Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

(JNS)-It was the year 2000, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, and Arab terror attacks were being carried out against Israelis on a nearly daily basis throughout the country, and particularly on the roads in Judea and Samaria.

After one particular deadly attack, former Sephardic chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu approached one of his aides, Arie Levy, who had been a volunteer medic and ambulance driver with Magen David Adom (MDA) for about six years, asking why no emergency response organization existed in Judea and Samaria in order to react in a timely manner to save lives.

Levy, now 53, who arrived in Israel as an immigrant from France with his family as a child, agreed with his protg that something had to be done. Working side by side with MDA, Levy founded "Hatzalah Judea and Samaria," an emergency first-response organization dedicated to saving lives in Judea, Samaria, the Old City of Jerusalem and other parts of the country that were especially under attack.

Now known by the name "Rescuers Without Borders," the new organization, made up entirely of volunteer medics, began taking emergency calls and filling in gaps of MDA coverage.

The organization's director of development, Natalie Sopinsky, tells JNS, "We are the Red Cross of the West Bank. We are volunteer medics and first responders who arrive at the scene of car accidents, terror attacks and more. When you call 101 [Israel's version of 911], we come."

Sopinsky, an immigrant from Delaware who lives with her husband and five children in the southern Hebron hills community of Sussya, says that during the years of the intifada, "those who were hurt in terror attacks couldn't be saved because there were no medics. So we decided we would train people here, in our areas."

She said the organization that today boasts 950 volunteer first-responders works hand in hand with MDA. "We overlap with MDA. We train with them. MDA gives a course for volunteer medics, which is expensive, and we subsidize the funding for our volunteers."

She adds that while Rescuers does not maintain a fleet of its own ambulances, when her donors give money, she can work with MDA and direct them, for example, as to which community in Judea and Samaria is in need of ambulance to be stationed there.

The organization also distributes emergency equipment like burn kits, defibrillators and other medical necessities to the communities themselves for use in situations where every second counts. They also have volunteers trained in search and rescue, who collaborate with the Israel Defense Forces and other relevant authorities in times of natural disasters.

'We believe that life is important'

After only five years up and running, the organization decided that not only would its mission be to save lives in Israel, but around the world.

December 2004 saw one of the deadliest natural disasters in the modern world when an earthquake and resulting tsunami struck in the Indian Ocean killing more than 200,000 and wounding nearly 500,000 people in countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Levy explains that when the disaster happened, within hours, a team of medics representing his organization hopped on a plane to Sri Lanka to help treat the wounded.

It was after they returned that Levy decided that operations needed to expand globally. Known internationally as Sauveteurs sans Frontires (SSF)/Rescuers Without Borders, Levy has assisted in setting up 14 local branches and training licensed first responders in 14 different countries around the world, including Mali, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nepal and France, among others.

Levy says that in 2017, when Hurricane Irma-the strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever recorded-made landfall on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, destroying as much as 90 percent of the buildings there, his medics stationed in Guadeloupe were the first ones to arrive on the scene to treat the wounded, just four hours after medical personnel were allowed in.

Politics, however, plays a role in the work of Rescuers, locally and internationally. According to Sopinsky, as CNN was filming the group's heroic efforts in Sri Lanka, they decided to turn off the cameras once they found out the group of medics consisted of Israeli "settlers." That incident did play a role in the organization's name change.

Still, Levy insists that politics doesn't come into play for him, whether it's saving lives around the world or on the ground in Judea and Samaria. He tells JNS: "If I can treat someone in Mali, why can't I treat someone in Judea and Samaria? We save Jewish lives, Arab lives. Politics doesn't interest me; we're here to save lives."

Yehudit Tayar, an organization spokesperson and emergency first-responder living in the Binyamin (southern Samaria) community of Beit Horon, tells JNS that the bottom line is "we believe that life is important." The former IDF combat soldier details how over the years she has treated countless numbers of Jews and Arabs who live in her region in a variety of emergencies.

For her, the establishment of the organization in 2000 was a game-changer. "Before 2000, it could take hours for a medic to arrive, and sometimes there was no ambulance available. But now, having the Rescuers' state-of-the-art equipment with us 24/7 is so important. Time [getting to the scene of incident quickly] equals life. That is the bottom line."

'You can live or visit here with confidence'

Sopinsky says that due to the current reality, the organization helps people injured in rock and firebomb attacks on the roads in Judea and Samaria on a near daily basis.

Rescuers is also involved in helping those in need in other parts of the country. In the south, the group has helped renovate bomb shelters near the Gaza border and started an animal-therapy program using horses for kids with post-traumatic stress disorder in the often bombarded community of Nachal Oz.

A pilot program is also being tested involving the use of a brand-new ballistic blanket called the "Armadillo," which can protect rescuers and their patients under rocket fire from flying shrapnel. (The device was designed by anti-terror security expertMarc Provisor.)

The organization also looks to enhance the lives of residents in Judea and Samaria in other areas by funding sports fields, synagogues and the renovation of social halls, along with other security projects.

A brand-new ballistic blanket called the "Armadillo," which can protect rescuers and their patients under rocket fire from flying shrapnel.

But perhaps the biggest project right now, according to Sopinsky, is the construction of a top-notch training simulation center in Givat Ze'ev, near Jerusalem, where emergency situations from car accidents, drownings, the delivering of babies or other scenarios can be re-enacted. This will give first-responders the opportunity to practice various medical exercises, as the simulations will be as close to the real thing as possible.

Next year, the group will celebrate 20 years of saving lives. Sopinsky says what people should take from that milestone is that thanks to Rescuers Without Borders, "you can live here or visit here safely and with confidence. This might still be the Wild West, but thanks to our volunteers, you are not alone."

Natalie Sopinsky will be in Winter Springs on Sunday, Dec. 8, at Fellowship Church, 5340 Red Bug Lake Road at 7 p.m. This engagement is open to the Jewish and Christian communities.

Read this article:

'We're here to save lives,' stress those associated with Israel's Rescuers Without Borders - Heritage Florida Jewish News

Category: Sephardic | Comments Off on ‘We’re here to save lives,’ stress those associated with Israel’s Rescuers Without Borders – Heritage Florida Jewish News
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

Boxing has long been a British obsession, exported successfully to North America, but never widespread on the Continent. Mainland Europeans struggled to understand that in general there was no quarrel between contestants who assaulted each other so brutally. Anything that looks like fighting, explained one bewildered French visitor, is delicious to an Englishman. He might have said the same about drinking or gambling, pastimes embedded in the fabric of Georgian society to an astonishing extent. They were habits, moreover, upon which the popularity of boxing depended.

