Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 25, 2020

The ugly face of antisemitism was literally on display in Belgium this week. The annual carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst went ahead on Sunday, with more and worse antisemitic tropes and themes than in the past. This was done on purpose. Last year, the Aalst carnival lost its UNESCO cultural heritage status over the recurrence of racist and antisemitic representation. The city chose to drop its status from UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity rather than drop the parades antisemitic elements. The mayor, rejecting the condemnation, reportedly said: Let Aalst be Aalst. And it was.Lets look at some of the pride of the parade this year: Israels Ambassador to Belgium Emmanuel Nahshon took photos from the carnival and tweeted them. He shared photos of a sign featuring a crossed out image of Shlomo Shekelberg, a recognizable antisemitic meme on social media in the form of a stereotypical Jewish man with a kippah, beard and enormous nose deviously rubbing his hands together.As The Jerusalem Posts Lahav Harkov wrote, a float with an image of the Western Wall appeared with the slogan: Well, you would also complain if theyd cut your penis. Another Western Wall image included caricatures of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, again with exaggerated large noses, and a bare-breasted woman wearing the traditional shtreimel hat and peyot (sidelocks) that haredi men wear, saying. Im just jealous and I dont have a big nose.Harkov noted that some revelers were dressed as insects with fur-lined shtreimels and fake peyot and slogans suggesting that they are parasites. There were also clowns with shtreimels and peyot. Some parade-goers wore lampshades patterned like tallitot (prayer shawls) on their heads.Some revelers were dressed in Nazi uniforms.One participant held a sign with the rules of the carnival, including no Jews, no joking with Jews, certainly not speaking the truth about the Jew and your drugs and black money will be for us.In other words, this was an absolutely deliberate antisemitic assault. There is no way that these tropes and themes were accidentally or unintentionally insulting due to ignorance or a misunderstanding. It takes a very twisted mind to justify such blatant Jew-hatred as legitimate freedom of expression. All that can be said is that the mayor and citizens of Aalst, and all those who took part in the carnival, believe that this is their heritage and they have a right to be proud of it.Welcome to Europe 2020.Belgium is home to the European Union. It is also currently a member of the United Nations Security Council, and even heads the UNSC throughout the month of February. Tension between Israel and the EU has increased recently. Late last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a binding interpretation of the EUs rules on labeling the origin of products, in effect, singling out Jewish-owned Israeli companies over the Green Line for a blacklist. The Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights took a similar discriminatory step two weeks ago.Israel continues to be concerned by European support and funding for organizations that delegitimize Israel, including some linked to terrorist organizations.Earlier this month, Jerusalem reprimanded the Belgian deputy envoy after Belgium invited a senior adviser for an NGO with ties to the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to brief the UN Security Council. Belgium then called in Nahshon to protest the reprimand. It did, however, later revoke the invitation to Brad Parker, a senior adviser for policy and advocacy at Defense for Children International Palestine, to address the Security Council.Belgium professes to be concerned about the welfare of children worldwide but where is the concern for Israeli children? Only yesterday, thousands were forced to stay home from school after the heavy rocket onslaught from Gaza on the South of Israel. Israeli children were running for shelters as Aalst was celebrating its carnival.A country that is truly concerned about children and the future would not permit the poisoning of minds that was shamefully on display in Aalst this week. Belgium should be ashamed that such a parade of antisemitism, bigotry and hatred took place on its soil. The world last month marked 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The Aalst carnival shows that the lessons of where Jew-hatred leads have not yet been learned.

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The ugly antisemitism at the Aalst carnival - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on February 25, 2020

How was the midwinter break? Wow, that sounds amazing.

Now, set a reminder for Sunday, March 1, at 12:01am. Thats when June dates go live for Culture Pass: Log in at that time and youll get your pick of free tickets to the more than 50 of the cultural heavyweights that make this town so special. Then set another one for April 1Culture Pass tickets are always made available on the first of the month.

It's like having a free membership to New York City.

The lineup includes everything from the Intrepid, to the recently-expanded MoMA, to the New York Botanical Garden, to the New York Transit Museum to other amazing family attractions. Not only will you find international headliners such as the Museum of Natural History and the Met, youll see local gems such as the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning and the Wyckoff House Museum.

Many of the best kids museums in NYC participate, including the Brooklyn Childrens Museum, the Childrens Museum of Manhattan, the Childrens Museum of the Arts and theSugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art & Storytelling. Others have great family programs, including the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York Historical Society, Wave Hill and the Whitney Museum of American Art. (You'll find a full list below.)

Dont worryits easy to register and take advantage of the fun things to do with kids in NYC. All you need is a valid library card from the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library or Queens Public Library with an active PIN and to be 13 or older. Thats it.

No library card? No sweat: Go online or visit any branch, and you can get one for free in a couple of minutes. Now youre ready to take advantage of one of the major perks of living here.

First launched in July of 2018, Culture Pass continues to evolve and improve. Earlier this year, the number of active reservations per Culture Pass holder increased from two to four. The expanding lineup of institutions now includes the Museum of the Moving Image, Second Stage Theater, Kings Theatre, the Bronx Opera Company, the Queens Botanical Garden and the National Lighthouse Museum.

Check out all of the cool spots worth venturing to:

Alice Austen House

Asia Society

Bard Graduate Center Gallery

Bronx Opera Company

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Childrens Museum

Brooklyn Historical Society

Brooklyn Museum

Childrens Museum of Manhattan

Childrens Museum of the Arts

Cooper Hewitt

The Drawing Center

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Hi-ARTS

Historic Richmond Town

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibeten Art

Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning

Japan Society

The Jewish Museum

King Manor Museum

Kings Theater

Lewis H. Latimer House Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

MoMA PS1

The Morgan Library & Museum

Museum of Arts and Design

Museum of Chinese in America

Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Natural History

Museum of the City of New York

Museum of the Moving Image

National Lighthouse Museum

New Museum

New York Botanical Garden

New York Transit Museum

New-York Historical Society

Noble Maritime Collection

The Noguchi Museum

Peoples Symphony Concerts

Poster House

Queens Botanical Garden

Queens Historical Society

Queens Museum

The Rubin Museum of Art

SculptureCentner

Second Stage Theater

The Shed

Skyscraper Museum

Society of Illustrators

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Sugar Hill Childrens Museum of Art & Storytelling

Swiss Institute

Van Cortlandt House Museum

Wave Hill

Whitney Museum of American Art

Wyckoff House Museum

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Here's when and how to use Culture Pass for free access to NYC's best attractions - Time Out New York Kids

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Posted By admin on February 25, 2020

ISRAELS President Reuven Rivlin was welcomed to Victoria by Governor Linda Dessau and Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday (Monday).

