Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

Feb 28, 2020, News Release from Office of U.S. District Attorney Thomas Cullen

Roanoke, VIRGINIA On Wednesday, February 26, the Anti Defamation League (ADL) honored a team of local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, who worked together to prosecute James Fields Jr., the white supremacist who was convicted of more than two-dozen hate crimes for a car attack in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, with ADL SHIELD Awards during the groups 10th Annual awards ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Since 2010, the ADL annually recognizes law enforcement for significant contributions toward protecting the American people from hate crimes, extremism, and domestic or international terrorism.

Among the recipients of this years ADL SHIELD Award were the local, state, and federal agencies, and individuals, that investigated, prosecuted, and assisted in the prosecution, of James Fields, Jr. The ADL recognized contributions from the United States Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia, the Department of Justice, Office of Civil Rights, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Virginia State Police, the Charlottesville City Police Department, the Albemarle County Police Department, the City of Charlottesville Commonwealths Attorneys Office, and the University of Virginia Police Department.

The awful events of August 12, 2017, including James Fields act of domestic terrorism, left an indelible mark on the local Charlottesville community, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and our country, U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen stated today. Although we couldnt bring Heather Heyer back or heal the permanent physical and psychological injuries suffered by dozens of others, we could seek meaningful justice for these victims, their families, and the community and send a clear message that hate-inspired acts of violence, murder, and terror will be met with the full and collective force of American law enforcement. I am very proud of our federal, state, and local partners and grateful to the ADL for recognizing their extraordinary achievements.

On August 12, 2017, after attending the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville and returning to his vehicle, Fields drove his car onto Fourth Street, a narrow, downhill, one-way street in downtown Charlottesville. At or around that same time, a racially and ethnically diverse crowd had gathered at the bottom of the hill, at the intersection of Fourth and Water Streets. Many of the individuals in the crowd were celebrating as they were chanting and carrying signs promoting equality and protesting against racial and other forms of discrimination. Fields slowly proceeded in his vehicle down Fourth Street toward the crowd. He then stopped and observed the crowd while idling in his vehicle. With no vehicle behind him, Fields then slowly reversed his vehicle toward the top of the hill.

The members of the crowd began to walk up the hill, populating the streets and sidewalks between the buildings on Fourth Street. Having reversed his car to a point at or near the top of the hill and the intersection of Fourth and Market Streets, Fields stopped again. Fields admitted that he then rapidly accelerated forward down Fourth Street in his vehicle, running through a stop sign and across a raised pedestrian mall, and drove directly into the crowd. Fieldss vehicle stopped only when it struck another stopped vehicle near the intersection of Fourth and Water Streets. Fields then rapidly reversed his car and fled the scene. As Fields drove into and through the crowd, Fields struck numerous individuals, killing Heather Heyer and injuring at least 28 others.

As the ADL recognized, local, state, and federal investigators undertook a massive coordinated investigation in the aftermath of Fields act of domestic terrorism. Investigators collected and reviewed over 5,000 hours of video footage related to the Unite the Right Rally, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and victims, and completed an exhaustive review of Fields background and social-media profile to develop evidence of his racial and anti-Semitic motivations. As a result of these extraordinary efforts, Fields was convicted of 29 federal hate crimes, as well as first-degree murder in state court, and is currently serving multiple life sentences.

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ADL honors team that prosecuted James Fields | NewsRadio WINA - WINA AM 1070

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Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

Professor, Henry J. Abraham passed away on Wednesday, February 26, 2020, at the age of, 98, in Charlottesville, Va. He was born August 25, 1921, in Offenbach am Main, Germany, the older son of Frederick and Liesel Kullman Abraham. He attended elementary schools there and the initial stages of high school at the Realgymnasium (Philantropin) in Frankfurt am Main. When he was 15, his farsighted mother, over the strong opposition of his father, determined that there was no safe future for him in Nazi Germany. She decided to send him to the United States. Wanting him to have a trade prior to his departure, she arranged for an apprenticeship as a printer which he completed while attending school. He left for the United States alone in April 1937, and journeyed to Pittsburgh, Pa. where his mother's, sister was a governess/housekeeper for two orphaned young women. But he could not stay with her. He attended and finished high school in Pittsburgh. In 1939 he was joined by his parents and beloved brother, Otto who predeceased him. Because his father's health was broken as a result of his incarceration in the concentration camps of Sachenhausen and Dachau, following Kristallnacht in November of 1938, Henry was unable to go to college and commenced work as a stock clerk for May Stern & Co., followed by a stint as a bookkeeper for a scrap iron firm. In 1942 he was drafted in the United States Army and became a United States citizen in 1943. After basic training in Fort Eustis, Va., he entered the army specialized training program and was sent to Kenyon College for language training. Following the end of the program, he was assigned to the Signal Corps and ultimately to the G-2 training base at Camp Ritchie, Md. From there he was sent overseas and saw American army service in England, Belgium, Holland, France and Germany, initially as an interrogator of enemy prisoners of war and ultimately as a member of the 6889th Berlin Documents Center, which was charged with the location, analysis, distribution, and interpretation of principally German documents. The center had a direct line to the United States Supreme Court Justice Jackson's office at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945 to 46. Henry was discharged in the spring of 1946 and was determined to enter college under the G.I. Bill. He matriculated Kenyon in 1946, and having completed two summer schools at Columbia College, received his undergraduate degree from his beloved Kenyon first in his class, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Highest Honors in Political Science in 1948. He received his M.A. degree in Public Law and Government from Columbia University in 1949 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952, where he had joined the faculty as Instructor in Political Science in 1949 at the annual salary of $2,400. Rising through the ranks, he became a full professor in 1962, having received Penn's first social science undergraduate teaching award in 1959, prior to spending a year in Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark, with his family on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1954 he married fellow Penn student Mildred Kosches of Woodmere, N.Y. with sons Philip and Peter arriving in 1957 and 1962. In 1972 Henry and his family left Penn and Philadelphia for Charlottesville, Va, where he became a chaired professor at the University of Virginia in Government and Foreign Affairs retiring in 1997, but he continued to teach in a program for 55 plus year old adults in courses on his specialty, the United States Supreme Court. Other than his family, teaching was the love of his life. The dedication he evinced vis--vis his circa 25,000 to 30,000 students over more than six decades, resulted in an abiding relationship, among which a group of 25 with whom he was close to the end, called itself "The Tribe of Abraham." Henry's teaching prowess was recognized in a host of ways. He received the University of Virginia's highest award, the Thomas Jefferson Award, the first Lifetime Achievement Award of the Organized Section on Law and Courts of the American Political Science Association, the University of Virginia's Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award, the Distinguished Service Award of the Virginia Social Science Association, the Kite and Key Service Award, the "Z" Society's Distinguished Faculty Award, the "IMP" Society's Outstanding Contribution to the University Community Award, the Templeton Honor Roll for Education in a Free Society Award and this non-native American received the 2007 Annual Award for Americanism from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Henry was a prolific author in his field, concentrating on books about the nature of the judicial process, in general, and the United States Supreme Court, in particular. He wrote 13 books, all of which were in multiple editions, ranging from two to ten. He also penned some 125 chapters in books and professional articles. He received honorary degrees from Kenyon College, the University of Hartford, Knox College, St. Joseph's University and Old Dominion University. During a 30-year period from the 1960's to the 1990's, the agencies of the United States Department of State utilized his services as a lecturer throughout the world in 65 lands, including; The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, India, Iran, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, New Zealand and Australia. In the U.S. he was a visiting professor at Swarthmore College, Columbia University, the University of Colorado, the University of Louisiana at Shreveport, the University of Richmond, the City University of New York, and he lectured throughout the states. He received grants and fellowships from the Bradley Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the American Historical Foundation, the American Political Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Abraham is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mildred; their sons, Philip (Janet) and Peter (Anne); grandchildren, Benjamin, Lauren, Marnie and Liesel. Interment at Monticello Memorial Gardens was private. A date for a memorial service will be announced later. In lieu of flowers, it was Henry's wish that any contributions be made to one of the following; Book Baskets at bookbaskets.org; the Antidefamation League at adl.org; The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at ushmm.org; The American Society of Yad Vashem at yadvashemusa.org or Kenyon College at Kenyon.edu/give-to-kenyon/

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Abraham, Henry J. - The Daily Progress

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Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

From an Atomwaffen video (Photo: Screenshot)

A former leader of the white supremacist group Atomwaffen Division, John Cameron Denton, 26, was arrested for taking part in swatting calls, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic where the harasser calls 911 to report that a third party is in serious and imminent danger, for example, a bomb threat, murder or hostage taking. A SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team is then sent to the unwitting third partys address.

Besides the enormous cost of sending these teams, swatting has resulted in accidental deaths.

Denton, who went by the codename Rape, was arrested in his hometown of Montgomery, Texas. The swatting took place in Virginia.

According to court documents, Denton and several co-conspirators, including John William Kirby Kelley, allegedly conducted swatting calls against:

Denton reportedly chose the ProPublica targets because he was furious with the news outlet for publishing his true identity and discussing his role in Atomwaffen Division.

During the investigation, Denton unknowingly met with an undercover agent and confessed his role in the swatting incidents. Denton told the agent how he used a voice changer when he made the swatting calls and said it would be good if he was raided for the swatting since, because it was a serious crime, it could benefit Atomwaffen Division.

The Justice Department also announced the arrest of four racially motivated violent extremists from across the U.S. who were connected to the Atomwaffen Division. All four were charged with conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists.

The four were named as Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Washington; Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas; Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida; and Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Arizona.

According to the criminal complaint, the defendants conspired via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate.

The group focused primarily on those who were Jewish or journalists. Cole and Shea allegedly created the posters, which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language.

The posters were delivered to Atomwaffen members electronically, and the co-conspirators printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting.

In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who had reported on Atomwaffen and to two people associated with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist (but delivered the poster to the wrong address). In Phoenix, the poster was delivered to a magazine journalist.

These defendants sought to spread fear and terror with threats delivered to the doorstep of those who are critical of their activities, said U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran for the western district of Washington state. Rooting out anti-Semitic hate and threats of violence and vigorously prosecuting those responsible are top priorities for the Department of Justice.

The FBI recognizes all citizens First Amendment-protected rights. However the subjects arrested today crossed the line from protected ideas and speech to action in order to intimidate and coerce individuals who they perceived as a threat to their ideology of hate, said Raymond Duda, special agent in charge from the FBI in Seattle.

The Base: NewNeo-NaziGroup Open About Violence

Islamists andNeo-NazisAre Not Opposites On the Contrary

Uptick in Arrests ofNeo-NazisPlotting Violent Attacks

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Neo-Nazi Tied to Atomwaffen Arrested for Swatting - Clarion Project

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Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

On Sunday morning, 19 Jewish Community Center locations in the US including several in New York received an emailed bomb threat, sending the facilities into high alert amid a police investigation.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York visited one of the confirmed locations, the Sidney Albert JCC located in the state's capital, Albany, and spoke at a press briefing following evacuations, the Albany Times Union first reported Sunday.

"These types of situations are so ugly and so unfortunate," Cuomo said. "What's worse is we're seeing more and more of them. We've had about 42 incidents of anti-Semitism in this state this past couple of months so it's not getting better. It's only getting worse."

Asked whether there were other JCCs threatened, Cuomo said: "Yes. There were about 18."

A representative for the office of the New York governor later clarified that not all 19 occurred in New York but would not say how many occurred in the state versus in others.

"It is not just anti-Semitism," Cuomo said. "There is a contagion of hate all across this country. The number of anti-African American attacks is up, the number of KKK groups and activity is up. The number of incidents against the LGBTQ community are up, so it's a virus all across this nation."

The New York governor then drew a comparison between the "contagion of hate" and the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has killed at least 2,360 people and infected nearly 80,000 others, mainly in China. There have been 35 reported cases of the coronavirus in eight US states; none have been reported in New York.

"People are worried about the coronavirus, which we're watching in this state there's also a virus of hate, and it's spreading and it's spreading quickly," he said. "And unfortunately, this state has also been infected, as hard as that is to believe, because New York, we're all about diversity, right?"

In 2018, reported instances of hate-crime violence reached their highest level in 16 years, the FBI said last year, according to a report from The New York Times. In December, Jewish communities fell under consistent anti-Semitic attacks, a number of which were violent.

"When you threaten a JCC, these are, it's not just an anti-Semitic attack. You have children who go to the JCC," Cuomo said. "You have gym facilities here. So, you are really threatening children. It is one of the most heinous things you can do. And again, it is fear and it is terror. That is all it is terror," adding that about 100 people in the Albany location had to be evacuated because of the threat there.

Michael Kopy, New York state's director of emergency management, told reporters that the threat came in an email people with JCC email accounts at about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, though he did not say which locations or email addresses were targeted by the threat, citing an ongoing investigation.

Because the threatening email mentioned a bomb, the Albany police brought their K-9 unit to sniff out explosives, though nothing was found and management was allowed to return to the building. The location was to remain closed for the rest of Sunday, according to the Albany Times Union.

"I think that it is very concerning and disturbing that these types of threats are being made, and we are very grateful that law enforcement takes it so seriously to be able to ensure that our communities are safe," Rachel Grinspan, the director of community affairs for the New York and New Jersey chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, told Insider.

"We are seeing a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents not only in the state of New York, but in New Jersey, too. At least towards the end of last year in New York state, especially in the boroughs, we did see an increase in physical violence in association with anti-Semitic attacks, especially in the borough of Brooklyn," Grinspan added, noting an increase in anti-Semitism online.

An ADL online tracker of reported anti-Semitic events listed 25 instances of anti-Semitism in the state of New York since the beginning of the year, many of which occurred in different areas of New York City.

More than 100 bomb threats were sent to JCC locations across the country in 2017, causing panic, fear, and evacuations across the country. Those threats were traced to a teenager living in Jerusalem, according to The New York Times. The 18-year-old suspect was believed to have made threats to sites locations in the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

New York State Police did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment.

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JCC locations get bomb threat, Andrew Cuomo likens hate to coronavirus - Insider - INSIDER

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Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

Yehuda Blum

Grace Aguilar

Who she was: Grace AguilarWhere and when: Victorian EnglandWhat we know: Born to Portuguese Jewish parents who fled the Inquisition, Grace Aguilar grew up in a London suburb, enmeshed in the sizable Sephardic community even as she led a fairly typical middle-class life. As a child, Aguilar experimented with writing plays and poetry, but like many Victorian female writers, she pursued publication as a way to make money: both of her parents became chronically ill when she was a teenager, forcing her to become the familys breadwinner. Aguilars first books were domestic novels that portrayed women who were content in their conventional roles as wives and mothers. At her fathers encouragement, she also began translating Jewish texts into English. And she started thinking about how Jews could preserve their faith and culture while living as a minority in a vibrant society.What she wrote: In 1842, Aguilar inaugurated her non-fiction career with a bombshell essay, The Spirit of Judaism. In it, she chastised her fellow Jews for losing interest in their faith and failing to educate their children in Jewish tradition. She called for English translations of the Torah so that ordinary people, not just religious scholars, could be intimately acquainted with the text (she herself had attended Protestant churches as a teenager in order to hear the Old Testament discussed in English). Only by cultivating a new enthusiasm about Judaism, she argued, could her community resist outside pressure to assimilate or convert. Two years later, Aguilar evaluated the tensions between British Jews and their Gentile neighbors in The History of the Jews in Britain. Lamenting the prevalence of anti-Semitism in Jewish life, she wrote that no matter how loyal British Jews were, they were still regarded as aliens and strangers and subject to structural discrimination. Later still, she proved herself one of the original chroniclers of unsung women by writing The Women of Israel, a landmark study of Jewish women from Biblical times to her own era.What she thought: Even as she urged her fellow Jews to return to traditional laws and practices, Aguilar is notable for carving out new roles for women. Women had to be just as active as men in studying and practicing Jewish law, she argued, because to them is more especially entrusted the regeneration of Israel. In The Women of Israel she made an even more radical claim, writing that Jewish laws which degraded women were not the word of God but the wrongheaded ideas of men. Although Judaism had long consigned women to unequal status within the community, Aguilar wrote that such practices were developed at a time when persecution had so brutalized and lowered the intellect of man that he partook the savage barbarity of the nations around him, and of the age in which he lived.What they said: Even though Aguilars arguments were decades ahead of her time, her work received considerable acclaim during her life. When she died at the age of 31, newspapers in England and America mourned the loss, hailing her as the moral governess to the Hebrew family. This may not be an epithet many Jewish women would welcome now, but it highlights her ability to establish herself as a public intellectual in an era when women struggled to be heard. Proving the hype true, synagogues on both sides of the pond taught Aguilars works to children for over a century.

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Grace Aguilar: The moral governess to the Hebrew family - Forward

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Posted By admin on March 1, 2020

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Six lead artistshave been announced forthe latest round of Opera NorthsResonance residencies this spring, developing new ideas in workshops andwork in progress performances in Leeds, with the support of PRS Foundation.

Launchedin 2017, Resonance offers time, space and resources to professional artists fromBAME backgrounds working in any genre of music and based in the North ofEngland, to take their work in new directions, to experiment with collaboratorsand new ideas, and to test the results in front of audiences.

Hull-based British-Egyptian mezzo soprano Camille Maalawy will bring the traditions of Arabic song and western opera together into performance, informed by her professional experience which ranges from opera, oratorio, lieder and contemporary composition, to Arabic and Sephardic traditional song. Her collaborators include composer and former principal nay player in the Orchestra of the Cairo Opera House Mina Mikhael Salama, and Guy Schalom, a percussionist who specialises in Arabic and klezmer music.

I am absolutely thrilled to be part of Resonance 2020!, comments Camille. Being awarded the time and space to explore the possibility of fusing Arabic and western classical song is such a wonderful opportunity for me to delve more deeply into my cultural heritage. I am honoured to be collaborating with Mina and Guy, and hope we can devise something that will engage and inspire a wide audience.

Born in South Africa and now living in Manchester, award-winning cellist Abel Selaocoes ambition is nothing less than to redefine the parameters of his instrument. He will work on original solo music for the cello that reimagines or is influenced by different stringed instruments from the African continent, including the gonji (Ghanaian violin), the berimbau, a single-string percussion instrument, the West African kora and the Ghanain kologo lute. He will work closely with specialist musicians including Sidiki Dembele, a master of the West African djembe, ngoni and kora.

Pariss Elektrais a Leeds multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer working with a blend ofNu Jazz, Neo-Soul, and New Age music. Her work in progress, The Velvet Room,is a live music performance triptych that features her band, Pariss & ThePresence, interacting with projection mapped visuals and animation by visualartist Natasha Joseph.

Im excited to see an idea that I have had since Ibegan my singer-songwriter career take shape, says Pariss. I never thought Iwould get the time and space to seriously work on the visual aspect of mywork.

Sheffield-based composer, vocalist and film maker DanLoops will continue his journey into theatre-making with the lives of threecharacters, rapper, a poet and an actor, charted through an overlappingcombination of hip hop, acoustic and classical score.

I have worked in poetry and rap since I was 18, but writingis my passion, no matter the method of delivery, says Dan. More recently Ihave turned my attention to developing my narrative skills through films and plays.My Resonance residency will give me the chance to explore musical storytellingfurther in the form of a new theatre show loosely based on my life, both as amusician and as a flawed individual, balancing true stories, musical commentaryand themes of escapism.

The resulting show will play with form, and follow theintertwining stories of three distinct characters, whose narratives will bemirrored by their musical journeys, culminating in an exciting clash of genre,styles and perceptions.

Leeds-based tabla player, producer and educator BhupinderChaggar will develop his unique vision for a coming together of Indian classicalKathak dance, tap dance, percussion and electronic production. Tabla andTap is an exciting exploration of two polar cultures, heritages andlanguages, he says. The intricacies of tabla and the power of tap will createa rhythmically charged yet expressive visual and musical experience.

A sixth artist supported by Opera North, Leeds-basedwriter-director Omari Swanston-Jeffers, will develop a narrative centredaround music, dance and community. 3NEGUS stages the story of threeyoung men, Azizi, Lara and Kareem, through their struggles to bring up a baby,keep a roof over their heads, and stay in full-time education. Hiscollaborators on the project will include singer-songwriter, producer andcomposer Christella Litras, whose soundtrack for a full-length animated filmbegan life in the first round of Resonance residencies in 2018; andsinger-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Pariss Elektra from the latestcohort of artists.

Among the alumni of the previous two Resonance instalmentsin 2018 and 2019 who have continued to develop their projects, singer andsongwriter Nishla Smith closes a national tour of her multimedia songcycle What Happened to Agnes with a date at Interplay Theatre, Leeds on6 March. Huddersfield-based singer songwriter Thabo will continue todevelop his multi-sensory work involving fragrance, light and music through aresidency at Snape Maltings, and ErrollynWallen and Brolly Productionsopera The Powder Monkey is due for a second tour this autumn. Composer, rapper and MCTestaments new musical that tells the story of ShirleyChisholm, the first Black woman to run for the office of President of the USA, recentlyspent a further week in research and development at Leeds College of Music witha full mixed cast of professionals and students.

ThandananiGumede, who worked on hisZulu Song Cycle during the first residency programme, led workshops andcoaching for Opera Norths Peoples Lullabies project last summer, and will return thisyear to draw together a further series. His Song Cycle continues to evolve, andwas performed in its latest state at a Manchester Jazz Festival Hothouse showcasebefore Christmas. Sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun, who wasMusic Director on South Asian Arts-uks commemoration of the centenary of the Partitionof India and Pakistan, the first Resonance project to reach completion,performed the world premiere of Arya, his new sitar concerto,with the Orchestra of Opera North on 23 February.

Jo Nockels, Headof Projects, Opera North, comments:

As Resonance comes into its third year, ithas been wonderful to build longer-term working relationships with some of theartists involved, both here at Opera North and further afield, by supportingthem to access other opportunities. This years group of artists is inventive,ambitious and eclectic and we are really looking forward to getting started!

JoeFrankland, CEO at PRSFoundation, comments:

Hugecongratulations to all six music creators selected for this latest round ofOpera Norths Resonance programme. Thisinitiative is a fantastic example of an organisation delivering an excellentopportunity to support exciting, diverse music creators to develop their craftand new ideas. I look forward to seeingthe outcomes from each of the residencies.

The Resonanceprogramme is supported by the PRSFoundations Talent DevelopmentPartnership. The UKs leading funder of new music and talent development,PRS Foundation supports organisations working at the frontline of talentdevelopment with a broad range of individual music creators. This reflects PRSFoundations commitment to supporting composers and songwriters of allbackgrounds and genres, through direct investment or by helping organisationswhich nurture artists and promote their music. Opera North is one of 45 TalentDevelopment Partners for 2019-20.

A series of short films on previous Resonance projects can be seen here.

Rowland Thomas

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Resonance residencies for BAME artists return to Opera North for 2020 - Keep the Faith

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Posted By admin on February 29, 2020

Right-wing extremists, including white supremacists, were responsible for the majority of extremist-related murders in the U.S. in 2019, according to data collected by the anti-hate advocacy group Anti-Defamation League. That's a continuation of a disturbing trend, with right-wing extremists committing more than three-fourths of extremist-related murders in the country since 2010, according to the group's annualMurder and Extremismreport.

The report says 42 people were killed by domestic extremists in 2019 38 of them by assailants who subscribe to extreme right-wing ideologies. There were 17 fatal incidents, the group found. Of those, the deadliest was the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 and wounded two dozen more in August 2019. Authorities have said the alleged shooter, Patrick Crusius, targeted Hispanics and posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto online before the rampage that railed against what he called a "Hispanic invasion of Texas."

The deadly incidents also included the shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California that killed one woman and wounded three other people in April 2019. The suspect opened fire on a crowd of about 100 and fled when his rifle jammed. He later called 911 and told a dispatcher he had just "shot up" a synagogue, speaking about his hatred of Jews.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that white supremacists were responsible for 81% of the extremist-related murders in the U.S. in 2019, which the group says goes along with an ongoing resurgence of white supremacy that started in 2015.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have faced criticism that they've been sluggish in their response to the increased risk posed by white supremacists and right-wing extremists. The FBI recently elevated its assessment of the threat to a "national threat priority" for fiscal year 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a congressional hearing this month.

Wray's statements indicate the FBI is just as concerned about racially-motivated violent extremists as it is about the threat posed by homegrown extremists inspired by foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS. Wray said both pose a grave threat because the perpetrators are often "lone actors," self-radicalized online, who choose easily available weapons and often look to attack "soft targets" such as public gatherings, retail locations or houses of worship.

In many cases, perpetrators can move quickly from rhetoric to violence, Wray said.

The ADL's report found no murders in 2019 related to homegrown extremists inspired by foreign terrorist groups. Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the organizationwho authored the report, warned that domestic Islamist extremists remain "very much a real threat."

Pitcavage said it's important for law enforcement to speak out and decry extremist violence.

"This is an area where the bully pulpit really matters," Pitcavage said. "It's great when the FBI can state this is a problem, otherwise we as experts might know that this is a problem, but someone down the street might not know. ... You can't deal with a threat unless you acknowledge there's a threat."

The report also includes killings by extremists linked to other ideologies, such as the killing of a police officer in Jersey City, New Jersey and three others at a kosher grocery store in December 2019. Authorities have said the assailants, David Anderson and Francine Graham, had identified in the past as Black Hebrew Israelites, a group with some sects known to rail against whites and Jews.

In addition, it tracks murders by extremists that were not motivated by their ideologies, but rather linked to gangs,domestic violence and robberies.

Attacks by extremists of all kinds have grown deadlier in recent years, and the ADL found an increase in extremist-related shooting sprees of particular concern. Guns were involved in 86% of the killings in 2019, according to the report. Over the past decade, 72% of those killed in the U.S. by extremists were killed by gunfire, the group found.

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Right-wing extremists killed 38 people in U.S. in 2019, Anti-Defamation League finds - CBS News

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Posted By admin on February 29, 2020

"We want to create an institution that allows people to experience directly what this history means, what it does," Stevenson says in a trailer on the museum's website. "In South Africa, you cant go there without learning the history of apartheid; In Rwanda, you cannot spend time there without being told of the legacy of the genocide. If you go to Germany today, in Berlin, there are monuments, memorials and stones that mark the spaces where Jewish families were abducted.

"But in America, we dont talk about slavery, we dont talk about lynching, we dont talk about segregation," he continues in the video. "So now its time to talk about it."

The out-of-towners who came to Alabama in the 1960s often referred to themselves as "24-hour heroes," Steinhauser said. It was a reflection on their temporary presence, as opposed to the people who were involved in the struggle on a daily basis. People like JoAnne Bland. She grew up in Selma amid the turbulent times and told the ADL group that by the time she was 11 she had been arrested 13 times.

Back then, her idea of freedom was based on a vision and a fantasy. And ice cream.

"Carters Drug Store had a lunch counter and I wanted to sit at that lunch counter, but my grandmother said I couldnt. She said Colored children, thats what we were called then, Colored. Colored children cant sit at the counter," Bland said. "It didnt stop me from wanting to sit at that counter; every time I passed by there, seeing those white kids licking those ice cream cones, spinning around on those stools. It looked like so much fun."

On one particular day, her grandmother noticed, leaned over Bland's shoulder to point to the window and the counter beyond and told her, "When we get our freedom, you can do that too."

But freedom enacted a heavy toll. On Bloody Sunday, Bland found herself at the crest of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, looking at the first wave of marchers who tried to advance past the troopers.

"Suddenly, I hear gunshots and screams. I think theyre killing the people down there," she said. "Before we could turn to run it was too late. They came from both sides, the front and the back, and they were just beating people. Old, young, Black, White male, female, it didnt matter. People were laying everywhere, bleeding, not moving, as if they were dead and you couldnt stop to help them or youd be beaten too.

"The last thing I remember seeing on that bridge that day was this horse and this lady. And I dont know what happened. Did the man on the horse hit her and shefell or did the horse just run over her? I dont know. But I do know almost 55 years later, I can still hear the sound her head made when she hit that pavement... I didnt want any more freedom. Whatever the cost of what this freedom was was just too much for this 11-year-old."

Even as Bloody Sunday discouraged her, Bland stayed in the fight.

She never sat at the counter at Carter's Drug Store, but she did join King and the marchers on the final leg of their journey to Montgomery.

At the end of her discussion with the Anti-Defamation League group, Bland shared a moment with Steinhauser and another participant on the trip, Steven Foster, the rabbi emeritus at Temple Emanuel in Denver. Foster also marched in Montgomery in 1965.

"You guys were really in danger," Bland told them. "Me, I could blend in then, but you couldnt stay at hotels. You were outside agitators, your life was in danger every minute you were here.

"And yet you came. And we thank you."

Perhaps the warmth was enough for Steinhauser. It was the end of a long day, a physically and emotionally wrenching one that certainly would have taxed the resolve of a much younger person.

Then again, in the face of shared experiences and deep-seated respect, who wouldn't be ready, eager and willing to wade once again into the fight?

So Sheldon Steinhauser walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

"Im very proud of today," he said. "Im very proud of the Anti-Defamation League; Im very honored they asked me to serve as their scholar-in-residence and I was able to share some of my personal experiences, because, you know, thats how we tell our history, through stories."

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Marching With King: After 50 Years, A Coloradan Makes An Emotional Return To Selma - Colorado Public Radio

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Posted By admin on February 29, 2020

SEATTLE Federal prosecutors vow to keep investigating the neo-Nazi hate group Atomwaffen.

This is a starting line, not a finishing line, Brian T. Moran, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington said Wednesday after the arrest of four alleged members of the group earlier that morning. This is the start line, the charges may change, evolve over time as we analyze evidence.

Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor in southern California whos now a professor of law at the University of Washington, hypothesized about where the investigation could go.

It's wise hedging, where normally you have organizational crimes like this, where you have multiple actors, where some are charged and some are not yet identified, you're going to want to build your case, Fan said.

RELATED: Reporters notebook: I was targeted by the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen

The four arrested on Wednesday were charged with conspiracy to mail threatening communications and commit cyberstalking after mailing and posting threatening messages to journalists, including KING 5 Investigator Chris Ingalls, who for months had been investigating the group. Members of the Anti-Defamation League also received threatening messages, which included home addresses and other personal information to show the victims that they knew where they lived.

The crime carries a maximum five-year sentence, although Fan doubted a full sentence would be imposed. But the arrests give prosecutors leverage.

Depending on what's charged or not charged, there are major incentives to cooperate, Fan said.

RELATED: 5th neo-Nazi charged on swatting allegations

Fan prosecuted cartels and drug organizations, not hate groups, but she says all organizations have things in common and vulnerabilities.

Prosecutors, especially federal prosecutors, have a lot of experience in processing organization-type crimes, she said. So what you're thinking about is perhaps uncovering more of the conspiracy, more of the co-conspirators and more planned acts that haven't yet surfaced.

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Whats next in neo-Nazi intimidation case? UW professor weighs in - KING5.com

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Posted By admin on February 29, 2020

Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Amazon pulled listings for English-language copies of an illustrated childrens book written by Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher in 1938 called The Poisoned Mushroom from its website after a U.K.-based charity called The Holocaust Educational Trust complained.

Unfortunately, a Swedish edition of the Antisemitic book continues to be listed for sale along with two other English translations of Streicher works Trust No Fox on Green Heath and No Jew on His Oath and Jews Introduce Themselves & Without Solution of the Jewish Question No Salvation of the German Folk. There are also a translation of his writing in Estonian listed on Amazon along with vintage items aimed at collectors as well as scholarly books that put Streichers life into historical context.

Streicher was best known as the editor of the virulently Antisemitic newspaper called Der Sturmer. The Poisoned Mushroom claims that Jews are race defilers, a devil in human form and murders. The book was used as evidence against Streicher during the Nuremberg Trials where he was convicted of Crimes Against Humanity and eventually executed.

A booklet titled Julius Streicher Special Nuremberg Martyrs Memorial also is for sale. The listing says it was edited by E.R. Fields, a non-practicing Georgia chiropractor whom the Anti Defamation League says has been active in antisemitic organizations since he was a teenager in the 1940s.

Though most of the Streicher items on Amazon are either unavailable or out of print, there is a wide selection of Nazi and White Supremacist material thats in stock. I even found White Supremacist-themed coffee mugs, shot glasses and hoodies for sale on the e-commerce site.

Ostarta Publications, which describes itself as a resource for Eurocentric history, politics, and study, is currently offering compilations of speeches by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, second only to Adolf Hitler in influence, along with the Memoirs of Ideologue Alfred Rosenberg who also was executed for war crimes after the Nuremberg trials, is for sale.

The company was founded by writer Arthur Kemp, a U.K. resident whose multi-volume March of The Titans: The Complete History of the White Race: is available on Amazon.com.

March has gotten many glowing reviews from people that appear to be white supremacists including one that noted: Nowadays it is common to denigrate White people, especially White males, despite the contributions they have made to civilization. Everyone, especially those of us who are proud to be White, should read this book.

Kent didnt respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

Amazon and other tech platforms have long been criticized for failing to crack down on hate speech. The Holocaust Trust has raised its concerns about similar issues with Amazon for a decade, according to a letter its Chief Executive Karen Pollock sent to Amazons U.K. division last week.

Given the frequency of issues of hateful items being sold on Amazon, we feel that this issue which a number of our supporters have contacted us about has still not been properly addressed, she wrote.

For its part, Amazon doesnt want to censor books solely because they are controversial.

As a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word is important, including books that some may find objectionable, according to a company statement. We take concerns seriously and are listening to feedback. Amazon has policies governing which books can be listed for sale; we invest significant time and resources to ensure our guidelines are followed and remove products that do not.

The company has taken action in the past.

Amazon.com has pulled listings for more than a dozen books published by Counter-Currents Publishing, which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the preeminent white nationalist publishing house in the United States.

According to Counter-Currents Editor-in-Chief Greg Johnson, Amazon took the actions on February 24 and February 26 of 2019, which he argued on his blogwas like a painful personal attack.

I will continue to publish my own books at Counter-Currents, Johnson said. But it does not make sense to take on any new authors or titles. Why publish books that will be banned by the worlds largest bookstore?

Johnson declined to elaborate further.

Several Counter-Current titles remain for sale on Amazon including The Alternative Right, Dark Right: Batman Viewed from the Right, and Pulp Fascism through third-party sellers

Amazon declined to answer further questions about its policies.

Corrects headline and story to indicate that Amazon took action against Counter-Currents last year. Fixes references to Cross-Currents and corrects spelling of Arthur Kemps name Apologies for the errors.

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Amazon Pulls Nazi Childrens Book From Its Website As It Struggles With Hate Speech - Forbes

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