The story of Daniel Mendoza, little known except to sporting historians, is fascinating on both a personal level and more generally. The man one paper called that celebrated hero of the fists was a man for his time, the late 18th century: a lavishly gifted boxer, as bare-knuckle fighting became vastly popular.

It was not unusual for fights, casually arranged and marketed by todays standards, officially frowned upon if not forbidden, to be watched in rain-sodden fields by tens of thousands. It is astonishing, reported one newspaper correspondent, how numerous the crowds of people of all ranks and descriptions were.

What was additionally remarkable about Mendoza was that he was Jewish by birth from a Sephardic family and had to defy shocking levels of racial prejudice to reach the pinnacle of his sport. Wynn Wheldon calls his three encounters with Richard Humphreys the greatest series of fights of the 18th century, to be classed, he would argue, with those involving Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

This was a time when boxing moved from what was essentially a brawl into something closer, for all its brutality, to an art form. Mendozas teaching, long after retirement, along with his aptly named book The Art of Boxing, ensured him a lasting influence. He was a genuine celebrity in what was celebritys first great age.

If a man for his time, though, he is no less clearly a man for ours. An impoverished Londoner, he faced unimaginable discrimination, ridicule and intolerance on his way to establishing himself as the effective champion of boxing in this country a man familiarly known as the little black bruiser or the fighting Jew. (We cant call him a heavyweight: at under 11 stone, he wasnt, and he fought in an age before weight categories, often against larger and heavier men.)

In many ways it is a familiar story: a rise to unheralded fame and riches and reverence, poorly dealt with and the gloomily inevitable precursor to physical decline, familial disappointment, financial incompetence and a sad demise. But it is fascinating nevertheless, and always fleshed out with the broader history of the time: American independence, industrial revolution, the French Revolution, wars between England and France and the abolition of the slave trade.

The books colloquial style sometimes grates. Its a maybe, Wheldon writes of one unknown. Somehow I think this unlikely, he says of another. And Im fairly sure that Mendoza saw the comedy in this anecdote. More generally, it is hard to revitalise a sporting hero without the corroboration of video footage upon which acceptance of greatness will depend.

It is harder still when the rules governing a sport are very different to the one known today. The absence of gloves is one such difference. So too are the lack of a knock-out rule, giving any fighter much longer to recover, or indeed to fall over deliberately if in need of a breather, as well as the great length of bouts. Fights regularly enter their 34th round.

I was interested in the book. Would I recommend it? Its a points decision, not a knock-out.

See the original post:

Britains obsession with boxing is as deep-rooted as its devotion to cricket - Spectator.co.uk

Category: Sephardic | Comments Off on Britains obsession with boxing is as deep-rooted as its devotion to cricket – Spectator.co.uk
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

I write in my capacities as President of SHAI, Sephardic Heritage Alliance, Inc., Trustee of the Great Neck Public Schools Board of Education, and longtime resident of this community to share wonderful tidings with your readers this holiday season.

Your readers will surely be gladdened to know that the recent SHAI Childrens Coat and Clothing Drive surpassed anyones wildest expectations due to the overwhelming goodwill and generosity of hundreds of people of goodwill right here in our community.

As previously reported in your paper, the Great Neck Public Schools launched a clothing pantry to benefit students in need last year. Despite ongoing stereotypes of communal affluence, the Pantry is actually a response to the reality that a very significant double-digit portion of each of our public school communities is food-insecure.

Located at the Saddle Rock elementary school, run on a volunteer basis by staff, and supported by the various PTOs, the Clothing Pantry is a resource that Guidance Counselors in the various schools refer identified families to on a confidential basis.

The not-for-profit organization over which I currently preside, SHAI, has a three-decade history of coat drives, blood drives, need-based and merit scholarships, educational programming and partnering with multiple communal not-for-profit religious, secular, and municipal entities.

This year, SHAI received approval from GNPS to run a Childrens Clothing Drive to benefit the GNPS Clothing Pantry. Last Sunday, Dec. 2, SHAIs office was the site of drop-offs for the Clothing Drive. We were delightedly overwhelmed insofar as there was an outpouring of generosity from donors albeit during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

In fact, the abundance of donations far exceeded the original Childrens Clothing requests: In addition to over one hundred childrens winter coats we received, and loads of sweaters and pants, etc., SHAI also received nearly one hundred mens winter coats, mens suits, button-down shirts, sweaters, nearly 60 womens winter coats, and more assorted clothing than we have been able to conclude sorting as of this writing!

Consequently, I am thrilled to report that Midnite Run via SHAI and Temple Israel of Great Neck will receive the adult coats and suits for distribution to homeless individuals at shelters in New York City, and that the various gemachs (an acronym for gemilut chasidim a Hebrew phrase and Jewish mitzvah obligation to perform acts of kindness without taking interest on loans) will receive the remainder.

On behalf of the SHAI Board, I would be remiss not to thank the hundreds of anonymous donors- Persian Jews as well as so many others- who donated so generously in furtherance of our efforts. SHAI also extends gratitude to the leadership of the UPTC, United Parent Teacher Council of the Great Neck Public Schools for co-promoting the Coat and Clothing Drive to the entire parent body. Some Great Neck children and families will literally be warmer this winter due to this generosity. I also choose to believe that all Great Neck hearts can feel warmer that we have still have such unbounded thoughtfulness and generosity in our midst.

Rebecca Sassouni

Great Neck

Here is the original post:

Readers Write: - Opinions - The Island Now

Category: Sephardic | Comments Off on Readers Write: – Opinions – The Island Now
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

From Comptrollers report

BORO PARK, FLATBUSH, GREENPOINT High rates of childhood lead exposure remains a persistent issue in a handful of neighborhoods, despite an overall drop city-wide, NYC Department of Health (DOH) reports.

Borough Park and Greenpoint, which for this study included much of Williamsburg, have the highest concentration of children under the age of six with a blood lead level (BLL) of more than 5 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL) the level that the CDC considers much higher than most childrens levels. These neighborhoods are home to some of the largest Hasidic communities in the world.