Arriving at Government House in a motorcade from Mount Scopus Memorial College where he visited, Israels head of state spoke warmly about Australia.

The strong friendship between Israel and Australia is built on shared values and a long history. But it is also based on a striking similarity between our spirits, Rivlin said.

The President cited a number of areas of cooperation between the two countries, including direct flights between Israel and Melbourne that are scheduled to start next month, and the entry of 12 Israeli companies to the Australian market in the last year alone.

We have so much to share with each other. We have so many fields to cooperate in, such as health, cyber, energy, aerospace, homeland security industries, and more.

You, my friends, are the agents of change. I hope that this gathering today will allow you to do get to know some new business partners and that from this occasion many new initiatives will begin, Rivlin added.

Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO

The state luncheon was attended by Israels ambassador to Australia Mark Sofer, Australias ambassador to Israel Chris Cannan, and leaders from the Jewish community and from business and commerce.

Earlier on Monday, Rivlin addressed Melbourne Jewish day school students at Mount Scopus Memorial College.

It is so wonderful to be here with you, to see so many young Jews who are proud of their heritage, proud of their Jewish identity, and proud of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel, the President said to the students.

Rivlin spoke about the issue of bullying and social exclusion in schools and told them about the campaign that was launched in Israel last week, titled Dont Stand By.

Afterwards, the President spoke with the students and answered their questions, including about relations between Israel and Jewish communities around the world and fears about antisemitism.

On Monday evening, Rivlin addressed United Israel Appeal Victorias centenary gala event at Margaret Court Arena.

On Tuesday, Rivlin is due to address an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney, and a cocktail reception for Magen David Adom Australia.

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Rivlin greeted by top Victorians - The Australian Jewish News

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Posted By admin on February 25, 2020

All weekendChiswick House & Gardens hosts a Camellia Show

A WESTMINSTER STORY: Theatre show A Westminster Story follows the tale of a free spirited Scottish musician who's new to London, and a conflicted politician, and what happens to them as a result of a chance meeting on Albert Embankment one night. Waterloo East Theatre, 16/13, book ahead, 25 February-1 March

VINTAGE SALE: Beyond Retro's semi-regular Vintage Garage Sale returns, with thousands of items for sale every day, including belts, bags, trousers, shirts and dresses. It's free to browse, so no need to part with any cash unless you find something you love. Bussey Building (Peckham), free entry, just turn up, 26 February-1 March

CAMELLIA SHOW: Chiswick House & Gardens showcases its rare and historic plants at the annual Camellia Show. 33 different varieties are on show in the listed conservatory, and you can enter a raffle for a chance to name an as-yet-unlisted species. Chiswick House & Gardens, free entry to gardens (donations welcome), just turn up, 27 February-22 March

JEWISH BOOK WEEK: Jewish Book Week begins, with an impressive programme, covering everything from cookery to fashion to spies to politics to trees. Former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, celebrated novelist Elif Shafak and historian Helen Fry are among participants across the 80+ events celebrating Jewish themes and writers. Kings Place (King's Cross), various prices, book ahead, 29 February- 8 March

DATA DATING: Last chance to see exhibition Data Dating, which takes a look at finding love in the internet age and how it's reshaping our relationships, through the work of several artists. Find out how our screens are affecting our sexual intimacy, and what romance could look like in the future. Watermans (Brentford), free, book ahead, until 1 March

YOUNG REBELS: Also closing this weekend is Marvellous & Mysterious: Literature's Young Rebels, a family-friendly exhibition looking at some of the more rebellious characters from children's books. See how the likes of Pippi Longstocking break the rules, and see Roald Dahls handwritten drafts of Matilda alongside Quentin Blakes illustrations. There's also a chance to dress up as your favourite characters. British Library, free, just turn up, until 1 March

TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA: Last chance to see the National Trust's exhibition dedicated to beloved children's book The Tiger Who Came To Tea. It marks 50 years since the book's publication, features some of Judith Kerr's original illustrations, and offers visitors a chance to sit in the kitchen where the tiger visited Sophie and her mother. Osterley Park and House, included in admission, book ahead, until 1 March

LIGHTOPIA: The evenings are getting lighter, so it's time for illumination festival Lightopia to come to an end. The west London festival has Chinese-style lanterns, rainbow light tunnels and interactive artworks to see. Chiswick House & Gardens, 18/11, book ahead, until 1 March

ORCHIDS: Kew's beautiful Orchids Festival is still on and it's a great excuse to warm up in the tropical glasshouse. Wander through rainbow floral arches, ogle the volcano centrepiece floating on a pond, and look out for model orang utans, rhinos, and other wildlife from this year's chosen country, Indonesia. Kew Gardens, included in admission, book a time slot, until 8 March

VAULT FESTIVAL: Consider this your regular remind that Vault Festival still has a hefty programme of theatre, comedy and cabaret. Waterloo Vaults, various prices, book ahead, until 22 March

EXTRA DAY: 29 February is a gift that only rolls around once every four years. Use it wisely, with our list of 29 things to do in London on 29 February, or perhaps just take the opportunity to do something most Londoners wouldn't normally do.

WALKIE TALKIE CLIMB: If you're up for a challenge, climb the 896 steps up 36 floors of the Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City, raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity as you do so. You're rewarded with a celebratory drink in the Sky Garden when you reach the top. The Walkie Talkie (Fenchurch Street), 25 + 250 sponsorship, book ahead, 8am-2pm

MARYLEBONE AND MAYFAIR: Join The London Ambler for a walk through the exclusive neighbourhoods of Marylebone and Mayfair. Wander through terraces and squares originally developed for 17th century nobility, which overlooked some of the city's slums, and see the landscape carved out by the River Tyburn. St Marylebone Parish Church, 10-12, book ahead, 10.30am-12.30pm

LONDON BOXING: Meet author Jeff Jones and hear him talk about his new book, East End Born and Bled. It tells the story of the birth of boxing in east London, an area which has produced many champions of the sport. Idea Store Whitechapel, free, book ahead, 2pm

EAT OR HEAT: Walthamstow's Ravensood Industrial Estate is home to neon warehouse God's Own Junkyard, and Wild Card Brewery, among other businesses. Today it hosts Ravenswood for Eat or Heat, a huge party raising money for the local food bank. Live DJs and music, food stalls and a raffle all feature. Ravenswood Industrial Estate (Walthamstow), free but donations encouraged, just turn up, 2pm

PRETTY WOMAN: The underground cinema at House of Vans continues its rom-com season with a screening of 1990 classic, Pretty Woman. Watch Richard Gere and Julia Roberts cavorting about on screen without parting with a penny. House of Vans (Waterloo), free, just turn up, 3pm/5.30pm

LIP SYNC BATTLE: Drag queen Shyanne O'Shea hosts a lip sync battle, with special guests and two audience members taking part (you've been warned). Pick from either general admission, or a bottomless ticket, which gets you sharing plates and bottomless bubbles over two hours. Jerusalem Bar & Kitchen (Fitzrovia), 12.50-35, book ahead, 7pm

HOUSE OF BROADWAY: Sit back and watch a night of musical theatre performances by West End stars. Norman Bowman, Jack Reitman, Sinead Wall and Claire Delaney are tonight's performers, showcasing amusing and touching songs from the musicals in a cabaret-style show. The Other Palace (Victoria), 22.50, book ahead, 8pm

ST DAVID'S DAY: 1 March is St David's Day. Whether you're Welsh and living in London, or a Londoner wanting to get in on the celebrations, take a look at our guide to where to be Welsh in London, and find your own little slice of Cymru.

HERITAGE TRAIL: Today sees the launch of a new heritage trail, celebrating the brilliant women of Whitechapel, Bow and Barking. Find the map online and follow the trail at your own pace and in order, hearing stories about women including activists like Mala Sen, Minnie Lansbury and Milly Witkop, and suffragettes Annie Clara Huggett and Sylvia Pankhurst. It ends at the site of the East End Womens Museums new permanent home, set to open in 2021. Whitechapel, free, just turn up, 1 March-31 December

VINTAGE SALE: Give your wardrobe an update at the Camden Vintage Kilo Sale, where you pay for your newly-acquired retro garments by weight. Tread lightly if you're a bit skint, or go mad if you've got deep pockets. Jumpers, dresses, shirts, skirts, jeans and accessories are all for sale. Cecil Sharp House (Primrose Hill), 3/1.50, just turn up, 10am-4pm

FIRST SUNDAYS: On the first Sunday of the month, National Archives holds a special opening of its current exhibition, With Love. Full details haven't yet been announced, but it's chance to view passionate and heartbreaking love letters spanning 500 years. National Archives (Kew), free, just turn up, 11am-4pm

CROYDON AIPORT: On the first Sunday of the month, Croydon Airport Visitor Centre invites the public in to get a look at the little-known airport. Take a guided tour around a micro-museum covering the airfield's history, and visit the world's oldest air traffic control tower. Croydon Airport, free (donations welcome), just turn up, 11am-4pm

MATT HAIG: Author Matt Haig appears at a family-friendly event about his new book, Evie and the Animals. Hear him talk about the story of Evie, who has a super talent which she must keep secret, as well as other aspects of his writing career. Age 7+. British Library, 11, book ahead, 12.30pm-1.30pm

KIDS POLITICS: Comedy Club 4 Kids and Simple Politics team up for How Does This Politics Thing Work Then?, a show designed to introduce kids to the world of politics. Using comedy and interactive games, they make the whole thing fun and easy to follow parents and carers might even learn something too. British Library, 11/5.50, book ahead, 3pm-4pm

BUSHFIRE BENEFIT: Though news of Australia's bushfire crisis has gone quiet, our cousins Down Under could still use some help. The Australia Bushfire Benefit London is a concert, reception and auction raising funds for bushfire charities, with Australian musicians performing, including a full orchestra and choir. Duke's Hall (Marylebone), 10-60, book ahead, 4.30pm-6pm

BENGAL TO BETHNAL GREEN: A regular event which celebrates the local Bengali community in east London, Bengal to Bethnal Green hosts singer Lucy Rahman. She performs songs by her father, composer, singer and activist Sheikh Luthfur Rahman. She's joined by Shyamal Chowdhury from Dhaka, and the Grand Union Orchestra All-Stars in an event marking Language Day, or Matryrs' Day, an important event in the Bengali calendar. Rich Mix (Shoreditch), 10, book ahead, 6.30pm

GENTLEMAN JACK: You may not have heard of Yorkshire-based folk duo O'Hooley & Tidow, but you probably know their music they were responsible for the catchy ditty that became the theme of TV show Gentleman Jack last year. Hear them perform it, and other tunes, when their #GentlemanJack tour comes to town. We can practically Anne Lister's long coat swishing through the corridors of Shibden Hall already. Bush Hall (Shepherd's Bush), 22, book ahead, 7.30pm

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Things To Do This Weekend In London: 29 February-1 March 2020 - Londonist

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

What's the difference between Room to Improve (RT1) and the same channel's The Great House Revival? None, really, except that the former is presented by cheeky chappie Dermot Bannon and the latter by the rather more grand Hugh Wallace.

Both architects, though, are intent on the same mission of showing the viewer how to turn dilapidated wrecks into homes of wonder - with Bannon the hands-on visionary, and Wallace content to marvel at the efforts of others.

The viewer, meanwhile, couldn't care less and may indeed be wondering at RT's obsession with transforming already overpriced properties into repositories of bling. But if you feel obliged to watch these makeover shows, the trick is to have a gander at the first five minutes, when the house is in a dire state, and then fast-forward to the last five minutes, with everyone going ooh-and-aah at what's been achieved.

That way you can avoid all the boringly predictable bits in between: the budget overruns, the time delays, the fiddly snags that no one but the client cares a hoot about. And thus, in Monday night's first instalment of The Great House Revival, when Wallace announced that "the first major task is the demolition of the breeze-block extension", my immediate thought was: I'm out of here.

But, for whatever reason, I lingered as businesswoman Fiona Kelly took on the task of restoring the leaky Georgian ruin that she'd bought in Phibsborough for 450,000 and was rebuilding to its former glory for a further 500,000.

