Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 15, 2020

By Robin Schumacher, Voices Contributor | Monday, March 09, 2020

The ability for a human being to not believe the truth about something can be breathtaking.

Atheists and skeptics of Christianity consistently say that the reason they dont believe in God is because there is no evidence for Him. If there were just good evidence for God and for the historicity of Jesus, atheists say that would make all the difference in the world theyd immediately believe.

But is that all there really is to it?

Deborah Lipstadt might have a thing or two to say about that. Dr. Lipstadt, who is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, may not be a Christian or have a dog in the fight of atheism vs. Christianity, but she knows a thing or two about the ability of people to turn a blind eye to evidence when its offered to them. Lipstadt is the author ofDenying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, and someone who has spent years studying the ability of people to reject truth.

While most people think that its only individuals like Irans former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who cast doubt on whether the Holocaust occurred, Lipstadt discovered that the Holocausts historical validity is questioned by a far greater number of people than might be believed. Moreover, she found such denial has not only continued to gain adherents, but it has become a broad, international movement with organized chapters, supposed "independent" research centers (with cleverly disguised names), and various publications that promote a revisionist view of WWII history.

But what about all the evidence that clearly supports the historicity of the Holocaust? Lipstadt writes: "The attempt to deny the Holocaust enlists a basic strategy of distortion. Truth is mixed with absolute lies, confusing readers who are unfamiliar with the tactics of the deniers. Half-truths and story segments, which conveniently avoid critical information, leave the listener with a distorted impression of what really happened. The abundance of documents and testimonies that confirm the Holocaust are dismissed as contrived, coerced, or forgeries and falsehoods."[1]

Now, dont get me wrong. When I reference Lipstadts findings, Im not attempting to equate atheists with Holocaust deniers. Instead, what Im trying to get across is the fact that, when it comes to a personchoosingto believe or not believe something, there is more to the story.

We see a great example of denying eyewitness testimony in John 9, which is devoted to Jesus healing a man born blind. The mans neighbors and others in the crowd are so flabbergasted by the event and unwilling to accept his testimony of what Jesus did that they bring the man to the Pharisees for examination.

In with the Pharisees, the man gives the same account a second time as to what Jesus did. But even with the crowds and neighbors who knew him and the mans own testimony, The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight (vs. 18).

They decide they need more proof, so they call in the mans parents to verify things. Mom and dad were shaking in their boots because it was well known that anyone who confessed Jesus as a real miracle worker and the Christ would be put out of the synagogue (a much bigger deal than it sounds on the surface). They carefully affirm that their son was born blind from birth but go no further in stating how he now sees.

Youd think at this point its time for the Pharisees to cry uncle and give credit to Jesus for a true miracle, right? Wrong. Now things get ugly as the Pharisees bring the man back in for round two.

The religious leaders begin by calling Jesus a sinner, which the man brushes off by stating: Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see (vs. 25). His reply is terrific because it forces the Pharisees to look past their presuppositions with Jesus and focus on the reality thats staring them (literally) in the face.

I love what happens next. The Pharisees ask the man to repeat his story yet again, to which he responds: I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you? (vs. 27).

The reaction the once-blind man got from the Pharisees on this matter was visceral: They reviled him (vs. 28). The Pharisees arent interested in following Jesus nor are they interested in hearing any more evidence or testimony that validates His Messiahship.

But that doesnt stop the man from hitting them with one last bit of knowledge: We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing (vv. 31-33).

What did the man get for his effort? From the Pharisees, he received ejection from the synagogue, but from Jesus he received salvation (vs. 38).

Ill say it again, the ability for someone to deny the truth about something can be breathtaking. But whats at the heart of such denial? What stops a person from even beginning to think that a particular truth claim could be plausible?

This is obviously a complicated subject, but for many, it boils down to one simple thing:they dont want the matter in question to be true.

Stories are plentiful about people with cancer who ignored the clear warning signs on the side of cigarette packs and the physical symptoms they were experiencing, of young girls who were literally nine months pregnant and who wouldnt believe they were about to have a baby, and even of individuals like David Irving who stood up in a Canadian courtroom and testified: No documents whatsoever show that a Holocaust has ever happened.[2]

Some atheists are honest about this. For example, Thomas Nagel has written: "I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope that there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that."[3]

The Bible tells us that when Jesus came face-to-face with people who rejected both the truth and Him he, wondered at their unbelief (Mark 6:6). The Son of God was literally amazed and marveled at how they could look past the evidence He supplied of His truth claims and deny the proof that was staring them in the face.

However, this fact doesnt stop skeptics from dismissing testimony as evidence even when its as close and direct as it can be. In her follow up book, Lipstadt describes being sued by a prominent Holocaust denier named David Irving[4], whom she had challenged in her former work. At a recess in the trial, a woman came up to Irving and told him that her parents had been gassed at Auschwitz. A reporter who was standing there heard Irving reply: Madam, you may be pleased to know that they almost certainly died of typhus.[5]

The wonder of a willing unbelief is both frustrating and sad especially when it comes to rejecting Jesus. If youre not a Christian, I urge you to not follow in the footsteps of the Pharisees and people of Jesus hometown. Instead, give a fresh look at Christ if you havent done so in a while. A good concise treatment of Jesus life worth checking out is John DicksonsLife of Jesus: Who He is and Why He Matters.

[1]Deborah Lipstadt,Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory(New York: Simon and Shuster, 1993), pg. 2.

[2]Lipstadt,History, pg. xiii.

[3]http://goo.gl/Ki9Yp.

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Irving.

[5]Deborah Lipstadt,History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier(New York: Harper, 2005), pg. xiv.

Robin Schumacher is a software executive and Christian apologist who has written many apologetic articles, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at various apologetic events. He holds a Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament.

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Denying the Holocaust and rejecting Christianity - Christian Post

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Posted By admin on March 15, 2020

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{Originally posted to the BESA website}

In the global battle against antisemitism, a definition of this hatred is essential. This is why a number of countries, cities, universities, and other institutions in Europe have accepted the non-legal International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism for internal use.

The text was approved in 2016 by the Board of the IHRA, which consists of representatives from 34 countries. Most are EU members; others include the US, Canada, and Australia. The definition had to be approved unanimously to be accepted.

The IHRA definition document includes 11 examples of antisemitism, several of which concern Israel. Nevertheless, a special definition of anti-Israelism would be worthwhile. No definition of antisemitism, including that of the IHRAeven if the initiators had added many more examplescan come close to covering the multitude of issues that contain elements of antisemitism or touch upon it. This is partly the product of the post-modern era we live in. Many issues have fragmented, and antisemitism is one of them.

There is a vast and dark universe of issues beyond the IHRA definition that touch upon antisemitism. Many did not exist in the classic pre-WWII religious or nationalistic/ethnic version of antisemitism.

Much publicity has been given to the institutional antisemitism of the British Labour party, which came into the public eye after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Party Chair in September 2015. He has displayed antisemitic attitudes on numerous occasions, but the IHRA definition is not helpful in identifying his actions and comments as antisemitic. It does not cover, for instance, his welcoming of representatives of the genocidal Hamas and Hezbollah Islamist movements to the House of Commons, or his references to representatives of those extreme anti-Israeli terrorist organizations as his friends and brothers. Nor does the IHRA definition cover Corbyns verbal and financial support for a Holocaust deniers organization or his willingness to appear on a podium with another Holocaust distorter.

Another figure in the antisemitism universe, if a less overt and unequivocal one, is Bernie Sanders, a leading contender for the US Democratic presidential nomination (and a Jew). When Sanders refers to the Palestinians, it is their dignity he discusses. One wonders about the dignity of those Palestinians who, in their 2006 parliamentary elections, gave a majority to Hamas, which openly states as its mission to murder Jews in large numbersbut Sanders does not address such matters. He does, however, speak freely about Israels racist government and racist prime minister. The juxtaposition of these statements shows Sanderss affinity for extreme Palestinian antisemites.

Before WWII, antisemites had no reason to hide their antisemitism, as it was a commonplace and socially acceptable hatred in Europe. Nowadays, explicit antisemitism is no longer politically correct in mainstream Western society. Thus, smokescreeningthat is, being an antisemite but pretending not to behas become more prolific. An antisemite might even falsely claim he or she is a friend of Israel. This kind of pattern can be seen in statements about Israel made by former German FM and socialist party leader Sigmar Gabriel.

A crucial issue that complicates the understanding of contemporary antisemitism is that the main type of antisemite in the Western world has mutated. During the rise and rule of the Nazis, many Jew-haters were full-time antisemites. This was not only the case with Germans. Norwegian war-time PM Vidkun Quisling, for instance, was also in that category.

Nowadays, most antisemites are part-timers. A part-time antisemite might make only one major antisemitic remark and then not repeat it. Consider, for example, German ambassador to the UN Conrad Heusgen. In explaining one of his countrys many anti-Israel votes there, he made a morally repugnant statement at the UN in March 2019: We believe that international law is the best way to protect civilians and allow them to live in peace and security and without fear of Israeli bulldozers or Hamas rockets.

The largest German daily, Bild, wrote a response to Heusgens equation of Palestinian rockets to Israeli bulldozers. It said: This equivalence is pure malicein a week in which the Israeli population frequently had to flee from rockets shot by Hamas terrorists the bulldozersare a measure the Israeli government takes against illegal building which concerns mainly Palestinians, but also Israeli settlements. The Simon Wiesenthal Center included Heusgens UN statement in its 2019 list of the worlds major antisemitic incidents.

As antisemitism is no longer politically acceptable, the denial, whitewashing, and minimizing of antisemitism have grown exponentially. The UK Labour Party is a prime example, as it is full of antisemitism whitewashers. A poll of paying Labour members in March 2018 found that 47% believe antisemitism to be a problem, but feel the extent of the problem was exaggerated to damage Labour and Jeremy Corbyn or to stifle criticism of Israel. A further 31% said antisemitism was not a serious issue. Sixty-one percent thought Corbyn was handling the antisemitism accusations well.

Many cover-up techniques have been developed. One even finds whitewashers of extreme, overt cases of antisemitism. The Nazi-esque floats at the carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst in February 2020 and 2019 are one example.

Louis Farrakhan is Americas leading antisemite. Many of his statements about Jews fit the IHRA definition. He calls Jews termites and poisoners. Yet how does one identify people who want to be in his company? Is being intentionally photographed with such a leading antisemite itself an antisemitic act? Probably not, but it is somewhere on the spectrum. Barack Obama did this in 2005 before announcing that he would be running for president. (He managed to suppress the photograph for a number of years.) Other Democratic members of Congress, as well as leading figures in the Womens March (who had defenestrated Jewish founders of the movement to consolidate their leadership position), also got close to Farrakhan.

Claiming that Jews themselves are the cause of antisemitism is a key factor in the historic origins of this hatred. When Christians brutalized Jews they claimed that their resulting suffering was divine punishment for their not recognizing Jesus. This motif of Jewish guilt returns in many versions. Sawsan Chebli, the socialist State Secretary for Federal Affairs in Berlin, tweeted one day after this years memorial on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: Sure, what happened back then is sad. But when it comes to the return of hatred,the Jews are not entirely innocent. Just look at the settlement policy, the annexation I hear this very often, not from Muslims, Arabs or refugees, but from Germans without addendum.

The Berlin Spectator reported that Burkard Dregger, CDUs leader at the Berlin House of Representatives, accused Chebli of spreading classic antisemitism and blaming Jews for their own past suffering. Yet Chebli has come out against antisemitism and even received an award for it. She is a representative of an ambivalent form of antisemitism.

There are many other examples that belong in the dark universe of antisemitism. New ones are emerging all the time in what is an ever-expanding universe.

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The Dark Universe of Antisemitism - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on March 15, 2020

Schools were closed for the second day across Israel and the night before, the government had prohibited gatherings of over 10 people. But at noon on Sunday at Ohel Shimon, a Hasidic yeshiva in central Jerusalem, it was business as usual. No one told us about any changes, said one of the black-garbed teenagers as he sauntered out of the study hall.

Israel's coronavirus crisis could be Bibi's swan songHaaretz

Just like at Ohel Shimon, in hundreds of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, Torah academies and hayders, or Haredi primary schools, study continued as normal. Other religious education streams had closed down, but most of the institutions linked to the main Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox groups were ignoring the governments orders. And they had backing.

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the 92-year-old maran, most senior of the Lithuanian rabbis who uphold the standards of ultra-Orthodox ideology and piety, had decided that suspending Torah study, even for one day, was a greater risk to the survival of the Jewish people, even to the very existence of the world, than the fears of infection from the new coronavirus. Not all the senior rabbis agreed with Kanievskys choice. But few dared voice objections once his ruling was published not even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is dependent on Kanievskys goodwill for his minority coalition.

It didnt matter that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman himself is an ultra-Orthodox politician. He certainly isnt one to uphold medical ethics above the rabbis edicts. And Netanyahu, who has taken to lecturing Israelis on everything from how to blow their noses to how to kiss in the days of coronavirus, wont say a word. On Sunday afternoon he actually found the time to meet with the rabbis representatives in the vain hope of changing their minds.

In some places, police arrived at (usually smaller) Haredi schools and imposed closures. But by and large, those that chose to do so remained open. Its as if the majority of the population is obeying the Israeli governments policy of social distancing and self-imposed isolation, while a minority living in a hundred towns and neighborhoods across the country is acting upon the opposite policy of the British government, where people are allowed to continue gathering in the hope of promoting herd immunity.

Kanievsky and the rabbis who agree with him have a firm base for their conduct. Torah magna umatzla Torah protects and saves. If the children of Israel are studying, nothing can harm them. And if they do so on the orders of a holy rabbi, then the tzadik orders and God follows. Who are we to tell them otherwise? Do the doctors know what theyre doing? And anyway, the shopping malls and supermarkets are still full. So why should the yeshivas close?

But what about the strictures of pikuach nefesh (preservation of life) that are supposed to supersede any other mitzvah? Why have Haredi rabbis in the United States decided otherwise and closed down synagogues and study? But its not the same. In the U.S., the rabbis recognize the non-Jewish local, state and federal governments. In Israel they dont. They have built an autonomy which lives by its own rules, and no one can interfere with that.