Exposure to lead can seriously harm a childs health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems, warns the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Although the rate has fallen slightly from 2017 to 2018, 4% of young children in Williamsburg still have a BLL of over 5 mcg/dL the highest rate of any neighborhood in New York City. Borough Park remained at 3.2% exposure rate and the rate in Flatbush increased from 1.7% to 2% all much above the city average of 1.3%.

These neighborhoods are a stumbling block for what has otherwise been a resoundingly successful campaign by the NYC Department of Health to reduce early childhood lead exposure. The rate of young children with a BLL of over 5 mcg/dL has plummeted in Brooklyn from 14% to 1.8% over the last fifteen years. Other neighborhoods with higher than average rates are Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Crown Heights, and Bed Stuy.

The effort to decrease lead exposure has centered around removing lead paint from buildings built before 1960, the year when lead paint was banned in New York City.

In just the first half of 2019, NYC has seen a 10% decline in the number of children with EBLLs citywide. However, as we have said consistently, the only acceptable number of children exposed to lead in our city is zero, said the NYC Health Department in a statement to Bklyner. In order to achieve this, NYC Health Department, in partnership with other city agencies, has taken aggressive action to prevent lead exposures and address the sources of exposure directly. We will continue to work with neighborhood leaders, medical providers and trusted community-based organizations to increase awareness about lead poisoning prevention across the City.

Leaders in the Hasidic Community are working alongside the NYC Department of Health to raise awareness about and provide grants to remove the problematic paint.

Sam Stern, an organizer for the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn (UJO), sees the conditions in the Hasidic areas of Brooklyn as a perfect storm for lead exposure.

In South Williamsburg you have a concentration of public housing and so many families live there, said Stern. The area is heavily industrial. Therefore it was very natural for Williamsburg to have high lead levels. Plus you have a concentration of old housing. So you take everything together and this is what you get. These are the ingredients in the soup.

The UJOs role in this process often involves overcoming the language and cultural barriers that might have frustrated earlier attempts from the city to remove lead paint.

Were working with the city and doing our own outreach in our own native language, said Stern. We have literature and bus ads. We went into schools, we went into daycares just to make people aware.

On November 7 the De Blasio Administration announced a plan to use a data-based strategy to combat early-childhood lead exposure. Under this program, the city will automatically carry out targeted inspections of the homes of children whose BLL measures above 5 mcg/dL.

We are doubling down on our efforts to eradicate childhood lead exposure through LeadFreeNYC. This unprecedented outreach effort to 100,000 homes will hold landlords accountable and keep our kids safe, said Kathryn Garcia, DSNY Commissioner and Senior Advisor for Citywide Lead Prevention, in a press release.

This initiative comes in the wake of Comptroller Scott Stringers damning investigation into the citys failure to use lead exposure data to guide lead paint elimination strategy.

The Comptrollers Office found that for years, the City allowed crucial data namely thousands of childrens blood lead test results collected by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to remain siloed within DOHMH, rather than using the data to proactively pinpoint lead exposure hotspots for inspection by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), said the report. Instead, the City allowed HPD to rely almost exclusively on a reactive, complaint-driven inspection protocol.

Rabbi David Niederman, the President and Executive Director of the UJO, says the NYC Department of Health has been enthusiastically helping the UJOs campaign, which started two-and-a-half years ago. Since then, Jewish Community Centers in other parts of Brooklyn have started their own campaigns in cooperation with the UJO.

The more we can do the better, because childrens futures are being affected by those levels, said Rabbi Neiderman.

Link:

Kids in These Neighborhoods Are Way More Likely to Be Exposed to Lead - BKLYNER

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Kids in These Neighborhoods Are Way More Likely to Be Exposed to Lead – BKLYNER
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

NEW YORK (JTA)Although it hasnt yet been determined whether the brutal stabbing of a young father on his way to morning prayers in Ramapo, New York, was a an anti-Jewish hate crime, it was described by the local police chief as a vicious, violent attack and would certainly fit the ugly pattern of violence against identifiably Jewish Jews over recent months.

Like the 64-year-old rabbi who was hit in the head with a brick while on his daily morning walk in Crown Heights. He was hospitalized with a broken nose, missing teeth, stitches on his head and lacerations on his body.

In another case, a pair of men knocked down a Hasidic man walking peacefully along another Crown Heights street and, along with a third assailant, punched the stunned victim mercilessly.

In Borough Park, surveillance video shows a young man on a bicycle riding up from behind and knocking off the victims traditional fur hat.

In another recorded attack, a Jewish boy of 12 or 13 is surrounded and taunted by much older teens. Incredibly, as they menace their target, the boy just continues walking at the same measured pace. One of the group members violently swings at the boys hat, which flies off.

Another man is shown throwing a brick through the window of a Hasidic girls school in Crown Heights. That same night in Borough Park, at least three identifiably Orthodox men were punched repeatedly by assailants.

A woman and her children were attacked on Rosh Hashanah; the assailant ripped off her wig. Many other attacks were endured where no camera caught them.

To watch the surveillance videos that exist is to be painfully transported to another place and time. But the place on the screen isnt a Polish town and the time isnt the 1930s. The place is usually Brooklyn and the time is now.

What strikes a viewer of the videos is the sheer ferociousness of the attackers. Their victims dont provoke them in any way, but they attack with sheer brutality, striking out with maximum force and gusto.

Some, understandably, see in such crimes the most serious example of raw anti-Semitism in our days.

Anti-Semitic crimes have undergone a dramatic increase in the five boroughs this year, with 163 incidents reported though September, compared to 108 last year during the same time period, according to the New York City Police Department. Anti-Semitic incidents comprise 52 percent of reported hate crimes in New York City.

There is no doubt that many of the crimes are vicious, and no doubt that law enforcement authorities need to give greater protection to residents of Jewish neighborhoods. Increased real-time surveillance and undercover operations are undeniably in order.

But the ugliness of the attacks should not distract us Jews from a greater threat to our well-being and lives.

Because the hoodlums attacking innocent Jews in Brooklyn neighborhoods are, all said, just that: hoodlums.

They arent organized in any way, at least not beyond emulating one another for bragging rights. They are just punksand cowards. What great courage it takes to attack an unarmed and unsuspecting person from behind.

To be sure, no effort should be spared to catch and punish them.

Or to educate them. The ADL is spending $250,000 on No Place for Hate in Brooklyn, which will allow the program to be implemented in up to 40 schools across the borough this academic year, up from 22 at present.