A very cool customer, she was given to such pronouncements as: "If I want something, I go after it and make sure I get it" and "I'll probably be a little bit of a thorn in everybody's side". And, sure enough, she got her way with a house so striking that Wallace could only summon up superlatives, while viewers who can't afford to buy any kind of home in our capital city could only wonder at the extravagant effrontery of it all.

If you wished to put such lifestyle nonsense in perspective, Lost Lives (BBC1) was the film to watch. This was adapted from the 1999 book of the same name in which journalist David McKittrick and four colleagues chronicled the lives and deaths of the 3,637 men, women, children and babies who died as a direct result of the Troubles from June 11, 1966, to October 31, 1998.

Everyone should have this great book on their shelves and should open it regularly at any page, where they'll find heartbreaking reminders of the savagery and futility of violent conflict. And if this film, which focused on just some of these lost lives, sent viewers out to buy the book, it will have performed a noble service.

It wasn't easy to watch, starting with the killing of nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, hit while in his West Belfast bed by an RUC tracer bullet in August 1969, and ending with the September 1998 suicide of 42-year-old Billy Giles, who had been jailed in 1982 for killing a Catholic friend, though "it didn't matter who it was", he recalled soon before he took his own life.

The spoken text throughout the film came from the book and was read by professional actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Brd Brennan, Susan Lynch, Ciarn Hinds, Adrian Dunbar and Bronagh Gallagher. And the archive newsreel footage, which was expertly woven into the narrative, contributed to a wrenching film.

I never liked comedian David Baddiel, especially in his 1990s heyday with similarly blokey Frank Skinner, but both men have become more thoughtful (and bearable) as they've aged, and this week's Confronting Holocaust Denial with David Baddiel (BBC2) had its arresting moments.

Jewish and with family members who perished in the concentration camps, he wanted to know how one in six people around the world believe that either the extermination of six million people by the Nazis never happened or that the figure was greatly exaggerated.

This led him to a dilemma. "Will this programme inadvertently fan the flames of denial?" he wondered aloud and he wondered it again in the presence of Deborah Lipstadt, who had been unsuccessfully sued by rogue historian David Irving for calling him a Holocaust denier.

"I don't want to give legitimacy to these people. I don't want to give them a platform," he told Lipstadt's lawyer Anthony Julius. "So don't," Julius replied.

Instead, he took himself off to Ennis in Co Clare, where he met Irish denier Dermot Mulqueen, who had received a five-month sentence in 2015 for smashing a TV set in the town square with an axe on Holocaust Memorial Day and declaring it to be Fake Holocaust Memorial Day.

Mulqueen told him that there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz or other camps and then asked why, if these things had happened, so many Jews opted to buy Mercedes cars. After that, he sang a virulently antisemitic song, which Baddiel thought "one of the weirdest moments of my life".

So why give this poisonous rubbish any publicity?

Homeland (RT2/Channel 4) started its eighth and final season with Carrie back on her meds, having been deprived of them in the Russian gulag where she'd been incarcerated for almost a year.

So had the Russians turned her into a double agent? Well, mentor Saul doesn't think so and has sent her back into the Afghan fray. But so far this season there's been too much about Carrie and her mental state and too little about the state of the world, which is where this series used to excel.

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John Boland's week in TV: RT's obsession with poshed-up properties knows no bounds - Independent.ie

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

Abe Foxman and Rabbi Shalom Baum talk about anti-Semitism being on the rise and incidents of hate and bias increasing in America at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck on 02/23/20. Video by Mitsu Yasukawa. NorthJersey

We are not yet in the midst of a civil war.

But we are ina war of civility. And that's troubling enough, says Abe Foxman, director emeritus of the New York-basedAnti-Defamation League.

"There was a firewall, a consensus of civility," Foxman told the audience that had gathered early Sunday morning for a special meeting at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. "There was an understanding of what's good, what's bad, what's acceptable."

Not any more as we all know.

Racism, xenophobia andanti-immigrant prejudice arenow flaunted openly. Bias crimes in New Jersey reached a 24-year high in 2019, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Especiallytroubling,to this audience, is the rise of overt, sometimes violent, anti-Semitism: whether it's white supremacists chanting "Jews will not replace us!" at a Charlottesville rally in 2017, or the horrific synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018 that left 11 dead, or last year's targeted shooting at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City that left five dead. On Friday, New Jersey'sOffice of Homeland Security and Preparedness declared that homegrown not foreign extremism is the biggest terrorism threat to the state.

"All the taboos today are broken," Foxman said. "There's nothing today you can't do, you can't say, you can't act."

At Congregation Keter Torah, there has been discussion about whether members should be armed, or whether there should be a SWAT team posted every week, said Rabbi Shalom Baum.

"Anti-Semitism in America What's Next?" was the topic of the talk,moderated by Baum, that might have seemed almost unthinkable just a few years ago.

"For all these years, anti-Semitism has been much worse in Europe than it was here," Foxman said.

He, of all people, has reason to sound the alarm.

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For 30 years the director of the Anti-Defamation League (he stepped down in 2015), Foxman is a child of the Holocaust, with a particularly fraught history: His Jewish parents left him to be raised as a Catholic by a nanny, in Vilnius, Lithuania, while they were forced to go to the ghetto.

"They made this horrific, horrendous, magnificent decision, a decision that saved my life and their lives, because a family unit of three with an infant, the chances of survival were less than zero," he said. "My nanny baptized me, raised me as a Catholic, gave me her identity, and for years risked her life to save me."

After the war, thisheroicnanny fought his parents for custody of the child. So he's well aware of the complicated mixof good and bad, decency and selfishness, that can motivate even the best of us.

"Each of us has to develop a rationale to survive," Foxman said. For him it was to bear witness: "not only to the bad, but the good."

The America he came to, at age 10, had its own history ofhatred, prejudiceandoppression. Certainly, that includesanti-Semitism.

"It was, is and will be," Foxman said.

"It is a virus," he said. "A virus without an antidote, without a vaccine After Auschwitz, if the world didn't come together to create a vaccine, it never will."

WATCH: Jewish World War 2 veteran recalls being forced into Nazi slave labor

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Through the decades that the Anti-Defamation League, the anti-bias group formed by theIndependent Order ofB'nai B'rith in 1913, has been trackinghate, there's been plenty to track.

"Throughout the years, the amount of anti-Semitic incidents have varied from 1.300 to 1,800," Foxman said. "That's on theaverage of threeto fivea day, around the country It's probably more than the numbers reported, because some people don't report."

But America seemed to have, until recently, what are called "norms." Prejudice was frowned on. It was contemptible. It was not the "American way." And that, to some extent, kept the lid on.

He cites the example of Mel Gibson, Hollywood's sweetheart until, in 2004, he released "The Passion of the Christ," widely seen as reviving old canards about Jews as Christ-killers. That,at least for a while,put the kibosh on his career.

"All of a sudden, he expressed himself as an anti-Semite, and boom!" Foxman said. "It was the expression, of our society, that anti-Semitism is not acceptable."

Now, of course, Gibson is back (his "Hacksaw Ridge" won two Oscars in 2017). And prejudice, of all stripes, seems to be thenational pastime. Thanks to the internet, slanders and rumors and mad conspiracy theories are now shouted across the world the way they used to be shouted across backyard clotheslines.

"It's become a superhighway to present bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism," Foxman said. "What used to be transmitted on a brown paper bag is now transmitted in a nanosecond around the globe."

The Internethas done something else that isespecially insidious, Foxman says. Many states at least 18 have "anti-masking" laws, created in response to the Ku Klux Klan. These laws make it a crime for haters to conceal their faces. But the anonymity of the internet has upended all that.

"It was the anti-mask law that put a price on bigotry," Foxman said. "You want to march as a bigot? Take off your mask When you removethe mask, you remove the courage, the chutzpah. The internet put the mask back on the bigot."

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So what's the solution? Education? Perhaps but as we recede in time from the Holocaust, from the horrors of refugees and death camps, they seem to become less real to many. Visits to Holocaust museums, even Auschwitz and Dachau, may not register the way they once did.

"Kids have said, 'We've done Europe so many times, this is just another box to check,' " Baum said. " 'We've seen so many movies about the Holocaust.' It seems to have less impact."

So is the solution to be found at the voting booth?

A loaded question, that since some in the audience might trace this outbreak of intolerance directly tothe current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., while others see the Trump-Netanyahu relationship, and the 2017 relocation of the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, as reasons to cheer.

How to split the difference?

"We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," Foxman said.

"Because of Jerusalem, are we supposed to embrace this immigration policy?" he said. "We have to learn to say, thank you, Mr. President, and no, thank you, Mr. President."

The important thing,Foxman said, is not to be anybody's political tool. "We should not be in anybody's pocket," he said. "People ask me all the time:Who should we vote for? I have a very simple answer: Ask what's good for America.

"At the end of the day, Jewish security depends on democracy."

Jim Beckerman is an entertainment and culture reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access tohis insightfulreports about how you spend your leisure time,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:beckerman@northjersey.comTwitter:@jimbeckerman1

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Hatred and anti-Semitism are becoming the new normal. What do we do about it? - NorthJersey.com

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

The Quran tells us red and yellow are the most distracting colors, the ones that should not ever be used for a prayer rug, the imam tells us, looking down at the red and yellow rug beneath our feet in the mosque. He adds, It was a donation, there was nothing I could do about the improper coloring.

Why dont people know what the Quran has to say about these things? my teenage daughter asks.

Well, he explains, there is a lot to know; 6,000 sutras, 20,000 hadiths and 100,000 stories about the life of Muhammad.

My daughter and I exchange glances; his words and complaints seem so familiar. Our husband and father is a rabbi who also wishes that his congregants had more knowledge about their own religion.

So many things about the mosques Friday afternoon jumah services feel familiar to us: No one pays attention to the announcements about blood drives and registration for Sunday classes because they want to get to the kiddush or in their case, the afternoon meal; little kids are running around when everyone else is solemn; so many different kinds of people are packed together in the worship space.

The first time I came to this mosque, in the Oakland neighborhood of my hometown of Pittsburgh, was Nov. 4, 2018, less than 10 days after the attack at our synagogue, New Light, which rented space at Tree of Life. We were there at the invitation of the mosque. Four men who had survived the January 2017 attack on their mosque in Quebec had asked the Pittsburgh mosque to arrange a time to sit with members of all three of the synagogues housed at Tree of Life in order to comfort us, to advise us on how to put security arrangements in place in our worship space and tell us what their community had done to foster healing after Islamophobic attacks. The men from Quebec drove 12 hours each way at their own initiative, just to be with us.

To be able to cry with someone who had an experience similar to mine, and who shared concerns I shared, was invaluable. One of the Canadian visitors told me how his son was afraid to go to the mosque and that he and other children underwent therapy to help them cope with their trauma. I told him that the first thing my daughter had said after the attack was that she hoped people would not be afraid to go to synagogue.

Knowing that others with similar experiences and concerns were strong enough and generous enough to provide comfort was a kindness we never would have expected and it was immeasurably powerful to our traumatized souls.

Before that day, I had never been inside a mosque, nor had I thought it was a place I should go or would feel comfortable.

But since then, I returned after the March 2019 New Zealand mosque attacks to greet members of the mosque as they picked up their children from Sunday classes with other members of my Pittsburgh Jewish community. A mosque member who is a psychiatrist spoke gently and clearly to the assembled children, and us, to reassure us that though there are bad people in the world, the good ones outnumber them. I was grateful for her words, which I felt resonated for me personally, as much as for the Jewish and Muslim children there.

Members of the mosque came to the Purim meal at our synagogue shortly after the New Zealand shootings and helped us drown out the name of Haman as the story of Esther was read. They were unable to participate in the mitzvah of drinking until one is unable to distinguish between blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman, as alcohol is not on the menu for a religious Muslim. Although some of them said they did not fully observe this prohibition, I refused to serve them my homemade etrog vodka.

The former director of the mosque, Wasi Mohammed, came to a meal for Iftar breaking the Ramadan fast at my daughters school in May and explained some of the ideas behind Ramadan. In August, he spoke to a group from her religious Zionist summer camp about lessons he had learned after the shooting.

Mohammed also spoke at the one-year commemoration of the synagogue shooting, and my daughter shared that her counselors and group leaders quoted his words about hope frequently during the summer.

Here in Pittsburgh, we Jews and Muslims realize the need for cooperation and mutual aid and respect even though this is not the case in other parts of the world. Still, to be able to share humanity and vulnerability with others is one of the ways to be most fully human. As the Mishneh in Sanhedrin 4:5 teaches: A human being mints many coins from the same mold, and they are all identical. But the holy one, blessed by God, strikes us all from the mold of the first human and each one of us is unique.

To heal from the cruel loss of 11 Jewish lives, I choose to value and respect all humans of all religions. Many reached out to us when we needed help, and I hope to have the privilege to continue to relate and learn from them. By fostering ties and mutual respect with others of different faiths, I can testify as a Jew to the presence of holiness in the world, imperfect and shattered as it is.

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Muslims Helped Me Process the Deadly Shooting in My Synagogue - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

Walking in historic Palermo, regional capital of Sicily the vast island off of the boot of the Italian peninsula visitors will see street signs written in Hebrew and Arabic, as well as Italian. The newly-placed signs pay homage to the islands Jewish and Moorish roots. Though little survives, the Jewish presence in Sicily dates back to the Roman era and represents an important page of the islands history, as explained in the temporary exhibit Documenti di storia ebraica dalle collezioni del Museo Salinas, (Documents of Jewish history from the collections of Salinas Museum) at Palermos Regional Archaeological Museum Antonio Salinas.The thriving Jewish and Muslim communities abruptly ended in 1492-1493, when non-Catholics were expelled from the island, as well as the other territories under Spanish rule.We have decided to organize an exhibition on the Jewish history in Sicily to honor the Holocaust Remembrance Day, Lucia Ferruzza, co-curator of the exhibition together with the museums director Caterina Greco and Elena Pazzini, told The Jerusalem Post.Ferruzza explained the museum collection includes very few relevant artifacts because of the deliberate destruction of the local Jewish community following the expulsion edict issued by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.This void has been our starting point in creating the exhibition, Ferruzza explained. After 1492, Jews had to leave the island and their possessions were sold, destroyed or reused for other purposes, as it happened to many of the Jewish sites.An interesting example of these vicissitudes is represented by a pair of decorative finials for Torah scrolls from Sicily which, as historical documents attest, were sold to a merchant and today are part of the treasure of the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca in Spain, she added.A picture of the rare artifacts is included in the display.After the last Jews left in 1493, a community that since the 3th century and even more so in the Medieval, Islamic and Norman periods had represented an important part of the Sicilian society, also from an economical and cultural point of view, faded into oblivion. This is why for the Holocaust Remembrance Day we felt it was important to remember this page of the islands history, which also happens to be very little known, the curator explained.Among the artifacts on display are several coins from the series of the so-called Iudae Capta coins minted by Titus and his father Vespasian after they conquered and destroyed Jerusalem to celebrate their victory. One of them features a woman crying and kneeling under a palm tree as a personification of the Jewish nation and the Emperor Vespasian in a triumphant attitude.Another artifact on display is a burial inscription in Greek dating back to the 4th or 5th century CE remembering a man named Zosimiano and carrying a stylized menorah.Under Islamic rule a few centuries later, Sicily became home to a thriving and affluent Jewish community.A glimpse of the extraordinary richness of the Jewish life in Palermo right before the expulsion is offered by the journal of Rabbi Ovadiah ben Abraham of Bertinoro, author of a famous commentary to the Mishna. Born in the city of Bertinoro in central Italy, the rabbi sojourned in Palermo during his travels en route to Jerusalem, where he died in c. 1515.The synagogue in Palermo has no equal in the country and among the nations. In the outer courtyard grows vines on stone pillars From there a stone stairway leads to the court before the synagogue, surrounded by a portico on three sides, equipped with chairs There is a fine and beautiful well, Bartenura wrote, describing a 850-family strong community concentrated in a neighborhood located in the best part of the city.Apart from the synagogue, the community enjoyed a ritual bath, kosher slaughterhouse and hospital. While the first ghetto in the Italian peninsula was established in Venice in 1516, Jews in Palermo were unrestricted in where they could live.As explained in the exhibition, only several centuries later the oblivion surrounding the Jews of Sicily began to lift, with scholars starting to take a new interest in the topic.In the second half of the nineteenth century, studies on the Jewish world flourished, Ferruzza told the Post, noting that already in 1748, when King Charles III of Spain for the first time allowed Jews to reside in some cities in Sicily, a tractate on the Jewish history of the island was compiled, albeit with a decisive antisemitic perspective. The volume is on display.The turning point was represented by the Risorgimento (the unification of Italy in 1870), a process that saw Italian Jews heavily involved and on the front line. In the newly-established kingdom, Jews also receive full equality in all its territories for the first time in history.After the unification of Italy, we had a number of articles on the topic of the Jewish presence in Sicily, often promoted by Italian patriots who seemed to think that in order to build the Italian national identity was important to bring to light the memory of this important element of Sicilian history that had been forgotten, the curator highlighted. It is a topic that we would like to further explore.Today only a few dozen people in Sicily identify as Jewish. Palermo has only recently officially become a branch of the Jewish Community of Naples after in 2017 the Catholic Church offered to local Jews the use of the Oratory of Santa Maria del Sabato, a monastery believed to stand where the magnificent synagogue described by Bartenura was once located.As it happened in Spain, in 1492, many Jews who were forced to either leave or convert pretended to do so and kept their Judaism secret. Centuries later, their descendants are often re-discovering their Jewish roots and seeking a connection. For now, it is still isolated cases. But the history of the Jewish presence in the island might be far from over, after all.The exhibition will be open until March 1.

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Little-known Jewish history of Sicily on display centuries after expulsion - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

As in the case of the two previous election campaigns in the last year, the current one is being held largely around schools of red herrings, allegedly pertinent to the elections, but in fact, ploys to divert attention from the real issues.For example, the sudden preoccupation with two old affairs. The first concerning a company that no longer exists called The Fifth Dimension, that engaged in the development of artificial intelligence for military and law enforcement intelligence applications, which in 2016 provided the police with a pilot of a system the latter was interested in, and for which it received NIS 4 million. Benny Gantz was chairman of the companys board of directors at the time.The second concerns the so-called Harpaz Affair of 2010, around the appointment of a new chief of staff after the approaching retirement from the position of Gabi Ashkenazi (today one of the quartet leading Blue and White), which ended with Benny Gantz being appointed to the job rather than Yoav Gallant today a government minister from the Likud Party.The case of The Fifth Dimension emerged as a result of the publication of the State Comptrollers Report in March 2019, which inter alia dealt with irregularities in the procurement mechanism of the police, of which The Fifth Dimension was an example. The irregularities included that no tender had been held by the police before the deal for the pilot, and that the procedures for a NIS 50m. project that was to follow were concluded. Further problems were that there were major discrepancies between the information that The Fifth Dimension had provided about itself, its proven capabilities and the gap between them and the actual facts. Gantz himself was not accused of any wrongdoing, and even the current acting State Attorney, who is planning to open a criminal investigation on the affair before the elections next week, has said that Gantz is not a suspect.All this has not prevented the Likud from questioning Gantzs personal integrity, falsely accusing him of pocketing the NIS 4m. paid to The Fifth Dimension and having been personally involved in misleading the police. The project itself never materialized because The Fifth Dimension closed down in 2018, without any connection to the deal with the police or to Gantzs entry into politics.The Harpaz Affair involved a fake document allegedly prepared at Gallants behest which proposed a smear campaign against his rivals for the position of chief of staff. To the present day it is not known who initiated the document, though its actual author a former intelligence officer called Boaz Harpaz was identified and punished. Some claimed that it had been initiated by then Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, while others accused Ashkenazi. At the time, the conduct of both Barak and Ashkenazi regarding this affair was rather dodgy, reflecting the distrust and disturbed relations between the two.Netanyahus interest in turning this Harpaz affair into an item in the current election campaign, is his desire to break the image of the leaders of Blue and White as Messrs. Clean. With regards to Ashkenazi it has been suggested that Netanyahu suspects that a conspiracy against himself started to evolve between Ashkenazi and Avichai Mandelblit, the current attorney general who decided to indict him, and who was the IDF military advocate-general at the time of the Harpaz affair. Netanyahu is now demanding from Ashkenazi to agree to lift the privilege from all his recorded phone calls at that time (only part of which are currently available), including conversations with Mandelblit that allegedly took place in August 2010.One may argue whether the two affairs ought to be investigated further, but is this really what the elections are about? Even if it were to be found that Gantz has some blame in the case of The Fifth Dimension contract with the police, and that Ashkenazi plotted with Mandelblit back in 2010 against Netanyahu (both highly unlikely scenarios), what does all of this have to do with the current elections? This seems to be an attempt to divert attention from the charge sheet with which Netanyahu will have to start contending as of March 17 when his trial will open (unless Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu is right, and Netanyahu is trying to reach a plea bargain with the State Attorneys Office before March 17).As I believed before the April 2019 elections, I still believe today that since the Israeli electorate is split more or less down the middle on the question of yes Bibi or no Bibi, the only arrangement that can save Israel from a continuation of the deliberate destruction of what remains of any semblance of unity and sense of collectivity in our society, is a national unity government. This form would help prevent the continued strengthening of the extreme right, the further deliberate erosion of the pillars of our democratic system and various degrees of corruption and lying from becoming an inherent part of our government system.I also believe that Netanyahu, under whose much-too-long reign all these negative phenomena have been allowed to flourish, cannot be part of this government. This is not only because he is about to stand trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, but also because he is used to being a one-man-show. Real unity must be based on truly sharing power.Perhaps Benny Gantz is a little overly optimistic when he says that absent Netanyahu it would take 10 minutes to form a national unity government in which about 80% of the major issues on our national agenda would be under consensus. Nonetheless, I am sure that without Netanyahu, and without all the knotty issues involved in his approaching trial, the healing process in the Israeli society and body politic will be simplified.Unfortunately, in addition to Netanyahus dream of another narrow right-wing religious coalition, which will help him try to wriggle out of his legal predicament, many leading figures from the Likud and its natural coalition partners continue to yearn for another narrow government, uncontaminated by secular lefties and disloyal, terror supporting Arabs. They must be aware that any narrow coalition today whether Right-religious or center-Left-Arab will merely lead Israel in the direction of instability and domestic turmoil.Back in 2015, I was opposed to the Zionist Union joining Netanyahus fourth government, arguing that after one term of a narrow, Right-religious government, the Israeli electorate would come back to its senses a repetition of what happened in the 1992 elections, after two years of Yitzhak Shamirs weak, narrow, Right-religious government of 1990-1992. Today I realize that I was wrong, and that there is no alternative to a national unity government, made up of the two largest parties and several smaller ones.I do not know whether, as Gantz claims, Blue and White and the Likud agree on 80% of the issues on the national agenda, but I am sure that they can reach workable practical compromises on most of them, if they will only set their minds to doing so.

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Where to go after Israel's third election in a year next week? - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2020

Recordings of phone calls from a decade ago released by Channel 13 news on Sunday night shed new light on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblits uncomfortable position in the so-called Harpaz affair.

The scandal broke in the press in August 2010 amid the bitter race to succeed outgoing IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi as army head.

The publication of the recordings comes just 14 days to the March 2 elections, in which Mandelblits decision to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three corruption cases will play a key role. The report was immediately seized upon by pro-Netanyahu media outlets to argue that the indictment was part of a conspiracy to oust the premier in favor of Blue and White chief Benny Gantz.

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The Harpaz affair began in April 2010 when a shadowy former IDF intelligence officer named Boaz Harpaz, then serving as a private-sector defense adviser known to be close to then-IDF chief Ashkenazi, produced a fake document purporting to be a public relations strategy for then-Southern Command chief Yoav Gallants campaign to become the next chief of staff. The document recommended a smear campaign against Gallants rivals, including then-deputy chief of staff Gantz, who would go on to be appointed Israels 20th chief of staff in February 2011.

The document was soon revealed as a fake intended to smear Gallant himself, and suspicion fell on Ashkenazi (today a senior Knesset member for Blue and White). A criminal investigation was launched into Harpazs actions in 2011. He was arrested in March 2014 and, after a complex investigation and trial that ended in a November 2018 plea deal, was sentenced in May 2019 to 220 community service hours.

Boaz Harpaz arrives to hear his verdict at the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court on May 15, 2019. (Flash90)

The affair brought to light the intense antipathy for one another felt by the countrys two top defense officials at the time chief of staff Ashkenazi and defense minister Ehud Barak. Ashkenazi was openly bitter at Baraks decision in April 2010 not to extend his term as army chief by a year, a fact that may have contributed, with or without Ashkenazis knowledge or agreement, to Harpazs actions in attempting to disrupt the selection process for his successor. Ashkenazi has claimed he too was duped by the document, and believed it proved Barak and Gallant were conspiring to humiliate him with a public smear campaign and appoint Gallant in his stead.

Suspicion fell, too, on the then-military advocate general, Maj. Gen. Mandelblit, the armys top legal officer, who was questioned under caution in June 2014, when he was already out of uniform and serving as Netanyahus cabinet secretary. Investigators suspected that Mandelblit helped Ashkenazi and his aides to hinder the investigation by failing to tell investigators that Ashkenazi possessed the document and indeed, was spreading it within the army and to the press.

In September 2014, police recommended charging Mandelblit, along with Harpaz, former IDF spokesman Avi Benayahu and former Ashkenazi aide Erez Viner, with obstruction and breach of trust for allegedly failing to report everything they knew in a timely fashion. But in May 2015, then-attorney general Yehudah Weinstein decided to close the case against Mandelblit. A later ruling by the High Court of Justice concluded Mandelblit had done no wrong in his handling of the case.

The question concerns the five days that passed in August 2010 between the first media revelation of the documents existence, by Channel 2 news in its August 5 broadcast, and Ashkenazis public admission he had a copy of the document in his possession on August 10 and, police investigators said, had been sharing it with other IDF major generals and helped leak it to the press to smear Gallant.

The new recordings of phone calls from 2010 reveal that Mandelblit sought to steer clear of the case, and that this desire may have inadvertently helped Ashkenazi in his attempt to pretend he had no knowledge of or connection to the document as its existence was becoming publicly known.

Gabi Ashkenazi, left, speaking to Ehud Barak at Defense Ministry headquarters in 2010. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry/Flash90)

What did Mandelblit know during those five days? And did he help Ashkenazi and his staff avoid investigators?

The recordings, obtained by police from a special device installed in the chief of staffs office, show Ashkenazis top aide, bureau chief Viner, revealing that Mandelblit was updating them on the discussions in the attorney generals office over whether to launch a criminal probe against the chief of staff.

[Attorney General] Weinstein spoke with the MAG [Mandelblit], and hes doing a consultation of his own, Viner told his boss on August 8, three days after the document became public. He [Weinstein] is leaning toward a police investigation and he wants it short and to the point. The MAG told him we would cooperate in any way thats needed. So there will be a police investigation.

Ashkenazi replied: Okay, well tell the truth, thats fine. Well tell the truth and thats it There will be an investigation, and well say what we have to say.

One of the problems faced by investigators in those first days of the investigation was obtaining a copy of the Harpaz document itself. No one in the army Ashkenazi included seemed willing to come forward and admit they had it in their possession.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, confers with then-cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit during a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, on December 20, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

On August 9, Mandelblit and Ashkenazi met at Ashkenazis office. Police investigators later claimed Ashkenazi told Mandelblit at that meeting that he had the document in his possession.

Mandelblit walked out of that afternoon meeting and called Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri to discuss the case, but did not mention that Ashkenazi had the document.

Mandelblit has denied knowing it at the time, saying he only discovered that the document was sitting in Ashkenazis office several hours after the phone call.

After speaking to Nizri, Mandelblit called Viner.

I spoke with Raz, he is heard saying. I told him that Istill havent examined the case in any depth, but that I think the best thing is that they do this up front, take the easy route. Go to the reporter [Channel 2s Amnon Abramovich, who broke the story]. Id rather not start digging and looking for it. In the end Im going to be a witness in this case. I told him [Nizri], Drop it, I just dont want to, take the easy path, go to the reporter and get the document from him, he has no journalistic privilege over the document itself, only his sources.'

Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

If Mandelblit knew the documents whereabouts, investigators would later argue, that conversation amounted to obstruction of justice.

Part of the disagreement over what Mandelblit knew concerns a hard-to-discern passage in the recordings.

According to the police, Mandelblit is heard telling Viner, I didnt tell him [Nizri] anything thats in the office thereso he dropped it. Hell tell them [police investigators], Go get it yourselves, and wherever it takes you, it takes you.'

But Mandelblit insisted he didnt say he had thrown Nizri off the scent over a document in the office there. In a transcription of the recording Mandelblit commissioned from a professional transcription company, the text reads, I didnt tell him [Nizri] anything with that difficult manso he dropped it. Hell tell them, Go get it yourselves, and wherever it takes you, it takes you.'

The difficult man, Mandelblit explained to police in 2014, was a reference to Gallant. He informed Nizri hed preferred not to ask Gallant himself for the document at a time when investigators still believed Gallant may have been its source.

The following morning, on August 10, Mandelblit instructed Ashkenazi to inform Weinstein he had the document in his possession, and had had it for several months. Ashkenazi called Weinstein and came clean.

Nearly all the recordings publicized by Channel 13 on Sunday were first revealed in 2014 by other media outlets, including the Haaretz daily, in the months when Weinstein was considering indicting several figures close to Ashkenazi over the affair.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and then-IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, left, at the Prime Ministers office in Jerusalem, February 14 , 2011. (Abir Sultan/Flash90)

Ashkenazis office noted in its response on Sunday that the Channel 13 report was made up of old recordings from almost a decade ago that have been reported on several times in the past. Hundreds of thousands of Ashkenazis conversations have been examined and searched by police, the state comptroller and the attorney general, who in the end decided to close the case. All the suspicions have been discredited and disproven. We wish for all public servants that such massive surveillance of all their conversations ends in the same way.

Mandelblit responded that Weinsteins suspicions that he helped Ashkenazi avoid handing over the document were examined by the search committee that examined his appointment as attorney general in 2014, and by the High Court of Justice that looked into a petition against the appointment. Both concluded he had done nothing wrong.

While the story was not new, the political timing sparked allegations in the pro-Netanyahu daily Israel Hayom that Mandelblits corruption indictment against Netanyahu was part of the same alleged conspiracy between Mandelblit and Ashkenazi first purportedly witnessed in 2010.

Writing in the paper on Monday, prominent columnist Amnon Lord called the 2010 case the start of the road for Ashkenazi, Gantz and Mandelblit to take out not only Gallant, but also Netanyahu. He suggested the purported alliance amounted to a soft military coup, echoing Netanyahus claims that the investigations into his affairs were an attempted coup by police and prosecutors.

That is, since 2010 we have a defense elite that doesnt accept the rule of the political echelon, claimed Lord.

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New recordings resurface questions over Mandelblit's role in Harpaz affair - The Times of Israel

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