Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 29, 2020

The power of technology is an over-used phrase. As with most powerful things, it can be used for good or ill. When it comes to the Holocaust, a subject matter so immense in scale and understanding that it is hard to know where to begin even at the best of times, technology can both come to the rescue and wreak havoc.

In recent years, Holocaust denial and revisionism have had a e-shot in the arm, from poorly policed social media platforms, yet educators increasingly see in technology a way to connect tomorrows generation with a generation of survivors and witnesses fast dying out.

That is because technology not only makes things faster, more efficient or more accurate, it also makes things or people more real or at least appear to be. Such a thing may be a ghetto. Such a person may be a Holocaust survivor.

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Using technology in Holocaust education is not new: it has been championed by film director Steven Spielberg for years. It is designed to let children understand what happened, in part by helping them to meet survivors.

Stephen Smith, a Brit based at the University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation, who co-founded the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Nottinghamshire and chaired the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, knows all there is to know in this field.

He has driven several projects using technology to change the performative space of testimony when there is no testifier. Among the most recent is the room-scale virtual reality (VR) film The Last Goodbye.

In 2016, VR camera crews followed Pinchas Gutter around the Majdanek camp in Poland where he was held, and where his family were murdered. They captured hours of 3D video and tens of thousands of photos. These were brought to life over several months by artists and engineers. The result is a 17-minute film that lets viewers walk eye-to-eye with Pinchas.

Display board for the My Secret Camera photography project

It is an unsettling but immersive experience. Wearing a VR headset, you walk around the camp with Pinchas as he passes the railway cars, barracks, shower room and gas chambers of Majdanek, where 60,000 were killed.

Survivors testimony has been immortalised in other ways, such as with the Foundations new dimensions in testimony (NDT), which filmed 25 survivors, including Anne Franks stepsister Eva Schloss, answering thousands of questions. In Nottinghamshire, it is called the Forever Project and has filmed ten UK-based survivors answering the same kinds of questions.

Advanced 360-degree filming techniques mean the survivors appear as if in person and algorithms using natural language processing (performed by IBMs Watson computer) then match an audience question to one of the survivors answers, creating the effect of a chat.

We understand very well the power of conversation between Holocaust survivors and the younger generation, says Smith. Weve seen it in schools, in universities. That moment of dialogue and conversation, when I ask my question and I get it answered, theres just magic in the room when that happens.

This tech is part paid for by British philanthropists, including the Pears Foundation, and it has already gone global, including last years launch in Sweden. Testimony comes not just from English-speaking survivors. Of the 25 filmed for the NDT project, two spoke in Russian, two Spanish, one Hebrew, one German and one Mandarin. This adds both audience and funding: Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) helped to fund the filming of Russian-speaking survivors, with GPG co-founder Mikhail Fridman describing it as being of immense personal importance, while in China a national bank paid for the launch at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in 2017.

We found that different audiences asked different questions, says Smith. It makes sense, they have different cultures, histories, and philosophical perspectives.

American students tend to ask survivors if they believe in God, hate the Germans, forgive the perpetrators etc, whereas German students ask if survivors are proud to be German today, or how they feel about their German heritage. Its more about their own identity as young Germans, which is fascinating.

Different centres let visitors interact in different ways. In New York, you can walk in off the street and interact with a survivor, whereas at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum (NSCM) in Nottinghamshire, this is part of an educational package, moderated in an auditorium.

The NSCMs Forever Project is certainly popular, not least with schoolchildren, but it is not the museums only tech-focused installation.

This month an exhibition on photography propaganda opened. The Eye as Witness uses technology to create a mixed reality experience.

The Eye As Witness creates a mixed reality experience

A visitor enters a virtual world and steps into a Nazi photo taken in the Warsaw Ghetto. Inside the image, they can observe the photographer taking the shot, and study what was left outside the frame of the image.

While it is an excitingly creative use of technology to reconsider the past, its purpose is chillingly contemporary, says Marc Cave, interim NHCM chief executive.The exhibition invites critical thinking. It asks you to understand the visual cunning of the Nazis and how it helped permeate and legitimise anti-Jewish hate, and to think critically about the same propaganda techniques being used on social media today.

Assistant professor Paul Tennent from the Mixed Reality Lab at Nottingham Universitys School of Computer Science put the exhibition together, and said it tested his team on various levels, including ethically. The challenging context helps us to ask questions about the ethics of reconstructing sensitive scenes, he says.

VR technology gives us a powerful tool to deliver these experiences in a deeply immersive and embodied way, but we have a responsibility to apply this with care. Everybody in that photo was a real person with emotions and a story to tell. It is not our place to embellish their story, but to tell it as best we can with the tools we have.

Educators are not the only ones with tools: there is a need to protect against the potential for those looking to rewrite history to corrupt testimony. We have a massive issue with deep-fake technology, Cave said, referring to manipulation of video and audio of politicians or celebrities to make it look as if they said something they never did. Educators have to keep one step ahead with closed-wall technology that cannot be messed with.

Despite the dangers and opportunities, the idea of using the latest development as the means and not the ends is a recurring theme. We tend to be attracted to the glittering lights of technology, but whats important is content, says Smith. The way we collect and organise that content, the way we allow the subject to speak about their lives and experiences, is whats most critical. Its not about the tech. Its about how to you tell the story for the closest connection.

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How tech provides new ways to learn about the Holocaust - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on January 29, 2020

Anti-Semitism has always been a shape shifting virus. Put two anti-Semites in front of a keyboard and one will deny the Holocaust while the other wants to finish it. Barely a day goes by when I am not sent something along either of those lines. As the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, I am an easy and obvious target. But my inbox simply reflects the fact that anti-Semitism is back and increasing in intensity.

The Community Security Trust recorded 892 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in the first six months of 2019, the highest ever total and a rise of 10 per cent from the same period in 2018. You hardly need me to point out that one of our main political parties is currently being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional anti-Semitism.

So Mondays Holocaust Memorial Day does not simply commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, important enough as that would be. It is a vital plank in the fight against modern anti-Semitism the Jew hate that is once again thriving.

Labours issues are a symptom, rather than a cause, of this. Those party members who spread anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial did not suddenly decide to hate Jews because Jeremy Corbyn became their party leader. They have certainly felt more able to share that hate often on social media than before. But their anti-Semitism must have lain dormant until they began to think it acceptable to air.

After 1945 and the horrors of the Holocaust, there was a feeling that anti-Semitism might finally be extinguished, with the shattering clarity of where it had led. But it is not called the oldest hatred for nothing. Despite the gas chambers being within living memory, Jew hate and Holocaust denial are now firmly back with us.

In the context of Holocaust Memorial Day, it is that phrase in living memory that is most important. Because as the years go by, the number of remaining survivors of the Holocaust falls. And it is the survivors themselves, with the testimony of their own experiences, who are the most powerful communicators of what happened and what human beings are capable of. Anyone who has seen a survivor speak to a group of school children has seen them sit rapt, in total silence, as they learn what evil means.

There are all sorts of wonderful educational tools being developed such as holograms filmed for the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, for which 10 survivors were asked over 1,000 questions each, so the holograms can themselves be asked questions. But they are not the same as hearing from a living, breathing survivor.

Even now, with governments across Europe committed to Holocaust education and spending huge sums on it, anti-Semitism is on the rise. Social media makes it far easier than ever before to push Holocaust denial and firms such as Facebook refuse to take down offending posts unless compelled by law, as in Germany. Anti-Semitism will never be eliminated. And it will be an ever more uphill struggle as the survivors leave us. But that simply makes occasions like Holocaust Memorial Day ever more important.

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Fighting anti-Semitism will become that bit harder when the last Holocaust survivor leaves us - Telegraph.co.uk

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Posted By admin on January 29, 2020

TORONTO -- Political scientists and Holocaust survivors feel that emboldened far-right and white supremacist movements across Europe could threaten the memory of the Holocaust victims.

Monday is the grim, 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazis and collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe and Nazi Germany.

The deaths of two-thirds of Europes Jewish population took place via gas chambers, mass shootings and gas vans in German extermination camps and though a policy of extermination through work in concentration camps.

Today, the watchtowers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp are testaments of torment and terror.

The Nazis also murdered those with perceived racial and biological inferiority including Roma, Germans with disabilities, some Slavic peoples (especially Poles and Russians) and members of the LGBTQ community, according to the U.S. Holocaust memorial Museum.

Following the Second World War, the unimaginable brutality uncovered after the Holocaust sparked a universal pledge from countries to never allow atrocities like that to happen again.

But decades after that pledge, Holocaust survivors such as David Marks and historians fear that pact is in peril from right-wing and white nationalist movements in Europe, which both include a strong element of Holocaust denial.

We are living in an age of global authoritarianism and a polarizing populism that leads to an assault on human rights, Jerusalem-based human rights advocate Irwin Cotler told CTV News.

Over the past decade, these fringe groups have held rallies in cities all across Europe and the tide is rising. In more than a dozen countries, including France, the Netherlands and Germany, support for parties that promote xenophobic and racist ideals is growing.

They are spreading hate and they're mainstreaming ideas that used to be confined to the margins of the political landscape, said Mathieu Forcier, human rights coordinator at the Montreal Holocaust Museum.

And these fringe political parties can wield tremendous influence, even if their support is marginal.

They can help form coalition governments with other more mainstream parties, and -- once they form government -- they have the opportunity to translate their points of view into public policy, political science professor at the University of Toronto Phil Triadafilopoulos said.

And that can be quite dangerous, he added.

Their reprehensible rhetoric is leading to a rise in hate crimes across Europe. In France alone, there was a 74 per cent spike in anti-Semitic incidents between 2017 and 2018.

The increase in hate also corresponds with a decrease in the number of Jewish people on the continent overall. There are currently 1.5 million, according to the Conference of European Rabbis, but thats half a million fewer than two decades ago.

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White nationalist movements threatening the legacy of Holocaust victims - CTV News

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Posted By admin on January 29, 2020

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Like those all around the world, people at WVU gathered on Monday to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi operated Auschwitz concentration camp.

The extermination camp in Poland was where roughly 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed before it was liberated by allied forces in 1945. All in all, it is estimated that 6 million Jews died during World War II at the hands of the Nazis. More than 200 Holocaust survivors and world leaders gathered at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum to honor the day and the event was live-streamed globally, to viewers like those at WVU.

Its [the commemoration ceremony] been great, WVU sociology professor and attendee James Nolan said. You feel like youre there, its really an opportunity to just be part of something, part of a significant part of our history.

The viewing was organized by WVUs chapter of Pi Lambda Phi, it ran from 9:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. and was also being streamed at WVU Beckley and Potomac State College. Lisa DiBartolomeo, a WVU teaching professor and Pi Lambda Phi committee chairperson helped organized the event that was attended by more than 40 people throughout the day including faculty, staff, Morgantown community members and students.

One of the things that I hope that they take from this is hearing first hand from survivors because its one thing to deny the Holocaust if you dont listen to the people who lived through it, DiBartolomeo said. Were only going to have them as a resource for a few more years. Theyre elderly, many of them are in frail health and so its our duty to listen to them while we still can.

DiBartolomeo continued.

I would also say its an opportunity to think about what we do to our fellow human beings on a daily basis, DiBartolomeo said. Both at a microscopic level and a macroscopic level, how we treat our fellow human beings locally, globally, the legacy of antisemitism, of hatred is, unfortunately, active everyday in everyones lives so I would hope that people take this moment, take this day, only a week after Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to continue to think about the legacy.

She said she had been in contact with some schools around the state, namely, lots of social studies and history teachers who also streamed the live event for their students.

Nolan, the professor, and attendee, like DiBartolomeo, said he was concerned about Holocaust denial in the modern age. He said the more time that goes by, the more people start and continue to deny whether the Holocaust happened or if it happened as history says it did.

He said it was important to keep commemorating the Holocaust because it makes it harder for people to ignore or deny when we as a world keep it at the forefront of our minds. Nolan added that we have to do it as a world because its a global responsibility.

Somebody else didnt do it, we all contributed, the world contributed, Nolan said. Some of the stories you can see how that happened, including the refusal for the US to take refugees during a time when they needed help. All of those things remind us were part of the reasons why it happens and the reasonswere all part of the prevention effort to stop it.

Attendees were provided with resources on the Holocaust and given information on how they can learn more. DiBartolomeo said people who werent in attendance who want to receive more information can email her: Lisa.DiBartolomeo@mail.wvu.edu.

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WVU joins the world in commemorating 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp - WBOY.com

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Posted By admin on January 29, 2020

The future is one step closer.

The Jewish Federation's Fund for the Future, a major commitment to fuel a next-generation renaissance in Jewish life, has raised nearly $60 million since its launch last year.

Now the Fund, part of the Federation's Centennial Campaign, has announced its first round of grants, all geared to stimulate robust connections with children, teens, college students, young adults, and young families. Additional grants will be made every three months, expanding on those and a wide array of other innovative efforts.

The initial distributions from the Fund, which is chaired by Bill Silverstein, will invigorate nearly a dozen and a half programs and projects, including:

For Children - JUF Camping Initiative, Jewish Day School Guaranty Trust Fund, B'nai B'rith Beber Camp, Chicago Jewish Day School, and JUF Education's Early Childhood Collaborative and CHIdush programs, which provide professional development and support for early childhood educators - all to make sure that every child is welcomed through vibrant Jewish learning and experiences.

For Teens - Voices: The Chicago Jewish Teen Foundation - to provide every teen a unique pathway to build their Jewish identity and engage in local Jewish life.

For Young Adults - Silverstein Base Hillel, Moishe House, Israel Education Center, Lewis Summer Intern Program, AEPi Foundation and Encompass - to assure that every emerging adult, in college and beyond, is embraced by and excited to be part of the Jewish community.

For Every Young Jew - Israel Now/Ta'am Yisrael and Birthright Israel - to welcome every young Jew to Israel, again and again.

For Young Families - PJ Library and JUF Right Start - to provide every young family with abundant resources to build an enjoyable, meaningful Jewish home, and to connect to community.

In future quarterly rounds, many of those efforts will receive additional financial support, and will be joined by other exciting initiatives such as "Z" Frank Apachi Day Camp, Write On For Israel, the Norton & Elaine Sarnoff Center for Jewish Genetics, a national expansion of Israel Now/Ta'am Yisrael, Honeymoon Israel and One Happy Camper scholarships, to name just a few.

"The future of tomorrow's Jewish community depends on how well we engage today's young Jews," said Dr. Steven B. Nasatir, JUF's executive vice chairman. "JUF has been an innovator in that space for years. Now, with the Fund for the Future, we have the resources to take that to an entirely new level."

To help fuel that future, contact Merle Cohen, MerleCohen@juf.org.

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Fund for the Future energizes next generation projects - Jewish United Fund

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

As someone who believes in equality, and that it should apply to everyone, I have found myself time and time again supporting, promoting, and finding the intersections of Zionism and Feminism.

By definition, Zionism is the nationalist movement of the Jewish people that espouses the re-establishment of and support for a Jewish state in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel. Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that aim to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. These two often radical terms essentially mean that the Jewish people deserve a homeland and that women deserve equality.

It is baffling and somewhat unbelievable that these two movements are still necessary 72 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, and 100 years after women were granted the right to vote. Antisemitism is the hostility to, or prejudice against Jews as a religious or a racial group. It is the modern version of one of the oldest known hatred, Judeophobia which can be traced back to the beginning of Judaism itself. The Holocaust/Shoah is its most extreme example, but antisemitism has resulted in attacks on Jewish people as well as Jewish places. Today, attacks are increasing significantly, from 751 attacks in 2013 to 1,879 acts in 2018, including the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack on Jewish people in a US territory in the United States history. The Jewish people have been through expulsions from their homeland as well as other countries, pogroms in Europe, the Shoah/Holocaust which resulted in the death of more than 6 million Jews alone, violent antisemitic attacks worldwide, and more. Yet, they still have yearned for their homeland and fought for the creation of the state of Israel. Zionism is that fight. Even after having been through so much hatred, the world is appalled that the Jewish people have the audacity to demand the same rights that other people are granted. A state where we are safe and treated as equals. But hate, discrimination, and demonization is still rearing its ugly head, and these two groups feel the impact in schools, the workplace, and even in the streets, where acts of antisemitism and sexism are reaching unfathomable highs. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), reported that in 2018 there was a notable increase in physical assaults on K-12 and college campuses. A year after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, 300 students came together at the ACT-Pittsburgh Assembly to learn about combating anti semitism on college campuses. Afterwards, the TellYourStoryNow campaign launched in order to give students that have experienced antisemitism first hand, the chance to tell their story. The campaign is meant to help show just how often and diverse antisemitic occurrences are happening now on college campuses nationwide.

Sexism is a prejudice or discrimination based on a persons sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another. The fight for womens equal rights is not a new one. From fighting for the right to vote 100 years ago, to 2017 with the widespread #MeToo, a movement to empower women to break the silence against sexual harassment and assault. The hashtag went viral very quickly as many celebrities made posts to show not only the extent of the problem but also that there is strength in numbers.

Intersectionality is defined as the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. In simpler terms, it is where different parts of your identity meet and overlap. For me, two of those include being a Zionist and being a feminist. As a feminist, I see the Womens March is powerful, empowering, and driven. Even after fighting for the right to vote, for equal pay, and justice for silenced sexual assault victims, the feminist movement has banded woman together, but has not been as inclusive as its definition would suggest. As a Zionist, I stand for the equality of both Jews and Women, since I want them to be self-reliant for their own safety, success, and happiness. Perhaps that is where the issue stems from, true equality is seen as radical, threatening, and upsetting to the natural order of things which is a convenient way for those who have the power to keep it.

Antisemitism and sexism are very real and very personal issues that I deal with on a very regular basis. I have been on the receiving end of this hate and discrimination. As a woman this can mean small things like not being offered to pay the check at the end of a meal or larger issues like getting sexually harassed at work by a customer. As a Jew this could mean being told antisemitic jokes about baking jews or it could mean a fellow student harassing and threatening to kill all the Jewish girls with violent threats, antisemitic slurs, and the use of nazi propaganda and imagery.

The intersection of Zionists and Feminists should be a no brainer. I am someone who believes in equality, and that equality should apply to everyone. Zionism and feminism are the same fight for different groups of people, so the people that fight for womens rights should also be fighting for the rights of the Jewish people.

Yael is a Jewish Israeli who has lived in America for most of her life. She is a fellow with StandWithUs, interns with her Hillel, a Social Justice major at West Valley College, and works part time at a private Jewish day school. When she is not advocating for Israel she enjoys knitting, nature photography, and going on road trips.

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Zionism, Feminism, and Where They Intersect. | Yael Friedman - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

Anti-Semitism has hopped to the forefront of the political conversation in recent years. It seemed like every interviewer of a Labour Party representative brings up anti-Semitism. However, these claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour party have been deflected and delegitimised as simply anti-Zionist arguments and criticisms of Israel. What is the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and why has the UKs relationship with Israel a small, non-European country been such a pressing matter as a general election approached? What ideology does Zionism actually describe? Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland Israel. Conversely, Anti-Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people should not have the right to self-determination in Israel, thus Israel should be disassembled.

Judaism can be equally characterised as a religion, a culture, nationhood, and ethnicity. For anti-Zionism to be antisemitic, it would have to discriminate against at least one of these subgroups. Many Jewish people fear that anti-Zionism is used as a veil with which to conceal and legitimise antisemitic ideas as a criticism of Israel. This has been a driving force behind the desire to universally define antisemitism and has led to widespread acceptance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Associations (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. According to this definition, holding Israel to stricter standards than other countries, or blindly demonising Jewish people over Israel, is antisemitic. Assumptions that parliaments acceptance of the IHRA definition was to appease Jewish outcry seem implausible. The Jewish population in the UK is a small minority, and the IHRA definition has been accepted readily across the globe, even in countries with little-to-no Jewish people.

Secular Jews and non-jews are welcomed in Israel with equal rights and opportunities as those who choose religious Jewish life. As such, Israel is not a religious Jewish state. Minority religious blocs indeed exist within Israel, that campaign for most laws to comply with their orthodox religious tradition, for example by outlawing public transport on the Sabbath. But pro-Zionist groups and the Israeli government overwhelmingly work towards the safeguarding of Israel as a state that represents all Jewish people, whilst safeguarding the rights of all its citizens. Thus, the most commonly promoted anti-Zionist ideas are not a critique of the religious practices of Judaism.

Israeli culture is a melting pot of the expansive and rich Jewish cultures. The migrants who parented Israels Jewish communities emigrated from across the diaspora. As more Jewish and non-Jewish people came from abroad in the subsequent two-hundred years they brought with them aspects of the countries they came from. Israeli food, music, and values are clearly a mishmash of these cultures and Jewish tradition.

The ideas of Jewish nationhood and ethnicity are extremely similar and overlap in places, so it is important to pinpoint the exactitude of their differentiation. Jewish nationhood can be described as a lineage of common descent from the ancient nation of Judea and Samaria. Jewish ethnicity is earmarked by a shared heritage and some biological similarities within certain geographical groups. By campaigning against a Jewish state in Jewish peoples ancestral homeland, anti-Zionism denies Judaism as an ethnicity and nationhood, which is how external agencies have historically defined Jewish people across the diaspora. In Nazi Germany for example, if one had a single Jewish grandparent, they were determined to be Jewish and persecuted accordingly. Israel acknowledges this, however. Anyone with a single Jewish grandparent holds the right to Israeli citizenship upon request.

Zionism is simply the idea of an ethnic groups right to self-determine itself, and have land to take refuge in. This idea is important as the Jewish people have been exiled from, persecuted in, and discriminated against in almost every country in the world throughout its largely diasporic history. Anti-Zionism is the denial of these rights, which are awarded to most other ethnicities by several human rights doctrines. Anti-Zionism as a political movement to disassemble Israel is always antisemitic.

To label, any criticism of Israel and its governmental policies as racist or antisemitic is inflammatory and inaccurate. However, outright anti-Zionism is fundamentally antisemitic. Even though the movement rarely attacks the Jewish religion, it seeks to destroy Israel as it is currently, as the centre of Jewish ethnic and national identity, and the most universal one since Ancient times. However, many mislabel themselves as anti-Zionist. There are many who do so, but only take issue with the Israeli governments actions or Israels military presence in the disputed territories. It is imperative that we understand what constitutes anti-Zionism and antisemitism, as aligning political criticisms of Israel with racism can make it harder to fight legitimate antisemitism in the guise of outright anti-Zionism.

Elliot is a Mathematics student and a CAMERA Fellow at King's College London.

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When Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitic? | Elliot Orenstein - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

Today, the World Zionist Congress elections open, and Diaspora Jewry will have almost two months to elect those who will hold seats in the World Zionist Congress (WZC),the legislative body that determines the policies of the world's leading Jewish organizations - the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency of Israel (JAFI), the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and KerenHayesod.The WZC is the body that makesmajor policy decisions concerningthe future of Zionism,Aliyah and absorption, Israeli advocacy worldwide, Jewish education andthewar against antisemitism, settlement in Israel and other vital issues for Israel and the Jewish peoples future. Policies will be decided, andresourcesareallocated.The stakes are extremely high and that is why more and more organizations and activists have entered the frayfor this years election.Unfortunately, while the Left has been largely out of power in Israel fora number ofdecades, they have significant control of the WZC due the liberalDiasporaJewish establishments resources and power. In these elections, some extreme-Left figures likePeter Beinartand JeremyBen-Ami, the president of the far-Left group J Street, haveentered the fray to move the balance of power even further Left. This means that every single votecountsin an election open to all Jews above the age of 18.Unfortunately, the Right is now playing with one hand tied behind its back.A recent decision was made bytheArea Elections Committee of the American Zionist Movement, the organization in charge of the elections in North America,that while students can have a discount on their registration fee, Holocaust survivors, World War Two veterans and other senior citizens may not.The American Forum for Israel, an organization I proudly chair, which seesan increasingly liberal Jewish establishment, critical of Israel, supportive of dangerous concessions to the Palestinians and in agreement with a capitulation by the West to Iran,as extremely dangerous to Israel and the Jewish future,has appealedthisdiscriminatory and dangerous decision which at first sight seems rather innocuous.However, according to the Pew Research Center, one-fifth of all US Jews report annual household incomes of less than $30,000, especially affecting those who have reached retirement age. This decision isthusdiscriminatory against Holocaust survivors, the elderly, new immigrants and those on lower incomes. Like the liberal Jewish establishment, we know that while students tend to veer Left politically, the elderly, especially those who lived through the Holocaust, World War Two and the establishment of the State of Israel, tend to understand the need for a strong and proud Israel.The Jewish establishment also know that it is precisely these Jews who are sick and tired of theirconcessionistpolices. The American Forum for Israels election campaign has been centered around loosening the grip by the liberal and critical Jewish establishment. It is seen as a threat by those who have been in power for so long.We are those Jews who have had enough and we want to see our voices heard where it matters and no longer kowtow to the Left, those who wish to see a constricted Israel, favor the Iran nuclear agreementand do not condemn the insidious and anti-Semitic BDS movement.Their Zionism is about concessions, submission and weakness.Unfortunately, they are in control and place Jews who want a strong, proud and successful Israel on the sidelines, and try and keep us out. However, we want to stop this and have our voicesheard. We have an opportunity to say enough, and that we will no longer accept this contempt and disdain.We should stand up proudly and say it is our time, it is time for our Zionism. Our Zionism is about strengthening Israel, it is about standing unequivocally with Israelis against their enemies, and it is about ensuring an unbreakable partnership between Israel and the Diaspora. It is about fighting Antisemitism inall ofits manifestations, including anti-Zionism.This is what these World Zionist Congress elections arereally about, and any attempt toartificially tip the scalesshould be condemned and amended immediately.This is a battle worth fighting and we will take all legal measures necessary to fight for inclusion and our Zionism. We hope you will join us.The writer is President of the American Forum for Israel http://www.AmericanForumForIsrael.com

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Why the World Zionist Congress elections matter - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

Zionism and feminism are both dirty words. Express an opinion in favor of either, and youre bound to have a heated discussion whether online or in person. But Zionism and feminism are absolutely critical concepts for anyone who supports the fight for equality. So why is it that these two ideas are threatening to those who oppose them? Why is it that they invoke so much emotion on both sides? More interestingly, how is it that in 2020, its still permissible to be anti-Zionist or anti-feminist? At the end of the day, both of these movements boil down to the self-determination of two historically marginalized groups. As such, you cannot be a feminist today on the basis of supporting equality, and not be a Zionist.Its 2020, and wed like to believe we are in a new era. Weve had female prime ministers and world leaders in nearly every region, weve had marches and movements for womens equality. Weve fought for equal pay, the right to vote, we stood up to Hollywood rapists and said no more to sexual harassment with #MeToo. And yet, with every achievement we have had a common enemy fighting against us: the status quo, often protected by men. Is it simply that women demanding equality is really so threatening?The mere concept of feminism invokes strong opinions on either side. From its inception, the movement for womens liberation, and the womens right to vote, was met with mockery and scorn. For example, the National Association Against Womens Suffrage released a pamphlet explaining why we must fight this phenomena of women voting, listing Because in some States more voting women than voting men will place the Government under petticoat rule. Indeed, at every turning point in history, progress was only made by women standing up and saying no more. It wasnt just handed to them.This was the case with first wave feminism demanding the right to vote, better working conditions, the right to education, etc., and again in the second wave of feminism with a rejection of societal expectations of women, the normalization of financial independence and family matters such as divorce. It continues today with the fight for equal pay, the rejection of rape culture, and the growing demand for men to take responsibility for their actions and sexually aggressive behaviors (past or present). In the Middle East, women are still fighting for the most basic of rights such as driving in Saudi Arabia, the right to education instead of child or teen marriage, and the right to dress as they choose without fear of imprisonment or torture as in the case of Iran. Simply put, at any time, and in any place, freedom for women isnt free.THROUGHOUT HISTORY, until today, the situation is no different for Jews. Jews have overcome horrific persecution of expulsion from our homeland; the Holocaust and pogroms throughout Europe; ethnic cleansing, torture and expulsion in Arab states; societal discrimination even in progressive countries where Jews were prohibited from joining clubs and entering certain businesses; multiple attempts of Arab states to wipe out the Jewish state; and waves of antisemitic violence all over the world that continue until today. Yet despite it all, we fought for a Jewish state. Zionism was a radical social movement that by todays standards was one of the first social justice causes. Its the story of a people coming back to their homeland and refusing to settle for anything less than becoming the masters of their own fate. No longer would we depend on anyone else for our well-being. No longer will we rely on the generosity of our host nations. We have a state, and we demand to be treated as equals. Yet, over 70 years after Israels establishment, the world continues to be threatened by Jews daring to demand equality.In the same way Zionism necessarily demands that Jews become the masters of their own fate. So too, does feminism. Feminism is the belief in the equality of the sexes, the notion that women too can be masters of their fate. That women need not be reliant on a man for their safety, success and happiness. It is for this reason that Zionism and feminism are upsetting to so many people: because equality is radical, indeed threatening, to those who hold power over others.If the idea of a woman or a Jew being equal in society makes you feel uncomfortable, you should think twice about your own biases. If your commitment to the social order includes arranged marriage, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, excusing or diminishing domestic violence, sexual harassment or assault (also covering it up), victim-blaming, disrespecting or demeaning women, a media that berates women (more than men) for their appearance, legal systems that prevent women from coming forward when they are attacked, unequal pay, or demonizing feminists, you are enabling bigotry.Similarly, when you hold double standards against Jews, support or protect organizations or individuals who demonize the only Jewish state, or that call for terrorism against the Jewish state or Jews, you are, intentionally or not, aligning yourself with antisemites.Someone who believes in equality, believes in equality for all. It is for that reason that you cannot be a feminist who believes in equality for all, and not be a Zionist as well. Feminism and Zionism are two sides of the same coin.The writer is the CEO of Social Lite Creative, a boutique branding firm.

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You cant be a feminist and not be a Zionist - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts.

Until recently, scholars considered the history of the Zionist movement in the Soviet Union solely a history of repression. But nearly 2,000 pages of archival documents provide a more multifaceted and even suspenseful picture of relations between Zionist organizations and Soviet authorities during the first decade after the October Revolution of 1917.

Most of the documents were found in Ukrainian archives, which were first opened to researchers in the 1990s. 60% of Soviet Jews lived in Ukraine before the Holocaust and Ukraine was the center of Zionist activity in the USSR.

These documents were included a book, Zionist Parties and Organizations in the USSR in the 1920s, featuring more than 400 documents: political programs and proclamations by Zionist parties and organizations, protocols and resolutions from their conferences and conventions, as well as secret reports about their activities prepared for Soviet intelligence services. These documents allow researchers to examine the Zionist movement in the USSR from two perspectives: both internally and externally, i.e. vis a vis Soviet authorities. The previous generation of historians didnt have access to Soviet archives and were therefore limited in the historical perspective they could provide.

In her detailed introduction, Ziva Galili of Rutgers University explains the unique nature of the Zionist movement in the USSR in the 1920s. Before the October Revolution, Zionist ideas were popular among various segments of Russian Jewry. The movement had a variety of ideological streams, from the religious Mizrachi movement to the left-wing Poale Zion. Most Zionist leaders left the country after the revolution and a new generation of socialist Zionist leaders came to the fore who believed that Zionism could be accommodated to the new Soviet regime. In the 1920s, writes Galili, the Zionists were willing to accommodate all sorts of ideological influences from Soviet politics.

The legal and semi-legal Zionist organizations were only active in the USSR until the late 1920s, but during that relatively short time, they created a unique political culture. Despite their general socialist orientation they engaged in fierce ideological debates about their goals and tactics. The largest among them was the Socialist Zionist party Zeire Zion, which held Marxist positions. They believed that the future Jewish state in Israel must be socialist. They supported the Soviet government in principal but were opposed to the dictatorship of the Bolshevik party.

Its remarkable that the non-Jewish Bolshevik leaders, including even Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka, the Soviet Secret Police, didnt see the socialist Zionists as a threat to the Soviet regime. The chief opponents of the Zionists were actually members of the Yevsektsiya, or Jewish section of the Bolshevik party, with whom they competed for the loyalties of the Jewish masses. In the small Jewish towns of Eastern Europe, the Zionists attracted the youth of the Jewish middle class, i.e. the children of storekeepers, religious instructors, beadles, etc, who couldnt join communist youth organizations due to their parents belonging to the petite bourgeoisie. The Zionists provided these young Jews with a friendly cultural and social environment. They studied Hebrew, Jewish history and political theory in the mold of Ber Borochov, the founder of the Marxist stream of Zionism.

The socialist Zionist federation, Dror, had a very different political approach. They emphasized the freeing of ones personality through tilling the soil in the land of Israel. Dror did not believe in Marxism or class struggle. They modeled their ideology upon the Russian philosopher Pyotr Lavrovich Lavrov (1823-1900), who also had a profound impact on the thought of the Yiddish writer and ethnographer S. An-Ski.

The third Zionist organization in the USSR was HeHalutz. Its goal was hachshara, training young people to work the land. Until the mid 1920s, HeHalutz ran two agricultural colonies in Crimea. The Soviet regime allowed their activity to continue because of the financial support they received from the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation.

Whether to promote Hebrew or Yiddish was a question of great importance to the Zionists. The language question is a political question, read a resolution adopted at Zeire Zions fourth convention, which took place in Kharkiv in 1921. The resolution stated that Hebrew is the only Jewish language which all branches of the Jewish people have in common. Furthermore, it argued, Jewish multilingualism is a plague of exile which can be healed solely through the coming workers settlement in the land of Israel. Until then, the movement had permitted and even encouraged Jews to use Yiddish because rejecting Yiddish means rejecting direct contact with the masses. A key part of the Zionist program was the struggle to have Yiddish recognized as a fully legitimate language within the USSR.

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How Socialist Zionists tried to fit into the new Soviet system - Forward

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