Such efforts are worthwhile, although one wonders whether the sort of young people committing violent crimes are terribly attentive students.

Laudable human energy has been invested, too, in fostering good will among different communities living side by side in Brooklyn neighborhoods.

But the greater threat to Jewsand not just Orthodox onesis less visible and thus even more dangerous than street brutes. It is organized, ideology-driven Jew-hatred.

Anti-Semitic ideologies come in a variety of noxious flavors. There is radical Islamist animus and the loathsome demagoguery of Louis Farrakhan, who compares Jews to termites. But when it comes to bombing or shooting up shuls or Jewish community centers, the predominant poison, it cant be denied, is white supremacy.

It is well documented how white supremacists use the web to bond, share advice and make plans. Using the web and social media, neo-Nazis promote wild conspiracy theories about Jews. One white power podcast, Strike and Mike, recently exposed the Impossible Burger, a meatless patty, as a Jewish plot to poison goys and, somehow, to make it impossible for working people to be able to afford meat, make it impossible for working people to drive automobiles, make it impossible for average people to live in an industrial society. It would be hilarious were it not that such fantasies are swallowed whole by intellect-challenged haters.

All anti-Semitism is mindless and evil. And all of it needs to be confronted and countered in every possible way. But we must not allow images of muggings, no matter how horrific and heart-wrenching, to obscure the more malignant machinations humming away day and night, largely undetectable, across cyberspace.

In the end, while no effort should be spared in fostering good relations among neighbors and in fighting hardened haters, we Jews do well to beseech the Creator to protect us from all evil.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Originally posted here:

Violence against Jews is reprehensible-but isolated attacks distract us from the bigger threats - Heritage Florida Jewish News

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Violence against Jews is reprehensible-but isolated attacks distract us from the bigger threats – Heritage Florida Jewish News
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

Queens voters never got to weigh in on Amazons scuttled plans for a massive new headquarters in their borough, which evaporated when the company faced a torrent of political opposition. Soon, theyll get their say.

Amazon is effectively on the ballot in several local races next year, our Sally Goldenberg and Erin Durkin report. In at least three contests, rival candidates are betting voters will be turned off by politicians who helped drive away Amazon and the jobs and tax revenue it was promising. In another race, an upstart challenger motivated by the Amazon fight is going after an incumbent who supported the deal, controversial for the $3 billion in tax breaks and subsidies dangled before the company.

Leading the charge against Amazon were state Sen. Mike Gianaris and City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and both are on the ballot next year. Gianaris is facing off against a primary challenger, Justin Potter, who started a push to defeat him in response to his HQ2 opposition. Van Bramer, meanwhile, is aiming to move up to the Queens borough presidents office, but opponents are hoping to make him regret his role in stopping Amazon.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a primary challenger too: City Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who is making her Amazon opposition a focal point of his campaign. But its not just Amazon opponents who are fending off challenges Assemblywoman Catherine Nolans support for the deal inspired an upstart to take her on.

So expect the fight over the scrapped development plans on the Long Island City waterfront to be re-litigated at length on the campaign trail. For former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who hosted a fundraiser for borough president candidate Donovan Richards, its a proxy battle for the broader debate over whether to promote or resist development in the city. I think this is fantastic that this is going to be an issue in the next election, she said. It should be.

ITS FRIDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: edurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold

WHERES ANDREW? In Albany with no public events scheduled.

WHERES BILL? Appearing on MSNBCs Morning Joe and on WNYCs Brian Lehrer Show.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: If youre here illegally and youre coming to get a license in Erie County, I told them this and I told them this, were going to be upfront, you may be reported to I.C.E. You just may be reported to I.C.E. Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, who is instructing citizens on how to report to federal immigration authorities undocumented immigrants seeking licenses under the states new law.

HOMELESS NEW YORKERS moved to New Jersey under a controversial city program were left living in squalor at the mercy of exploitative landlords, a damning new report from the Department of Investigation says. Its the latest blow suffered by City Halls controversial Special One-Time Assistance program, which provides families in New Yorks maligned shelter system a years worth of rent if they relocate outside of the five boroughs. The SOTA program was designed to help New York families break the cycle of homelessness and set them on the path to achieve stable, affordable housing, said DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett. However, DOIs investigation has found the promise of the program is not being fulfilled. Instead, because of a lack of proper oversight and poorly designed paperwork, our investigation showed some SOTA families placed in housing outside of New York City were living in squalor under the roofs of unscrupulous landlords. New York Posts Nolan Hicks

Mayor Bill de Blasio accused the mayor of Newark and the leaders of New Jersey's Union County of being inhumane for attacking New Yorks policy of exporting homeless residents across the river. I find this extraordinary that they decide to sue the city of New York to stop working poor people from getting housing in the middle of the holiday season, the mayor said Thursday in response to a recent lawsuit filed by the city of Newark against his administration, as well as a potential lawsuit from Union County. That was really a derogatory lawsuit, de Blasio said Thursday. It was a statement against working poor people. POLITICOs Janaki Chadha and Erin Durkin

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIOs pick to serve as the nations most important taxi regulator can no longer take the job hes deploying to Kuwait with the National Guard. Jeff Roth got word of his deployment earlier this year, but the National Guard had been willing to delay his deployment if he was in fact going to become Taxi and Limousine commissioner, the National Guard and City Hall confirmed to POLITICO. When his nomination splintered on the shoals of the New York City Council, he recommitted to deploying. City Hall says he didn't notify them until Dec. 3, which might explain why, as recently as Nov. 24, a spokesperson for de Blasio said Roth was still the mayors pick...People familiar with Roths nomination process contend that City Hall botched it from the start, by failing to understand the political dynamics surrounding the taxi industry and setting up a well-regarded official for failure. POLITICOs Dana Rubinstein

WITH JUST FOUR WEEKS to go before the end of the year, the NYPD is facing a double-digit uptick in murders, making it the first time since 2017 that the city will end the year with more than 300 homicides. By the end of November, the NYPD had investigated 299 killings this year compared to 275 during the same period last year, a 9% increase. Its simply not acceptable, Mayor de Blasio said. Let me me clear: Everyones doing their job and everyone is digging deeper to get under the skin of this and address it, but we are not going to accept this situation. The number of shootings in the city also jumped, from 696 by this time last year to 720 so far this year, an increase of 3%." New York Daily News Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy

RENT HIKE A COLORFUL BRIGADE OF CONEY ISLANDs small business owners and their supporters rallied on the steps of City Hall on Thursday, saying a 500 percent rent hike may be enough to displace some beloved boardwalk staples. Im angry at the mayors office. Im angry at the city of New York for the way theyve sold the soul of New York City, said the Great Fredini, a longtime sword-swallower and performer on Coney Island. The rent increases were ushered in by amusement park company Zamperla, which is responsible for deciding and collecting the businesses rents as part of a long-term agreement with New York City. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statement on Thursday that he would keep working with Council Member [Mark] Treyger and all involved on the issue. POLITICOs Michelle Bocanegra

A message from The Graduate Center, CUNY:

THE GRADUATE CENTER, CUNY. Leading thinkers like Paul Krugman, Johnnetta Cole, and Branko Milanovic discuss The Promise and Perils of Democracy. Join us at these free events: The Triumph of Injustice (Oct. 23), Racism and Democracy (Oct. 24), Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (Nov. 20), Global Capitalism (Dec. 10). http://democracy.gc.cuny.edu

UNDER NEW YORK STATES Green Light Law, auto bureau employees are prohibited from reporting people who are attempting to get a drivers license to federal immigration authorities. However, the law does not stop regular citizens from reporting undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, D, is making sure people in the auto bureaus he runs know how to do so. Before the Green Light Law, which allows undocumented immigrants to get licenses, officially takes effect later this month, Kearns said he will post signs with the I.C.E Tipline number on every customer service window of every local bureau. If youre here illegally and youre coming to get a license in Erie County, I told them this and I told them this, were going to be upfront, you may be reported to I.C.E. You just may be reported to I.C.E., he said. Spectrums Ryan Whalen

AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES in politics, state Sen. Betty Little has decided to call it a career. Little, R-Queensbury, announced at City Hall on Thursday morning that she would not seek re-election to a 10th two-year term in 2020. Little said it has been a privilege to represent the 45th Senate District and considers herself very lucky and fortunate. This is a difficult day for me, very, very difficult, because I have absolutely loved every single moment of what I have done, she said. Glens Falls Post-Stars Michael Goot

The Warren County GOP chairman believes that Assemblyman Dan Stec will run to succeed Little.

AN UPSTATE DUCK FARM is calling on Gov. Cuomo to join them in their fight against the citys foie gras ban. As city lawmakers and animal advocates hosted a Foie GONE Victory Party in the East Village Thursday, the president of La Belle Farm in Sullivan County issued a letter asking the governor to enter the fray. To put it bluntly, this new law deals a fatal blow to the duck farmers of New York State. Today, we are writing to you, seeking your help in seeing this New York City ban overturned, Sergio Saravia wrote. La Belle is one of only three producers of the French delicacy in the country and sales to city restaurants make up about a third of business. Daily News Denis Slattery

NEW YORK STATE LAWMAKERS said they had concerns about the phrasing of a new California law intended to reclassify contract workers for app-based companies as traditional employees, as they prepare their own gig-economy legislation. Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, a Democrat from the Bronx who chairs the chambers Labor Committee, said during a Thursday hearing that Californias new law exempts many professions and has prompted legal challenges. Ride-hailing companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are backing a ballot initiative to undo the law next year. The California language and the aftermath of their legislative process demands that we take a strong look at language and the clarity of it, Mr. Crespo said. Wall Street Journals Jimmy Vielkind

#UpstateAmerica: With climate change, the world is going to suck, but Buffalo may suck less.

#UpstateAdvent: Only one in three New Yorkers plan to use a real Christmas tree this season, polls show.

MIKE BLOOMBERG ROLLED OUT out his gun control platform Thursday afternoon in Aurora, Colo. the town where an armed man opened fire in a movie theater in 2012, killing 12 people. The billionaire businessman is calling for stronger background checks and permit requirements, aspirations that for years have stymied Democrats searching for bipartisan congressional support. Since entering the Democratic presidential primary last month, Bloomberg has been amplifying his gun control record as he seeks to win over a party that hasnt settled on a frontrunner. Gun control is a popular issue with the left flank of the party that is otherwise distrustful of the former New York City mayors vast wealth an estimated $54.7 billion and routine financial support of Republicans over the years. Bloomberg calls for a background check system that entails permits for all new gun buyers, police notification when owners have been prohibited from holding firearms and a crackdown on unlicensed sellers at gun shows or online, according to campaign officials. POLITICOs Sally Goldenberg

Bloomberg said Donald Trump should be impeached.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO promised to support his predecessor Mike Bloomberg if he wins the Democratic nomination for president, despite a series of attacks he has levied since Bloomberg launched his candidacy. De Blasio, who ran his own failed presidential bid this year, has ripped into Bloombergs record at every opportunity over the last two weeks, painting the billionaire former mayor as a failure on policing, homelessness and more who left the city in a mess. Still, he said he will hold his nose and get behind Bloomberg if he wins the Democratic primary. Whoever is the Democratic nominee, I will support, de Blasio told reporters Thursday. Even though I fundamentally disagree with him on a whole host of issues, I think he made a lot of mistakes here hes better than Donald Trump, the mayor said at a press conference in the Bronx. POLITICOs Erin Durkin

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION weighed in Thursday on a new law giving illegal immigrants driving rights in New York, calling aspects legally suspect. The so-called green light law passed by the state Legislature in June would allow undocumented individuals to obtain drivers licenses from the Department of Motor Vehicles. As of now, that law is set to take effect on Dec. 14. But Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola filed a lawsuit challenging its merits, arguing that he and other clerks could be in direct violation of federal immigration law if they follow the state law. Attorneys from the Department of Justice on Thursday voiced concern over certain constitutional aspects of the license law that may not stand up in court. New York Posts Bernadette Hogan

Facebook is in talks to lease a Manhattan landmark as its new office space, the Wall Street Journal says in an exclusive report.

De Blasio defended NYCHAs hiring of a cop convicted in connection with the Abner Louima case, saying he has paid his debt to society.

A new contract deal will give MTA workers annual raises that exceed 2 percent a year.

Mandarin Patinkin, a duck best known for making New Yorkers happy, at least for the six months he resided in Manhattan, is missing and feared dead.

An Amtrak worker was killed in an explosion at a Bronx power station.

Brooklyn Tech High School was evacuated due to a bomb threat, which was found to be a hoax.

The state's attempt to clarify a ban on plastic bags set to take effect on March 1 is drawing concerns from both industry and environmental advocates.

LinkNYC free wifi kiosks have been densely clustered in Manhattan and bordering neighborhoods instead of areas with less resources, The New York Times found.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams blasted underfunding at CUNY and called for its transition to a free college program.

Children referred to special education evaluations are least likely to get the screenings in low-income neighborhoods where most residents are people of color.

The city is investigating allegations that the NYPD shrugged off a Queens woman's revenge porn accusation against a police officer.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused R. Kelly of bribing an Illinois government official for a fake ID to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15.

A debt collection firm is being sicced on library fine delinquents.

Assemblywoman Jamie Romeo, who succeeded now-Rep. Joe Morelle, wont seek reelection and will run for Monroe County Clerk.

Tensions were high at a Jamaica, Queens meeting on middle school diversity. Parents who couldnt fit into the already-packed meeting demanded its cancellation.

The city of Albany has towed more than 240 cars since this weeks snow emergency declaration.

Syracuse University closed a campus building in anticipation of a student protest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is 62 Dan Levitan of BerlinRosen MSNBCs Natalie Johnson ... WSJs Sara Germano Julian Zelizer, a Princeton professor and CNN political analyst, is 5-0, celebrating with a party thrown by wife Meg Jacobs at Bustan NYC Amy Well Greg Butler Maia Johnson Mike Scotto Angelica Annino, scheduling director for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) (h/t Joe Walsh)

Michael Beresik, managing director and head of public affairs for the Americas at Standard Chartered Bank (h/t wife Beth Brummel) Michael Greenstone Bennett Roth Jon Ostrower, editor in chief of The Air Current Emily Barocas Carruth

SPOTTED: Former Rep. Katie Hill having drinks with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) at Slipstream in Navy Yard on Wednesday night. (h/t POLITICO Playbook)

MEDIAWATCH Daily Mails Online Reinvention Relieves Pressure Amid Newspaper-Industry Woes, by WSJs Lukas I. Alpert: British papers web edition, known for photo-heavy stories about vacationing celebrities and other tabloid fodder, has become one of the worlds most-read news sites.

Ariel Kaminer has been named the new global investigations editor at BuzzFeed. She previously was investigations and special projects editor at BuzzFeed and is an NYT alum.

Liz Johnstone has been promoted to deputy politics editor for digital at NBC News. Summer Delaney recently started as a digital video reporter at Inside Edition. Delaney, an alum of Yahoo News, is still freelance hosting at WPIX, but previously was a digital host and reporter there full time. Cyrus Rassool, director of the Glen Echo Group, will join Consumer Reports in New York, working with the comms and policy teams on tech and telecom issues. (h/t Morning Tech)

MAKING MOVES Kindred Motes has been hired as senior officer for communications and strategic engagement at the Wallace Global Fund. He most recently was digital strategy director at the New York-based nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice. Lauren Kahn recently started as marketing manager at e-commerce marketing tech company RoktI. Kahn, a Duke Fuqua grad, is an alum of Citi and Luminary Labs.

IN MEMORIAM For the last half century, Jay Kriegel has played a leading role in some of the biggest moments in New York Citys history. He was chief of staff to Mayor John Lindsay, helped create the Civilian Complaint Review Board, spearheaded the city's bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and helped shepherd the development of Hudson Yards as an adviser at The Related Companies. And behind the scenes, friends and admirers say he was a mentor to generations of city officials and civic leaders. Kriegel died Thursday of cancer. He was 79 years old. Theres just nobody like him who just had this ability with such joy to do amazing things for New York, Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor and a longtime friend of Kriegels, said in an interview. He had this kind of remarkable ability to translate his amazement and wonder at the complexity and majesty of New York for other people and they then often would turn around and feel the same way and give back. POLITICOs Janaki Chadha

THE NEW YORK City Housing Authoritys heat action plan was approved by its federal monitor Thursday, laying the groundwork for its goal of ending heating outages within 12 hours on average. The 35-page plan details the response framework for all NYCHA residences and singles out 20 developments that have seen the highest number of heating outages this past year, including the 18-building Bernard M. Baruch Houses, NYCHAs biggest development, on Manhattans Lower East Side. Baruch lost heat 78 times during the 2018-2019 heating season. The worst performers will be the first to receive individualized action plans, mapping out each developments boiler locations, underground steam systems and potential alternative heated community spaces, the plan says. POLITICOs Michelle Bocanegra

FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, the residents of a small town 60 miles north of New York City have openly fretted about a proposed housing development that they fear will be filled with Hasidic Jews. Officials in Chester, N.Y., according to a lawsuit filed against it, have passed ordinances, denied building permits and imposed costly requirements on the developer in a concerted effort to slow or even stop the project. ... Now the town of Chester has something else to worry about: A proposed lawsuit and investigation by Letitia James, the state attorney general. The attorney general on Thursday jumped into the dispute, accusing local officials in Chester and Orange County of violating fair housing laws and discriminating against the Hasidic community, and petitioning a judge to join a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Greens at Chester, the developer. New York Times Sharon Otterman

A message from The Graduate Center, CUNY:

T H E G R A D U A T E C E N T E RTHE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Be at the center of the conversation.

Democracy is under threat. We see the rise of anti-democratic movements, leaders, and policies on the march around the globe. To address this crisis The Graduate Center, CUNY, is dedicating two years of public programming and scholarship to understanding The Promise and Perils of Democracy. Come see leading thinkers like Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, Paul Krugman, Johnnetta Cole, Nancy L. Rosenblum, and Branko Milanovic discuss economic inequality, racism, conspiracy theories, and the future of global capitalism.

Join us at these free events: The Triumph of Injustice (Oct. 23) Racism and Democracy (Oct. 24) The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (Nov. 20) The Future of Global Capitalism (Dec. 10)

365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York City, NY 10016http://democracy.gc.cuny.edu

With Daniel Jones suffering an ankle injury, Eli Manning gets another chance to start next Monday night against the Eagles. Heres teammate Saquon Barkley on what it means: Eli, hes a legend. Hes a Hall of Famer. He just sees the field so well. He understands the game so well, hes been doing it for a very long time and its what you expect from Eli. Obviously, I love the way he handled the situation when D.J. (Daniel Jones) ended up being the starting quarterback, the way he operated in practice, the way he operated in the building was the same Eli that we know. So, good to see him come out this week and get a chance. Its going to be awesome for him.

Nuggets 129, Knicks 92: Simply put, it is impossible to win in the NBA when your opponent shoots 56 percent. On the positive side, Elfrid Payton, a competent point guard, returned from injury.

The day ahead: Go take an early lunch and check out Columbia womens basketball hosting Georgetown at 11 AM. The Nets are in Charlotte tonight.

Excerpt from:

Amazon on the ballot NYC vs. Newark on homeless program Would-be taxi chief ships out - Politico

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Amazon on the ballot NYC vs. Newark on homeless program Would-be taxi chief ships out – Politico
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

In 1919, Henry Ford bought a small local newspaper operating at a loss. In the coming years, The Dearborn Independent would liberally cite and elaborate upon "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", blaming the international Jewish conspiracy for war, poverty, Bolshevism and even "Jewish Jazz-Moron Music". The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem a sort of "greatest hits" of anti-Semitic articles published in the paper was released soon thereafter as a four-volume set, distributed in Ford dealerships across the United States and translated into German. Interestingly, the American edition does not mention Ford's name, while it appears prominently on the best-selling German one.Less than a half-century after The Dearborn Independent shut down following a libel suit, Henry Ford II was in the State of Israel visiting a Ford plant in the Galilee. If the elder Henry Ford's antisemitism is legendary, his grandson's Zionism and support of Jewish causes is certainly less well-known.In September 1945, just a few weeks after his 28th birthday and the official surrender of the Japanese, Ford II became the dynamic new president of the automotive giant. Known as "Hank the Deuce", the young executive led the company for the last two years of his grandfather's life and then for the decades that followed. Shortly after Israeli independence, Hank the Deuce oversaw a trade deal that would see a major shipment of automotive parts to help alleviate the young state's transportation crisis. The next year, Hank the Deuce personally presented Israel's first president with a Ford Lincoln Cosmopolitan. Reportedly the only other recipient of that specific model was U.S. President Harry Truman. A $50,000 contribution from Hank the Deuce in 1950 made him the top donor to the United Jewish Appeal's first ever Christian Committee Campaign for Israel.Around the time of the Six Day War in 1967, Hank the Deuce nonchalantly gave his good friend, the Jewish businessman and philanthropist Max Fisher, a warm personal note with a $100,000 check inside for the Israeli Emergency Fund. Shortly thereafter, Hank the Deuce fulfilled his promise to have a Ford assembly plant in Israel and maintain business dealings with the Jewish State, refusing to give in to boycott threats despite extensive and lucrative interests across the Arab world. The Arab boycott took effect and cars began rolling out of the plant in Nazareth, at which point Hank the Deuce reportedly said, "Nobody's gonna tell me what to do." He later elaborated on the decision, "It was just pragmatic business procedure I dont mind saying I was influenced in part by the fact that the company still suffers from a resentment against the antisemitism of the distant past. We want to overcome that. But the main thing is that here we had a dealer who wanted to open up an agency to sell our products hell, let him do it."The first Ford Escorts with tires, batteries and paint "Made in Israel" came off the Nazareth production line in the spring of 1968. A newspaper article reported the initial output: three vehicles per day, with plans to expand to eight! In October 1971, a festive celebration marked the plant's 15,000th Escort. The next year, the plant began assembling a new four-door model, the Escort 1300, and Hank the Deuce came for a visit. A collection of rare photos of that visit from the Dan Hadani Archive, part of the National Library of Israel's Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, are being presented for the first time.As exports to Africa grew in the 1970s, Ford Transits, trucks, and buses were also assembled in Nazareth. In 1975, amid reports that Ford would finally cave into the boycott pressure, he said, "We are going to continue doing business in Israel, and if we can do business in an Arab country, all the better. So we can do business on both sides I assume that no one would seriously wish us, in a kind of reverse-boycott fashion, to abstain from doing business in Arab countries simply because of our dealings with Israel."--The prime minister of Israel at the time of Henry Ford II's historic 1972 visit to Israel was the Russian-born American-raised labor Zionist Golda Meir and the Ford plant in Nazareth was located just a short distance from Har Megiddo known as "Armageddon" in English the site of the Final Battle described in the Book of Revelation. Some fifty years earlier, a Dearborn Independent article entitled "Will Jewish Zionism Bring Armageddon?", had decried the "overwhelmingly predominant Bolshevik element" in the modern Zionist movement, the fact that the "Jewish government of Palestine is very much like that of Russiamostly foreign", and the misguided "Christian friends of the Jews" who supported the Zionist project. Interestingly, while The Dearborn Independent was unequivocally anti-Semitic, it also seems to contain a sort of perverse, couched respect for Zionism at the least in its religious, messianic form; though certainly not the secular, socialist variety that largely characterized the Zionist movement at the time. Henry Ford the grandfather once said, "Of all the follies the elder generation falls victim to this is the most foolish, namely, the constant criticism of the younger element who will not be and cannot be like ourselves because we and they are different tribes produced of different elements in the great spirit of Time."Bill Ford, current executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford's great-grandson, visited Israel in 2019 to inaugurate the new Ford Research Center in Tel Aviv.

Read the rest here:
100 Years of Ford and the Jews - From Antisemitism to Zionism - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on 100 Years of Ford and the Jews – From Antisemitism to Zionism – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home-United Right) on Wednesday called on the Religious Zionist parties to run together in the expected upcoming elections.

Currently, there is a joint Jewish Home-National Union list, as well as the Otzma Yehudit party, which did not win Knesset representation, and the more liberal New Right party.

In an interview with Kol Barama Radio, Yogev said: "We saw during the past year that no branch of Religious Zionism has electoral security on its own. It would be appropriate to run as a technical bloc or find other ways of connecting all the Religious Zionists."

"All types of Religious Zionism need to unite into a single party or single faction, even if we don't agree on everything, so that we will not lose votes from Religious Zionists. We need to reach the next elections in a situation where all of Israel, including this group, does not lose two, three, or four Knesset seats, so that we can influence the next government.

"If the parties are unable to reach an agreement, then at least a technical bloc or single faction should be formed. That's what we have seen in the past, and that's what we've seen recently. We lost less votes in these elections than we did in the previous round of elections."

Yogev also said that a full union between the Jewish Home and National Right parties, which have run together since 2013, "should have been done a long time ago, and it should happen as soon as possible."

