Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 21, 2020

The debate surrounding abortion has become a bit of a political litmus test in recent years. One side defends the right to abortion as a constitutional guarantee while the other declares there should be no constitutional right to abortion; the right in question, they say, is the right to life, and it extends to the unborn.

Recent news reports indicate some Democrats have begun to realize they may need to expand their thinking on the abortion question and adopt a more welcoming approach to pro-life Democrats. But based on the disparate groups filing amicus briefs in the Louisiana abortion case that recently went before the Supreme Court in March, thats going to be much easier said than done.

Many of those groups are bafflingly disconnected from the abortion issue in general. Others would likely be assumed (incorrectly) to take a neutral position on the issue. Which raises the question: Do pro-life people, whether Democrat or Republican, who might support these groups realize they are using their considerable resources to help sway a Supreme Court decision on an abortion case that has the potential to change the debate entirely?

The case in question is June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, which arose from a Louisiana state law that requires doctors who perform abortions to also have admission privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. Pro-choice activists argue that the practical effect of this law will reduce the number of abortion providers in Louisiana and create an undue burden on women seeking to exercise their right to abortion.

Amicus curiae briefs (or friend of the court briefs) are filed with the Supreme Court by those who are not party to a case but nevertheless have an interest in the outcome. Collectively, they are known as amici. Arguments presented by amici are often different than those presented by the actual parties, and they can have a persuasive role in how the justices ultimately rule.

In the June Medical Services case, some of the groups filing these briefs would rarely, if ever, be associated with abortion advocacy in the minds of the general public, and possibly in the minds of pro-life supporters of these groups. Obviously, this is problematic for people with deep pro-life convictions who might be completely unaware of their preferred groups stance on one of the most emotionally divisive issues in the country.

Alongside groups well known for supporting abortion, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the American Civil Liberties Union, there appear briefs from medical associations that many people could easily assume retain a neutral position on the issue. Those groups include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and others. Some, according to other statements theyve made, actually tack a fairly radical pro-abortion line: The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine strongly oppose abortion restrictions even well into the second trimestera position that is deeply unpopular with the American public.

A number of prominent nonmedical organizations also filed as amici. Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the National Urban League, the National Employment Law Project, the National Consumers League, the Hispanic Federation, and even the American Bar Association. Such groups would likely never be linked to abortion advocacy in the minds of the general public.

Then, there are the religious congregations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Union for Reform Judaism, and the United Church of Christ, all of whom also signed on as amici. Do all members or donors to these religious organizations know about the official position on abortion from church leaders?

Among the most entrenched supporters, as they have been with many facets of the progressive lefts platform, are the labor unions. The Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, as well as the two principal American teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. Indeed, both the AFT and the NEA put out explicitly pro-abortion resolutions in 2019. While one might quite reasonably wonder at the link between labor organizing and abortion advocacy, the explanation lies simply in the lock-step alignment of many national unions and the Democratic Partys political platform. It is no coincidence that all four unions have been counted among the top 15 Democratic political spenders since the 1990 election cycle.

Its disturbing enough that supporters of these groups may not realize that their favored non-profits are increasingly willing to wade into controversial issues that are at most tangentially connected to their mission. But even those who do not directly support these groupsyes, the American taxpayermay be unwittingly subsidizing a groups pro-abortion position. Taxpayers have contributed large sums to a number of the amici in June Medical Services. Planned Parenthood is a famously controversial example, but according to USASpending.gov several dozen of the amici or their affiliates have been federal grantees since 2008.

Some of the largest include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Bar Association, and the National Urban League, which together collect tens of millions in federal grant money annually.

National Review reporter Alexandra DeSanctis recently wrote, If the National Rifle Association were to suddenly issue a statement declaring its belief that life begins at conception . . . it would be a cause for confusion and surely for immense criticism from the groups opponents. No doubt this same confusion is currently working its effects on some unknowable number of pro-life supporters in the United States.

This article first appeared in the Washington Examiner onMarch 12, 2020.

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Why Are ADL, the NEA, and the Hispanic Federation Pressuring the Supreme Court to Strike Down Abortion Safety Regulations? - Capital Research Center

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

(JNS)The numbers are rolling in, and they make for grim reading. In four European countries with significant Jewish communitiesFrance, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italystatistics gathered during 2019 by communal organizations and law-enforcement agencies published in the last month noted in a steep rise in anti-Semitic offenses across all of them.

Arguably, the most worrying pattern to emerge from this data is the growing tendency among Jew-haters to physically assault their victims. True, such outrages still account for only a small percentage of the overall number of anti-Semitic incidents, but year on year, they are becoming more common. The nature of the violence has ranged from street assaults on individuals wearingkipahsor carrying Jewish religious items to an attempted gun attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle on Yom Kippur last year, foiled only by the heavy doors that separated worshippers from the rampaging neo-Nazi outside.

That there is greater license for anti-Semitic violence mirrors the greater license for anti-Semitic invective we have also witnessed, both in Europe and America. On both sides of the Atlantic, post-World War II discursive taboos are being shattered to the point that they are ultimately reflected in deeds, as the head of Germanys Jewish community, Josef Schuster, put it last week. Schuster was remarking on yet another annual rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes reported in Germany1,839 incidents altogether, a record, of which 72 involved physical violence.

2019 was a record year for anti-Semitic acts, but it was also notable as the year in which Americans stopped reading about anti-Jewish violence as a mainly European problem, and Europeans stopped thinking about America as a country largely immune from anti-Jewish hatred. The global character of anti-Semitism was rarely more in evidence than last yearan observation that sets a rather ominous tone for this year.

Examining the rise of anti-Semitism in Italy, where a community of just 30,000 experienced more than 250 anti-Jewish incidents over 12 months, Stefano Gatti of the Milan-based Antisemitism Observatory emphasized the surrounding environment in which such attacks are occurring. Anti-Zionist propaganda demonizing Israel as a Nazi state is commonly seen alongside the conspiracy theory that non-white immigration into Europe is a Jewish plot against the continents native populations. The overlords of occupied Palestinian land, the puppet-masters of the worlds governments and banks; these themes, given a new lease of life in the digital age, are now migrating into the real world in the form of renewed anti-Jewish violence.

In this febrile atmosphere, Jews are watching the international spread of the coronavirus and the resulting illness of those infected (COVID-19) with the kind of alarm that would, even 20 years ago, have seemed eccentric. But no wonder: Such episodes, where you can see the suffering but youre not convinced that you know all you should about the source of it, are a boon for anti-Semites.

In France last week, a far-right politician named Alain Mondino chose to link the coronavirus panic to a Jewish plot. Using his account on the popular Russian social-media network VKontakte, Mondino made a video entitled Coronavirus forgoyiman old Yiddish pejorative for non-Jews that has been mockingly adopted by contemporary anti-Semitesavailable to his followers. Introduced with a title sequence devoted to the Jew World Order, the video went on to advance the theory that coronavirus was developed by the Jews. For his part, Mondino added that he was sharing the video for information, without comment.

At the time of this post on March 3, Mondino was the head of the slate of the far-right Rassemblement Nationale (RN) partyitself an outgrowth of the neo-fascist National Frontfor the forthcoming municipal elections in Villepinte, near Paris. Within a couple of days, the RN announced that it was withdrawing its backing for Mondino. In a terse statement, Stphane Jolivet, the RNs spokesperson, explained that Mondino had broken the rules, and therefore the party had no choice but to ditch him.

The manner of Mondinos dismissal leaves much to be desired. Jolivets statement, perhaps deliberately, made it sound like Mondino had stupidly broken a rule that everyone else knows not to, because the Jews are very powerful after all, and therefore pre-emptive action was regrettably necessary before the inevitable public storm. At no point did the RN explain the character of Mondinos offense, its place in the pantheon of anti-Jewish libels and its echoes of the propaganda of the Nazi German regime that occupied France during World War II.

Writing about the growing visibility online of conspiracists variously connecting the virus with the Israeli Mossad, the Rothschild banking family and sundry other members of the anti-Semites rogues gallery, Marc Knobela historian with CRIF, the French-Jewish representative organizationreminded his readers that the linkage of Jews with pandemics goes back at least to the Middle Ages.

On Jan. 12, 1349, Knobelwrote, the Black Death reached Germany for the first time. He then listed the outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence that accompanied the spread of the plague in lockstep. In Freiburg on Jan. 16, the entire Jewish community was burned at the stake. On Jan. 22, it was the turn of the Jewish community of Spiers to be wholly destroyed. The massacres of Jews continued in Germany and then in neighboring Swiss towns right through to the end of April.

What have we learned from the epidemic of 1349 and the anti-Semitism that struck at that time? asked Knobel. Wisely, perhaps, he did not answer this question, encouraging us to simply reflect on the parallels betweenYersinia pestis, or Black Death, and COVID-19.

Duly reflecting, its hard not to notice the conjunction of a viral epidemic that is itself drowning in false information and malicious speculation with a wider context in which political, racial and religious extremism is flourishing. Just as the anti-Semites didnt need scientific proof in the Middle Ages to support their lies, they dont need it now, for what is presented to them as a superior set of arguments is thrown back at us wrapped in the label Jewish conspiracy.

Because it theoretically explains everything, anti-Semitism in reality doesnt explain anything. The coronavirus crisis has given us an insight into its actual purpose, which is to strike terror into the Jewish community.

The realization that techniques used seven centuries ago are again in operation against Jews today is certainly a terrifying thought.

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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What has changed since the 'Black Death'? - Heritage Florida Jewish News

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

(J. The Jewish News of Northern California)-Michael Steinmetz was uncertain about inviting his grandmother to visit his marijuana factory in Mendocino County.

Masha Steinmetz is 89 and an observant Jew who cared for Holocaust victims as a nurse in Israel after the war. Originally from Romania, she lived most of her life in Venezuela, a predominantly Catholic country where cannabis is widely considered taboo.

For her visit to Mendocino, she brought enough kosher food to last her four days at the rural facility, off an unmarked road about 2.5 hours from San Francisco.

"I thought it was going to be a shock," the younger Steinmetz said.

Steinmetz pulled out his smartphone to show me a photo of himself with Masha. They're wearing white lab coats and holding giant bags of unprocessed cannabis flower. Both are grinning triumphantly.

"When I told her about the medical benefits and she saw the level of sophistication" at the facility, Steinmetz said, "she was pretty proud."

California's king of cannabis is a nice Jewish boy from Caracas, Venezuela, with an engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He's worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was an investment banker for Merrill Lynch, though neither of those jobs quite suited him. Ultimately, he said, he wanted to engage his "entrepreneurial heart and spirit."

Now 36, Steinmetz is the co-founder and CEO of Flow Kana, one of the hottest privately held cannabis companies in North America, and one of the largest in California. It has taken in $147.5 million in investment funding since its founding in 2014, according to startup tracker Crunchbase, though Steinmetz says the total is closer to $175 million when it includes early investment stages.

Though the company would not release revenue figures, its trademark opaque brown jars and hand-packed pre-rolled joints are ubiquitous at weed stores in the Bay Area and across California.

After recreational marijuana use was legalized in January 2018, Flow Kana became the top-selling cannabis flower brand in the state. (As opposed to oils, edibles, tinctures, lotions and vapes, cannabis flower is simply the marijuana plant after it's been grown, harvested, cured and trimmed.)

"We've been called the Willy Wonka of weed," Steinmetz told a "60 Minutes" correspondent who interviewed him at the factory for an October story. He's also been featured in the New Yorker, Forbes and Men's Journal, which crowned him "the new king of weed."

Flow Kana does not actually grow marijuana. The company buys it from approximately 200 private farms in the historic epicenter of the once-illegal pot haven known as the Emerald Triangle-the sparsely populated region in the northwestern corner of the state covering Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties. Flow Kana focuses on "craft" cannabis, which is grown outside on small farms, without pesticides, often by families who have been doing it for generations.

On the sprawling, rural campus that Steinmetz and his partners named "Flow Cannabis Institute," employees ride around in what look like all-terrain golf carts, skipping from warehouses to construction sites to offices to residences, where a handful of executives live (most have second homes in the Bay Area).

With the help of investors, Steinmetz purchased the 300-acre property in 2017. The campus became Flow Kana's processing hub, and Steinmetz and his wife, Flavia Cassani, a filmmaker, moved in the day after closing. (They also keep a home in San Francisco).

The cannabis is processed on a production floor at the center of the campus. It looks at first like any factory floor, but instead of assembling furniture or packing jars of peanut butter, employees are sifting through containers of cured marijuana to pick out morsels appealing enough to sell outright. They assemble pre-rolled joints with the rest.

After the product is inspected, processed and packaged, employees load it on trucks to be shipped to distribution hubs in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Oakland.

Steinmetz's house is a white colonial that employees refer to as the "White House."It was about a week before Christmas, and stockings hung from the mantle and two 3-foot nutcrackers stood astride the fireplace. A small Hanukkah menorah poked out from behind the tinsel.

"We have both," Steinmetz said with a laugh. "My parents are both Jewish, but Venezuela is a predominantly Catholic Christian country. So I was raised with both a hanukkiah [menorah] and a Christmas tree."

He said he celebrated Shabbat dinners and Jewish holidays with his grandparents.

Steinmetz says that while Venezuela has a conservative attitude toward marijuana, things were different in his family. "My mom consumed cannabis for medical reasons," he said. "I grew up in a cannabis-friendly home." He was into cannabis culture long before he became involved in the business and still enjoys smoking weed.

Steinnmetz's decision to enter the cannabis industry didn't come via a lightbulb moment; it was more like a gradual awakening.

Between 2010 and 2012, he was running a distribution company in Venezuela that traded stevia, the plant-based sweetener, and he was working on a photo sharing app similar to Instagram that never materialized. He and his wife alternated between Caracas and Palo Alto, spending around three months there and three months here.

With his medicinal marijuana card, he visited the early patchwork of dispensaries operating in the Bay Area under Prop 215, the "Compassionate Use" law approved by voters in 1996 permitting medical use. Every time he returned to California from Caracas, he would see new developments in the industry. "New dispensaries, new products, new brands," he said. "I just felt the growth and the momentum of it."

When he realized California came close to legalizing recreational use under Prop 19 in 2010, it gave him an inkling of where the market might head. "I thought, wow, this is really going to happen in our lifetime."

In 2013, he experienced just how much money could be made in the industry. He volunteered as an unpaid business consultant at a medical dispensary in the East Bay. It took in between $80,000 and $100,000 in sales every day.

"It was so unsophisticated, so mom-and-pop," he said. "Inventory everywhere. It was a disaster."

In 2014 he co-founded Flow Kana with two fellow Jews: Adam Steinberg and Diego Zimet, a Uruguayan who built the company's first website. Steinmetz said he met Zimet through a network of Latino Jews in Palo Alto.

In many ways, California's Gold Rush of the 19th century is now its green rush of the 21st. The Golden State is the top-grossing cannabis state in the country, with over $3 billionin legal sales in 2019. That's $1 billion more than its nearest competitor, Colorado, and about three times more than all of Canada.

And yet, stringent regulations, burdensome taxes and prohibitive local laws still severely hamper the industry's growth, Steinmetz and other cannabis business leaders say.In order to actually sell cannabis within a given municipality, it has to be approved by local officials. According to Marijuana Business Daily, abouttwo-thirdsof municipalities still prohibited retail sales as of last year. Marin and San Mateo counties, for example, prohibit marijuana storefronts.

Simply put, there are not nearly enough legal retailers in California to satisfy the state's massive appetite for weed. As a result, the illegal market in California stilltakes in about $8.7 billion per year, more than twice as much as the legal market, according to the research firm BDS Analytics. Steinmetz called the situation a "disgrace."

Investment in the industry reached a fever pitch in 2018 with more than $13 billion raised, according to Viridian Capital Advisors. But despite big promises, marijuana remains banned under federal law, and companies still can't trade across state lines, let alone international borders. Traditional banks still refuse to cooperate with cannabis companies, no matter how lucrative they are.

As a result, growth has been disappointing. In November, Flow Kana had to lay off about 20 employees, most at the corporate office in Oakland. It joined a number of other cannabis companies in the state in a series of layoffs that left hundredsof workers jobless.

Still, there is good reason to be optimistic about the future of California weed and Steinmetz certainly is. Californians spend more than $1 billion on marijuana each month, between legal and illicit sales. Over the next four years, legal sales in California are projected tomore than double.

So what does Steinmetz envision for the future of his business? He says he does not make decisions thinking of a buyout. Instead he plays "the infinite game." His sights are trained on tomorrow's industry: the end of federal prohibition, the slackening of local regulations and the beginning of a new day for cannabis, when it will be treated like any other regulated substance.

"Our decisions are five, seven years out," he said.

Almost everywhere you look at Flow Cannabis Institute, there is temporary fencing, dirt movers, laborers and the din of construction. The company is expanding beyond its core product, renovating an 18,000-square-foot warehouse to manufacture concentrated oils for use in popular products like vape pens and edibles. It is working on a 40,000-square-foot showroom the size of an airplane hangar and five stories high.

He envisions distributors and retailers from all over the world visiting Mendocino County to browse "just shy of a million pounds" of cannabis in the showroom, displaying "thousands and thousands of different strains" at "hundreds upon hundreds of different price points." Ultimately, Steinmetz is placing a big bet on California.

"The long-term dream is to make it accessible for out-of-state, and from other countries, to be able to access the best cannabis in the world from the best growing region in California," he said. "I think nobody's going to care for Nebraska-grown cannabis, or Massachusetts-grown cannabis, or indoor-grown cannabis somewhere else.

"We want to put the Emerald Triangle on the map, globally."

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'King of Weed': Meet the Jewish mogul who's smokin' the competition - Heritage Florida Jewish News

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

Once the deadly virus started spreading all over the world, devastated communities struggled to confront a pandemic they did not fully understand. Soon the finger-pointing started as people looked for someone to blame: It was the Jews.

It was the mid-14th century, and the Black Death had begun to ravage Europe. In the end, it reduced the overall population by about a third. Rumors spread that it was a Jewish conspiracy, and as a result Jews suffered terrible persecution.

When there are big epidemics, people get scared, said Rutgers Universitys Martin J. Blaser, a historian and professor of medicine and microbiology. They often look to blame some kind of intruder or stranger. It has happened especially with the Jews.

Throughout the European continent, it was said that Jews were poisoning wells with the plague. Blaser said there is evidence of European Jewish communities being massacred during this time, a period he described as the worst persecution of Jews before the Holocaust.

One source of the conspiracy theory may have been the lower death rates among Jewish communities. Blaser said that could have been related to the fact that once a year, Jews cleaned out their grain supply for Passover, lowering their chances of being exposed to rats, carriers of the plague.

From the Black Death all the way up to the measles outbreak in 2019, Jews have been used as scapegoats for outbreaks of disease, Blaser said.

Jews in New York City were blamed for last years measles outbreak, which disproportionately affected Orthodox Jewish communities. Health officials believe it was more easily spread in the tight-knit community because of the large number of children in each family, extensive international travel and low rates of vaccination. The Anti-Defamation League reported a spike in anti-Semitic incidents related to the outbreak.

Interestingly, it seems that Jews were not blamed for the Spanish Flu of 1918, the influenza pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people around the globe. Jews even played a pivotal role in fighting it. San Franciscos health department was headed by a number of Jews, including Lawrence Arnstein, who helped organize the Red Cross response to the disease. Matilda Esberg, president of the Congregation Emanu-El Sisterhood, was also involved in overseeing the response.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, Chinese and Asians have been blamed and discriminated against because the disease originated in China. Asian Americans have faced racist attacks, and there have been reports of Chinese businesses seeing a downturn in customers.

Blaser sees parallels to how Jews were treated during past outbreaks of disease.

Its the same mob mentality, Blaser said. Finding a victim. Unfortunately for Chinese people, theyve borne the brunt of this so far.

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How Jews have fared during pandemics throughout history - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

WASHINGTON (JTA) Politics goes on in a time of fear and quarantine, and each shapes the other.

In my world, the coronavirus outbreak has led to at least three interesting developments over the past couple of weeks:

1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is drawing sharp criticism from political foes for what they say is his using the pandemic to preserve his hold on power, resorting to means that are undercutting his nations democratic institutions.

2. The crisis has accelerated what already was likely a sure thing: Bernie Sanders exit from the Democratic presidential stakes.

3. It also has upended expectations of how the presidential election will play out, with the focus shifting from corruption to competence, as well as the debate over President Donald Trumps use of the phrase Chinese virus. His critics claim such rhetoric stigmatizes Asian Americans.

Heres a deeper dive into those developments.

Israeli democracy takes a hit

Netanyahu has been given high marks for the breadth of his handling of the coronavirus in Israel. Shuttering the country to outside visitors early in the crisis and setting up clear quarantine protocols may stem its spread.

But now, his critics say, Netanyahu is leveraging the goodwill he has accrued in a three-pronged attack on Israels democratic institutions one that veteran journalist Noga Tarnopolsky described in the Daily Beast as a power grab unprecedented in Israeli history.

* Amir Ohana, Netanyahus justice minister, put the courts in a state of emergency mode, as my colleague Marcy Oster has reported. The immediate effect is a two-month postponement of what was to have been the March 17 start date of the prime ministers corruption trial.

* Yuli Edelstein, Netanyahus Likud colleague and the Knesset speaker, suspended convening the new parliament until Monday, saying that he wants to give the parties time to put together an emergency national unity government to tackle the virus. Edelstein said it would be unhealthy to pack so many people into the chamber. His move prevents the 61 Knesset members who favor Netanyahus rival Benny Gantz as prime minister from convening. (Gantz has a long way to go, but since the March election he is closer to forming a coalition, thanks to the support of the mostly Arab parties, than he had been in the wake of balloting in April and September.)

* Netanyahus government has also authorized police to track the cellphones of those infected with the coronavirus without needing warrants. Its a means of containing the spread, but it also sets a Big Brother-like precedent that has spooked civil libertarians.

Netanyahu casts the measures as temporary and aimed at containing the pandemic, but together they have spurred alarm in some circles. Hundreds of protesters on Thursday attached black flags to their cars and attempted to enter the city to protest the measures.

For now and the clock is ticking Israeli democracy has been shut down, Anshel Pfeffer, Netanyahus definitive biographer, said in Haaretz.

The criticism isnt only coming from the left. President Reuven Rivlin, in an extraordinary move, called Edelstein and urged him to open the parliament and, also extraordinarily, distributed his remarks to the media. A Knesset that is out of action harms the ability of the State of Israel to function well and responsibly in an emergency, Rivlin said. We must not let this crisis, as serious as it is, to harm our democratic system.

Will COVID-19 drive out Bernie?

Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination likely will not survive the drubbing it took this week in the Florida, Arizona and Illinois primaries. Joe Bidens delegate lead went from big to enormous.

Still, under non-pandemic circumstances, Sanders may have stayed in as he did in 2016 to leverage his withdrawal in an effort to influence party policy. This cycle, though, The Washington Post reports, Sanders may be ready to pull out sooner rather than later so he can help his rival Biden address the legislative demands of the pandemic.

In a profane and charged exchange Wednesday with a CNN reporter, Sanders made clear that the coronavirus and the health care crisis it has triggered, and not his presidential prospects, are foremost in his thinking.

Accusations of bigotry

Trumps impeachment trial feels like years ago. Now the presidents initial flailing response to the coronavirus has become the thrust of Democratic attacks as the election rhetoric shifts focus.

On Wednesday, Biden on Twitter quoted a poll showing a majority of Americans do not trust Trumps handling of the pandemic and said: I give you my word as a Biden: When Im president, I will lead with science, listen to the experts and heed their advice, and always tell you the truth.

Democrats also are targeting Republicans and Trump for calling the pandemic the Chinese virus, which Asian Americans say stigmatizes them.

Stop the xenophobic fear-mongering, Biden told Trump on Twitter.

Jewish groups are hitting this message home. Trump must condemn this virulent racism coming from his White House, and he has to stop repeatedly using racist terms himself when referring to coronavirus, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on Twitter. An American Jewish Committee assistant director outlined in a JTA op-ed how many Jewish organizations have expressed solidarity with the Asian community.

The White House and Trumps campaign have pushed back, casting Biden as a tool of the Chinese regime. Biden is siding with the Chinese and attacking the presidential candidate China fears most: Donald Trump, Trumps campaign said in a release Wednesday.

Trump defenders say the presidents language is aimed at the Chinese government, not Asian Americans. Some pro-Trump pundits have pointed out that earlier on in the crisis, an array of media outlets used similar language to describe the coronavirus.

In Other News

When present means gone: Yehiel Kalish, the only rabbi to serve in Illinoiss state legislature, lost a Democratic primary election on Tuesday, mainly because of his present vote on a key abortion rights bill that he said went against his Orthodox Jewish values.

Abortion trumps Israel: Jewish Insider reports on how Jewish Republicans slammed pro-Israel Democrats for not rallying to defend Dan Lipinski, a conservative Democrat whose Israel voting aligned with AIPAC and who lost his primary to his J Street-backed challenger Marie Newman. Mark Mellman, who runs the centrist Democratic Majority for Israel, told JI that Lipinskis domestic policies, opposing abortion rights and LGBTQ rights, were a bridge too far to merit support. Like most Democrats, we do not believe the incumbent represents the values of the Democratic Party, Mellman said.

Pushing against earth movers: More than 60 House Democrats have signed a letter to the Trump administration pressing it to assess whether Israel is using U.S. equipment to demolish the homes of Palestinians.

The Jewish case for My colleague Laura Adkins rounded up three op-eds recommending the Jewish case for Trump, Biden and Sanders.

WORTH A LOOK

People participating in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas in New York City, Nov. 20, 2016. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Anna Russell at the New Yorker speaks to hate crime trackers, including the ADLs Oren Segal, about the rise in attacks related to the pandemic.

TWEET SO SWEET

At a time of social distancing, a photo by Jewish Insiders Jacob Kornbluh captures in a Williamsburg minyan the longing for community.

Stay In Touch

Share your thoughts on The Tell, or suggest a topic for us. Connect with Ron Kampeas on Twitter at@kampeasor email him atthetell@jta.org.

The Tell is a weekly roundup of the latest Jewish political news from Ron Kampeas, the Jewish Telegraphic Agencys Washington Bureau Chief.Sign up hereto receive The Tell in your inbox on Thursday evenings.

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In Israel, the pandemic becomes an instrument of preserving power - JTA News

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

For Cordula Hahn, a Holocaust survivor in Brooklyn, the first trigger was the lack of toilet paper.

Oh, no, will I have to go back using newspaper? she asks, half chuckling. Thats what we did when we were in hiding in the Netherlands, and seeing the panic over toilet paper immediately brought back that memory.

Cordula Hahn. Photo by Richard Koek

But rather than a source of trauma, childhood recollections of enduring great adversity are helping Holocaust survivors like Hahn better brace for our current global pandemic. As Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials race to hoard water, food and yes, toilet paper, survivors are meeting the challenge of life in the time of coronavirus with signature tenacity and humor.

I grew up poor and as a refugee after the war, so I know I can live without stuff, which is very comforting actually, says Hahn. I dont need stuff to survive including toilet paper.

Some survivors report feeling a sense of command, invincibility and even a rush of adrenaline during moments of crises. Others react more cautiously; for them, the sight of empty store shelves isnt such a comfort.

It takes me right back to September 1st, 1939, says Natalie Scharf, a survivor living in Philadelphia. My parents had a grocery store where we lived in Jaworzno, Poland, right by the German border. They knew the Nazis were seizing all Jewish businesses, so they quietly began to bring sacks of flour, sugar, beans, barley, onions and potatoes home to live off after they raided our storehouses. Im not comparing this to the Holocaust, but seeing everything shut down, hearing of closed borders, food shortages, no travel, being afraid to go outdoors, see family and even touch anything, it feels like the start of the war. But now you dont see the enemy.

Natalie Scharf with her family at her 94th birthday

Still, that fear of the unseen and the unknown, which can be crippling to most, hasnt left Scharf feeling powerless or doomsday-like. She, like many survivors, is tough, courageous and resilient, able to navigate emergencies calmly and with her wits intact. The survivor instinct is a source of hope for many at this time, helping fuel their families and those with whom they interact during this pandemic.

The prevailing attitude seems to be Weve seen worse, says Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, which provides 50,000 survivors with pensions, in addition to a whole range of welfare services through its funding of 300 agencies around the world. I was checking in with a survivor friend and reminding him to stay in. He said: God saved me once, hell save me again, but maybe I can give him a little help this time.

Schneider says that the defiance and grit of survivors is inspiring to him and his staff as they rise to meet the challenge of ensuring their safety and wellbeing; survivors are among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus.

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The most devastating part of this is that the specific structures weve built over years to provide dignity to survivors are now the ones that are the most dangerous, he says. We have a very robust network for homecare attendants that cater to 75,000 survivors around the world, which enables them to live in their homes independently. But now those two to three aids who come in to clean, shop, provide company, medical care, etc, are introducing risk factors to that survivor. So every day, the agencies that provide that care have to reevaluate.

For instance, if a home aide reports sick, agencies have to weigh the plusses and minuses of foregoing a service versus introducing a new person into their home. If the attendant is washing the floor, let the floor remain unwashed for a week, says Schneider.

The uncertainty of the present, whether not being able to rely on a trusted home healthcare worker, hug a grandchild or gather for a regular kaffeeklatsch is unsettling, even for the most unflappable survivor.

The insecurity of life is a trigger for me, says New Jersey resident Rachelle Goldstein, co-director of the Hidden Child Foundation at the Anti-Defamation League. Because of our pasts, we know that every good thing in life is ephemeral. They can be gone in an instant, because this is what happened to us. We were living with our parents, and everything was fine one moment, and then all of a sudden everything was gone in an instant.

Rachelle and Jack Goldstein with family

Goldstein says her childhood helps her get into coping mode, which is a source of pride for her and her husband Jack, who was also a hidden child. In a way, we mentally rehearse for times like this all the time, she says. We always think, what do we do if

This foresight, fight or flight instinct and ability to mobilize, helped Goldstein and her family survive coups in Brazil and Nigeria, where they were living with their three children during Jacks tenure as an engineer working abroad.

We were the only Americans who had a runaway suitcase, always packed with clean underwear and toilet paper yes, toilet paper! she says laughing. We kept a level head, we always had a plan, and we always had a runaway suitcase.

That prescience led her to cancel a Hidden Child Foundation meeting on March 11th. Reading news of the pandemics spread, she began to question the wisdom of sticking to their schedule. Others in her group from the Tri-State area also began to feel anxious about traveling into the city and gathering. They each asked their doctors, who advised them to postpone the affair.

At first I thought, are we overreacting? Goldstein recalls. Once our doctors said, Absolutely not, I felt validated, that I wasnt crazy.

She also began to self-quarantine and advised Jack to do the same, though she says he was more cavalier about going to work. It took a government shutdown to keep him at home.

Interestingly, Holocaust survivors arent very anxious right now, says Eva Fogelman, PhD, a New York-based clinical psychologist who specializes in Holocaust survivor and second and third generation post-trauma. Theres a sense that this is nothing compared to what they went through.

But that doesnt necessarily make the present reality easy for them. For survivors like Lola Israel, who lives independently in Haifa, moving in with her daughters family turned stressful.

Not having her things around, not being in her own element made her feel uprooted and that made her anxious, says daughter Zahava Seidner. Then my daughter, who works in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, decided to come home, and we couldnt risk having her exposed. So I decided to stay with my mother during this time.

While Israel isnt on complete lockdown, the elderly have been ordered to remain inside, which is a hard proposition for an active 92-year-old like Lola.

Im not supposed to leave the house, but I needed some air, so we took a walk around the block, she says. I can endure anything.

For Sonia Abiri, a survivor from Katowice who resides in an assisted living facility near Tel Aviv, life goes on even with characteristic irreverence. She may be relegated to eating meals solo in her apartment and only having virtual visits with her family, but there is one real-time ritual she wont forego: her daily bridge game with three of her neighbors.

Sonia Abiri (left) and Lea Gleit Lorka (right)

She says shes had her share of life on this planet and wants everyone else to have it as well, says her son Roni. As for the card game, he says they sit a meter apart, they dont play for money and if it helps keep her spirits up, that works for him.

For survivors, who lost so much in life, family carries extra weight. The prospect of Seders without loved ones at the table hangs heavy, as do the cancelled Yom Hashoah commemorations, which are a yearly opportunity for survivors to gather with their own, remember loved ones and grieve with those who truly comprehend their inexplicable experiences.

April is very emotional time for survivors, starting with Passover and then you go right into Yom Hashoah, says the Claims Conferences Schneider. If you live in Israel, theres also Independence Day, Memorial Day, all within a two-week period. So you go from incredible highs to lows, and its very emotional under normal times.

Though the agencies with which the Claims Conference works are busy just meeting the physical, day-to-day needs and dont have the bandwidth to take on much more right now, Schneider says they will figure out ways to offset the isolation survivors are bound to feel during the upcoming holidays and help them maintain a sense of faith and community. More than anything, he says, survivors inspire his staff with their courage and steadfastness.

My mother in law is a Holocaust survivor and is going through chemo, so shes immune suppressed and elderly, but shes amazingly strong, physically and emotionally, he says. Shes going stir crazy for sure. She wants to get out, but the face time with her grandkids is her chicken soup, its the best medicine. And she gives us hope, because this is traumatic for all of us.

A mix of humor, music and art are other good soul salves. Hahn recommends Chilean musician Violeta Parra, whose song Gracias A La Via [Thank you, Life] helped her get through the death of her sister a few years ago. Without missing a beat, she adds, She [Parra] killed herself, by the way.

For comic relief thats lighter on the dark irony, singer and YouTube sensation Randy Rainbows The Coronavirus Lament seems to be hitting all the right notes.

We circulate a lot of jokes, too, many about toilet paper, says Goldstein. The important thing is to stay connected, despite social distancing.

Marisa Fox-Bevilacqua is a New York-based journalist who is writing and directing her first documentary, My Underground Mother, about her search for her mothers hidden Holocaust past. Follow her on Twitter, @undergroundmom.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

We rehearse for this all the time: Holocaust survivors face coronavirus with grit and humor

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

Born and raised on the southwest side of Chicago, Rabbi David Kay of Congregation Ohev Shalom grew up in an area rife with anti-Semitism. This was the late 1960s, early '70s. Surrounding their tiny Jewish community were predominantly Irish Catholic, blue-collar neighborhoods. His small Conservative congregation was bordered by the parking lot of a very large Catholic church, whose priest embraced the pre-Vatican II mentality. "If their lot was empty, and someone from our congregation parked a car there, the priest would run out screaming to shoo them off. I still have that vision in my head," Kay said.

He experienced discrimination on a wholesale level while going to public school. He and his Jewish friends were often shunned by their schoolmates, at times he had to fight. "I wasn't a fighter and there were times I'd come home the worse for it."

That's why Kay embraced USY (United Synagogue Youth) in high school. "USY saved my life," Kay said, sitting comfortably in his office at Ohev Shalom, wearing his endearing five-toed footwear, which he swears are the most comfortable shoes on the planet.

His involvement in Jewish organizations began early in his life; he became president of his USY chapter and ultimately worked his way to becoming the Chicago Region USY president.

His father was a scientist and his mother a kindergarten teacher. He recalled that when his father was working as an industrial chemist, there were times he would come home covered in a variety of chemicals.

Kay's mother was raised in a Jewish home. His father however, converted before he married. Both parents were well-educated, instilling in Kay a love of learning. "Our home was filled with books. People in the neighborhood would come to our house instead of going to the library. We were more convenient than the library, had a vast selection of books and we didn't charge late fees."

Kay attended 10-day USY summer camp programs at Camp Ramah in Conover, Wisconsin, on Upper Lake Buckatabon. The camp was the first of the Ramah camps, established in 1947. The USY program began at the end of that year's Ramah session. Kay loved being with young people of similar backgrounds, as it was a respite from growing up in an area where Jews weren't accepted.

Kay spoke fondly of his congregational rabbi, Rabbi David Tamarkin. "He was a curmudgeon on the outside, but soft on the inside." Rabbi Tamarkin was influential, offering him guidance and advice that would help him navigate throughout his life. Kay had interest in becoming a rabbi at this juncture, however, Rabbi Tamarkin steered him away. "He was right. I wasn't mature enough or ready for it at that time."

So he attended the University of Illinois, majoring in ecology, ethology, and evolution. "This major was offered for the four years I was there. Within a few years after I received my EEE degree, they did away with the program."

He returned to Chicago after college and started working odd jobs. He worked in a warehouse and as a research technician. It was during that time he started a band with a good friend. "The band was ultimately named Buffalo Trout. We wanted an all-American name, a good, solid name. Buffalo are uniquely American, and we thought about copping the name of the David Mamet play, 'American Buffalo.' Someone else suggested Richard Brautigan's book, 'Trout Fishing in America.' We eventually compromised and put the two together."

The band played original music in what they called "rhythm and roll."

"When we first began, it was just my buddy and me on acoustic guitar. Eventually we added drums, bass, keyboard, and a back-up vocalist. Because we played original music, we weren't booked as frequently as we could have, but we didn't really care. As long as we made enough to cover expenses, that's all that mattered."

His day job was working for an animal welfare organization called the Treehouse Animal Foundation, which operated a cageless, no kill, shelter for sick, injured, and abused stray cats. "Early on, we handled a variety of shelter animals, and we became grassroots animal activists."

At first Kay worked hands-on with the animals in the adoption center, then added the role of director of humane education. He also earned a credential as a certified humane investigator for the State of Illinois.

During this time, Kay took a gig performing at a coffeehouse program at Congregation Bene Shalom of the Deaf, in Skokie, Illinois. The synagogue was founded by 12 deaf Jews who had loosely organized prior as the Hebrew Association for the Deaf of Chicago. As predominantly hearing families with deaf members and others who wanted to support the work of Bene Shalom joined, there were eventually more hearing than deaf. The by-laws, however, call for officers of the congregation to be deaf and Bene Shalom's mission to serve the deaf Jewish Chicagoland community has never faltered.

Kay had a friend who came along as his American Sign Language interpreter that night. A few days before the performance, his friend asked if there could be a back-up interpreter. The coffeehouse organizer assured Kay he had just the person. Although the back-up interpreter wasn't needed after all, it turned out well for Kay. She was Joanne Goldman, and they were married five months later.

Through a program to train leaders and educators for the Jewish deaf community, launched by the rabbi of Bene Shalom, Kay had the opportunity to spend a year studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in Manhattan. He and Jo learned just before they headed east that Jo was pregnant. "It was a wonderful time in our lives. I used to say our son, Jonah, was planted in Chicago, but blossomed in New York."

Kay fell in love with learning at the seminary. "The instructors were passionate as they knew they were training leaders in the Jewish community who would go back and make a difference. The classes were small, focused and the instructors, for the most part, were brilliant. They took the literary approach to teaching content from our sacred texts. When viewed as literature, the Torah, Mishnah, and other sacred books open up the meaning, expanding it on many different levels. During that year, I realized that I wanted to become a rabbi. When we got back to Chicago, I applied to return to JTS full time, in the rabbinical school.

"At that point, I didn't want to be a pulpit rabbi. However, when I told one of my teachers in Chicago that, he pulled me aside and asked, 'Do you want to teach children?' 'Of course!' 'Do you want to teach adults?' 'Naturally!' 'You want to do weddings, funerals, b'nei mitzvah, baby-namings?' 'Yes, yes, yes.' 'Well, there's only one way you can do all of that-in the pulpit!'"

In his senior year of rabbinical school, he landed a student pulpit at a start-up Conservative congregation in Naples, Florida. He would fly down once or twice a month to lead weekend services. Kay began to travel right after 9/11 had occurred, making the travel from New York to Florida and back more difficult due to heightened security. The congregation consisted of 25 families. "When I graduated, they offered me a full-time position," Kay recalled. "Two years in, the congregation imploded."

That's when Kay learned through a lifelong friend that Congregation Ohev Shalom, an established congregation in Orlando, which had been in existence for eighty-five years at the time, was seeking a second rabbi.

"It was the right fit for my family and me. The congregation had grown to the point that they needed another rabbi. The professional staff had all been there for years. The lay leadership was great. There was a dynamic religious school and youth program for our son. They were looking for someone with life experience. We came to visit for a Shabbat and the people were so warm and welcoming. We knew we'd found our new home."

Rabbi David Kay performing Melissa Etheridge's "Pulse" at a Theater at the J benefit for Pulse night club.

Rabbi Kay worked behind Rabbi Aaron Rubinger for 13 years, until Rubinger became Rabbi Emeritus after High Holidays in 2017. Now, as the senior rabbi, Kay is enthusiastic about the direction and the future of Ohev Shalom.

"We celebrated our centennial in 2018," he said. "As we start our second century of service to the Jewish community of Central Florida, we're implementing a well-thought-out strategic plan. The pillars of Conservative Judaism are tradition and change. We're moving forward with ways to meet the needs of an ever-changing world in the context of cherished Jewish traditions."

"Greater Orlando is an exciting place to be. And the Jewish community has so much to offer. It's been a pleasure to serve these last 15 years-and I'm honored to have a part in what comes next."

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

FridayMar20,2020at12:01AM

Sometimes, amid the confusion, moments of clarity arise. Regrettably, the coronavirus pandemic provides us with one such moment.

Trump and his cult followers reject science and try to convince Americans that all is well. He maintains that what medical experts tell us is wrong. His method is spin and sell, never direct and honest.

On March 15, he said, Relax, were doing great. This all will pass.

We are confronted daily by the evidence that science denial is the path to disaster.

When we look at the small but vocal minority who argue climate science consensus is a myth, we find the same array of individuals. These include birthers, Holocaust deniers, Nazi apologists, chemtrail advocates and flat Earthers. And then theres all manner of conspiracy-hoax lunatics who reject science but simultaneously cling to any cockamamie nonsense that comes along and appeals to their weird contrarian worldview.

Those, like Trump, who reject medical science place our nation at immediate risk. Those rejecting climate science place our planet at risk and compromise life for our children and grandchildren. Shun them!

Trisha Vigil, Medford

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Posted By admin on March 20, 2020

This list of 940 active hate groups is based on information gathered by the SPLCs Intelligence Project from hate group publications, citizen reports, law enforcement agencies, field sources, web postings and news reports.Only organizations known to be active in 2019, whether that activity included marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, flyering, publishing literature or criminal acts, among other activities, were counted in this list. Entities that appear to exist only in cyberspace are not included because they are likely to be web publishers falsely portraying themselves as powerful, organized groups. This list also does not document activism that takes place only online by individuals or groups, whether on Facebook, VK or similar online forums. Major online web forums have in recent years seen their comment sections and registered users grow, but such activity does not occur in real life and thus is not reflected in this count. If the group has a known headquarters, the city appears first in the listing of the groups chapters and, if there are multiple chapters of the group, is marked with an asterisk.

Groups are categorized as Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, White Nationalist, Racist Skinhead, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederate, Black Separatist, Anti-LGBTQ, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Immigrant and General Hate. Because skinheads are migratory and often not affiliated with groups, this listing understates their numbers. Christian Identity describes a religion that is fundamentally racist and antisemitic. Black Separatist groups are organizations whose ideologies include tenets of racially based hatred. Neo-Confederate groups seek to revive many of the racist principles of the antebellum South.

White Nationalist groups espouse white supremacism or white separatism as the basis for national identity; while antisemitism is central to the genesis of the movement and to some white nationalist groups, not all white nationalists espouse antisemitism.

Anti-Muslim groups exhibit extreme hostility toward Muslims and attribute to Islams followers an inherent set of negative traits. Anti-LGBTQ groups engage in crude name-calling and disseminate disparaging propaganda and falsehoods about this population. General Hate groups espouse various ideologies of hatred and include thesub-categories of Hate Music labels, Holocaust Denial groups, Radical Traditional Catholic groups (which reject core Catholic teachings and espouse antisemitism), and Other (a variety of groups endorsing a hodgepodge of hate doctrines).

A hate group is an organization thatbased on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activitieshas beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. We do not list individuals as hate groups, only organizations. The organizations on the SPLC list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identityprejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines. The FBI uses similar criteria in its definition of a hate crime: [A] criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offenders bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.

A group is an entity that has a process through which followers identify themselves as being part of the group, such as donating, paying membership dues or participating in activities like meetings and rallies. Individual chapters of a larger organization are each counted separately, because the number indicates reach and organizing activity.

Each year since 1990, the SPLC has published an annual census of hate groups in the United States. The number is a barometer, albeit only one, of the level of hate activity in the country. The hate map, which depicts the groups approximate locations, is the result of yearlong monitoring by analysts and researchers. It represents activity by hate groups during the previous year. Tracking hate group activity and membership is extremely difficult. Some groups do everything they can to obscure their activities, while others grossly over-represent their operations. The SPLC uses a variety of methodologies to determine the activities of groups and individuals. These include reviewing hate group publications and reports by citizens, law enforcement, field sources and the news media, and conducting our own investigations.

Hate groups tear at the fabric of our society and instill fear in entire communities. American history is rife with prejudice against groups and individuals because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or other characteristics. As a nation, weve made a lot of progress, but our history of white supremacy lingers in institutional racism, stereotyping and unequal treatment of people of color and others. Hate also plays a particular role in crime, and thus the existence and location of hate groups is important to law enforcement. The U.S. Department of Justice warns that hate crimes, more than any other crime, can trigger community conflict, civil disturbances, and even riots. For all their patriotic rhetoric, hate groups and their imitators are really trying to divide us; their views are fundamentally anti-democratic and need to be exposed and countered.

Vilifying or demonizing groups of people on the basis of their immutable characteristics, such as race or ethnicity, often inspires or is a precursor to violence. But violence itself is not a requirement for being listed as a hate group. A groups ideology can inspire hate violence even when the group itself does not engage in violent activity. For example, Dylann Roof was not a member of any hate group, but his racist massacre at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015 was inspired by the ideology of the white nationalist group Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), among other hate group websites. The CCC has no track record of leaders or members engaging in violence, but its ideas can clearly prompt hate violence. Conversely, there are some violent groups that are not hate groups. For example, the SPLC does not list racist prison gangs as hate groups, because their goals are primarily criminal, not ideological.

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Posted By admin on March 19, 2020

I am a Zionist. You dont have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, current Democratic Presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said in April 2007, soon before he was chosen to be Barack Obamas running mate in the 2008 elections.

Biden is, of course, correct, because Zionism is a political movement that is rooted in 20th century nationalism and fascism. Its use of religious dogmas is prompted by political expediency, not spirituality or faith.

Unlike US President, Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders, Bidens only serious opponent in the Democratic primaries, Bidens stand on Israel is rarely examined.

Trump has made his support for Israel the cornerstone of his foreign policy agenda since his inauguration into the White House in January 2017. The American President has basically transformed into Israels political genie, granting Tel Aviv all of its wishes in complete defiance of international law.

Sanders, on the other hand, came to represent the antithesis of Trumps blind and reckless support for Israel. Himself Jewish, Sanders has promised to restore to the Palestinian people their rights and dignity, and to play a more evenhanded role, thus ending decades of US unconditional support and bias in favor of Israel.

But where does Biden factor into all of this?

Below is a brief examination of Bidens record on Palestine and Israel in recent years, with the hope that it gives the reader a glimpse of a man that many Democrats feel is the rational alternative to the political imbalances and extremism of the Trump administration.

August 1984: Palestinians and Arabs are to Blame

Bidens pro-Israel legacy began much earlier than his stint as a Vice-Ppresident or presidential candidate.

When Biden was only a Senator from Delaware, he spoke at the 1984 annual conference of "Herut Zionists of America." Herut is the forerunner of Israels right-wing Likud Party.

In his speech before the jubilant right-wing pro-Israel Zionist crowd, Biden derided the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arab governments, for supposedly derailing peace in the Middle East.

Biden spoke of "three myths (that) propel U.S. policy in the Middle East" which, according to the American Senator, are, "the belief that Saudi Arabia can be a broker for peace, the belief that King Hussein (of Jordan) is ready to negotiate peace, and the belief that the Palestine Liberation Organization can deliver a consensus for peace."

April 2007: I am a Zionist

Time only cemented Bidens pro-Israels convictions, leading to his declaration in April 2007 that he is not a mere supporter of Israel as has become the standard among US politicians but is a Zionist himself.

In an interview with Shalom TV, and despite his insistence that he does not need to be Jewish to be a Zionist, Biden labored to make connections with the Jewish State, revealing that his son is married to a Jewish woman and that "he had participated in a Passover Seder at their house," according to the Israeli Ynet News.

March 2013: Qualitative Edge

This commitment to Israel became better articulated when Biden took on greater political responsibilities as the US vice-president under Obamas administration.

At a packed AIPAC conference in March 2013, Biden elaborated on his ideological Zionist beliefs and his presidents commitment to the Jewish state of Israel. He said:

"It was at that table that I learned that the only way to ensure that it could never happen again was the establishment and the existence of a secure, Jewish state of Israel. I remember my father, a Christian, being baffled at the debate taking place at the end of World War II .." that any country could object to the founding of Israel on the ruins of the Palestinian homeland.

"Thats why weve worked so hard to make sure Israel keeps its qualitative edge in the midst of the Great Recession. Ive served with eight Presidents of the United States of America, and I can assure you, unequivocally, no President has done as much to physically secure the State of Israel as President Barack Obama."

December 2014: Moral Obligation

In one of the most fiercely pro-Israel speeches ever given by a top US official, Biden told the annual Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington on December 6, 2014, that, "If there werent an Israel, we would have to invent one".

In his speech, Biden added a new component to the American understanding of its relationship with Israel, one that goes beyond political expediency or ideological connections; a commitment that is founded on "moral obligation".

Biden said, "We always talk about Israel from this perspective, as if were doing (them) some favor. We are meeting a moral obligation. But it is so much more than a moral obligation. It is overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure and democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel. It is no favor. It is an obligation, but also a strategic necessity."

April 2015: I Love Israel

"My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel," Biden began his speech at the 67th Annual Israeli Independence Day Celebration held in Jerusalem in April 2015.

"Sometimes we drive each other crazy," the US vice-president said in reference to disagreements between Israel and the US over Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahus refusal to halt construction of illegal Jewish settlements.

"But we love each other," he added. "And we protect each other. As many of you heard me say before, were there no Israel, America would have to invent one. Wed have to invent one because you protect our interests like we protect yours."

July 2019: US Embassy Stays in Jerusalem

In response to a question by the news website, AXIOS, which was presented to the various Democratic party candidates, on whether a Democratic President would relocate the American embassy back to Tel Aviv, the Biden campaign answered:

"Vice President Biden would not move the American embassy back to Tel Aviv. But he would reopen our consulate in East Jerusalem to engage the Palestinians."

October 2019: Support for Israel Unconditional

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on October 31, 2019, Biden was asked whether he agrees with the position taken by his more progressive opponent, Bernie Sanders, regarding US financial support to Israel and Jewish settlement.

Sanders had said that, "if elected president he would leverage billions of dollars in US military aid to Israel to push Jerusalem to change its policies toward the Palestinians," The Hill news website reported.

Bidens response was that, " .. the idea that we would draw military assistance from Israel, on the condition that they change a specific policy, I find to be absolutely outrageous. No, I would not condition it, and I think its a gigantic mistake. And I hope some of my candidates who are running with me for the nomination I hope they misspoke or they were taken out of context."

March 2020: Above Politics, Beyond Politics

Bidens fiery speech before the pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC, at their annual conference in March 2020, was a mere continuation of a long legacy that is predicated on his countrys blind support for Israel.

Bidens discourse on Israel a mixture of confused ideological notions, religious ideas and political interests culminated in a call for American support for Israel that is "above politics and beyond politics".

"Israelis wake up every morning facing an existential threat from their neighbors rockets from Gaza, just like this past week .. Thats why Ive always been adamant that Israel must be able to defend itself. Its not just critical for Israeli security. I believe its critical for Americas security."

Palestinians "need to end the rocket attacks from Gaza," Biden also said. "They need to accept once and for all the reality and the right of a secure democratic and Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East."

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is http://www.ramzybaroud.net.

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'Zionist' Biden in His Own Words: 'My Name is Joe Biden, and Everybody Knows I Love Israel' - Antiwar.com

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