Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 15, 2020

Though I am not entirely sure why, people seem just plain fascinated by the (supposedly) cloistered communities of black clad Jews who briskly swarm -- entourage and side curls in tow -- through the streets of Brooklyn, the Diamond District and Old Jerusalem. For sure, some of it is the sheer "otherness" of their look and their seeming lack of interest as to what is occurring street level, including you and all the other passers-by. But whereas the Amish seem to spark a warmer, folksy response for their dogged embrace of the sartorial choices of their 18th century forbearers, Hasidim are often treated as circus freaks for having made a similar decision. I think it is this same lurid fascination that compels us to respond to the barkers call to gawk at the bearded-lady and the boy with the lobster claw hands that draws our imaginations to contemplate Hasidic intimacy.

I saw two examples of this in action in the popular media this past week. The first was through the lens of Deborah Feldman, a former Satmar Hasid whose rejection of that tradition has recently garnered her a good measure of media exposure -- and book sales. The ladies of "The View" tremulously queried her as they might an escapee of the Taliban or some tribe of Cannibals, but the discussion could not conclude until Barbara Walters (prompted by the producer) gave her all of 60 seconds to explain the (apparently primitive) Satmar mating practices. What she did manage to cover, though it ended up sounding like some antiquated misogyny rite, formed the basis of Taharat HaMishpacha (family purity), a brilliant and beautiful concept that is practiced by religious Jews of all stripes -- from the most Hasidic to the most left-wing modern Orthodox.

To hear a better explanation of the idea, I would direct you to Oprah Winfrey's generous and open-minded interview with four Lubavitch women in Crown Heights. There too, she wanted to hear about how they had sex, but unlike Ms. Feldman, who seems to have had an unusually negative experience, these women were proud of their tradition and eager to talk about it.

In short, religious men and women physically separate during the days of menstruation and add on an additional "clean week," making about 12 days out of the month in total. This is not done, as Ms. Feldman suggests, because the women are considered "impure," which is a common and unfortunate mistranslation. Rather, the women are tameh -- a word that indicates a spiritual change as the result of the loss of potential life. When men ejaculate, they also become tameh and also require immersion in a mikvah or ritual bath (though due to the relative frequency rates, most men -- Hasidim excluded -- do not hold themselves to this standard). In neither case is there any assumption of dirtiness or lack of purity. In that same vein, a human corpse is considered the most tameh object on Earth as it is now the empty shell of a former actualized living force. The mikvah -- through its laws, dimensions and construction -- is a kabbalistic practice that restores the non-corporeal equilibrium of the practitioner.

For those who don't accept the spiritual basis for the practice, there is a sociological one as well. As correctly explained by one of the women conversing with Oprah, when there is no physical outlet available for a couple, they are compelled to deal with each other on an intellectual and emotional level. They communicate only through words and body language which engenders another -- perhaps deeper -- level of intimacy. In addition, many couples describe the conclusion of this period of separation as a monthly honeymoon, and in a time when the majority of marriages fail, sustaining the excitement level can only be a good thing. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, it does wonders for other anatomical regions. In truth, to the average observant Jew, sex is not something mundane and titillating, but, rather, holy and sacred. From this perspective, it is the puerile obsessions of the secular world which are bizarre, not the concept of family purity and seeing one's intimate life as something sanctified -- to be guarded and cherished.

Ms. Feldman also intimated that the purpose of Hasidic (aka Jewish) marital intimacy was solely to procreate. This is obviously not the case as couples continue to perform the mitzvah (right action) of intercourse during pregnancy, after menopause and when there is a biological inability to conceive. Actually, the main purpose of sex -- as explained by Jewish law -- is to create something called devek, best translated as an intense spiritual/emotional cleaving between the couple. The stringencies associated with this practice -- general separation of the genders, refraining from physical contact with the opposite sex and the modesty laws -- are all designed to promote the ardent primacy and exclusivity of the marital relationship. Nothing is meant to stand in the way of its fullest development.

Are there times when devotees, or entire communities, fall short of these lofty goals? Yes. Does that mean that their underlying principles are weird or beyond the contemplation of the average person? No. In fact, the world at large would do well to consider the adoption of a version of them. I've heard it said that divorce is the second most traumatic experience that a family can go through next to the death of a close relative. Wouldn't it be in be in everyone's interest to gird marriage to the greatest extent possible thus sparing couples, families and nations from voluminous anguish?

Their style might not be everyone's cup of tea, but in this regard, the Hasids have it right.

Calling all HuffPost superfans!

Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter

Originally posted here:

The Secret Life Of Hasidic Sexuality | HuffPost

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on The Secret Life Of Hasidic Sexuality | HuffPost
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 15, 2020

From Thursday's N.Y. appellate decision in Cohen v. Cohen:

We agree with the father that, by directing him to comply with the "cultural norms" of Hasidic Judaism [which were practiced by the parties during the marriage] during his periods of parental access, the Supreme Court ran afoul of constitutional limitations by compelling the father to himself practice a religion, rather than merely directing him to provide the children [age about 5 and 7 at the time of the order] with a religious upbringing (see Cohen v. Cohen, 177 AD3d at 852; Weisberger v. Weisberger, 154 AD3d at 53). While the court referred to the "cultural norms" by which the children were raised, the testimony at the hearing made clear that the "cultural norms" referenced were that each parent would comply with the religious requirements of Hasidic Judaism. Under this Court's decisions in Weisberger and on the prior appeal, the court's directive that the father himself comply with these religious practices was an unconstitutional modification of the religious upbringing provision in the judgment of divorce, which must be reversed (see Cohen v. Cohen, 177 AD3d at 852; Weisberger v. Weisberger, 154 AD3d at 53).

I think this is right, though I disagreed with the appellate court's earlier decision upholding an earlier trial court order in the same case, in which "the father was directed to provide the children with exclusively kosher food and to make 'all reasonable efforts to ensure that the children's appearance and conduct comply with the Hasidic' religious requirements of the [mother] and of the children's schools as they were raised while the children are in [his] physical custody.'" For more on that, see this post.

See the original post:

Father Can't Be Ordered "to Comply With the Cultural Norms of Hasidic Judaism" During His Visitation Time with Children - Reason

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Father Can’t Be Ordered "to Comply With the Cultural Norms of Hasidic Judaism" During His Visitation Time with Children – Reason
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 15, 2020

CHESTNUT RIDGEChaim Rosehas been appointed to the Board of Trustees, becoming the first Hasidic Jewish residentto serve on the governing body since the village formed in 1986.

Rose's appointment March 26by Mayor Rosario Presti reflects the growing Orthodox Jewish influence in the Ramapo village and comes more than a year after the board adopted a zoning law permitting houses of worship in residential areas. The law has drawn three pendinglawsuits.

Rose, 39, a married father of three children and village resident since 2017, succeeds Howard Cohen, who joined the board in October 1993. Cohen recently moved to Florida.

Chaim Rose, 39, was appointed to the Chestnut Ridge Board of Trustees in March 2020, succeeding Howard Cohen(Photo: Submitted)

The four-year seat is up for reelection in March 2021. Rose said he plans to run on the "Committee for Chestnut Ridge" line. Presti also is up for reelection.

"I love this neighborhood and want to see it thrive," Rosesaid in a statement. "I believe that all residents want our village to preserve its charm while working to accommodate residents' needs with a reasonable framework. I am eager to assist and work with residents of the entire village in the years to come."

Roseserved on the village's Architectural Review Board and is a member of the Comprehensive Plans Committee. The panel is developing a comprehensive zoning plan, a demand made by appointments of the board's three-tier zoning for residential houses of worship. Prior to the zoning, a house of worship only only be built on five acres, which essentially is non-existent in the village.

He's not the first Hasidic or Orthodox Jewto serve on governing board in Rockland.

CHESTNUT RIDGE: Village Boardadopts hotly debated zoning law for houses of worship

Rosesaid he has a background in real estate and is a residential manager certifiedby the Institute for Real Estate Management. He said those credentials have provided him with the necessary background and has gone a long way towardhelping him learn the ins-and-outs of what his village positions entail.

Jerry Liebelson, a civic activistwho also puts out the email letter called Chestnut Ridge Communications, said he supportedRose, having served with him on the village committee.Liebelson has been critical of the way the board handled the houses of worship zoning issueand the board, at times.

"I serve with Chaim on the village's Comprehensive Plan committee and have gotten to know him quite a bit," Liebelson said."I think he's an excellent and appropriate choice for trustee, especially given the village's rapidly changing demographics."

Presti met Rosea few years ago at one of his Sundays With the Mayor" when Rose said he wanted to getmore involved in the community.

"I saw a family man exhibiting a conscientious interest in wanting to be part of the Chestnut Ridge community," Presti said, adding he asked Roseto serve on the Architectural Review Board.

Chestnut Ridge Mayor Rosario Sam Presti(Photo: Steve Lieberman/The Journal News)

"Again, having a gentleman like Chaim asking to contribute more and observing how he was on the ARB, I thought appointing him to the Village Board as a trustee would be a natural progression for someone like him," Presti said.

Rosejoins the board as trustees work on a tentativebudget, which Presti estimates will raise village property taxes 5 percent or about $25 a year on a bill of $500. A public hearing via Zoom will be held April 23 with the village website providing details on how residents can participate.

The village, within the town of Ramapo, also is dealing with the fallout from the zoning law allowing houses of worship the board approval in February 2019 afternearly two years fromdrafting anda handful of public hearings, a few of which drew up to 700 people.

LAWSUIT: Chestnut Ridge accused ofdiscrimination vs. Orthodox and Hasidic Jews

CUPON: Grassroots groupslaps Chestnut Ridge with another legal action vs. house of worship law

SOLICITATION BAN: Chestnut Ridge homeowners can say 'no' to real estate solicitations via state list

The zoning approval became a campaign issue in March 2019, when Presti and his two running mates, trustee Grant Valentine andPaul VanAlstyne,also supported the zoning. They won largely with support from the Orthodox Jewish voters.

The zoning led to federal and state lawsuits from Chestnut Ridge's CUPON, a local group claiming in state court thatthe village violated state environmental regulations and in federal court discriminated by

A third lawsuit came from acoalition of ultra-Orthodox Jews who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit as the board weighed the new zoning law.

Steve Lieberman coversgovernment, breaking news, courts, police and investigations.Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.Read more articlesandbio.Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.Sign up today for a digital subscription.

Read or Share this story: https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2020/04/13/chestnut-ridge-chaim-rose-first-hasid-named-board/2981960001/

Continue reading here:

Chestnut Ridge: First Hasidic Jewish resident named to the village's top governing board - Lohud

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Chestnut Ridge: First Hasidic Jewish resident named to the village’s top governing board – Lohud
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 15, 2020

Netflixs champion series Tiger King has undoubtedly nestled itself into the collective cultural memory of quarantine. Its sensationalism attracted 34 million viewers within 10 days of its release, entertaining and distracting us from our crisis.

Another recent Netflix release, Unorthodox, deserves just as much attention as Tiger King receives. Based on a memoir by Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox follows the life of Esty Shapiro (Shira Haas), a 19-year-old girl who has fled to Berlin from the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I immediately fell in love with the series after watching the first of the four episodes, where Esty tears up as she listens to a live orchestra for the first time in her life. In her community, its considered indecent for women to participate in music other than in prayer.

The series follows pregnant Esty as she escapes Williamsburg, alternating scenes with her adjustment to Berlin months later, and Estys mother Leah (Alex Reid), whod also fled the community years ago to live in Berlin with another woman. Estys nave husband Yanky (Amit Rahav) and his vice-savoring cousin Moische (Jeff Wilbuch) pursue Esty to bring her back to the community, harassing Leah for information about her daughter.

Over the course of the show, Esty finds her voice as she stumbles into a friend group of student musicians from diverse backgrounds in Berlin. Each character is carefully crafted, and the characters come alive with their unique personalities. The tension between Esty and reformed Jewish Yael (Tamar Amit-Joseph) resonated with me as it quite realistically mirrored the cultural conflict between Hassids and other groups of Jewish people. I am not a baby machine, Esty tells Yael as she overhears Yael trashing the Hasidic community. Esty defends her community of her well-meaning loved ones, while still understanding its oppression. Inspired by the group of musicians, Esty auditions for their music conservatorys scholarship by singing an extremely emotional Yiddish ballad, which made my dad cry for the first time in years.

The acting of Rahav and Haas is the highlight of the series Esty and Yanky both want so badly to make their marriage work and to be happy, yet Estys need to find herself and to be free of the communitys expectations trumps the marriage for her. The drama of their reunion in the last episode is gripping.

The series is beautifully shot and acted, morally nuanced and, at times, risks becoming a comparative anthropological study. The Hasidic community is not typically represented on the small or big screen. Therefore, the showrunners had to pay close attention to detail and represent the community correctly, as members of the crew discussed in The Making of Unorthodox, a short docuseries accompanying the show. The showrunners consulted and included members of the Hasidic community to ensure the Yiddish, dances, settings, costumes and customs were depicted correctly.

The need for accuracy was heightened as the Satmar community was contrasted with modern Berlin, where the shows dialogue reminds viewers that the Holocaust is written into the citys history and physicality. The community holds that their people and values must proliferate to recover from the Holocaust; Esty finds it difficult to reconcile this duty with her unhappiness with the community.

However, the Hasidic community may be depicted as unrealistically uniformly unkind to Esty, especially among the women. I cannot speak for Hasidic women, but I found myself hoping to see another character within the community who could perhaps show more understanding towards Esty. Instead, the kernels of positivity within the community were always associated with frameworks of motherhood and marriage; no person was amicable beyond vaguely warm encouragement of Estys womanly responsibilities, and Im not sure that completely reflects female life in the Hasidic community.

Nevertheless, Unorthodox is a feat of Netflix storytelling (as Ive found much of their recent content garbagey), and is a great reminder of what freedom truly means as we watch from quarantine.

Emma Plowe is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She currently serves as Arts Editor on the 138th board. She can be reached at eplowe@cornellsun.com.

Visit link:

'Unorthodox:' A Fresh Story of Freedom - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on ‘Unorthodox:’ A Fresh Story of Freedom – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

In New York, the current national epicenter of the pandemic, Zoombombing has become so bad that the city has banned the softwares use for online learning.

For some organizations using Zoom to connect, the additional security can be problematic, because it limits participation.

These can be really wonderful learning spaces, Aroesty said.

Indeed, from Alcoholics Anonymous groups, to churches, synagogues and mosques, nonprofits and schools, the Zoom platform has become a universal connector. On a more personal level, it can help unite family members through daily chats while they are separated to keep each other safe.

The Department of Justice has issued warnings that hacking such a platform is a crime, and Zoom has said the company is taking steps to make it more difficult for those with bad intentions to hijack meetings.

Still, Aroesty said, its a reminder that to protect the vulnerable around us, we all have to be more intentional about our actions.

Thats similar to advice Aroesty often gives as she battles the rise of anti-Semitism in America.

Read more here:
Messenger: Zoombombing is the next front in the battle against rising anti-Semitism - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month | Comments Off on Messenger: Zoombombing is the next front in the battle against rising anti-Semitism – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

On April 6, the federal government took an important step toward confronting the threat of far-right extremist violence in the United States by designating the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). It should take the next step and designate RIM, as well as other violent foreign white supremacist groups, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The combination of these measures would unlock a suite of federal civil and criminal laws that not only block the assets of designated groups but also prohibit providing any material support or resources to such groups, thus opening the door to the use of more investigatory tools and information sharing necessary for an effective counterterrorism regime.

The designation of RIM and its leaders comes after a series of arrests in the United States earlier this year of members of two violent neo-Nazi accelerationist groups: The Base and Atomwaffen Division. It also comes in the midst of a trend of increasing lethal domestic terrorism incidents in the United States. As data produced by the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League highlights, there were 42 domestic extremism-related deaths in 17 separate incidents in 2019, part of a five-year trend that has seen the four deadliest years since 1970. Eighty-one percent of the extremist-related murders in 2019 were linked to white supremacy.

In announcing the designation of RIM, U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales noted that RIMs designation was based on its provision of training to terrorists in Europe for the commission of terrorist attacks in Europe. RIM, which has ties to the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement, is accused of providing training to Nordic Resistance Movement members who committed terror attacks in Sweden in 2016. Reports in September 2019 also suggest links between RIM and the California-based white supremacist group Rise Above Movement, whose own transnational connections to Ukrainian ultranationalist group Azov Battalion have been well documented. RIM is also alleged to have made significant connections with white supremacist leader Matthew Heimbach and his now defunct Traditionalist Worker Party, as well as with other organizers of the violent 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The State Department designation raised the obvious question: Why not designate RIM a Foreign Terrorist Organization? After all, other terrorist groups that provide terrorist training, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, are designated as FTOs, and the FTO designation triggers automatic criminal liability for anyone who provides the groups with material support or resources. In contrast, the SDGT is primarily a sanctions-related designation.

When asked this question during a press call announcing the designation, Sales again referred to the organizations provision of terrorist training, and pointed to the presidents Executive Order on Modernizing Sanctions to Combat Terrorism, signed in September 2019: The reason the SDGT is a better fit here is because President Trumps order in September of last year dramatically expanded the utility of that sanctions authority. He emphasized that [p]rior to those changes that the President announced in September, it was more difficult for us to designate groups that provide training to engage in acts of terrorism. Now, that authority is expressly spelled out in the executive order.

But that hardly explains why RIM wasnt designated an FTO as well as an SDGT. Unlike the criteria for designating SDGTs, the statutory requirements for designating an FTO have included terrorist training as a basis for designation for some time. The three statutory criteria for designating an FTO are that the organization must be foreign; it must engage in terrorist activity or terrorism, or have the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism; and the terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or U.S. national security. Engag[ing] in terrorist activity, as used in the statute, includes providing training for the commission of terrorist acts. In other words, the same provision of terrorist training that supported the designation of RIM as an SDGT would appear to support the designation of RIM as an FTO.

Why does this matter? Although important, an SDGT designation is part of a complicated economic sanctions regime that is effective at incentivizing corporate compliance but is not as effective a counterterrorism investigative tool as the criminal prohibitions on providing material support or resources to a designated FTO. Thus, alone, the SDGT designation is unlikely to have a significant impact on the activity of individuals or groups drawn to RIMs extremist and violent ideology.

Heres why.

The designation of an individual or entity as an SDGT is authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or the IEEPA, by which Congress delegated to the president the authority to declare as a national emergency any unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States. Declarations are made by executive order and have resulted in the extensive economic sanctions regimes that are used by the U.S. government as tools of foreign policy to impose trade embargoes and combat nuclear and ballistic weapons proliferation, terrorism, and narcotics trafficking. As its name suggests, the IEEPA was intended to put pressure on countries, entities and persons by largely cutting off their ability to tap into the U.S. economy through financial and other business transactions, including trade in U.S. dollars.

Executive Order 13224the executive order amended by the president in September 2019 to expand the criteria for SGDT designationwas designed primarily to disrupt the financial support network for terrorists and terrorist organizations. Thus, an SGDT designation results in the blocking of RIMs U.S. assets (if any) and the prohibition of most transactions with RIM if the transactions have any connection to the U.S. As with other sanctions regimes, the main effect is that U.S. persons and businesses, as well as multinational companies and financial institutions that operate in the U.S. or process transactions through the U.S. financial system, must ensure that they do not do business with RIM. As others have noted, based on the SGDT designation, RIMs YouTube channel and Facebook page are almost certain to be removed, if they havent been already. Thats a big deal and will make it more difficult for RIM to propagandize around the world. But an FTO designation would do even more.

Enforcement of the SDGT and other sanctions regimes is largely the responsibility of the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which promulgates regulations under authority delegated by the applicable executive orders. Although a violation of OFACs regulations can trigger civil or criminal liability, the regulatory scheme has been used primarily to coerce compliance by corporate entities through civil penalties. Criminal prosecutions, although referred to and pursued by the Department of Justice in egregious cases of sanctions violations like those of multinational giants like ZTE Corporation, Schlumberger Oilfields Holdings and Standard Chartered Bankall of which pleaded guilty to violating sanctions against Iranare pursued less frequently against individuals.

By contrast, the Justice Department and the FBI are the primary enforcers of the criminal law that prohibits providing material support or resources to a designated FTO. The FBI, working with attorneys in the departments National Security Division and U.S. attorneys offices, investigates individuals and groups suspected of providing almost any type of resourcesincluding ones own selfto designated FTOs like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The material support charge is the most commonly charged terrorism offense in the U.S. Code since 9/11 and has been used to investigate and prosecute those who seek to travel to join an FTO; those who provide funding, goods and services to an FTO; and those who attempt to commit acts of terrorism in the U.S. on behalf of such organizations. It has been the predicate for the bulk of the FBIs terrorism investigations, many of which have thwarted terrorist plots, and its use has resulted in the recruitment of cooperators who have assisted in crucial intelligence collection efforts worldwide. Indeed, the U.S. material support statute was a model for the Global Counterterrorism Forums 2015 plan of action encouraging countries to enact similar criminal laws; deploy investigative techniques, including undercover operations to enforce those laws; and cooperate through expanded information sharing related to recruitment and facilitation. Simply put, the material support statute has been a key to the success of the U.S. governments counterterrorism program.

The designation of RIM as an SDGT is a positive step, and an important recognition by the U.S. government of the threat of white supremacist violence. But the Russian Imperial Movement should be designated an FTO, and the list of designated organizations should be expanded to include other foreign white supremacist, neo-Nazi groups that meet the statutory criteria. As congressional leaders have argued, there is no shortage of foreign groups that play an active and deadly role in recruiting, radicalizing and inspiring Americans and others to commit acts of targeted violence here and abroad. Expanding the FTO list to encompass these organizations would unlock important tools to combat the threat.

Read the original here:
The State Department Should Designate the Russian Imperial Movement as a Foreign Terrorist Organization - Lawfare

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on The State Department Should Designate the Russian Imperial Movement as a Foreign Terrorist Organization – Lawfare
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

On March 24, Timothy Wilson, 36, was shot and killed by the FBI as he prepared to attack a hospital in the Kansas City area where patients with the coronavirus were being treated.

The FBI had previously identified Wilson as a potentially violent extremist who had considered attacking a mosque, a synagogue, and a school with a large number of black students before settling on the hospital. He died in a shootout when federal officers tried to arrest him. Hours before his death, Wilson had posted anti-Semitic messages on two white supremacist groups on the messaging app Telegram.

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, white supremacists are seizing upon it as a new and powerful addition to their arsenal. Their messaging often happens on Telegram, which over the last year has become a staging ground for extremist groups, according to the Anti Defamation League. Telegram channels associated with white supremacy and racism grew by more than 6,000 users over the month of March, according to data shared exclusively with TIME by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank that monitors extremism and disinformation. One white supremacist channel specifically focused on messaging related to COVID-19 grew its user base from just 300 users to 2,700 in that month alone a growth of 800%.

Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

In openly-accessible Telegram channels with thousands of members, TIME observed users sharing memes and messages some couched in purported irony encouraging people with the disease to infect others, specifically ethnic minorities. Weve seen a number of cases of people suggesting that they should deliberately spread it, making themselves into a bio weapon, says Jacob Davey, a senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Which really needs to be taken seriously, even if it is presented in the guise of dark humor. Other messages seen by TIME celebrated the spread of the virus in Israel and Africa; still more complained, using racist language to refer to Mexicans, that COVID-19 would cause a wave of immigration across the U.S. southern border.

As stated in our Terms of Service, we do not allow posts that feature calls to violence on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, or groups, a Telegram spokesperson told TIME. We process reports from users and posts that violate this rule are removed.

While Telegram channels tend to reach relatively few people compared to larger social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook pages, experts say they are equally if not more dangerous as hubs for extremists. Within these extremist communities, success isnt measured by creating a mass movement, says Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Their end goal is to get people to act on these beliefs, and to do so violently.