When asked his opinion on having open primaries for a large Religious Zionist party, Yogev said, "As long as time permits, and maybe in order to build power, then it would be appropriate to do this, after we raise awareness and explain why we need a Religious Zionist party which will be large, broad, and include anyone who believes in this path, from the entire religious spectrum. Primaries will be held if there is time for them."

"What will be possible if we run to elections in another seventy or ninety days? This seems the proper path to return the public's faith in a Religious Zionist party. Can that be done within a short time? I don't know, we need to talk about that. These are the appropriate principles in my opinion."

Continued here:
'Time for all Religious Zionist parties to unite' - Arutz Sheva

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on ‘Time for all Religious Zionist parties to unite’ – Arutz Sheva
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

Linda Sarsour. Photo: Festival of Faiths via Wikimedia Commons.

The first thing Linda Sarsour likes to say in her speeches is that she is unapologetic. Unapologetically in favor of a boycott against the worlds lone Jewish state. Unapologetically for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that one state isnt Israel.

But on Tuesday, Sarsour was uncharacteristically apologetic.

Over the weekend, I made comments about Israel that require context to understand. I was specifically referring to the racist argument at the heart of the nation-state law recently passed by the Israeli government not the Jewish people, she wrote. I apologize for the confusion.

In a series of Twitter posts, Sarsour said criticism of her comments during a session before the virulently anti-Israel group American Muslims for Palestines (AMP) annual convention is a further attempt to paint the left in USA & UK as antisemitic.

December 6, 2019 10:04 am

No, Linda. It wasnt an attempt to cast the Left as antisemitic. Just you.

In fact, she did not mention Israels nation-state law in her remarks. But she did speak in a session titled, Palestine, Islamophobia, Racism and Zionism: What is the Connection? It is Zionism she found illegitimate, not a controversial new law. And she repeated her previous argument that liberal Zionists and their supporters can never be allies

You tell me, Oh, Im with you. You cant push me out of the movement because Im also against white supremacy,' Sarsour said. Ask them this: How can you be against white supremacy in the United States of America, and the idea of living in a supremacist state based on race and class, but then support a state like Israel that is built on supremacy? That is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everybody else. How do you, then, not support the caging of children on the US-Mexican border, but then you support the detainment and detention of Palestinian children in Palestine? How does that work, sisters and brothers?

Thats consistent with what she told the AMP convention in 2016, well before the nation-state law was proposed.

We have limits to the type of friendships that were looking for right now, Sarsour said, and I want to be friends with those whom I know have been steadfast, courageous, have been standing up and protecting their own communities, those who have taken the risk to stand up and say we are with the Palestinian people, we unequivocally support BDS when it comes to Palestinian human rights and have been attacked viciously by the very people who are telling you that theyre about to stand on the front line of the Muslim registry program. No thank you, sisters and brothers.

Still, Sarsour claimed Tuesday that she is a consistent advocate for human rights for ALL oppressed people all over the world. My track record is CLEAR. [Emphasis original]

She is right about that, just not in the way she thinks.

For as long as she has been in the public eye, Sarsour has opposed Zionism the idea of a country for Jews in their ancestral homeland that can serve as both a free society based on law, and as a refuge from oppression that Jews have faced throughout history.

Theres no confusion in Sarsours 2012 statement, Theres nothing creepier than Zionism. The statement, for all the controversy it generated, remains on her Twitter feed today.

Her record is clear when she refers to Israel as an oppressor and tells Muslims to stop actually trying to humanize the oppressor.

Theres no context required to understand her antisemitic beliefs, including her claim that Jews contribute to police shootings of unarmed black people in the US because of an Anti-Defamation League program that takes police officials for a week of seminars in Israel, so they can be trained by the Israeli police and military, and then they come back here and do what? Stop and frisk, killing unarmed black people across the country.

She made similar comments in a 2015 speech at the 20th anniversary of avowed antisemite and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhans Million Man March.

The same people who justify the massacres of Palestinian people and call it collateral damage are the same people who justify the murder of black young men and women, she said.

Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews, is among the examples of antisemitism detailed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. So is Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Sarsour checks both boxes. She served until recently on the governing board for the national Womens March, which was dogged by repeated antisemitic incidents, including a stubborn refusal by Sarsour and her colleagues to renounce Farrakhan. She reportedly has used Nation of Islam officials for security, both personally and for the March.

Despite this record, Sarsour is an official surrogate for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. And somehow, her hateful rhetoric did not stop Simon & Schuster from publishing Sarsours book, which is due out in March, and ironically described as a memoir of love and resistance.

Its not clear what prompted Sarsour to walk back her hateful comments from the AMP conference. But both the Sanders campaign and Simon & Schuster might be glad to see it.

See the article here:
Linda Sarsour Thinks You Can't Hear or Read - Algemeiner

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Linda Sarsour Thinks You Can’t Hear or Read – Algemeiner
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 7, 2019

Religious Zionism political leadership

Flash 90

The National Union Party is preparing for the upcoming election campaign, even though legally another week remains until the Knesset is dispersed.

Ahead of the elections, the party is campaigning in the spirit of the Bnei Akiva movement "Shabbat Irgun", calling on the party to unifiy religious Zionism into one political home.

National Union chief executive Yehuda Wald said following the campaign launch, "Until the last minute, we'll continue to work to prevent elections and form a government.

"At the same if elections are held, we have a national responsibility to religious Zionism to do everything possible to run on a single, united list. With no ifs, ands, or buts, he explained.

This morning, Yediot Ahronot newspaper published an interview with Yisrael Beyteinu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman, in which Liberman makes clear that the chances of preventing new elections are zero.

Liberman said he and his party do not intend to join any narrow government, neither Rightist nor Leftist. "Combining a narrow government with dramatic decisions in the fields of security and the economy may create a large rift and polarization in the public. A narrow government is a total-failure government," he argued.

He said Netanyahu and Gantz made a strategic decision not to go for unity, so both parties are responsible for another election campaign.

"On election night, we promised that we would turn every stone, and we did it. We come with clean hands. It has nothing to do with my and Yisrael Beyteinu's efforts to bring about unity. Simply everyone is relying on his own polls: Netanyahu believes he can reach 61 seats in the next election, without us either. Gantz is confident that he's increased his party's number of seats to 36, and that he'll win the next election."

Read the rest here:
National Union pushes Rightist unity ahead of new elections - Arutz Sheva

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on National Union pushes Rightist unity ahead of new elections – Arutz Sheva
Tags: