study life sciences has been gratifying.

In addition, he said the Myers Foundations investment at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem has allowed the foundation to influence Israels policy decisions. The institute conducts applied social research. A $15 million gift in 2004 was the largest made by the foundation at that time.

By having a strong apolitical research center, such as the Brookdale, I believe we have been able to, as I say, influence policy making for the good, Kohrman said. To the extent that we can interject through Brookdale Institute facts and data and solid research, then I consider that to be a force for good.

The Myers Foundations largest investment in Israel is at the institute, he said, along with the investment in universities.

Kohrman first became aware of the institute when the Federation was making overseas connections and the institute was acting as an adviser to the Federation.

Later on, we were looking to try to create an impact in Israel, rather than just be a passive donor to Israel, said Kohrman, and decided to invest in the institute. There was a chance for us to make a real impact in Israel far beyond the size of our foundation, indirectly, but nonetheless recognizable.

Kohrman served as the chair of the institute for several years, and three trustees of the Myers Foundation are currently on Brookdale Institutes committee.

So we still have a great deal to say in how its run and where it goes, Kohrman said.

When Lee Kohrman and the Myers Foundation helped Cuyahoga Community College Foundation establish the Student Emergency Fund, we never dreamed of the impact it would have. That initial grant helped to inspire investments from additional donors, and prepared Tri-C and its Foundation to help our students during todays coronavirus pandemic. Many students in crisis requested help with food, rent and household bills as they lost their jobs and struggled to complete courses online. Thanks to this vision and leadership, Tri-C was ready to respond to and reassure these students so they could achieve their education and look to a promising future.

Megan OBryan

Vice President, Development

President, Tri-C Foundation

Kohrman said there have been disappointments in his tenure.

He did not mention the closing of Myers University, formerly called Dyke College, and David Myers alma mater.

In 1995, the Myers Foundation made a $2 million naming gift to what was then Dyke College in Cleveland, which became Myers University. Under Kohrmans leadership, the Myers Foundation made a $200,000 gift to the university, which closed in 2007.

Instead he spoke of a disappointment in shaping Israeli policy in a key area: affordable housing.

We thought we could make a difference in what I think is one of the great threats in Israels society ... the lack of affordable housing in Israel. I thought that was and is a great threat to the solidarity of the community. We invested a considerable amount of money in engineers and lawyers, accountants and city planners and every other conceivable field of professionals to try to put together a package of expertise and persuasivity that would change the direction of affordable housing in Israel, and it was a crashing failure. There is still no program for affordable housing in Israel.

Kohrman said he used to travel to Israel four times a year, partly as part of his work with the Federation, where he received the 2018 Charles Eisenman Award, the Federations highest honor. He has scaled back those visits in recent years to once or twice a year and estimates he has been to Israel close to 100 times.

He said he enjoys being in the comfort of a Jewish society in Israel. And I take great pride.

He first went to Israel in 1950 after graduating from Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass. He spent five months on a kibbutz.

Id been a strong Zionist, he said, adding that his father, a Zionist and a socialist, influenced his views on Zionism. He spent five months at a kibbutz called Ginosar.

I was young. The country was young, he said, adding that he decided to return to the United States to go to law school. We used to go out at night, catch fish, ship them to Tel Aviv in the morning. Thats forever in my memory. Working in the banana fields. Meeting people who had served in various Israel armed forces. In 1950, the war was just over in 1948. I got there 12, 14 months after the war was over, the war of independence.

He said he enjoyed working and talking with people who fought in that war, and that he met people who had come from Europe.

That was a great experience. It meant a lot to me.

As a man who appreciates family and family connection, Kohrman spoke of a gift to Council Gardens in Cleveland Heights that stands out in his mind.

They came to us and they wanted to remodel a little library room that they had there, Kohrman said. It was for Jewish seniors and people who were of modest means and needed support in their housing budget. We paid the grant to them. And I visited them a couple months later, and for the first time they installed laptop computers in this library and so these people who lived there had for the first time been able to use laptops to contact their children who lived away from Cleveland. And their ability to do that really just changed their lives. And it was a modest grant on our part, but it just changed everything there.

Publishers Note: Under the direction of S. Lee Kohrman, the David and Inez Myers Foundation provided the CJN with financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This tribute section was conceived in 2019.

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Kohrman reflects on 24 years as Myers Foundation president - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City and The Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma will host Fighting Hate Online, a ZOOM event scheduled for June 25 at 7 p.m. Photos provided.

By Darla SheldenCity Sentinel Report

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK Fighting Hate Online, a ZOOM online event, co-sponsored by The Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma and the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City, will be held on Thursday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Advance registration is required.

The event will feature the Anti-Defamation Leagues (ADL) head of the Center for Technology and Society (CTS), A Q&A session will follow.

Sifry leads a team of innovative technologists, researchers, and policy experts developing proactive solutions and producing cutting-edge research to protect vulnerable populations.

The Center for Technology supports the Jewish community and other minority groups, employing the best technology and seasoned experts to understand the root causes of hateful speech and combat harassment across the internet.

According to a press release, Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO stated, We have seen how online platforms have facilitated the spread of hate and extremism, but we also know they can play an important role in connecting people for good. [David Silfrys] experience in the tech industry is invaluable in furthering our groundbreaking work fighting the alarming rise of online hate and harassment.

Dave joined ADL in 2019 after a successful career as a technology entrepreneur and executive. He founded six companies including Linuxcare and Technorati, and served in executive roles at companies including Lyft and Reddit.

In the tech industry, everyone knows ADL has been leading the charge against cyberhate, working effectively with all of the leading technology platforms, as well as government, academia, and law enforcement, said Sifry. Im thrilled to build on this important work, using what Ive learned from my decades in this space to address todays most pressing challenges online.

In addition to his entrepreneurial work, Dave was selected as a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum, and is an advisor and mentor for a select group of companies and startup founders.

As the son of a hidden child of the Holocaust, the core values and mission exemplified by ADL were instilled in him at an early age. Sifry earned a BS in Computer Science from The Johns Hopkins University.

As an organization committed to combating religious discrimination and bigotry, The Interfaith Alliance is acutely aware that hate groups are becoming more vocal, visible, and violent.

Interfaith Alliance joins in solidarity with our community members and neighbors who face hatred and discrimination, with the knowledge that our freedoms are inextricably bound together.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City was organized in 1941 to serve the social welfare needs of the Jewish community.

As the central address for community-wide support, the Jewish Federation is an umbrella organization sponsoring a wide variety of educational, cultural, and community outreach programs and services as well as serving as a safety net for individuals and families in need.

Registration for the Fighting Hate Online event is now available online.

The Fighting Hate Online event will feature guest speaker David L Sifry the Anti-Defamation Leagues head of the Center for Technology and Society on June 25. Photo provided.

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Interfaith Alliance and Jewish Federation to host Fighting Hate Online ZOOM event on June 25 - City-sentinel

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

CHICAGO (CBS) Serious concerns have been raised over Illinois police officers with ties to right wing extremist groups.

CBS 2s Charlie De Mar investigated whether the officers believes in conspiracy theories affect their police work.

Meantime the Chicago Police Department and COPA are investigating a Chicago officer spotted wearing an extremist face mask while working a protest last weekend .

About 90 miles southwest of Chicago sitting on 12 square mile with a population around 10 thousand is Lasalle.

Local radio station 103.9 WLPO recently took some time to talk about a photo. The men in the picture identify themselves online as Lasalle police officers Matthew Kunkel and Mark Manicki.Both officers say they attended the re-open Illinois rally in Springfield.

They were apparently off at duty at the time, wearing vests with the letter Q, which stands for QAnon. The Anti-Defamation Leagues David Goldenberg describes QAnon as a far right extremist conspiracy theory.

Driven largely by right wing extremists and also some common supporters of President Trump, said Goldenberg.

They have a wide ranging set of beliefs

Based largely on the idea the government is run by a cobble of pedophiles who ultimately President Trump will overcome or takeout, he said.

Manickis social media is filled with conspiracy theories on everything from George Floyds death to the coronavirus.

Paiziah Chounard-BLM Illinois Valley

It kind of terrifies me to be honest, said Paiziah Chounard with Black Lives Matter Illinois Valley.

Chounard is one of the founders of the Illinois valleys Black Lives Matter. She has seen the pictures of two officers wearing these vests, raising the concern for Chounard that even though they were off duty in the photos, their policing when back in uniform could be impacted by conspiracy beliefs.

Just putting on a badge doesnt change who you are as a person, she said, I think it could definitely affect how they perform their duties..

When we are dealing w law enforcement and public officials its important to make sure how those personal views come into play when they are performing their duties, Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg doesnt argue that these officers can attendrallies and believe whatever they wish, but it should not spill into their work as an officer.

Law enforcement higher ups and supervisors need to be watching this and aware of this and make sure it doesnt have an impact on how somebody performs his or her job, he said.

Lasalle Mayor Jeff grove said in an email in part,It would be hypocritical for me to pick and choose what causes people can support, plus I dont have that authority, nor would I believe in it.

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Police Officers Linked To Extremist Group - CBS Chicago

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

The national protest movement that has erupted in the wake ofGeorge Floyd's death hasrekindled a fire under the culturaltinderbox known as the American Confederacy.

In the past week, public officials, military leaders and sports executives have made moves to take down Confederate statues and ban the Confederate flag, iconography that remains inextricably linked to the Southern cause that launched the Civil War: the preservation of a way of life anchored to slavery.

While such efforts have flared in recent years, historians say the Black Lives Matter protest movementonce again sweeping the nation after Floyd's death has catapulted the issue to a place of unprecedented visibility that is likely to have lasting effects. Floyd,a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis,was pinned to the ground by officers after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill at a grocery store. In a video of the encounter, Floyd gasped for breath as officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Were in another world now, the mask is off in terms of these things being symbols of slavery, says Stephanie McCurry, professor of American history at Columbia University in New York City and author of Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South.I dont think theres any going back from this moment.

The reckoning has been swift when compared to a patchwork of past efforts.

In 2015, after avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, the Confederate flag also known as the Rebel Flag was removed from the statehouse grounds.

Two years later, a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of one protester resulted in calls to tear down statues of Confederate leaders, but conservative local politicians largely managed to keep the statues in place.

"This to me seems to be a really simple fight. And the fact that it is so hard for us is an indication that we have a very, very, very long way to go," says former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu. "It's hard for people to change. Racism is a painful sickness this country has dealt with for a very long time."

In 2015, Landrieu made national headlines as he successfully argued for removing statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He says the obstacles he faced shows how effectively the Confederacy's supporters were able to obscure their support of slavery by instead making the war into a "noble cause."

"Underneath all of that was the premise that black people were inferior to white people," he says. "These monuments and these flags, although they are symbols, are up there because of an attitude of white supremacy and a bias toward the very simple notion that is utterly and completely wrong, that African Americans are not equal, and are less than."

Recent events have generated changes at a comparatively breakneck pace.

This week alone saw statues taken down in Jacksonville, Florida, and Indianapolis, while an iconic statue of Southern General Robert E. Lee was ordered removed by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northamas protesters in his state toppled other symbols of Confederate leaders.

The Confederate flag is inherentlya 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, saysMark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have called for the removal of 10 statues of leading Confederate figures, while Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he is open to renaming military bases bearing the names of Confederate brass. President Donald Trump tweeted his opposition to such a move.

"These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom, Trump tweeted Thursday.

Hours later, the Republican-ledSenate Armed Services Committeeapproved asweeping amendment to strip the names of Confederate generals from bases, building, planes, ships and even streetswithin three years.

Other military leaders already have weighed in. The Navy announced Tuesday it would ban the Confederate flag fromits military installations. Last week, the Marine Corps beganimplementing a ban ondisplaying the flag in any form.

That decision is a nod towardthe many African Americans serving in the armed forces, but it must be followed up with deeper reforms to fully integrate people of color, says Gaines Foster, history professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

African Americans have been fighting against the use of the flag since the Civil War, says Forster, a battle that only bore fruit after the murders atEmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church inSouth Carolina. What happened after the Charleston shooting was just the final stage of what was a long fight.

NASCAR shocks with flag ban

In sports, NASCAR sent shockwaves through its fan base in announcing Monday its own ban on the Confederate flag,which are ubiquitous at stock car races given the sports Southern roots in illegal moonshine runs during Prohibition.

That move generated thanks from one of the sports few African American drivers, Bubba Wallace, who promptly adorned his car with a Black Lives Matter logo over a wheel arch. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who is white, also applauded the move.

"NASCAR is synonymous with the Confederate flag, says Lecia Brooks, a civil rights attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center. These are major movements. People are finally understanding and accepting what we mean by systemic racism. I think we're at a real inflection point where people are really getting it."

In an updated edition of the2016 report "Whose Heritage?" the SPLC identified114 Confederate symbols that were removed after the Charleston attack and1,747 that still stood.

Megan Kate Nelson, an author and historian of the Civil War, saysthe ongoing protests against racism have pushedgovernment officials and corporations to come to terms with the legacy of the Confederacy.

That has forced businesses to take action on a much larger scale. I have to say, I never thought Id see the day NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events, she says.

For many black Americans, the movementto strike Confederate imagery is ablow against oppressive daily reminders of the slave-owning intent of Southern Civil War leadership.

In Virginia,the Franklin County School Board voted unanimously Monday to ban displays of the Confederate flagunder its school dress code.Penny Blue, a black woman and member at large for the Franklin County school board, began callingfor the flag to be banned in January. She saysthe board was only moved to take action after Floyd's death.

Its sad that it took the horrible murder of a black man on national TV and protests... before they would actually listen, she says.

School board member Jon Atchue, who is white and supported the ban, saysthose saying he was being too sensitive are not aware of the history of violence against black people. Atchue said many black students growing up listening to stories of Ku Klux Klan members terrorizing their ancestors whilebearing the flag would be fearful of seeing the image on school grounds. The Klan was started by Confederate veterans.

"If youre scared and you dont feel safe, thats going to impact the educational process, Atchue says.

For some Southerners, the backlash against Confederate symbols does not sit well. One NASCAR driver, Ray Ciccarelli, announced Wednesdayhe would quitat the end of the season over the decision.

"I could care less about the Confederate flag," he wrote on Facebook. "But there are people that do and it doesn't make them a racist."

Paul Gramling, commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that advocates on behalf of Confederate history,called NASCARs ban on the Confederate flag a slap in the face to Southerners who helped build the sport and complained that African Americans will never be satisfied until all traces of Southern heritage are gone.

We just wanted to be left alone and the North would not leave us alone, saysGramling. They keep bringing this up, causing problems that cause us to stand and defend what our ancestors did.

The Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans recently offered a $2,000 reward to anyone with information about damaged Confederate monuments in Georgia. Gramling sayslawmakers or corporate leaders who ban Confederate images to promote inclusivity only cause more racial tension.

Any time you take away or you attack someones heritage, especially Southern heritage, youre not going to be making friends with them, he says.

Salute relatives, but not the legacy

Southerners who want to honor ancestors who fought in the Civil War have theright to do so in a private setting, but foisting symbols of the Confederacy on those who were oppressed by it isnt right, says Karen Cox,professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and author of Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture.

Cox explains that in the decades after the Civil War, the goal of the Daughters of the Confederacy was not just to lionize parents and grandparents who fought, but also to reassert Confederate principles through those tributes.

Some will say the monuments are not about white supremacy, but if you read speeches given during the ceremonies and even some plaques themselves, some say that these veterans accepted the terms of war, but in the aftermath they rose up to defend Anglo Saxon supremacy, she says. Theres no mistaking what that means.

Cox points out that many white Southerners have for decades been trying to help eradicate what they see as embarrassing symbols of a part of the country they love. Todays movement will encourage more such collaboration.

She cautions that not only are actions taken against Confederate monuments and symbols more likely to happen in urban centers, theyre also more easily embraced in certain states.

Whats happening in Virginia is not happening in Mississippi, she says. Charge will be hard for some, because its a battle over their identity as white Southerners.

But such is the tenor of these times that change may well be coming to Mississippi, a cradle of some of the most strident civil rights protests in the 1960s. A bipartisan group of lawmakers are in the process of wrangling the votes needed to remove the Confederate flag from the Mississippi state flag.

Ultimately, white Southerners have for centuries lived with black Southerners first as slaves and then as free men and women. By clinging to symbolic totems of a slave-owning American South, white Southerners are ignoring the painful fight of neighbors for basic human and civil rights, says Dewey Clayton, political science professor at the University of Louisville.

Once the Civil War ended in 1865, many Southern states had a significant African American population, says Clayton. So, when they talk about Southern pride and Southern heritage, they are refusing to recognize many of the taxpayers in those particular states were not in support of the Confederate flag and what it stood for.

Clayton says Confederate statues and flags can make not only black Americans feel unsafe, but also other minority groups. The time to divest of such icons is now, he says.

What are we teaching our children? he says. As they grow up, they see these symbols of hatred and they see them everywhere in the public square. Were sending the wrong message to them.

Former mayor Landrieu sayshe's optimistic Americans are finally ready to have an open and honest conversation about racism.

"I think this country needs to have a reckoning, a collective reckoning, that what we have done in the past is wrong, that whatwe did in the past had consequences, and to make a commitment to change," he says. "We have to have a full stop and look at this and fix this. A lot of white people think that racism is only when you walk down the street and call an African American a bad name."

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Will the Black Lives Matter movement finally put an end to Confederate flags and statues? - The Register-Guard

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

Its five months to Election Day and America is in the midst of at least two national crises. The unrest reverberating throughout the land from the coronavirus pandemic and the killing of George Floyd is plunging Donald Trumps polling numbers. The president trails the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, by 14 points, according to a CNN poll that lawyers for the Trump campaign have tried to repress.

What are the repercussions for the Jewish community? Lets examine three already happening, with the qualification that things can change quickly.

The moment may boost the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Biden, the flagbearer of the partys center, has yet to roll out a detailed plan to deal with the systemic racism underlying police treatment of minorities (although hesbeginning to talk about it). The progressives are offering concrete proposals concerning the police, including defunding departments, limiting the powers of their unions and establishing tougher oversight.

In centrist pro-Israel circles, the progressives rise is equated with further erosion of support for Israel.Pro-Israel America, a political action committee run by two former top staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, released avoters guideon Thursday for four New York congressional primaries on June 23 that says pro-Israel incumbents are at risk.

They include Eliot Engel, whose race against Jamaal Bowman is listed as highly competitive. Carolyn Maloney and Gregory Meeks are named in contests rated as competitive, and Grace Mengs primary is deemed potentially competitive.

Engels risk is due in no small part to missteps related to the killing of Floyd, as my colleague Gabe Friedman notes. The 16-term lawmakers ouster would be a body blow to pro-Israel Democrats: As chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, he has been a leader on pro-Israel legislation. Those in line to succeed him led by Brad Sherman of California, whose center-right posture on Israel is well known are similarly pro-Israel but lack Engels influence and ability to work out compromises that satisfy a fractious caucus. Bowman, meantime, hassuggested that he would leverage assistance to Israel to influence its leaders.

Its not just Engel: For arecent story, I spoke to a congressional aide who says long term, the Democratic leadership is bound to become more critical of Israel. The Israeli government is pushing that along, as speculation swirls over whether or not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will try toannex parts of the West Bank next month. AIPAC normally frowns upon any public criticism of Israel, but the largest pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. is telling lawmakers that itwont push back if they criticize Israel on annexation.

The upcoming New York Democratic Primary could be critical for maintaining support for the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress, Jeff Mendelsohn, Pro-Israel Americas executive director, said in a release with the voting guide. Mendelsohn said he saw the races as critical before the unrest related to Floyds killing.

A year ago, Iattended the first all-day FBI session on securing multi-faith communities against an attack. The idea was that Jewish, Muslim and Christian officials in charge of securing their faith spaces should exchange ideas on what works best.

There was a lot of good-natured schmoozing and advice on how best to identify possibly hostile strangers and preparing congregants on best practices during a shooting. But there was a striking moment of tension toward the end of the day.

Michael Masters, who heads the Secure Community Network, the Jewish communitys security advisory group, repeated a mantra Ive heard from him repeatedly: Get to know your local police and establish a relationship, so they know where the synagogue is and how its security works.

Salam Al-Marayati, the president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said that was not viable in his community: Muslims did not feel comfortable liaising with a community that profiles them.

There are whole books on how Jews in America simultaneously occupy in ways perhaps no other community does spaces of risk and privilege, and it is especially stark in the way we relate to police. Jewish communities, without ambivalence, seek the protection of an agency that other communities see as a threat.

In a different but somewhat related development, specious claims that Israel trains police to be brutal with citizens have proliferated on social media in the wake of the Floyd killing. ThisAmnesty International report, published in 2016 but reappearing frequently in recent postings, is especially egregious.

Its logic proceeds something like this: a U.S. police force has exhibited brutality; its members once went on an Israel program; the Israel police exhibit brutality; therefore, Israel trained the U.S. force in brutality. No evidence of such training is given, and omitted is the multiple police exchanges that take place throughout the world. (Check out the flag collage onthis page of the International Police Association exchangeprogram.) Also omitted is that when Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League train the police, it is often aboutimproving how they treat minorities and mitigating brutality.

For a while,Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis,and Eric Garcetti,the mayor of Los Angeles, were rising young Jewish Democrats. Garcetti for a time considered a presidential run.

They have diverged: Freywas booed at a rally this week when he would not commit to abolishing his citys policedepartment. The municipal council said it would dismantle the force as it is currently constituted, and by a veto-proof majority.

Garcetti, a member of Bidens vice president selection team, has been buffeted by Black Lives Matter activistswho want to drastically reduce the police budget and police unions who wantno reductions. He has proposed shifting $150 millionfrom the police department to services for minority communities.

One lesser-known Jewish mayor who could gain traction in the crisis? Steve Adler of Austin, Texas,who released a letter this week with concrete proposals on how to reduce police violence.

The systemic killing of Black Americans must stop, he said in a tweet attached to the letter.

He campaigned his Ossoff:John Ossoff, the young Jewish Democrat who nearly pulled off a surprise victory in a widely watched 2017 race for a House seat, now is eyeing a Senate seat. On Tuesday hewon a Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican David Perdue crucially without the need of a runoff, meaning he can devote his efforts and his fundraising entirely to ousting Perdue in what Democrats hope will be a swing state.

Eine kleine Mort tweet: A tweet by Mort Klein about Black Lives Matter has added weight toan effort spearheaded by HIAS to oust the group he leads, the Zionist Organization of America, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The porous Mr. Soros:George Soros, the liberal Jewish philanthropist, is seeping into, well, everything, if you go by the right-wing conspiracy theorists whose baseless claims have proliferated as the American unrest grows.The ADL is tracking Soros conspiracy theories. The pervasive Soros-hating hasalso afflicted sections of the Texas Republican Party.

Ivanka, canceled:Wichita State University Techuninvited Ivanka Trump from delivering its commencement speech, citing the policies of her fathers administration, where she serves as a senior adviser. The first daughter posted her speech online and decried what she said was cancel culture.

At NBC, Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collinstell the storyof Klamath Falls, Oregon, which was all set for a Soros-funded invasion by antifa that never was.

A Twitter account dedicated to the Sumerian language posts a photo of a cuneiform keyboard. Patrick Kidd, an editor at the Times of London, has the perfect take.

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3 Jewish takeaways from unrest over pandemic and George Floyd - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

Dr. Amy Acton resigned as director of the Ohio Department of Health on Thursday, a little more than three months after the state's first confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.(Photo: Samuel Greene/The Enquirer)

COLUMBUS Dr. Amy Acton didn't take the job of Ohio's health director to become a heroine in a white lab coat. She simply wantedto raise the profile of public health.

When she was first appointed to the job last February, Actonspoke abouther belief in holistic health, in paying attention to all the factors contributing to wellness and illness, in reforming the state department and working with local health workers.

Instead, she became the face of Ohio's response to the novel coronavirus.For some, she was a steady leader during an uncertain time. For others, she was a heavy-handed bureaucrat who destroyed the state's economy.

None of that was what she wanted.

On Thursday, Acton resigned as the state's health department director, about three months after Ohio's first confirmed COVID-19cases. Her harried routine of waking at 4 a.m. before the sunrise and working late into the night, she said, had become unsustainable. She will continue to receive her $230,000 salary as chief health adviser to Gov. Mike DeWine.

There wasn't one moment that pushed Acton to resign.No politician or angry protester pushed her out, sources close to Acton told The Enquirer. Acton and DeWine did not make themselves available for interviews for this story.

Everyone is tired of the coronavirus.But probably none are more exhausted than the state and local health officials on the front lines of a once-in-a-century pandemic.

It was February 2019 when DeWine announced the health director post, the last addition to his cabinet. Acton, 54, previouslyworked as a community research and grants management officer for the Columbus Foundation and a public health professor at Ohio State University.

DeWine handed the microphone to Acton, dressed in a dark suit, and had to motion her toward the podium.

I really approachhealth in a very holistic way, Acton said. Meaning that the food we eat is our health, where we live, the ZIP Code were born into is our health, all the things that surround us are creating the conditions in which we can lead flourishing lives.

She later appeared with the governor to raise awareness about teen vaping. She spoke at health conferences and events around the state.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs an order banning groups of 100 or more people, along with Dr. Amy Acton, left, the head of the Ohio Department of Health, during a press conference updating the public on COVID-19 on Thursday, March 12, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. A fifth case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, was confirmed in Ohio earlier Thursday. (Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)(Photo: Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch)

But she didn't become a household name until mid-March, when she assumed a starring role in daily coronavirus briefings broadcast statewide. DeWine talked about the policy; Acton talked about the science.

Soon, Actons encouraging phrases Not all heroes wear capes and I am not afraid; I am determined were printed on t-shirts.A store in Columbus carried candles with her face on them. Children were donning white lab coats and imitating Acton. She was profiled in the Washington Post and Time.

Acton and DeWine received national accolades for their swift response to the pandemic at a time when Washington D.C. was just awakening to its dangers.

Even from the beginning, though, Acton had her critics.

On March 12, she estimated as many as 100,000 Ohioans could be infected with the respiratory disease 1% of the state's population.At the time, Ohio had just a few confirmed cases.

The number shocked Ohioans and drew the ire of national conservative publications.Acton, surprised how quickly it spread,walked it back the next day. She explained her "guesstimate" was based on researchers' assumptions that Ohio had community spread, up to 70% of people would get the virus by the end of the year, and cases would double every six days.

We might not ever know how far that prediction was from the truth.

From there, disdain for the doctor among coronavirus skeptics grew.

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton used charts and metaphors to explain the state's response to the novel coronavirus.(Photo: DORAL CHENOWETH, Doral Chenoweth III)

She touted modeling from Ohio State University researchers showing Ohio could have between 2,000 and 10,000 cases each day despite closures and mitigation measures numbers that never materialized.

Limited testing has hamstrung Ohios ability to get a true picture of how many people were infected by the disease. Only Thursday did DeWine announce that anyone who wants to be tested for COVID-19 could access a test.

But without thousands of sick Ohioans filling up the states hospitals, people started to wonder: Was Acton wrong? Should we trust her?

The nature of science especially science involving a new, highly infectious disease relies on observations and adjustments more than unequivocal facts. The nature of public health is if it works, the worst case scenario won't materialize.

Republican politicians, barraged with criticism from constituents wondering why their restaurant, bar or fair cant fully reopen in counties with just a handful of confirmed cases, started to raise questions.

Some took it even farther. Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, called her "Doctor of Doom,"a tyrant and a globalist, whichthe Anti-Defamation League of Cleveland condemned as an anti-Semitic slur. Lawmakers like Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, R-Mason, called on her to resign.

Add to that lawsuits from gyms, amusement parks and concert halls trying to open earlier and proposed laws to restrict state and local health departments' authority.

Conservative social media had another complaint:Acton had volunteered on President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Acton isnot the only member of DeWine's team with Democratic ties, but the detail gnawed at some Republicans.

DeWine's attempts to redirect those frustrations back on himself "the buck stops with me" were only so successful.

As Ohio opened up, Acton appeared at briefings less often and spoke for less time.

Acton's resignation follows recent departures of top health officials in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Arkansas.At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states,Kaiser Health News and the Associated Press found.

Health officials have been threatened and had their private information made public.

Kat DeBurgh, the executive director of the Health Officers Association of California, said burnout seems to be contributing to many of those decisions.

"Its disheartening to see people who disagree with the order go from attacking the order to attacking the officer to questioning their motivation, expertise and patriotism, DeBurgh told The Associated Press. "Thats not something that should ever happen."

Supporters of Dr. Amy Acton formed a "friend chain" on Acton's front lawn after a few dozen protesters of Ohio's stay-at-home order showed up outside her Bexley home on May 4, 2020. The State Highway Patrol had officers posted at Acton's house.(Photo: Barbara J. Perenic, The Columbus Dispatch-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

Acton's experience was no different.Protesters, some armed, showed up at her home in the Columbus suburbs several times. Her neighbors counter-protested in her front yard and put up "Dr. Amy Acton Fan Club" yard signs. Acton was given security detail, an unusual step for a cabinet member.

Actons response to the novel coronavirus was based on her experience as a public health expert and educator. But it was also the response of a mother, sister and wife.

Early in the states response to the novel coronavirus, Acton was on a conference call with local health departments. Acton mentioned that her two sons in San Francisco were beginning to shelter in place, recalled Olivia Biggs, spokeswoman for the Licking County Health Department.

The line got quiet and dark. We almost thought we lost the connection, Biggs said.

When Acton came back on the line, she was sobbing. Soon, the teamin Licking County was tearing up as well which quickly became a problem because coronavirus best practices include not touching one's face, Biggs said.

It was a very human moment, said Biggs, who like many local health department officials has balanced the workload of the pandemic with being a parent. It made me respect her even more.

Acton said Thursday she was essentially doing three jobs:continuing the health department's work on myriad issues such as lead abatement, handling the state's COVID-19 response and advising the governor.

In her new role, she will be able to focus on her primary goal: public health. The agency's general counsel, Lance Himes, will lead the department on an interim basis.

We have all worked this whole team has worked every hour of every single day, Acton said Thursday. I feel with the pandemic and what the governor is doing with promoting the health of Ohioans, I want to give that my complete attention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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First came the pandemic, then came the politics: Why Amy Acton quit - The Cincinnati Enquirer

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

WILLIAMSPORT The July 18 National Socialist Movement (NSM) rally in Williamsport has been canceled but the organization says it is exploring several options.

Mayor Derek Slaughter has denied permits for all mass gatherings during July due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Police Chief Damon Hagan said.

We are exploring several options at this point including going across the line into New York State or Ohio, regional Commander Bert Colucci said Wednesday.

He did not rule out scheduling an event in Williamsport in the future. A July 17 rally in Ulysses in Potter County still is planned, he said.

This was the second time the neo-Nazi organization has had to cancel a Williamsport rally due to the coronavirus. The first was April 18.

Announcement of the rallies sparked a debate whether Williamsport was required by the First Amendment to grant a permit for use of a city park.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned what it called NSMs attempt to bring hate into Pennsylvania.

The NSM claims it does not advocate violence and Colucci has posted on his commanders webpage this statement: I want it made perfectly clear to all of our members, supporters, prospective members, readers, etc. that the National Socialist Movement condemns illegal actions and in such we do not endorse any acts of violence or terrorism.

The NSM is a white civil rights movement that adheres to political activism and a legal means to restore America to its former glory.

Acts of violence or terrorism against America or its citizens is unacceptable and not tolerated within the ranks of the National Socialist Movement.

Those of you who are party members,know that the NSM operates within the laws of the United States and those that break serious laws will be expelled from our ranks.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

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White civil rights groups rally in Williamsport canceled again due to COVID-19 - PennLive

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

The left, of course, is not alone in reaching into the violence of the past for its rhetoricnor are leftists necessarily the worst offenders, despite the recent ubiquity of the guillotine meme. The right-wing pundit Erick Erickson infamously argued for the installation of dictators in Latin American countries in 2018, noting he was hoping for some helicopters in this plan, a reference to erstwhile Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochets death flights, a series of extrajudicial killings in which the regimes political opponents were thrown to their deaths from helicopters and airplanes.* Until late 2019, Amazon soldT-shirts with slogans like Wanna Take a Ride?emblazoned over an image of a body falling from a helicopteras Pinochets Helicopter Tours gained vogue as a reference for the right. At the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right rally in August 2017, far-right marchers chanted, You cant run, you cant hide, you get helicopter rides. On June 7, one right-wing commentator tweeted, If the left gets rid of the Trump we have, normal people will turn to the Pinochet theyll need, followed by a helicopter emoji.

Then theres Confederate imagery, also on the right, and the references to the Crusades, which began innocuously enough among video game fans and history buffs, before quickly morphing into an Islamophobic credo. Both the left and the right seem happy to reference Soviet gulags, with some of the former even defending the institutions as compassionate and rehabilitory. Prison-camp references have also been a recent feature of anti-press rhetoric, as well. When Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez shared an article describing basketball star Kobe Bryants alleged rape of a 19-year-old woman, after Bryants death earlier this year, her newspaper briefly suspended her. When it reinstated her, following a massive outcry,people replied to the Post Guilds Twitter statement with messages saying she should serve a stint in GITMO. One called for making gitmo the hotel California for journos! While guillotines paraded through streets may be frightening, they are far less terrifying in the near term than the recent police crackdown on the free press. The reporter Scott Nover, who runs the press freedom newsletter Pressing, created a list of at least 306 threats to and violations of freedom of the press that have occurred during the protests following George Floyds death. As journalists are taken to actual jails for reporting the truth, the association of internment camps like Guantnamo Bay with media hatred becomes more sinister.

Speech, naturally, cannot be violent in itself. Nevertheless, it can contribute to a culture in which violence gets normalized. Political actors, online agitators, and commentators ought to know that their words have consequences; that through them, they help to build a culture where politicized violence becomes more likely and less quickly condemned. Some, of course, are already aware of this. Its the point.

I dont know if Erick Erickson would actually throw his political opponents out of a helicopter to their deaths. I prefer to believe he wouldnt. But some right-wing activists certainly use references to historical violence to signal a very real intent to replicate past atrocities.

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The Fall and Rise of the Guillotine - The New Republic

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Posted By admin on June 13, 2020

Open Carry Texas protesters prepare to pose for a group photo outside of the bar Big Daddy Zanes, on June 6, 2020 in Odessa, Texas.

Photo: Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP

Donald Trump is right. The anti-racism protests that have convulsed cities across the United States are also being used as cover, to quote the president, for acts of domestic terror.

In late May, for example, three Nevada men were arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas, reported the Associated Press. Federal prosecutors say the men had molotov cocktails in glass bottles and were headed downtown, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by AP.

People have a right to peacefully protest, said Nicholas Trutanich, the U.S. attorney in Nevada. These men are agitators and instigators. Their point was to hijack the protests into violence.

But heres the thing: None of these three men were members of antifa, the left-wing, anti-fascist protest movement that has been blamed both by the president and his attorney-generalBill Barrfor recent violence. They were all self-identified members of the so-called boogaloomovement, aka boogaloo bois aka boojahideen perhaps the most dangerous group that, until the past week or so, most Americans had never heard of.

The complaint filed in Nevada last month described boogaloo as a term used by extremists to signify coming civil war and/or fall of civilization. According to Cynthia Miller-Idris, an expert on domestic extremist groups at American University, members of the boogaloo movement are all united by the idea that they are fighting against government tyranny and want to launch a violent insurrection against the government and bring about a second civil war.

Their weird name comes from I kid you not! the much-mocked 1984 movie Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo,a sequel to, and near-copy of, the original Breakin,starring Ice T. Boogaloo boys style the forthcoming war as a repeat of the American civil war, explained the Economist in May. The Hawaiian shirts that dot the crowds are a reference to the big luau, another name for the boogaloo, which celebrates pig (police) roasts.

Name and dress sense aside, though, theres nothing silly or funny about them. The Anti-Defamation League, while documenting how white supremacists have adopted the boogaloo concept, also referred to the boogaloo movements casual acceptance of future mass violence as disturbing.

These are heavily armed men, many of them withmilitary training, looking for new and greater opportunities for violent protest.

Remember: These are heavily armed men, many of them with military training, looking for new and greater opportunities for violent protest. Miller-Idris told me that the boogaloo bois have mobilized over the past six months in three separate waves of protests against attempts by state legislatures to reform gun laws; against the coronavirus lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders; and now as part of the demonstrations and marches against police brutality and racism, in the wake of the George Floyd killing.

Worryingly, their movement is growing online at breakneck speed. As Reuters reported last week, citing a study from the Tech Transparency Project, tens of thousands of people joined boogaloo-related Facebook groups over a 30-day period in March and April as stay-at-home orders took effect across the United States. Project researchers found discussions about tactical strategies, weapons and creating explosives in some boogaloo Facebook groups.

In March, Timothy Wilson, a 36-year-old Missouri man with neo-Nazi ties, was shot and killed by the FBI after plotting to bomb a hospital in the Kansas City area on the first day of the lockdown. Wilson had told an undercover FBI agent that he had wanted to create enough chaos to kick start a revolution and referred to his planned attack as operation boogaloo.

In April, Aaron Swenson, a 36-year-old Arkansas man, was arrested after he threatened to kill a police officer on a Facebook Live video. I feel like hunting the hunters, he wrote on Facebook, where he also made boogaloo references, according to the police.

The boogaloo bois dont operate in a vacuum. Their goals, methods, and personnel overlap with a number of far-right, anti-government groups that also pose a significant threat to law, order, and race relations, from the Proud Boys, to the Oath Keepers, to the Three Percenters, to the Sovereign Citizens. Dont forget the Ku Klux Klan either: The Virginia man arrested for driving his truck into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters over the weekend is head of a local KKK chapter.

Some of us have been trying to sound the alarm for several years now. In 2015, a survey of law enforcement agencies found the vast majority of respondents ranked the threat of violence from anti-government extremists higher than the threat from radicalized Muslims. In February, prior to both the coronavirus lockdowns and the George Floyd protests, Trumpshandpicked FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that the bureau had raised its assessment of the threat posed by racially motivated violent extremists in the U.S. to a national threat priority, and revealed how extremists motivated by racial or religious hatred made up a huge chunk of the FBIs domestic terrorism investigations.(Of course as my Intercept colleague Alice Speri has previously reported, a considerable amount of the FBIs domestic terror investigations focused on individuals and groups it labeled black separatist extremists, a phenomenon that does not actually exist.)

Yet Trump, of course, isnt interested in terrorists of the far-right variety no matter how many Americans they kill or maim. He refused to apply the label of domestic terrorism to the white supremacists who murdered Jews at synagogues in Pennsylvania and California. He refused to apply it to a supporter of his who sent pipe bombs to a number of high-profile Democratic politicians and donors. After a Coast Guard lieutenant was arrested on suspicion of plotting to commit an act of white nationalist terrorism, Trump simply said it was a shame and a very sad thing. After the massacre of 51 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand, Trump denied white nationalist terrorists were a growing problem and dismissed them as a small group of people.

Trump, of course, isnt interested in terrorists of the far-right variety no matter how many Americans they kill or maim.

But antifa, on the other hand? The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization, declaimed the president on Twitter on May 31 despite the glaring lack of evidence connecting antifa elements to any of the recent violence or looting.

You know who has been linked to it? The armed guys in the Hawaiian shirts. And not just the trio with molotov cocktails in Nevada. In South Carolina, a 22-year-old man, who the local sheriffs department accused of being a supporter of boogaloo, was charged with inciting a riot and aggravated breach of peace. In Denver, police seized assault rifles and gas masks from a 20-year-old protester who identifies with the boogaloo movement. In Georgia, self-identified boogaloo supporters armed with rifles and handguns were spotted among protesters in downtown Athens. In a memo, the Athens police chief called the boogaloo movement an extremist organization that aims in part to instigate race wars across America.

Lets be clear: Far-right extremists are hijacking nationwide protests against racism to push for a race war! While the boogaloo might have elements that are closer to libertarians 90 percent of the boogaloo material is racist, Mia Bloom, an expert on online extremism at Georgia State University, told me. According to Bloom, therefore, we can expect a lot more violence in the lead up to the 2020 election. Miller-Idris of American University agrees. I think we should be very concerned about the violent potential of these groups, she told me. There have always been fringe seditionist and anti-government militia groups but this phenomenon represents a more rapid growth in both online and offline space than we have seen before.

The president and his attorney general, then, have stumbled on an undeniable truth: There is a domestic terror threat in the United States. We need to recognize it in order to protect against it. But heres what Trump and Barr wont say: That terror threat comes not from anti-fascists in black masks, but from actual fascists in Hawaiian shirts.

Update: June 10, 2020This story has been updated to note that the FBI devoted considerable resources to investigating black separatist extremists, a phenomenon that does not actually exist.

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How the Boogaloo Movement Wants to Exploit Anti-Rascist Protests - The Intercept - First Look Media

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