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Despite what many secular Israelis believe and their politicians claim, the ultra-Orthodox leadership is not really trying to impose the rules of halakha, or Jewish religious law, on all of Israel. They know that for the foreseeable future and despite their high birth rate they are destined to remain a minority. What they want, and have effectively received from all Israeli governments since the states establishment, is an autonomy. And whats more, since Likuds rise to power in 1977 and its coalitions with the growing ultra-Orthodox parties, theyve also got the state budget to pay for it.

Not only is their Torah learning the reason we all exist, but they claim that they are keeping alive the real tradition of our grandparents the world destroyed in the Holocaust. This is of course a historical fallacy. Ultra-Orthodoxy has existed for less than three centuries and is not much older than the Reform movement. At no point in time were all Jews religiously devout and there were never more than a few thousand men studying in the yeshivas. Jews had to work for a living. But its the myth they have built their present-day reality upon. Its all they have.

For rabbis like Kanievsky, who have spent their entire lives building this autonomy, its not just about resurrecting an imagined pre-Holocaust world. Its also about not setting a precedent. How can they accept the opinions of the medical professionals and the secular officials over their beliefs? It would be the thin edge of the wedge, an intrusion into their autonomy.

Israelis have rarely paid attention to what is happening within the Haredi autonomy. There is certainly rancor over the fact that the young men of the community do not serve in the Israeli army and that taxpayers money goes to subsidize the autonomy, but as far as what happens inside, Israelis have been content to allow the ultra-Orthodox to lead their lives of poverty as they see fit. Inside that autonomy, children are not taught the most basic skills for their livelihoods. Sexual assault rarely goes reported (though in some parts of the community there has been change). Women are forced to marry at nineteen and bear a dozen children, and if they need a divorce, they are often held in miserable limbo by rabbinical courts.

Finally Israel is beginning to notice what is happening in the Haredi autonomy, when its insistence on living by its own rules risks becoming a threat to the general publics health. Where have Israelis been until now?

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Israel's leading rabbi thinks not studying Torah is more dangerous than coronavirus - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on March 14, 2020

IN a recent issue ofOxford Magazinethe theme was Climate Change Special. It was packed with the usual canards as might be expected. But one article in particular caught my eye. It was by Professor Bart van Es, entitledThe Climate Crisis and World War 2 a dangerous but necessary parallel.

His basic thesis was that most of the Dutch (he is himself Dutch) failed to resist the Nazis because most kept quiet. The exceptions were mostly students, many of whom lost their education by refusing to go along with the Nazis. So far, so unsurprising. But he then drew an analogy between that situation and the current climate emergency where, he claims, most people just keep quiet and leave it to Extinction Rebellion(XR) to resist the wicked deniers who, like the Nazis did, control everything. I found this just a wee bit of a stretch so I wrote to the good Professor as follows:

Dear Prof van Es,

In your article you draw an analogy which intrigued me because the real analogy is the exact opposite.

During the 1920s and early 30s in Germany there were many attempts to thwart Hitler and the rising National Socialists. But these brave people found out rapidly that the influence of National Socialism was deeper than they realised. Attempts, for example, to bring the Brown Shirts (Sturmabteilungor SA) to justice frequently foundered through lost evidence, or if they did reach court the defendants were acquitted or given lenient sentences.

Attempts to use the media to expose their lies also came to nothing. Papers were closed down, editors sacked and publicly ridiculed (or exposed as being Jewish), and sometimes disappearing.

Before long, few dared question National Socialism in public. They had families, perhaps still viable careers, which they dared not risk. So the Nazis came to power. Once in power they had the children in schools opened to indoctrination and got children to spy and report on their parents. As Hitler himself stated: When an opponent declares, I will not come over to your side, I calmly say, Your child belongs to us already. What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community. (A similar belief was held, incidentally, by many Remainers.)

Now today we have the Green dogma. Few dare criticise it. Those who do find themselves ridiculed, called deniers (irony of ironies!) losing academic posts and careers (I know at least six people to whom this has happened), even spat upon in public. It becomes impossible to get research grants unless the topic goes along with the narrative of climate change. It becomes almost impossible to publish scientific papers questioning the dogma in mainstream scientific publications.

The semantic similarity to Holocaust deniers is often explicit and represents a strong symbolic undercurrent. One Australian columnist has proposed outlawing climate change denial: David Irving is under arrest in Austria for Holocaust Denial. Perhaps there is a case for making climate change denial an offence it is a crime against humanity after all. Likewise David Roberts fromGrist(he did their long interview with Al Gore) talks about the denial industry and states that we should have war crimes trials for these bastards some sort of climate Nuremberg.

St Greta even said they should be put up against a wall (though she has apologised for that remark apparently).

As in Germany with Jewish science, so it is today with Denier science. (The irony was that Jewish science enabled the British and Americans to construct the nuclear bomb, whereas arrogant but hamstrung German science got nowhere).

As in Germany with the Brown Shirts, so today we have XR, who are aggressive, cause immense public nuisance and rarely come before a court. (When some XR clown clambered on to the roof of a train and a brave citizen got him off, who was arrested? The citizen.)

Does wicked industry try to break this embargo? No. Mostly they join it. XR has huge funding, as had the Nazis in Germany from German industry.

Do the official churches challenge it? No, they enthusiastically embrace the dogma. St Greta is acclaimed by a Swedish pastor as the successor to Jesus Christ.Again, just like in Nazi Germany, where the official churches often equated Hitler with Jesus; founding a Millennial kingdom the Thousand Year Reich!

Pope Pius XII endorsed Hitler,co-operating in his anti-Semitism and passively assenting to the murder of Serbian Orthodox believers by Croatian death squads; so too the current Pope Francis endorses Greta and Green dogma.

The mainstream media? Not a hope all would see it as the kiss of death were they to espouse climate denial. So again, articles and letters are rarely published raising questions. Knowndeniers are barred from the BBC. Ditto, no political party dare raise the issue. When President Trump does, he is vilified.

In schools it is one long indoctrination class: hardly a subject escapes being greened. Children are encouraged to report to their teachers parents who dont recycle properly or waste energy of this I have specific evidence.

A further huge irony of your analogy is that the Nazis were very Green (which is partly why the Greens in Germany today are still strong politically). They inherited German Romanticism (nature worship, in essence an ultimately cruel and hopeless religion) of the previous two centuries. Hitlers dream ofLebensraumwhere the bermenschenworkers would, once the Untermenschenhad been exterminated, settle and grow their food on idyllic organic farms, living lives of unity with the earth. Blut und Boden blood and soil remember?

Oddly, that was Marxs vision as well! In his workers Utopia he foresaw hunting in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, tending cattle in the evening and engaging in literary criticism after dinner (quoted inThe Uses of Pessimismby the late Roger Scruton, p67).

The only bit that Hitler might not have approved of was the hunting, which he opposed as cruel!

So today we have ridiculous calls that food must be local, organic, even vegan. If that policy were pursued, 75 per cent of the worlds population would die of starvation. But we hear the likes of David Attenborough and his cronies complaining that we are overpopulated, so maybe that is the idea.