Telegram states on its web site that it will not engage in politically motivated censorship. It says that while it does remove terrorist content, we will not block anybody who peacefully expresses alternative opinions. But analysts argue much of the white supremacist content on Telegram meets the definition of terrorism. There are still channels that we look at every single day, including those that glorify violence, including those that have videos of the Christchurch shooting, that are encouraging people to violence against specific communities, and sometimes specific people, says Oren Segal, vice president of the center on extremism at the Anti Defamation League. And so the fact that we can still find that regularly tells us that not enough is being done. Telegram told TIME it has recently set up a new system for verifying channels to combat misinformation, and that searches for corona now always bring up an official channel with reliable information.

High anxieties surrounding traumatic global events often correlate with the rise of new conspiracy theories. But a new factor driving the increase in coronavirus-related extremism, experts say, is that so many people are now spending time online while confined to their homes. You basically have a captive audience. Its not surprising that theres going to be more online activity, says Segal. One of the things weve seen is a lot of propaganda being created around coronavirus in the hopes of attracting a new audience.

The Anti Defamation League has also seen coronavirus-related messaging spreading rapidly on Telegram over the last four months. In the early weeks of the virus spread, Segal says, the group found many conspiracies linking the virus to Jewish people and the Chinese government, mobilizing established anti-Semitic and anti-Chinese tropes. Only recently, he says, have members of these groups begun to discuss how to weaponize the virus to attack minorities.

One strand of white supremacist thought, visible in Telegram channels, that has seen a rapid uptick as coronavirus spreads is accelerationism, a fringe philosophy that calls for adherents to do all they can to hasten societal collapse and bring a white supremacist government to power in the U.S. This is a group of the most extreme extremists who are actively welcoming chaos and violence, says the SPLCs Cassie Miller. They have welcomed coronavirus, because it means that we might get pushed closer to civilizational collapse, which is their goal because only after that happens can they build their white ethnostate.

Telegram is the main place on the Internet where accelerationists congregate, Miller says. It is the friendliest platform to their thinking, she says. They havent seemed to make any moves to remove this content.

Telegram is not just used by extremists: it is also popular among activists and journalists because of its privacy credentials. But it has become a hub for white supremacists at the same time that mainstream social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have tried to crack down on hate speech and violent extremism. While those platforms have also been criticized for doing too little to remove harmful content, they have still largely managed to expel their most openly racist users, along with content which calls for real-world violence, according to Davey. On Telegram, by contrast, the lack of direct enforcement has really made it a safe haven for these groups, he says.

With the pandemic bringing the dangers of disinformation to the front of the public mind, pressure is building for Telegram to revisit its long-held policy of putting privacy ahead of protecting vulnerable groups. Telegram needs to get its act together, says Segal of the Anti-Defamation League. Anybody who is researching, tracking and trying to mitigate the threat of extremism is spending a lot of time on Telegram right now.

Please send tips, leads, and stories from the frontlines to virus@time.com.

Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Billy Perrigo at billy.perrigo@time.com.

Read the rest here:
White Supremacist Groups Are Recruiting With Help From Coronavirus and a Popular Messaging App - TIME

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on White Supremacist Groups Are Recruiting With Help From Coronavirus and a Popular Messaging App – TIME
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

He called himself "Commander" online. He was a leader of an international neo-Nazi group linked to plots to attack a Las Vegas synagogue and detonate a car bomb at a major U.S. news network. He was 13 years old.

The boy who led Feuerkrieg Division lived in Estonia and apparently cut ties with the group after authorities in that tiny Baltic state confronted him earlier this year, according to police and an Estonian newspaper report.

Feuerkrieg Division post on social media shows members training

(Photo: Feuerkrieg Division Facebook account)

Harrys Puusepp, spokesman for the Estonian Internal Security Service, said on Thursday that the police agency "intervened in early January because of a suspicion of danger" and "suspended this person's activities" in Feuerkrieg Division.

"As the case dealt with a child under the age of 14, this person cannot be prosecuted under the criminal law and instead other legal methods must be used to eliminate the risk. Cooperation between several authorities, and especially parents, is important to steer a child away from violent extremism," said Puusepp, who didn't specify the child's age or elaborate on the case.

The police spokesman didn't identify the child as a group leader, but leaked archives of Feuerkrieg Division members' online chats show "Commander" referred to himself as the founder of the group and alluded to being from Saaremaa, Estonia's largest island.

A report published Wednesday by the weekly Estonian newspaper Eesti Ekspress said Estonian security officials had investigated a case involving a 13-year-old boy who allegedly was running Feuerkrieg Division operations out of a small town in the country. The newspaper said the group has a "decentralized structure," and the Estonian teen cannot be considered the organization's actual leader but was certainly one of its key figures.

Swastikas spray-painted in Estonian capital of Tallinn

The Anti-Defamation League has described Feuerkrieg Division as a group that advocates for a race war and promotes some of the most extreme views of the white supremacist movement. Formed in 2018, it had roughly 30 members who conducted most of their activities over the internet, the ADL said.

Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL's Center on Extremism, said children aren't just a target audience for online forums that glorify white supremacy and violence. They also maintain such sites, captivated by their ability to join or influence an international movement from a home computer, he said.

"That young kids are getting that sense of belonging from a hate movement is more common than most people realize and very disturbing. But accessing a world of hate online today is as easy as it was tuning into Saturday morning cartoons on television," Segal said in a text message.

Jewish graves desecrated in Swastikas spray-painted in Estonian capital of Tallinn

Feuerkrieg Division members communicated over the Wire online platform. The FBI used confidential sources to infiltrate the group"s encrypted chats, according to federal court records.

An FBI joint terrorism task force in Las Vegas began investigating 24-year-old Conor Climo in April 2019 after learning he was communicating over Wire with Feuerkrieg Division members, a court filing says. Climo told an FBI source about plans to firebomb a synagogue or attack a local ADL office, authorities said. Climo awaits his sentencing after pleading guilty in February to felony possession of an unregistered firearm.

Another man linked to Feuerkrieg Division, U.S. Army soldier Jarrett William Smith, pleaded guilty in February to separate charges that he provided information about explosives to an FBI undercover agent while stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, last year. An FBI affidavit said Smith, 24, talked about targeting an unidentified news organization with a car bomb. CNN reported that it was the target.

The ADL said Smith was associated with Feuerkrieg Division at the time of his arrest. The group expressed its "consternation" about Smith's arrest in an expletive-laden post on its public Telegram channel, the ADL reported.

In March, a left-leaning website called Unicorn Riot published eight months of leaked chats by Feuerkrieg Division members. After "Commander" disappeared from the group's chat room in January, other members discussed whether he had been detained or arrested and speculated that his electronic devices had been compromised, the website said.

Las Vegas

(Photo: Shutterstock)

The messages don't indicate that other Feuerkrieg Division members knew the group leader was 13, according to Segal, who said the ADL also independently obtained the group's chat archives.

Based on a comment the boy posted on Wire, ADL linked "Commander" to the gaming platform Steam. The Steam account lists his location as a village in Estonia and his URL as "HeilHitler8814," Segal said.

Feuerkrieg Division has been part of a growing wing of the white supremacist movement that embraces "accelerationism," a fringe philosophy that promotes mass violence to fuel society's collapse. The man who recently pleaded guilty to attacking two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and killing 51 people last year devoted a section of his manifesto to the concept of accelerationism.

The Estonian security police's bureau chief, Alar Ridamae, said parents, friends and teachers can help authorities protect children from internet-fueled extremism.

"Unfortunately, in practice there are cases where parents themselves have bought extremist literature for their children, which contributes to radicalization," Ridamae said in a statement provided to Estonian media on Thursday.

Estonia, a former Soviet republic that regained its independence in 1991, is among Europe's most technologically advanced nations. Estonia has paid relatively little attention to homegrown extremism. But the case of the right-wing extremist Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 massacre in Norway, served as a major wake-up call for security officials in the Baltic nation of 1.3 million.

The rest is here:
13-year-old boy led alleged neo-Nazi plot to bomb synanogues - Ynetnews

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on 13-year-old boy led alleged neo-Nazi plot to bomb synanogues – Ynetnews
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

(April 14, 2020 / JNS) In reciting The Four Questions this Passover, it felt like we should have asked one more: Why is this Passover different from all other Passovers? As my wife and I conducted our own seder for two and video-chatted with family and friends during the collective COVID-19 quarantine, there was a heaviness and strangeness to this years holiday. In an instant, the virus had paused everyones lives and had forced us all to spend Passover apart. At the beginning of 2020, no one in the United States, Israel or Europe could truly have anticipated the devastation of the novel coronavirus, and the current situation of self-isolation and quarantine.

For most of us, this Passover was the first time that we had to truly put our lives on hold because of a cataclysmic, global event. At the time of this writing, the virus has killed nearly 120,000 people and devastated the world economy. Nevertheless, for many people the virus will likely prove to be nothing more than a major inconvenience of missed family events and forced isolation. Life, eventually, will return to normal, and Passover 2020/5780 will become a fleeting moment. But for the collective memory of the Jewish people, this Passover will serve as an important reminder of the many previous Passovers that have been interrupted by global events beyond our control.

During conversations with friends and family in the days leading up to Passover and in re-reading the Haggadah, I kept thinking of one word and one idea:preparedness. Preparedness not only in physical possessions and physical fitness, but alsomentalfortitude. The Jews in ancient Egypt were perhaps not prepared to flee in terms of their earthly possessions, but they were mentally ready to immediately change their lives. Matzah is the direct representation of this, as there was no time for the bread to rise.

Such moments have happened with alarming frequency throughout the history of the Jewish people. From the fall of the Second Temple to the Spanish Inquisition to Soviet pogroms to the Holocaust in Europe, the story of the Jewish Diaspora has been one that calls for haste. To wait is to perish.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicateby email and never missour top stories

Thus, this Passover was an opportunity to verify the contents of my physical and mental go bags. Physically, I was ready. My survivalist upbringing and subsequent military training have provided me with a baseline level of physical preparedness. I felt confident that I could take care of myself and others, no matter what COVID-19 or subsequent emergencies would bring.

Mental preparedness equal to that of the Passover exodus, however, was another story. Many Diaspora Jews, including myself, live incredibly comfortable lives. Would we, like the Jews of other eras, be willing to leave at a moments notice when the incurable virus of anti-Semitism once again began ravaging the world that we knew?

Even though COVID-19 does not discriminate in its destruction, the Anti-Defamation League has been tracking all of the instances in which the pandemic has beenblamed on either the Jews or the State of Israel. Furthermore, the way COVID-19 has morphed from an isolated disease to a global pandemic mirrors the way that anti-Semitism can quickly metastasize into a sickness that consumes great portions of the world. Just as there were warning signs in Europe throughout the 1930s, most European Jews did not believe that they would be affected by these isolated anti-Semitic events. For many, the scourge of anti-Semitism wasnt taken seriously until their businesses were closed, and they found themselves living in ghettos or being sent to the camps.

As COVID-19 has seemingly created a new normal that did not exist only a few weeks ago, I think that knowing and recognizing when anti-Semitism has become intolerable will be of key importance in ensuring that Jewish people do not wake up to that danger only once its too late.

Unlike the Jews who have nowhere to go, the Jewish people of the modern world are unbelievably fortunate to have that ultimate go bag: the Jewish State of Israel. For Diaspora Jews, Israel is the insurance policy. No matter where they are born, the fact that Israel is there allows them to know that they will not be like the past Jewish victims of the Inquisition, the pogroms or the Holocaust. Because Israel exists, they know that they will be safe.

Having been blessed to be born an American citizen, and having grown up in the freest and most philo-Semitic country in the history of the world, I am confident such questions about anti-Semitism, at least in the United States, will remain nothing more than thought experiments. But in returning to the Passover story during COVID-19, the importance of being prepared and always having someplace to go when things are dire seems all the more relevant to consider this year. Just as my go bag remains packed, ready in case of emergency, Israel stands as the insurance policy for whenever the virus of anti-Semitism once again consumes the world.

Micah Quinney Jones is contributing adjunct atThe MirYam Institute,an attorney, a U.S. Army veteran and a pro-Israel advocate. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service. He served more than five years as a military intelligence branch detail infantry officer in the army and was honorably discharged as a captain in 2016. He deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2014-15 as part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Read more:
Matzah in the 'go bag': COVID-19, Passover and Israel - JNS.org

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on Matzah in the ‘go bag’: COVID-19, Passover and Israel – JNS.org
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 14, 2020

The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) has done untold damage for freedom of expression online.

The ADL provided input when YouTube was crafting itshate speech rules which were brought forward in 2019 and pushed YouTube to make even more changes after they were introduced. The fallout from these strict rules are still being realized.

And now the organization is setting its sights on gaming.

Double your web browsing speed with today's sponsor. Get Brave.

In a recent interview given by an official of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), gaming industry giant Valve is being singled out as particularly irresponsible in combating hate speech and harassment in its community.

Thats because Valves attitude is interpreted as allowing anything except for trolling and illegal content.

This statement came from ADLs Center for Technology and Society Assistant Director Daniel Kelley, and not only is this a call for censorship but, as gamers will know, Valve is not even coming close to living up to the promise of allowing all thats legal and is instead, like the rest of the industry, banning people and closing accounts on suspicious grounds.

The calling out of Valve all companies for being too lenient, or as some would put it, using the least amount of censorship, is perhaps the most conspicuous example of the tone Kelly took in his interview with GamesIndustry.biz, entitled, Getting the hate out of games.

The ADL representative wants to see the gaming industry start out by acting in unison to present data about the problem to the world, and in order to do that, introduce new, significantly more stringent rules and ways of enforcing them.

Meanwhile, one game that was highlighted as an example of a large portion of those who played it being subjected to harassment is Overwatch. What is referred to in the interview as an inclusive roster of playable heroes was met with pushback by those who consider the whole idea of stricter rules to be a ploy to introduce more censorship and promote progressive political and ideological ideas.

And while many free speech and digital activists regularly express concern over the way giant centralized social media networks are policing their users and the content they post, Kelley has no issue with these efforts.

I think its important that companies use their public voice in this realm and put on their platform, We dont allow hate speech, and heres what we mean by hate speech,' Kelley says.

If the game industry were able to come together and collectively or with selected individual companies to start really share data with the public and society about the problem, I think that would be a huge step forward, Kelley went on to say. But of course to do that, they would need to create a ruleset around policy and enforcement on their platforms in ways that are much more robust than they have now.

The only problem he sees is that the gaming industry isnt taking a leaf out of Big Tech book, and is instead adopting the tactics of Facebook or Twitter circa 2006.

View original post here:
The ADL takes aim at hate speech in gaming - Reclaim The Net

Category: Anti-Defamation League | Comments Off on The ADL takes aim at hate speech in gaming – Reclaim The Net
Tags: