Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Photo Credit: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90

Anti-Israel activists on social media have recently launched a campaign that attempts to draw parallels between police violence in the US against African Americans and the alleged violence against Arabs by the Israel Police and the IDF.

Following the polices killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, anti-Israel activists immediately began drawing comparisons with what they describe as systematic and deadly Israeli brutality against Arabs, and that in some cases, Israeli policemen trained the US cops to be employ brutality.

One image, typifying the campaign, depicts a photoshopped image of George Floyd on the security barrier between Israel and parts of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The anti-Israel German Das Palstina Portal published an article titled Gaza is everywhere! What the current unrest and protest in the US have to do with Israel, arguing that police brutality can be attributed to an ongoing Israelization of the world.

Several groups have applied violent terms such as Intifada (Arabic for uprising) to the current eruption of protests in the wake of Floyds death.

The term Intifada was the name given to the first and second Palestinian violent riots in the late 1980s and early 2000s, which saw daily terror attacks, including suicide bombings, stabbings and shootings against Israeli civilians that claimed thousands of lives.

By describing the current wave of protests as a black intifada, the groups statements appear to constitute an incitement to violence and terrorism.

Samidoun, a global delegitimization organization with close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terror organization, released a statement titled From Gaza to Minneapolis, one struggle for justice and liberation! in which it called the protests an intifada.

The statement declared: We support the uprising in Minneapolis, the intifada of people subjected to an ongoing, vicious and structural racism, inheriting a lengthy and rich tradition of Black resistance, organizing and struggle.

The PFLP itself published a statement in Arabic in solidarity with protestors, stating that it is not surprising for a country like the United States, which has a strategic alliance with the Zionist entity [Israel], to intersect with it in the discrimination, racism and repression that embodies its treatment of Palestinians.

The BDS National Committee (BNC) stated that as long as this system of oppression continues, it is up to our grassroots movements to work collectively and intersectionally to dismantle it, from the US to Palestine.

BDS US group Adalah Justice Project linked white supremacy and Zionism, accusing them of being underpinned by anti-Blackness.

The hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter, inspired by #BlackLivesMatter, has been used on Twitter since at least 2015. However, the hashtags popularity surged following the killing of George Floyd as BLM protests gained momentum in the US. Many activists campaigned to highlight intersectional parallels between African American and Palestinian causes, once again reviving this hashtag.

Usage of #PalestinianLivesMatter on Twitter grew exponentially from May 28-30, and was also highly visible to Twitter users from June 2-3, reaching an estimated 29.4 million users in this 24-hour period

This exploitation of the tragedy in the US is a strategic attempt by delegitimization groups to entrench themselves and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as a focal point of the progressive Movement.

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'Gaza is Everywhere!': Anti-Zionist Activists Latch on to George Floyd's Death to Bash Israel - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Get Out. The writer Liel Leibovitz issued this controversial word of advice last year to Jewish students at American institutions of higher education. He argued that the rise of anti-Zionism, poor teaching quality, and inflated prices made elite colleges hostile places for both Jewish flourishing and liberal education. Leibovitz called upon his readers to cease applying and donating to institutions like Harvard and Yale.Is it true that American colleges are hostile to Jewish students? If so, what can educators who value both liberal education and Jewish pride do about it? And should Jewish students and their parents vote with their feet or stick around for the fight? Upheavals caused by Covid-19 make this an opportune moment to consider these issues. What is the future of college for Jewish students?A new Townhall series by the Tikvah Fund, a Jewish think-tank and educational institute, brings together seven great minds from academia and the Jewish world to discuss these timely questions.The Townhall series opened with Jonathan Haidt of Heterodox Academy, an organization that promotes diversity of opinion in higher education. A recent study by the Knight Foundation found that 78% of college students support safe spaces on campus where they can be shielded from ideas they disagree with. Is this opposition to the free exchange of ideas compatible with liberal education? Later in the series, Harry Ballan, the former Dean of Touro Law School, will explore the future of liberal education in the age of Covid-19. What does a good seminar look like when it is conducted behind a screen?For observant Jewish students, the challenges to maintaining a Jewish lifestyle in college are manifold. A recent study by the Orthodox Unions Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus found that 79% of orthodox students attend a secular college. Earlier this week, R.J. Snell of Princetons Witherspoon Institute and Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, Senior Director at the Tikvah Fund, examined the obstacles to religious observance at university and offered advice for students seeking friendships and alliances with other religious groups.Ruth Wisse, pioneer of Yiddish Studies and indomitable thinker in the field of Jewish ideas, will share her decades of wisdom on the academy. What did she learn from teaching Yiddish at Harvard? Can Jewish students retain a sense of pride in college and avoid the culture of victimhood that so often prevails at American institutions?While the question of religious identity in a secular culture is key, the foremost worry for Jewish students and their families might be something else altogether: the rise of anti-Semitism. In the past few months alone, swastikas have appeared at George Washington University in the nations capital, and Columbia University, adjacent to Manhattans Upper West Side and home to a student population that is almost a quarter Jewish. Aliza Lewin, director of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law, will discuss methods to combat the Jew-hatred plaguing campuses around the country, with the increase in both traditional anti-Semitism and targets against the Jewish state in the form of BDS campaigns. University administrators might offer vague promises to protect Jewish students, but anti-Zionist groups at elite institutions like New York University and Tufts University continue to receive approbation from their administrations with prestigious awards.An academic field known to have a troublesome relationship to the Jewish state is the field of Jewish studies itself. Leora Batnitzky, long-time Religion Department chair at Princeton University, will help us take stock of the complicated field of Jewish studies. Does this supposedly neutral mode of studying Jewish texts and history strengthen Jewish identity?Lastly, Leil Leibovitz himself will address the message of his provocative Get Out essay. In at least one sense, Leibovitz contention has revealed itself to be true: students are now outor in, so to speak, as formal college is cancelled, Zoom classes replace lecture halls, and students graduate in their parents living rooms.This is the opportune moment to examine the future of college for Jewish students. Join the Tikvah Fund throughout the summer months as we take a step back and consider what college is for, and what it means for the development of young Jewish adults. For more information>>>

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What is the Jewish future at universities? - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Winston Churchill is considered as a celebrated statesman and a hero of the free world.

Churchill, the UK's wartime prime minister, saved his country and the world from a Nazi invasion.

However, to the outside world, he was hardly better than Hitler, and the West regarded him as a fierce imperialist.

Churchill's racism is well-documented and he once even wrote, "I hate Indians".

Also read |Why Britain cannot run away from flames of racism it once sowed?

"They are a beastly people with a beastly religion," he had said.

Not just his words, his actions too are a testimony of his racial mindset.

In 1943, Churchill engineered the Bengal famine, where wheat was exported from India for allied troops as Indians went to bed hungry.

He stopped all food supplies to India and was a major reason why four million people starved to death in Bengal in the same year.

"It's (Indians) their own fault...for breeding like rabbits," Churchill had said.

He was also a supporter of gas bombs and during the Arab Uprising in 1920, he lamented the 'squeamishness' of his colleagues who were not in favour of using poisoned gas against the so-called "uncivilised tribes".

In the same year, Churchill sentthe blacks and tans into Ireland who weretasked with terrorising the Irish rebellion.

In 1949, Churchill also ordered the British Army to fire on the anti-Nazi protesters in Greece and also facilitated Zionism in Palestine.

"Palestinians were 'barbaric hordes' who are little but rabbit dung," he wrote.

"A stronger race, a high-grade race, a more worldly-wise race has come in and taken their place."

Churchill also planted the seed in South Africa to strip black communities from their voting rights.

Despite all of this, Britain is blinded by its excessive admiration of Churchill, who is also a hero of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Former PM David Cameron believes that Churchill saved "humanity as a whole".

The truth is Winston Churchill was a racist and his prejudice has caused millions of deaths.

Churchill thought that the British were "winners in a social Darwinian hierarchy". This thought is out-of-date, just like imperialism and like racism, which is another legacy of the British, needs to die.

As does the lionisation of Churchill.

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Was `icon of the free world` Winston Churchill a racist? - WION

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Does the current wave of protests across America sparked by the brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer present an existential threat to Israel? I hope so.

Astonishing as it may sound, though, Israels propagandists and defenders have been shocked to discover suddenly that the parallels between Americas structural racism against its black citizens and the colonial-settler regimes violent denial of Palestinians human rights are glaringly real and very obvious.

Ironically, the shock and awe of being confronted with the reality of widespread systematic discrimination against blacks which mirrors the immorality of Zionisms inherent racism has led to defenders of Israel slandering the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The absurdity of trying to defame and discredit protesters as violent looters is utterly disingenuous and displays a naivety which is reflected in the failure of both the Trump administration and Israels right-wing regime to acknowledge that repression and the denial of rights will not be tolerated any longer.

Trumps refusal to hold police officers and National Guards accountable for their normalised and almost casual brutality is reminiscent of the last gasps of the white minority rulers in apartheid South Africa. Ultimately and reluctantly they had to come to terms with the fact that racism is unjust, immoral and above all unsustainable.

READ: Why did the Israeli police kill a Palestinian with special needs?

It is thus quite revealing that defenders of Israel are terrified by the intensity of the protest movement in the US which has spawned solidarity across Europe and other parts of the world. The protests are gaining momentum.

Pro-Israel lobbyists refer disparagingly to the legitimate demands made by protesters for equality and justice as mayhem. This is intended to conceal the fact that resistance to oppression, whether by blacks in America or by Palestinians against Israels brutal occupation, is entirely legitimate and justified.

One dimension of the current situation which Israels cheerleaders seem to be entirely unhappy about is what Caroline Glick insists is the radicalisation of white progressives and the threat they represent to US-Israel relations. In an article in Israel Hayom, Glick makes the amazing claim that the protests which she calls riots are not a consequence of increased police brutality towards African Americans. Instead, against all the evidence laid bare by black victims of Americas disproportionate criminal justice system, police brutality and the inherent racism to which they are subjected routinely, Glick insists that, The violence [sic] we are seeing is a result of the steep radicalisation of progressive white Americans.

While it is true that substantial number of whites in America are extremely fed up of the status quo and are rallying alongside their black fellow-citizens in solidarity, it is dishonest to imply that the merciless murder of George Floyd is inconsequential.

READ: It is time for the US to end its deadly exchange programmes with Israel

Incredibly, but not surprisingly, as Israels propagandists do she goes on to describe #BlackLivesMatter as a radical group and anti-Semitic. Such allegations are designed to discredit the legitimate protest movement the actions of which have clearly shaken Trump and his buddy Benjamin Netanyahu, but which have, nevertheless, inspired others around the world.

Israel relies on discrediting and slandering critics of its apartheid policies, but despite Trumps shoddy response it cannot be denied that the world recoiled in horror when the graphic video of George Floyds neck pinned to the ground by the knee of a killer in police uniform went viral. Such brutality by a law enforcement officer would not have surprised many Israelis or, indeed, Palestinians. It is, after all, par for the course in the occupied Palestinian territories. Hence, the solidarity expressed on protest banners for Palestinian victims of Israeli knees on their necks and brutal killings, aided and abetted by US support for the Zionist state, was to be expected. Likewise, the Palestinians are backing #BlackLivesMatter.

Such solidarity fuelled the anti-apartheid movement against white minority rule in South Africa, as indeed it will spread support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign against apartheid Israel. It was always inevitable that the protest movement in America and the rest of the world would find common ground with Palestinian demands for justice.

The Trump administrations gifts to Israel of billions of dollars, military aid and bogus legitimacy for its Jewish settlements, occupation and annexation of Palestine are now imperilled. That is why Israel in particular is on edge following George Floyds killing by an American police officer. There will indeed be consequences.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Israel is on edge as the George Floyd murder sparks global demands for justice - Middle East Monitor

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Fighting racism doesnt necessarily mean fighting anti-Semitism. Fighting racism can sometimes involve elements of anti-Semitism. And fighting anti-Semitism can sometimes lead to accusations of racism.

If you study the trajectory of racial politics in America in the last 50 years or so, its difficult to avoid those three conclusions, as depressing as they are.

Even so, my purpose in raising them here isnt to discourage American Jews from participating in the new civil-rights movement that has coalesced in the wake of the sickening police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Nor, with deep regret, am I raising them because Ive come up with an ingenious proposal to resolve these contradictions once and for all. I am raising them only because we need to be clear-eyed about the challenges that lie ahead.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN JUNE 04: Rev. Al Sharpton performs a eulogy during a memorial service for George Floyd at North Central University on June 4, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A number of politicians and celebrities attended the service in Minneapolis as more are scheduled to be held in North Carolina and Texas. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Get your knee off our necks, the Rev. Al Sharpton exclaimed at Floyds funeral in Minneapolis on June 4, capturing the anger of black communities across the United States at the seemingly unending cycle of police brutality. It is a call to action that resonates powerfully with many Jews (myself included) on the emotional and moral levels.

The problem is the spoiling role that historical memory can play at charged moments such as these.

The Al Sharpton who sounded this clarion call in the presence of George Floyds grieving family is the same Al Sharpton who goaded anti-Semitic rioters in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y., for three agonizing days during the summer of 1991.

If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house, he declared at a rally in Harlem before delivering a eulogy at the funeral of Gavin Catothe 7-year-old African-American boy whose tragic death in a car accident sparked the riotingwhere he invoked the most chilling anti-Semitic tropes. All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it, Sharpton told the mourners. No compromise, no meetings, no coffee klatch, no skinnin and grinnin.

Sharpton has never offered genuine contrition for these grotesque remarks, perhaps because they reflect what he genuinely believes, and certainly because there was never any political cost attached to articulating them, Thirty years later, hes still around, commanding the attention of a new generation of activists. In the struggle against racism in America, you can rest assured they will be told that Sharptons record of anti-Semitism is a subordinate concernnot to say an irritationand those who raise it must be doing so to discredit the goals of the movement.

Sharpton is an apt example of the painful contradictions between fighting racism and fighting anti-Semitism that I outlined at the beginning. The sectarian politics he represents is the antithesis of that iconic image, much treasured by American Jews, of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschelmarching alongsideDr. Martin Luther King in 1965 in Selma, Ala. But in the present political climate, it is the Sharpton approach to black-Jewish relations that has a much greater chance of prevailing.

So, and this is the question confronting the many Jews dedicated to rooting out the cancer of racism from our police departments and from our public institutions more generally, what are you supposed to think when you encounter anti-Semitism as an element in this very same struggle? And what do you do?

As I confessed earlier, I dont have clear answers, partly because I think we are still diagnosing the nature of the problem. In the last five years, a campaign waged by anti-Zionist groups has pushed the false narrative that American police officers learned the methods of brutality from Israeli military personnel who tested them first on Palestinians. (The evidence provided is laughably flimsy. One claim I came acrossthat Minneapolis police were trained in crowd control by IDF officersrested entirely on a link to a news report about a one-day anti-terrorism conference that was hosted by the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, which some Minneapolis officers apparently attended. In 2012.)

Most of the anti-Semitism encountered in black communities in America doesnt have anything to do with Israel or Zionism.

Yet this readiness to embrace the demonology of Zionism speaks to a deeper problem. Most of the anti-Semitism encountered in black communities in America doesnt have anything to do with Israel or Zionism. Instead, it is an Americanized version of the Christian anti-Semitism that was adapted by European nationalists and socialists of various stripes over the last two centuries. Its core message is that capitalist democracy is a system designed by Jews to benefit Jews, who then cry out anti-Semitism! to pull the wool over the eyes of the masses. Sharptons eulogy to Gavin Cato quoted above reflects the journey of those sentiments across the Atlantic.

In both American and Europe, racism against blacks and other communities of color has invariably been a feature of right-wing politics. Contrastingly, anti-Semitism has been a presence on left and right alike, who share the same prejudices about Jews even if they draw slightly different conclusions from them. Despite the preponderance of Jews on the left, raising anti-Semitism as a specific concern in these milieus has historically been treated with suspicion, as an implicit threat to divide the progressive movement over Jewish tribal complaints. In the context of the civil rights movement in the United Statesa country where the historical role played by anti-Semitism has been negligible when compared with racismcomplaints of anti-Semitism are frequently presented as a sinister attempt to legitimize the white privilege of the Jewish community with the cloak of discrimination.

American Jews are strong enough in their identities not to cast aside the injustices faced by African-Americans simply because anti-Semitism is a factor in the movement against racism in this country.

We are dealing with an old and stubborn formula here, capable of causing real mischief in situations like the one we face as a society now. American Jews are strong enough in their identities not to cast aside the injustices faced by African-Americans simply because anti-Semitism is a factor in the movement against racism in this country. By the same token, we have little choice in recognizing that anti-Semitism will continue to come at us from all sidesand that we should expect, especially when it comes from the left, to have to deal with it on our own.

Ben Cohen is a New York City-based journalist and author who writes a weekly column on Jewish and international affairs for JNS.

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Al Sharpton and the Painful Contradictions Between Fighting Racism and Anti-Semitism - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jolie Brislin, ADL Nevada Regional DirectorTel: (702) 610-1858, Jbrislin@adl.org

ADL RESOURCES ON THE BOOGALOO MOVEMENT THAT INSPIRED EXTREMISTS ARRESTED FOR PLOTTING ATTACKS TO TERRORIZE LAS VEGAS PROTESTS

LAS VEGAS The Nevada Regional Office of ADL (Anti-Defamation League) is here to serve the communityto Educate, Protect, and Investigateall in keeping with the spirit of stopping the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.

In response to the arrest of three Nevada men with ties to the boogaloo movement on terrorism-related charges (https://apnews.com/6223153093f08fa910c4ab445771b773), in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas, please find the following blog resources to help explain their activity and motivations.

Please contact ADL Nevada Regional Director, Jolie Brislin, for further information or comment.

The Boogaloo: Extremists New Slang Term for A Coming Civil War: https://www.adl.org/blog/the-boogaloo-extremists-new-slang-term-for-a-coming-civil-war

Boogaloo Supporters Animated By Lockdown Protests, Recent Incidents: https://www.adl.org/blog/boogaloo-supporters-animated-by-lockdown-protests-recent-incidents

Extremists Weigh in on Nationwide Protests:https://www.adl.org/blog/extremists-weigh-in-on-nationwide-protests

ABOUT ADL:

ADL is a leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education and fighting hate online, ADLs ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at http://www.adl.org.

# # #

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The Nevada Regional Office of Adl (Anti-Defamation League) Is Here to Serve the Communityto Educate, Protect, and Investigate - Nevada Business...

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

When a friend shared a Facebook post with Michelle Burris inviting her to protest in downtown Washington, D.C., last Saturday, she knew she had to go. So she bought a Black Lives Matter mask from a street vendor before marching the streets of the district with a No Justice, No Peace sign.

After that march ended, she pulled up details on Instagram for a car caravan demonstration just a few blocks away. It was extremely powerful, not only Facebook but Instagram, Burris said. It was very easy to mobilize.

Protesters are using a variety of technology tools to organize rallies, record police violence and communicate during the marches sweeping the U.S. and other countries following the death of George Floyd. Some of that involves secure messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, which can encrypt messages to thwart spies. Those apps, along with others for listening to police scanners and recording video, are enjoying an uptick in popularity.

But experts say convenience and reach are key. Reaching as many people as possible is the number one criterion for which platform someone is going to use, said Steve Jones, a University of Illinois at Chicago media researcher who studies communication technology.

That means Twitter, Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram remain the easiest ways for people to organize and document the mass protests. Facebooks tools remain popular despite a barrage of criticism over the platforms inaction after President Donald Trump posted a message that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.

I dont want to support or be a part of something that is possibly supporting Trump and his racist, hate filed spew, said Sarah Wildman, whos been to three protests in Atlanta and has used Instagram exclusively to locate and to document the demonstrations she attended. But she said she feels that, at this point, the benefits of Instagram outweigh not using it.

Half a century ago during the civil rights protests, Jones said, it was almost impossible to know what was going on during a protest. There was a lot of rumor, a lot of hearsay, he said. Now you can reach everyone almost instantaneously.

Wildman said she uses Instagrams live function to find out what is happening during protests, especially when protesters in the back might not know whats happening at the front. At one, she said, people started yelling that police were using tear gas but it wasnt true, which she learned by checking Instagram.

Organizers are also using Telegram, an app that allows private messages to be sent to thousands of people at once, creating channels for specific cities to give updates on protest times and locations, as well as updates on where police are making arrests or staging. One New York City Telegram channel for the protests grew from just under 300 subscribers on Monday to nearly 2,500 by Friday.

During a peaceful rally in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, Anjel Newmann, 32, said that while shes mostly using Instagram and Facebook to organize, younger people are using Snapchat. The main problem: Its hard to tell which online flyers are legitimate. Thats one of the things we havent figured out yet, she said. There was a flyer going around saying this was canceled today.

The simplicity of shooting and sharing video has also made possible recordings of violence that can spread to millions within moments. A smartphone video of Floyds death helped spark the broad outrage that led to the protests.

Apps like Signal are seeing an uptick in downloads according to Apptopia, which tracks such data. Signal was downloaded 37,000 times over the weekend in the U.S., it said, more than at any other point since it launched in 2014. Other private messaging apps, such as Telegram and Wickr, have not seen a similar uptick.

One new user is Toby Anderson, 30, who also attended the Providence rally on Friday. Anderson, who is biracial, said he downloaded the encrypted Signal app several days earlier at the request of his mom. Shes a black woman in America, he said, worried about his safety and eager to grasp any additional measure of security she could.

Meanwhile, apps like Police Scanner and 5-0 Police Scanner, which allow anyone to listen to live police dispatch chatter and may be illegal in some states racked up 213,000 downloads over the weekend, Apptopia said. That is 125% more than the weekend before and a record for the category. Citizen, which sends real-time alerts and lets users post live video of protests and crime scenes, was downloaded 49,000 times.

On the down side, the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism said in a blog post this week that it has found white nationalists using Telegram to try to wreak havoc during the protests.

Some, especially those in the accelerationist camp, are celebrating the prospect of increased violence, which they hope will lead to a long-promised race war, the ADL said Monday. They are extremely active online, urging other white supremacists to take full advantage of the moment.

In one Telegram channel, the ADL found, participants suggested murdering protesters, then spreading rumors to blame the deaths on police snipers.

Others want to further exacerbate racial tensions. Good time to stroke race relations and post black lives dont matter stickers, a user posted with misspellings to the Reformthestates Telegram channel, according to the ADL.

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Messaging technology is helping to fuel the global protests - The Westerly Sun

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Plywood boards were coming down from Petco at Richland Town Center on Sunday and cars once again packed the lot outside Walmart a day after social media sharing and local talk stoked fear that the plaza would be ransacked by rioters.

A number of stores including Petco, Walmart and Luu Nails were boarded up or shut down early Saturday while a protest in a slain Minnesota mans name was happening 8 miles away in downtown Johnstown.

At a time when some major cities have seen their protests turn to looting and massive property damage, Richland Township Police Department Chief Michael Burgan said his department fielded concerns about Richland Town Center mostly from business operators in the days before Johnstowns protest.

He described it as no credible threats, but a lot of Facebook chatter.

We spent most of Friday trying to verify posts about busloads of this or that coming to town and of course, nothing ever panned out, he said. Like Elvis sightings.

Vague, threatening social media posts about radical rioters traveling by buses sent a wave of panic through small towns over the past week.

Stories over the past week in small town newspapers cited residents panicking or arming to prepare for Antifa invasions that never occurred in South Dakota, New Jersey, Michigan and New Jersey.

While investigators across the U.S. have blamed both far-right and far-left groups for instigating violence during marches, President Donald Trump has singled out Antifa in recent days and pro-Trump social media accounts have followed suit.

One tweet that went viral in May that was allegedly signed by Antifa, suggesting they were headed to the suburbs.

Tonights the night, Comrades. Tonight .... we move into the residential neighborhoods, it read at the time.

The Twitter company ended up tracking the source to another radical group, the Washington, D.C.-based neo-Nazi offshoot Identity Evropa.

Labeled a white supremacy by the Anti-Defamation League, Identity Evropa first made national headlines during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

Burgan said there was evidence some of the local communitys panic was fueled by similar viral national posts that were being shared across the country.

But in other cases, it was local residents hearing something from someone else and then scaring one other instead of calling us or researching it online to see if it might be a hoax.

Instead of calling the police nowadays, people just post something on Facebook, Burgan said.

The chatter worked its way from the plaza to the corporate level for some stores, Burgan said.

I think (the stores) were acting out of an abundance of caution, he said.

No violent activity was reported in either Johnstown or Richland over the weekend related to Johnstowns protests.

It turned out like we had hoped, Burgan said. It was peaceful. We had enough of a presence up on the hill in Richland. We feel we could have handled it. But everything turned out great.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

Reporter Dave Sutor also contributed to this report. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Sutor. Follow David Hurst on Twitter and Instagram @tddavidhurst.

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Richland stores reopen after panic, rumors about rioters coming 'by the busload' - TribDem.com

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

New Yorks long-postponed primary elections are now just two weeks away. And while June 23 will no longer carry presidential intrigue, there are a number of important congressional races that could play a meaningful role in shaping the Democratic Partys orientation in the House next year.

Though progressives lost some momentum with the stalling-out of the Sanders campaign, the most recent batch of primaries, in states like New Mexico and Pennsylvania, have seen them notch significant wins at the state and local level. In New Mexico, a five-woman coalition dubbed No Corporate Democrats ran against centrist incumbents in the state Senate, with four triumphing, and another non-coalition progressive bested an anti-choice incumbent; DSA candidates in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., won seats in the state senate and city council, respectively.

Its possible that trend could continue in a handful of tight races in New York City, where progressive challengers in multiple districts, once thought to be lagging behind establishment favorites and centrist incumbents, have seen surges in polling and fundraising, and bagged high-profile endorsements.

More from Alexander Sammon

In NY-16, a district that spans parts of the Bronx and Westchester, Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent and defense industry favorite who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, all of a sudden finds himself on the ropes. As I wrote last week, progressive former school principal Jamaal Bowman has seen a major fundraising surge, and secured the endorsement of progressive groups and local electeds, including fellow New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and, in a stunning rebuke of Engel, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who renounced her prior endorsement of the incumbent.

In NY-17, which encompasses suburban Rockland and Westchester Counties just beyond New York City proper, progressive Mondaire Jones is in a heated contest with notorious conservative David Carlucci for the vacant seat of outgoing Congresswoman Nita Lowey. Carlucci is a former state senator who built his political reputation by helping found and maintain the Independent Democratic Conference, a political alliance that succeeded in keeping the New York State Senate under GOP control for almost a decade, despite having a Democratic majority. According to recent polling, Carlucci is holding onto a narrow lead in the solidly Democratic district, benefiting from name recognition and a large field. In recent days, however, Jones has secured the endorsements of multiple members of the Squad, both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, as well as California Rep. Barbara Lee and Progressive Caucus co-chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). The array of high-profile national progressives may give Jones the edge in the final days.

But in the 15th Congressional District, the situation is far less rosy. Current congressman Jos Serrano is retiring, and a muddled open-seat primary has conspired to divvy up the progressive vote share among multiple hopefuls, much to the delight of an unapologetically conservative candidate, Ruben Diaz Sr. If he were to win, Diaz would quickly become one of, if not the most, conservative Democrats in the House.

To get a sense of how disastrous that outcome would be, its important to understand the demographic makeup of NY-15, located in the Bronx. NY-15s portion of the Bronx has the nations highest overall poverty rate (41 percent), the highest child poverty rate (53 percent), and the second-highest poverty rate for residents over 65 (33 percent). It has a Hispanic plurality and a large black population, and according to some, is the most safely Democratic district in the entire country. The Cook Partisan Voter index had it as D+44 in 2018. The district gave Hillary Clinton a 94 percent vote share in 2016.

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That means that NY-15 is the safest of all Democratic safe seats, an excellent opportunity for a strong progressive to take over and become a powerful voice in Congress, like its neighboring representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Whoever wins the Democratic primary is a near-certainty to triumph in the general.

All of that makes Ruben Diaz Sr.s place at the front of the pack even more alarming. And Diaz, currently a city councilmember in New York, is not merely some milquetoast corporate henchman: He has proudly distinguished himself as a conservative Democrat, the kind that has no voice in Washington, and the opposite of AOC. He is an outspoken opponent of abortion, once drawing the ire of the Anti-Defamation League by comparing abortion to the Holocaust, and an equally avowed adversary of same-sex marriage (today! in 2020!).

Diaz has led rallies against same-sex marriage in the Bronx, once equated being gay to bestiality, and championed legislation to ban gay marriage on multiple occasions. He referred to the New York City Council as being controlled by the homosexual community, which resulted in him being stripped of his committee chairmanship, last year. He even claimed that stem cell research was worse than Hitler, and campaigned for Ted Cruz in 2016. Its not as if hes an ascendant political force: Diaz Sr. is 77 years old. Oh yeah, hes even been endorsed by the NYPD union.

Diazs surprisingly robust vote share could prove to be a serious road bump for a progressive wing in New York that is yet again on the rise.

Part of the problem is a crowded progressive field, where some of the long shots have refused to bow out. The race in NY-16 heated up in earnest when one progressive, Andom Ghebreghiorgis, bowed out and endorsed Bowman, his progressive rival. But no such action has occurred in District 15 yet. A poll conducted recently by Data for Progress found Diaz Sr. leading the field with 22 percent, followed by left-wing city councilman Ritchie Torres at 20 percent.

But Torres, unlike Mondaire Jones, does not seem likely to be pushed over the edge by star-studded progressive endorsements. Torres, a queer Latino, has brought in fairly impressive fundraising numbers but little enthusiasm, as he has chosen to ally himself with mainstream Democrats over the citys potent progressive wing. Accordingly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Samelys Lpez, a friend she met while volunteering for Bernie Sanders in 2016, as has the Working Families Party. But Lpez has struggled to raise money or garner attention; despite the high-profile seal of approval, she clocked in at just 2 percent in that same poll. Community organizer Tomas Ramos and nonprofit director Jonathan Ortiz, both progressives, remain in the race as well.

That poll should serve as a shock for New York liberals who werent taking Diazs candidacy seriously, thinking theres no way such a conservative candidate could triumph in a uniformly liberal district. But with just two weeks to go, that seems like an acute possibility.

Of course, if Diaz does succeed, there may be one final way to contest him in November. The Working Families Party, a powerful third-party entity in New York that has made its reputation by operating in situations like these, could put Lpez, its endorsee, on the general-election ballot as its own third-party candidate. From there, she could compete against Diaz, in this case the Democratic nominee, and whoever the lame-duck Republican candidate is, if there is one at all. Angling for that situation would be risky, and likely deliver a victory to Diaz regardless. An email to the Working Families Party about this possibility went unreturned.

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Diazs surprisingly robust vote share could prove to be a serious road bump for a progressive wing in New York that is yet again on the rise, and could be primed to add a handful of progressive newcomers to the ranks of the Squad. A victory for Torres would not aid much in that goal, though the national media has generously referred to him as a progressive at times. But it could prevent a growing progressive caucus from taking on a vocal new opponent on their own side of the aisle.

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Could a Homophobic Conservative Democrat Win Next Door to AOC? - The American Prospect

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Posted By admin on June 9, 2020

Dozens of American Jewish groups have pledged to work to end systemic racism in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis.

In a statement Tuesday, 130 organizations said they were outraged by the killing of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody last week. His death and those of other African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement have led to protests around the world.

We stand in solidarity with the black community that has for far too long been targeted by police and have suffered rampant racism and unfair and uneven applications of the law, the statement reads.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella body that sets consensus on issues for American Jewish public policy, organized the letter. Signers include the Anti-Defamation League, National Council of Jewish Women, national organizations of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, and groups representing Jewish communities nationwide.

The letter urges government and law enforcement to investigate the officers involved and to institute sweeping reforms in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

We pledge to join forces with the black community and other Americans to see through these changes to law enforcement, end systemic racism, and work for a more just American society, it says.

Bay Area signatories to the letter include the Central Pacific Region of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, and the Federation, Jewish Family Services, and Community Relations Council of Silicon Valley.

Jewish groups across the denominational spectrum have condemned Floyds death.

Meanwhile, the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the American military called Floyds death a national tragedy.

In a memo distributed late Monday asking commanders to ensure wide distribution of this message, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.David Goldfein said that every American should be outraged that the conduct exhibited by police in Minneapolis can still happen in 2020.

Acknowledging that what happens on Americas streets is also resident in our Air Force, he announced that the Air Force inspector general will review the Air Forces military justice system, racial injustice and opportunities for airmen of all backgrounds to advance.

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130 Jewish groups, 'outraged' by George Floyd killing, pledge to fight systemic racism - The Jewish News of Northern California

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