It is amazing just how lethal Green dogma has become. Third World countries are stopped from building fossil-fuelled power stations the World Bank refuses them loans because of environmental fears, and as a result millions die. [Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death,Paul Dreissen, 2003]. Friends of the Earth want chlorine banned worldwide, a chemical which has saved billions of lives by making water safe for drinking and, may I add, chickens safe to eat. I could go on.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Foster

And answer came there none!

This article first appeared in the February 2020 magazine of the Campaign for an Independent Britain (8 Carlton Rd, Worksop, Nottinghamshire S80 1PH, general enquiries 0845 5197 254) and is republished by kind permission.

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Posted By admin on March 14, 2020

What makes this guff credible to anyone? Conspiracism flourishes during uncertainty, offering an overarching (and thus reassuring) explanation to people confronting apparent chaos. But, as Ebner explains, in a chronicle of two years engaging with online trolls, alt-rightists and Nazis, the structures of the internet often facilitate bizarre and abhorrent ideas.

In one chapter, she goes undercover among the hipster racists of Europes Generation Identity (almost giving herself away, at one stage, by unthinkingly ordering a cappuccino with soy milk). The Identitarians use an app called Patriot Peer (dubbed by some Tinder for Nazis), which gives users credits as they recruit to the anti-immigrant cause. The dating app model has, in fact, spread throughout the far right.

Ebner describes her experiences on a site called WASP Love, where she meets up with Will, a romantically inclined bachelor who likes traditional values and dislikes degeneracy. She might equally have logged into White Date for European Singles or Farmers Only for Americans or Trump Singles (tag line: Make Dating Great Again).

In another chapter, she joins the troll army known as Reconquista Germanica, which gamifies its campaigns for the racist Alternative for Germany party, by allowing members to move up virtual rankings as they perform missions online.

Perhaps more unexpectedly, she explains how even ostensibly apolitical platforms foster radicalisation. For instance, because social media companies monetise engagement, their algorithms provide users with more intense versions of content theyve shown they already like.

Ebner quotes the techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci on how the process works with Youtube: If you start with a video about jogging, for example, you can be almost sure to end up seeing extreme parkour or ultra-marathon videos. And when you watch a vegetarian cooking lesson, you might get suggestions for militant veganism at the end of the day.

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Politically, that means repeated searches for, say, Trump speeches can see the user served with white supremacist rants and videos advocating Holocaust denial.

At the same time, the online space allows the development of surprisingly intense relationships, even with those whose views you might initially find repugnant. In a particularly fascinating section, Ebner writes of her engagement with a forum for Red Pill Women that is, women who embrace the militant anti-feminism associated with the mens rights movement.

These so-called Trad Wives assess what they call their sexual market value (or SMV), a figure they say declines according to how many partners theyve had. They chat about how best to please men, including by adopting the STFU method (Men prefer women who dont talk too much, one says), in a discussion that shades into a justification of domestic violence.

In the wake of her own relationship breakdown, Ebner catches herself nodding along as the Trad Wives banter on Reddit.

It was far too easy to get draw into this strange place, she concludes, a radical online community like most others I had joined before, yet entirely different: the hatred wasnt directed towards others but towards oneself. There was something weirdly comforting in the self-blaming, self-denigrating language that connected its members a certain kind of consolation in the offer of collective self-optimisation.

An encrypted Telegram chat group for female Islamic State supporters works the same way: on the one hand, a vehicle for violently patriarchal ideas; on the other, a forum in which advocates of terror find a strange female solidarity.

Ebner describes extremists as enthusiastic adopters of technology, with, for instance, sales of DNA-testing kits from companies such as 23andme, Ancestry and MyHeritage surging after 2016 as the rights new recruits sought to establish their ethnic purity.

More importantly, the far right knows how to exploit weaknesses created by tech in society.After Ebner published an article about the British right-wing populist Tommy Robinson, he sneaked into the building where she worked and filmed her so he could broadcast the confrontation online. Had Robinson come to my office 10 years earlier, she writes, the media stunt would most likely not have worked there wasnt a big enough audience that wanted to see news outlets dismantled and journalists disgraced.

Its an argument that she might have explored in more detail, with her books focus on encounters with radicalised individuals often emphasising psychology and tech rather than politics.

Certainly, Burned Spy would not have been possible without Twitter but its also difficult to imagine QAnon achieving such popularity without the devastation of the global financial crisis.Nevertheless, Going Dark deserves a wide readership. As Ebners chapter on the Christchurch massacre emphasises, when internet radicals collide with the real world, the results can be deadly. Her book offers an accessible and engaging introduction to some of the most dangerous communities online and to the methods that enable them to grow.

Jeff Sparrows most recent book is Fascists Among Us: Online Hate and the Christchurch Massacre (Scribe). Julia Ebner is a guest at Sydney Writers Festival (April 27-May 3). swf.org.au

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Posted By admin on March 14, 2020

Find a spiritual experience at religious centers in the San Fernando Valley area. Here is a sampling of services and special events.

Due to coronavirus concerns, call ahead or check websites to confirm services and events through March. Also, many religious organizations use a livestream service.

Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has dispensed all Catholic faithful from the obligation of attending Sunday Mass for the weekends of March 14-15, March 21-22 and March 28-29. Mass is livestreamed from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels: English, 10 a.m., and Spanish, 12:30 p.m. on Sunday: facebook.com/lacatholics or lacatholics.org/emergency

So, Who Is This Mother Nature, Anyway?: This event has been postponed. NewSong Singers present a childrens musical by Janet Boggs and Judy Brock, 4 p.m. March 14 and 2 p.m. March 15. Minimum age: 5 and older. Tickets $5. La Caada Presbyterian Church, Worship Arts Center, 626 Foothill Blvd., La Caada Flintridge. http://www.lacanadapc.org

Vitamin C for Christians Celebration: Pastor Jim Bell delivers the message, 6 p.m. March 14. West Valley Christian Church, 22450 Sherman Way, West Hills. 818-884-6480.www.wvcch.org

I Amthe Light of the World: The Rev. Rob Denton delivers part two of six sermons on Seeing Jesus Clearly the I Am Statements, 9 and 10:45 a.m. March 15. The text is John 8:12. West Valley Christian Church, 22450 Sherman Way, West Hills. 818-884-6480. http://www.wvcch.org

Congregational Church of Chatsworth (United Church of Christ): No church services through March. The Rev. Bill Freeman will be videotaping his sermons for viewing on the church website. Scheduled sermon for March 15: Let Us Give Up Anger for Lent. Congregational Church of Chatsworth (United Church of Christ), 20440 Lassen St. 818-349-2550. http://www.chatsworthucc.org

The Prodigal Son Who Stayed Home: The Rev. Joseph Choi explains the message, based on Luke 15:25-32, 10 a.m. March 15 (in English) and 11:30 a.m. In Korean). Northridge United Methodist Church, 9650 Reseda Blvd. 818-886-1555. bit.ly/2Q9nio1

Facing Uncertainty with Wisdom, Compassion and Connection: The congregation will meet this Sunday however people are being encouraged to use livestream. The Rev. Matthew McHale delivers the message, 10:30 a.m. March 15. Also, the church is anticipating no in-house service on March 22; livestream only (call or check website).Two ways to connect to Sundays service: Download Zoom App and log into uuma.zoom.us/j/8581092800 (log-in 5-10 minutes early) or call 669-900-6833 and use meeting ID: 858 109 2800. Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, 7304 Jordan Ave., Canoga Park. 818-887-6101. emersonuuc.org

The Power of Compassion: The Rev. Jenenne Macklin discusses her thoughts on the centers March sermon theme, 11 a.m. March 15. Meditation, 10:30 a.m. Unity Burbank Center for Spiritual Awareness, 637 S. Victory Blvd., Burbank. 818-841-4037. http://www.unityburbank.org; http://www.facebook.com/unityburbank

Italian Catholic Club of Santa Clartia Valley events: Two events: Bingo games, noon March 15 ($25; reservations required at 661-645-7877; Smokehouse Restaurant, 24255 Main St., Santa Clarita). St. Josephs Table, 1-6 p.m. March 29 (donate a baked item; spaghetti meal; free; Our Lady of Perpetual Help, church hall, 23233 Lyons Ave., Newhall). Anna, 661-645-7877. Email: italians@iccscv.org

Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble: Performs The Canterbury Tales: A Pilgrimage in Song, 4 p.m. March 15. Free admission; an offering will be taken. St. James Presbyterian Church, 19414 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. 818-345-2057.

Lenten service at Canoga Park Lutheran Church: The Rev. Tim Jenks delivers the message The Wounds of Stealing, 6:30 p.m. March 18. Light supper, 5:45 p.m. (in the parishs gym). Upcoming Lenten services: March 25 and April 1. 7357 Jordan Ave. 818-348-5714. http://www.cplchurch.org

Lenten service at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church: The Rev. Gregory Barth delivers the message The Wounds of Adultery, 6:30 p.m. March 18. Light dinner, 5:30 p.m. Upcoming Lenten services: March 25 and April 1. 8520 Winnetka Ave., Winnetka. 818-341-3460. bit.ly/2HAzRUO

Get Real and Heal Meditation: 7 p.m. March 11. Donation. This gathering meets on the first, second and third Wednesdays of the month. Center for Spiritual Living, 17622 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills. 818-363-8136. cslgh.com

Unafraid Lenten study series: The Rev. Steve Peralta discusses Failure, Disappointing Others, Insignificance and Loneliness, based on the book by Adam Hamilton Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times, 7:30 p.m. March 19. Soup supper and Vespers, 7 p.m. Upcoming classes: March 26 and also April 2. Study books $15. First United Methodist Church of North Hollywood, 4832 Tujunga Ave. 818-763-8231. http://www.nohofumc.org; http://www.facebook.com/nohofumc1

Tmarim Sephardic Shabbat service at Valley Beth Shalom: Cantor Phil Baron and artist-in-residence Asher Levy lead the service, 6:30 p.m. March 20. Mezze refreshments, 6 p.m. The service will be live streamed. Sher-Lopaty Chapel, 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino. 818-788-6000. http://www.vbs.org; bit.ly/33bO9oX

Shabbat at Temple Judea: 6:15 p.m. March 20. 5429 Lindley Ave., Tarzana. 818-758-3800. Email: info@templejudea.com. portal.templejudea.com/calendar

Temple Beth Hillel Shabbat: Rabbi Keara Stein leads the service 7 p.m. March 20. 12326 Riverside Drive, Valley Village. 818-763-9148. tbhla.org; bit.ly/338IbVA

Shabbat services at Valley Beth Israel: Rabbi Mark Goodman leads the non-traditional/Reform service, 7:30 p.m. March 20, and a traditional/Conservative service, 9 a.m. March 21. 13060 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley. 818-782-2281. https://myvbi.net/

Lenten Fish Fry at St. Clare of Assisi Roman Catholic Church: Fish dinner or fish tacos for dine-in or take-away, 4:30-8 p.m. Fridays through April 3. Cost $11 for two-piece or the fish tacos; $12 for three-piece. Proceeds go to local charities. 19606 Calla Way, Canyon Country. 661-252-3353. http://www.st-clare.org; bit.ly/2uYi332

Fish Fry with the Knights of Columbus Tujunga Council #4438:Fishdinners for dine-in or take-away, 5:30-7 p.m. Fridays through April 3. Cost $9; $6 one-piece of fish, fries and cole slaw or macaroni and cheese for children. Bar open for age 21 and older. Proceeds go to local charities. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall, 10275 Tujunga Canyon Blvd., Tujunga. bit.ly/39S4eSP

Send information at least two weeks ahead. holly.andres@dailynews.com. 818-713-3708.

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Religion events in the San Fernando Valley area, March 14-21 - LA Daily News

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A new exhibition at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam tells the story of the black community in 17th century Dutch society and how the portrayal of black figures in Western art reveals much about attitudes to race.

With a keen eye, surprising discoveries can be made in Jacob van der Ulfts gouache painting The Market in Dam Square, Amsterdam (1653). Amidst all the loading and unloading of goods, trading and gossiping, are a trio of turbaned men from the East and, mixing in with the crowd at a fish stall, a black-skinned man dressed in blue.

Black in Rembrandts Time, which opened at the Rembrandt House Museum on 6 March, combines 17th century artworks and records from the city archives to reveal an irrefutable truth: the Netherlands has been multicultural for some 400 years, and black people at odds with a myth of monoculturalism were both present and free in 17th century Amsterdam.

Rembrandts neighbours

The black community in Rembrandts time were mostly sailors, soldiers, and servants, and were concentrated around the Jodenbreestraat, where the museum Rembrandts former home stands today. Rubbing shoulders with other migrants from Germany, Portugal, Spain and Scandinavia, was a diverse black diaspora: Africans, West Indians and Brazilians accompanying repatriating Dutch families from the colonies or in service to Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution.

Thanks to the research of historians such as Mark Ponte, who worked on the exhibition, we know that a community of around 80 people of colour were based in the area, representing about 0.4% of the population. Despite widespread slavery in the colonies, the practice was banned within the countrys own borders, and black immigrants though mostly low in status were technically free. Records show inter-racial marriages dating back to the 16th century.

Drawn from life

Further evidence that Rembrandts contemporaries lived among people of colour is the realistic depiction of black people in their works, most likely local residents who agreed to model for the artists. In fact, it was guest curator Stephanie Archangels encounter with Rembrandts unexpectedly lifelike Two African Men (1661) that sparked the idea for the exhibition. Archangel, who has Curaaoan heritage, had always struggled to recognise herself in art museums, yet this 350-year-old oil painting was an exception. They were really proud and they looked like real men, like real people had stood there and that he had drawn or painted them from life, she says.

She contacted historian Elmer Kolfin and asked him: Am I seeing something different? Is it real that Rembrandt painted these people more humanely than Ive seen before? Kolvin set her on a path of discovery to works by Rembrandts contemporaries: Gerrit Dou, Hendrick Heerschop, and the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. Its not just Rembrandt, he told her, but a whole period in Rembrandts time.

Breaking stereotypes

So realistic and familiar was the splendidly dressed man in Heerschops King Caspar (1684), that Archangel had the strange sensation that her uncle was looking back at her. Here the black person was not a servant hovering in the background, an adjunct to enhance a central white figure, but the subject itself of the work. Its nice to look at 17th century paintings and be proud as a black person, instead of uncomfortable or sad, she says.

The exhibitions twist is that these masterful paintings, etchings and drawings are more realistic than the negative, caricatured depictions of black people which came later, and which also feature in the exhibition by means of contrast. Tropes such as the man-eating savage or the eager, smiling slave appear widely on illustrated maps and books of the period and were used to sell exotic commodities such as tobacco and cocoa. Its interesting to see that there was a period that this was not as dominating as it is now and it really shows how that dominance is something which has been constructed, says Archangel.

Naming people

Acting parts in biblical scenes or extras in a landscape, black figures however lifelike were nevertheless largely anonymous, and Jasper Beckxs Portrait of Don Miguel de Castro (1643), which features in the exhibition, is one of the few black portraits where the name is known.

Dutch Masters Revisited, four photographs distributed throughout the Rembrandt House Museum, seeks to redress this indignity by naming and celebrating prominent black figures today. Curated by Jorgen Tjon A Fong of cultural organisation Urban Myth, the series features Dutch celebrities, such as the singer Tania Kross and the radio presenter Humberto Tan, photographed as the subjects of 17th century masterpieces.

Black Jesus

The final section of the exhibition displays contemporary works where black people are both the artist and the subject, speaking their own truth and questioning received ideas about black identity. We are all imprinted with the idea of a white Jesus, even though this wasnt the case, says Raul Balai, who co-curated this part of the exhibition with Brian Elstak. The pair chose a dark-skinned Jesus as the subject of their own art work, which features in the exhibition alongside an oil painting of political activist Hermina Huiswoud and Too Black, a photograph of members of a ballet company.

Though the impressive art work alone merits a visit, Black in Rembrandts time is above all a bid for black visibility and truthful representation, and an interrogation of prevailing views of history. Art exhibitions are no longer just about aesthetics, explains Archangel. Its become more about the people. Who were these people? How did they navigate society? Rather than just looking at paintings with black people on them.

Black in Rembrandts Time runs from 6 March to 31 May 2020 at the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam. The exhibition is part of Musea Bekennen Kleur, a collaboration between 12 museums to ensure diversity and inclusion.

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Black in Rembrandt's time: a myth-shattering exhibition on identity and truth - DutchNews.nl

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Posted By admin on March 14, 2020

Ms. Archangel said that the focus of the show is on images that present the many different roles that black people played in society, and the many different roles they played in paintings for artists. The exhibition, she added, portrays more than what we knew before, which were mostly images of servants and enslaved people.

In the 17th century, the Netherlands was deeply involved in the international slave trade, but slavery was prohibited on Dutch soil. People of African descent who lived in the Netherlands at that time came as servants brought over by immigrant families, said Mark Ponte, an historian with the Amsterdam City Archives, and the lead researcher for the Rembrandt House exhibition.

Mr. Ponte specializes in early modern migration and the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: Using marriage, birth and death records, he was able to reconstruct a network of about 100 black people who lived in Amsterdam during Rembrandts time. The women he identified were mostly servants in the homes of Sephardic Jewish families who had emigrated to the Netherlands from Portugal, and most of the men were Brazilian sailors who worked in the shipping trade.

Mapping their addresses in the city center, Mr. Ponte discovered that many lived in what is now called the Jewish Cultural Quarter, where Rembrandt once had a studio; some of them may have served as his models.

Mr. Ponte and the curators said they wanted to connect the black residents of Rembrandts neighborhood to the images the artist created. In total, Rembrandt created at least 26 images of black subjects, by Mr. Kolfins count (12 paintings, eight etchings and six drawings), and most of these were probably based on his neighbors, whether they posed for him, or he observed them on the street.

Dutch artists like to paint whats in front of them, said Mr. Kolfin. From the 1620s to the 1660s, there was a marked increase in Africans in Amsterdam, he added, as evidenced by Mr. Pontes research. But its been impossible to link the names to the faces, which is disappointing, Mr. Koflin added.

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Dutch Golden Age Art Wasnt All About White People. Heres the Proof. - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on March 14, 2020

This piece will focus on how and why some Ashkenazic Jewsboth religious and (later) secularadopted the Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew because they deemed it superior to the Ashkenazi one.

Hungary never had a strong tradition of pronouncing the prayers in the Sephardi pronunciation. Hartwig (Naphtali Hirtz) Wessely (1725-1805), who initiated the reform of Hebrew pronunciation, referred precisely to the fact that the Sephardi people read out every phonetic symbol, even semitones of traditional texts, clearly, and claimed that their language sounded nicer than the Ashkenazi reading. In Hungary, Joszef Rajnis (1741-1812), a Jesuit teacher and poet, made a similar statement with an offensive anti-Semitic overtone. In his opinion, the accent (barking as he called it) of rabbis differed significantly from the original sounds of the ancient Jewish language.

In Hungary there was an attempt to introduce Sephardi pronunciation already in the 19th century.. In 1828, Moses ben Menachem Kunitz (1774-1837) of Obuda, the rabbi of the Buda community from 1828 until his death, author of some valuable Talmudic works and a Zohar analysis, published a rabbinic decision (psak) that announced that the Sephardi pronunciation should be used in the synagogue instead of the Ashkenazi one. His main argument was that seven-eighths of the worlds Jews prayed using the Sephardi pronunciation (this figure was obviously exaggerated). Kunitzer was in favor of reforms in general; he even supported the efforts of the radical reformer Aron Chorin. He studied in Prague and was held in high esteem.

The activity of Kunitzer had no real result, but in spite of its failure, it indicates that representatives of the haskalah were unanimously convinced that the Sephardi pronunciation preserved by certain isolated Jewish groups throughout centuries was closer to the original sound of the Hebrew language than the Ashkenazi one, the common language of European Jews altered under German influence.

It is interesting to note that in the 1950s, the leadership of the Hungarian Jewish community strictly forbade the Sephardi pronunciation, which sounded similar to modern Hebrew. It was even forbidden at the Rabbinical Seminary, lest they be accused of Zionism and thus invite political or police intervention (Hungary was a Communist dictatorship at the time). Those who study Hebrew these days may learn both pronunciations, yet the attraction and impact of the Israeli intonation is powerful. In synagogues, the Ashkenazi pronunciation is still in use, but younger people, including students of the Rabbinical Seminary, switch to the Sephardi-Israeli reading they became accustomed to during their stay in Israel.

Eliezer ben Yehuda is considered the father of modern Hebrew. Ben Yehuda left his native Lithuania and sailed to Palestine in 1881 where he settled in the Jewish quarter of old Jerusalem. In 1890 he helped create the Hebrew Language Council (Vaad Ha Leshon Ha Ivrit) whose stated purpose was to disseminate works in Hebrew and establish Hebrew as the official language of the Yishuv.

Although Ben-Yehuda was not a religious Jew, he initially dressed as a traditional Sephardic Jew, sported a long untrimmed beard and regularly attended the local synagogue. It wasnt long, however, until he managed to arouse the ire of the Jerusalem Sephardic Rabbinate, who responded with three separate bans against him and his newspaper Hatzvi.

Ben-Yehuda particularly disliked the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar and considered him to be from the old generation of Jews who were hopelessly stuck in the galut [exile] mentality. He did, however, form close ties with Elyashars successor, Rabbi Yaakov Meir, who was highly sympathetic to Ben-Yehudas ambitions, and the former was instrumental in introducing the modern Hebrew language into the schools of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem.

Ben-Yehuda Chooses the Sephardic Pronunciation

Ben-Yehuda, although displaying an attitude of contempt for the older generation of traditional Sephardic rabbis, harbored a strong admiration for the traditions of Sephardic Jewry; the golden age in Spain was especially cherished by Ben-Yehuda, who called it this most fruitful period.

As Jack Fellman put it:

[T]he Sephardim as a whole were less inclined to religious fanaticism and more receptive to new ideas from the outside world. This fact can be attributed to various sources. First, unlike the Ashkenazim, the Sephardim had never been directly exposed to the new climate of thought as expressed in the ideas of the enlightenment that were sweeping across Europe during the 19th century and therefore did not recognize as deeply the possible anti-traditional, anti-religious consequences of these beliefs.

It is known from historical records and had also been clear to Ben Yehuda before his arrival in Palestine that the various Jewish groups in the city, while speaking their own languages among themselves, used Hebrew as a lingua franca when it became necessary to meet together, for example in the marketplace, or to work together, as in the collection of taxes for the government authorities. This situation was particularly applicable to the two major sections of the communityAshkenazim and Sephardimwhen they met together, but was also the case when groups consisting only of Sephardic Jews gathered, as these people had no other common means of communication but Hebrew, since Ladino was restricted in use and Arabic was splintered into several dialects. As Ben-Yehuda observed: When, for example, a Sephardi from Aleppo would meet a Sephardi from Salonika, or a Sephardi from Morocco would come into the company of a Jew from Bukhara, they were obliged to speak in the holy tongue [Of] all the centers of Jewish population in the world, only Jerusalem could boast a spoken Hebrew tradition that had been preserved until Ben Yehudas time. As Ben Yehuda noted: For me the matter was a little easier, because the Sephardim who knew I was not a Sephardi were already used to the fact that with an Ashkenazi they must speak in Hebrew. As for the Ashkenazim, some of them did not know who I was, and the question of whether I might not be a Sephardi made it acceptable to them to speak with me in Hebrew.

This Hebrew was not, of course, the Ashkenazic (European) Hebrew that Ben Yehuda had learned in his youth. In the first place, it was a Hebrew spoken with the Sephardic accent, inasmuch as the Sephardim were numerically and culturally superior to the other groups in Jerusalem and had enjoyed this status for over 300 years and therefore their accent too had become dominantIt should also be borne in mind, as a factor initially aiding Ben Yehuda and his ideal, that certain groups of Jews in Palestine already spoke only Hebrew, in particular Kabbalists and chasidim especially in Safed, at least on Sabbaths, but also, it would seem, on weekdays.

The author is an independent scholar of history and translator of Hebrew text. Please contact [emailprotected] Check out Channeling Jewish History on Facebook for daily updates in your inbox.

By Joel Davidi Weisberger

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Ashkenazim and the Sephardic Pronunciation of Hebrew, Part III - Jewish Link of New Jersey

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There was a small political revolution in this months Knesset election in Jerusalems prestigious Rehavia neighborhood: The party that got the most votes was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud.

That surprised even Pini, the owner of a tiny neighborhood delicatessen, who was pleased and proud about the development: For 40 years, I fought without success with residents who didnt vote Likud, he says. I couldnt believe it when I heard about the victory. I dont know how it happened.

The longtime Likud activist has worked on Gaza Road in the heart of the West Jerusalem neighborhood for 40 years, although he doesnt live there. Many years ago, his store also served as a Likud headquarters.

Pini acknowledged the mixed nature of his success over the years. Referring to a late geography professor and his son, who was an army major general, a cabinet minister and Labor Party Knesset member and later the Israeli ambassador to China, Pini says: Some people became more left-wing. The most right-wing was Prof. Zev Vilnay, but his son, Matan Vilnai, wasnt right-wing.

Pini also made mention of former Likud cabinet minister and former Knesset member Dan Meridor.

Dan Meridor was right-wing, but today, hes left-wing. He called Meridor a close friend, but said he doesnt come to the store as often these days. At one time, we supported him, he says. Now he doesnt need us as much.

Referring to the founder of Likud, Menachem Begin, Rehavia resident Haim Baluashvili recounts: In 1978, I was an 18-year-old kid. When they asked me who I voted for, I said Begin. That, Baluashvili adds, prompted Labor Party supporters to shun him, so I learned not to talk about it.

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He doesnt live in the neighborhood either, but he is a familiar figure in Rehavia, having spent 41 years working at a neighborhood convenience store. [Prime Minister] Yitzhak Shamir would eat a hard-boiled egg sandwich there in the morning, he reminisced.

Baluashvili expresses pride in the diversity of the neighborhood, which is just adjacent to the center of the city, and even the fact that he sells 25 copies of Haaretz on Fridays. Thats a lot, he says, while explaining the changes that the neighborhood has undergone. The longtime residents moved to Tel Aviv. Ultra-Orthodox residents have moved in, right-wing voters, but theyre fine liberal, not fervent.

Rehavia was founded in the 1920s and over the years was considered a symbol of an arrogant Ashkenazi elite, even though it was also home to Sephardim whose families had lived in the city for generations. It was a neighborhood of Supreme Court justices, Hebrew University professors and straitlaced German immigrants who came in the 1930s.

Give me their names

Gavriel Ginio, 94, has always lived there. Asked if he could believe that for the first time Likud came out on top in a Knesset election in Rehavia, he quips: Here? What are their names? Ill go after them with my cane.

Asked how he votes, Ginio refers to Israels first prime minister, who for much of his political career was associated with Mapai, the forerunner of the Labor Party. Im a [David] Ben-Gurion man, he says with deliberate vagueness. Ginio, whose family immigrated to Jerusalem from the Greek city of Thessaloniki 200 years ago, still has a beef with the late prime minister.

Ginio lives across from the home that served as the prime ministers residence when Ben-Gurion was in office. Ben-Gurion cost me a lot of money, because when we built our house here, his wife, Paula, told me: Every day at 1:30 P.M. I send [the prime minister] to take a nap. He needs to rest. To keep things quiet for the prime minister, everyone in the vicinity had to stop work for two hours, Ginio says.

Getting back to the present, Ginio says hes still trying to digest the political shift in the neighborhood.

In remarks about a decade ago at a conference of the Israel Association of Public Law, the president of the Supreme Court at the time, Dorit Beinisch, spoke about how a new slur had developed: And its called Rehavia, she said.

I assume that many of the younger generation around the country dont know at all about the significance of Rehavia. Years ago, decades, it was the most prestigious neighborhood in Jerusalem. Its prestige wasnt in that it was a neighborhood of the wealthy, but rather that intellectuals, Hebrew University professors, Zionist leaders and also some of the judges who contributed their talents to the Supreme Court lived there, she told her audience.

Eventually someone invented a populist gimmick, as if Rehavia was rich people who were cut off from ordinary Israelis, and now it is portrayed, with no basis in reality, as a left-wing stronghold, she added.

In 2011, journalist Ari Shavit wrote in Haaretz an article that ended in a plea to another neighborhood resident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appealing to him to return to the values of the neighborhood. Rehavia may be a place for bleeding hearts, but Rehavia is enlightenment and strength. In your better days, Rehavia is also you.

In the March 2 election, Rehavia was again Netanyahu or, more precisely, Likud. A quarter of the neighborhoods votes went to Likud, ahead of the center-left Kahol Lavans 22% and Labor-Gesher-Meretzs 15%

Support for Likud was up 6 percentage points over the September election and the increase appears to a considerable extent to have come at the expense of the Yamina slate of right-wing parties, which saw support drop by three points.

According to the data, its not correct to say that Rehavia has gone Likud, says Eitan Zinger, the CEO of the Madlan real estate website. But it has certainly moved to the right, because of the support for parties on the right and the strengthening of [the ultra-Orthodox party] United Torah Judaism.

The writer Kobi Arieli, who has lived in Rehavia for a decade, notes the growth of the neighborhoods religious population. He recounts going to the main neighborhood park with someone who grew up in the area. Together we looked at the population in the park, he said, and there wasnt even a single secular person just Haredi mothers and children.

And, in addition to the rising strength of right-wing parties, also notable is that UTJ nearly doubled its vote tally in Rehavia compared with 2015. That is for the most part due to the fact that wealthy Haredim have increasingly been leaving the confines of the adjacent Haredi neighborhood of Shaarei Hesed and have begun buying homes in Rehavia.

Thats just part of the urban experiences, says Arieli. Here its part of the day-today experience a neighborhood that is changing its tone but not its style. The truth is that Im amazed when people cry over the changes in the neighborhood. Did someone promise you that things would always be the way they are?

You hear a lot of crying around you?

Its a mark of honor for one-time secular residents and for yekkiness [the straitlaced lifestyle of old German-Jewish residents], although its hard to cry when your property has tripled in value. People may not be crying, but a large numbers of them are leaving. On the other hand, there are a lot of new-comers from Britain and France, I believe they day will come that more and more of the most observant Haredim will settle here and Haredim like me will leave.

Everyone is served

The brothers Nissim and Avraham Chaim host everyone who turns up at their Yom Tov fruit and vegetable market on Gaza Road. Shas Chairman Arye Dery, Meridor and Beinisch have been among their regular customers. And the driver of Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman used to stop by to get cherries for his boss. Here in Rehavia, Likud? Thats hard to get your head around, says Nissim.

He says he doesnt know of anyone who voted Likud. Our customers dont like to talk politics. If they do, then they dont come to the store or are hurt, he says and turns to Avraham. Can you believe Likud won here?Ridiculous, his brother answers. Theyre making fun of us.

Except for Pini from the delicatessen, no one who spoke to TheMarker can believe that Likud was the biggest vote-getter in the neighborhood. That includes Matan Alkalai, 26, who has a business next door to the brothers. He grew up in Rehavia. His father is an architect and his mother worked at a nurse at Hadassah Medical Center.

Alkalais childhood friends all left Jerusalem long ago, but he has stayed because of his business a hamburger takeout restaurant called Burger Room. A taste like Tel Aviv, he boasts.

The whole country has become Likud from what I see, so I can see how it happened here, too, he says. A lot of religious people and students have moved here. Once it was just families, but a lot of them have moved to Tel Aviv. When I was a child, there was nothing here. Today, theres nightlife bars, restaurants that are open on Shabbat.

Rehavia was originally a secular neighborhood, but every property that becomes available in the neighborhood, whether the owners are moving to Tel Aviv or to a cemetery, are mostly bought by a new class of people, mostly foreigners, says Simon Zerbib, a real estate agent who left the neighborhood for Tel Aviv four years ago.

Every potential buyer from overseas who wants a Jerusalem home and would ask where to buy would be sent to Rehavia, even if it was just for investment. So you see a lot of French and Americans. Still, Rehavia is one of the only Jerusalem neighborhoods where you can find businesses open on Shabbat or restaurants that are obviously not kosher because they have bacon on the menu, says Lilach Rubin, a restaurateur who defied the trend and move to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv 17 years ago. Even though religiously observant people have moved into Rehavia, the neighborhood has preserved its liberal character.

There are a lot of Anglo Saxons [English-speaking immigrants] who want to preserve the secular ambience because it enhances the value of their properties.

Rubins business, Shraga Caf, is just a 10-minute walk from her home, so he knows all the neighborhood businesses and their owners and their customers, especially those on Gaza Road.

While most of the professors who lived here once have moved to the Holyland [residential complex] or single-family homes, the character of the place has been preserved. Its a neighborhood with a strong commercial center and a student atmosphere. As the older population dies out, young people move in, even if its expensive here. We dont have the kind of nouveau riche that have taken over others places, says Rubin.

Eli Yitzhaki, who has owned and operated a grocery in Rehavia for 36 years, recalls, Once you couldnt even mention Likud in the neighborhood. Today you cant not talk about Likud in the neighborhood. Really? Yes. Theyre wild about Bibi.

Blame the Americans

Yitzhaki attributes the change to the Americans who have moved into the area. Americans with money have come here, they are investing in the neighborhood and most of the time their apartments are closed up.

Has that been bad for business?

There are a lot of nouveau riche who buy a lot. The professors who once lived here were more modest not that I would complain.

For all that, Netanyahu did not spend much effort campaigning in the area, but Yitzhaki says the prime minister was once a neighborhood fixture.

He would take his walks here. He came to my shop for years, even before he was married to Sara, Yitzhaki says. He always said hello to everyone, a true gentleman who knows the job. As to the stories about Netanyahu not paying his bills: I swear, it never happened that he didnt pay.

Tali Friedman, a lifelong resident who was shopping at Yitzhakis grocery with her young daughter, isnt surprised by the change in Rehavias voting patterns. Most of her childhood friends have moved to Tel Aviv.

We have more and more residents coming from abroad. People who experienced anti-Semitism abroad and now they see themselves as fighting for their home, she offers as an explanation for the electoral revolution. A lot of them dont live here most of the time, For example, l live in an empty building. Its me on the ground floor, the sky and God, But on Election Day theyre all here, they all turn out to vote.

A man wearing a kippa, who asks not to be identified, joins the conversation. Likud has succeeded because the people are have come here are modern Haredim, he explains. The people who founded this neighborhood are long gone, the professors. The demographic change is most evident on Shabbat, I sit on my terrace and there are almost no cars, maybe on in an hour. Even Mayor Moshe Leon [of Likud] got a lot of votes in the local election.

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How this Jerusalem left-wing bastion turned right in Israel's last election - Haaretz

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