Posted By admin on January 3, 2023
Kol Israel Foundation raises ceremonial flag over its Holocaust National Memorial Cleveland Jewish News
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Posted By admin on January 2, 2023
Former President Donald Trump reportedly met withwhite supremacist and Holocaust denierNick Fuentes this week at Mar-a-Lago.
The news comes aftervideoemerged early in the week showing Fuentes with rapper Kanye West, whose recent anti-Semitic tirades have upended many of his business pursuits, in an airport in Miami.
West posted a video to his Twitter account Thursday night titled, Mar-a-Lago Debrief, in which he says that Trump was really impressed with Nick Fuentes, adding that Fuentes is a loyalist to Trump.Other reportssaidthat Trump was dazzled by Fuentes, according to people who were present.
West later tweeted a screenshot of a text message group purportedly between himself, Fuentes, MiloYiannopoulos, and another unidentified person whose name was blurred out.
In the screenshot, the unidentified person asks Fuentes if he told Trump that Gettr CEO Jason Miller didnt like him.
Nick, didnt you tell the President at dinner that he Jason didnt like you? the person asked.
A person identified as Nicholas YE24 Fuentes responded, Yes. I told him that Jason Miller had me banned on Gettr.
West then responded, I told Nick to tell the former president that Nick hated his speech.
After news of the meeting went viral online, Trump responded by claiming that he knew nothing about Fuentes when they met.
Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago, Trump said in the statement. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.
Trump also posted to social media platform Truth Social, explaining the meeting with Fuentes.
This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump wrote. Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.
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Trump Meets With White Supremacist And Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes ...
Posted By admin on January 2, 2023
A standoff over permits to start a massive housing project in the Catskills has erupted into a federal discrimination case, with the developer accusing town officials of conspiring to stop an influx of Hasidic families.
The lawsuit was filed by a group that spent $9.5 million in 2020 to buy the land and fully approved plans for Lost Lake Resort, a 2,627-home community that sputtered to a halt before any houses had been built. The development site takes up 3.3 square miles in Forestburgh, a rural Sullivan County town with only about 800 residents.
The suit follows Forestburgh's denial of several building permits for initial homes and a 10-month review of that decision by the town's Zoning Board of Appeals, which ultimately upheld it with a 35-page ruling on Nov. 15. Property owners Lost Lake Holdings LLC and Michconos Mazah LLC sued Forestburgh officials in U.S. District Court in White Plains on Dec. 16.
Standoff:Forestburgh officials and developer clash over permits to start 2,600-home project
Land sale:Developers buy Sullivan County land with approved plans for 2,600-home gated community
The inception:Developer plans Forestburgh resort
In their 90-page filing, attorneys allege the town is trying to thwart a once-welcomed project out of hostility to the Hasidic Jews likely to buy homes there. They denounced the zoning board review as a "sham" in which lawyers from the same firm represented both the town officials and the board that was weighing their permit denial.
"Plaintiffs were repeatedly denied a fair and impartial review of their appeal," attorneys Eric Treene and Steven Barshov wrote.
Town officials contend they denied permits because the new owners changed the nature of the project, which was envisioned as an upscale resort community in which many of the homes would be vacation getaways, not year-round dwellings.
In its ruling, the zoning board said that the developer proposed extensive changes and that "the totality of the changes is strong evidence that the housing development Applicant intends to build is materially different than the Resort Project that was approved."
The developer's attorneys counter that the town is grasping for excuses and that the project will be built as approved, including the 18-home golf course.
The case demands the town fairly review the permit applications and seeks an unspecified amount in damages. It alleges violations of the federal Fair Housing Act, the U.S. and New York constitutions and other state laws.
"In America no government may tell people where they are welcome to live and where they are not based on their religion, Treene said in a statement about the case. This has become an all-too-familiar experience for Orthodox Jews in many New York communities, and it must end.
The project was granted a zoning change in 2011 and consisted of 2,557 single-family houses, 30 cottages and 40 condominiums, along with an 18-hole golf course and other amenities. The community was to be built in seven phases with 400 homes and the first nine holes of the golf course in the first phase, approved in 2014.
Town officials cheered the development's start at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that year. The Dallas-based developer, Double Diamond Companies, spent millions building roads and installing miles of water and sewer pipes and drainage systems, according to the lawsuit. But after selling only about 150 housing lots, Double Diamond abandoned the project and put the property up for sale.
Mordechai Halberstam, a Rockland County builder, told the Times Herald-Record in 2020 he and his family had bought the Lost Lake property and planned to carry out the approved plans. He said they spent $13.3 million in all for the land and related assets, including mortgages Double Diamond held on 60 undeveloped housing lots that it had sold.
Barshov, one of the attorneys in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the developer had bought the project because all approvals were in place and building permits for the first phase could be issued at any time.
The only reason home construction is not occurring is because Town officials have made it crystal clear: Hasidic Orthodox Jewish developers and homeowners are not welcome in Forestburgh, he said.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@th-record.com.
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Anti-Hasidic bias claimed in suit over 2,600-home Lost Lake project
Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
Washington Hebrew Congregation to Pay Nearly $1M in Lawsuit Over Child Care Safety Laws NBC4 Washington
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Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
Community: Jewish veterans' graves honored at the BR National Cemetery The Advocate
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Community: Jewish veterans' graves honored at the BR National Cemetery - The Advocate
Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
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UN seeks ICJ opinion on Israels illegal occupation of Palestine - Al Jazeera English
Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called anti-Semitism the oldest disease in the world.
Appearing on NBCs Meet the Press Sunday, Netanyahu, who will return for a third stint as prime minister, blamed the rise of anti-Semitism on increased polarization in the internet age. He also condemned the recent anti-Semitic outburst from rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and said that former President Donald Trump was wrong for recently having dinner with the musician.
Its the oldest disease, Netanyahu said. Its been around as a systemic ideology for around 2500 years, 500 years before the rise of Christianity, actually. So its accompanied our history, with horrific results, over the centuries, and its not gonna go away But I think that free societies have to take a consistent position to condemn anti-Semitism, to stand up against it, and to do so consistently.
Its the melding, the fusion of the anti-Semitism from the extreme radical left and the extreme radical right, he continued. It fuses into Jew-hatred. The communists blame the Jews for being capitalist, the capitalists blame the Jews for being communist. You have a problem, blame the Jews Its gotten extra life, probably, in the United States and in other countries by the age of the internet.
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Netanyahu went on to criticize former President Trump for hosting Ye, who has made multiple odious comments attacking Jewish people and praising Nazis in recent weeks.
Its not merely unacceptable, its just wrong, and I hope he sees his way to staying out of it and condemning it.
But Netanyahu seemed to pin the blame squarely on Ye, speculating that his recent outbursts were more about his personality than how he really views the world.
Whoever says it, for whatever reason, its wrong. You dont praise [Adolf] Hitler. How can you praise Hitler? Hitler was the greatest mass killer of all time. So anybody who praises him is wrong. Anybody who meets with him and gives him legitimacy is wrong. Ive said as much, and Ill continue to say it.
In early October, Ye claimed on Instagram that fellow rapper Diddy was controlled by Jewish people. He later tweeted, then apologized, for a tweet attacking Jewish people. Ye doubled down on the comments in an interview on the Drink Champs Round Three podcast, claiming that Jewish people have owned the black voice. Last week, Ye walked out of an interview on the Timcast IRL podcast after being pressed on his anti-Semitic comments. In a wild interview with InfoWars owner Alex Jones on Thursday, he praised Hitler and the Nazis and denied that six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust.
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Benjamin Netanyahu: Anti-Semitism Is The Oldest Disease, Given Extra ...
Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
Tallahassee, Fla. Today, Governor Ron DeSantis officially signed CS/CS/HB 741: Anti-Semitism into law following a ceremonial bill signing earlier this week in Jerusalem. The Governor was joined at the ceremonial bill signing on Wednesday, May 29th by Attorney General Ashley Moody, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, bill sponsor Representative Randy Fine, Senator Wilton Simpson, Representative Chris Sprowls, Senator Lauren Book, Representative Chip LaMarca, Representative Joseph Geller and FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz.
CS/CS/HB 741 adds religion as a protected class with regard to discrimination against students and employees in Floridas K-20 public education system. The bill requires a public K-20 educational institution to treat discrimination by students or employees or resulting from institutional policies motivated by anti-Semitism in an identical manner to discrimination motivated by race.
The bill also adds a definition of anti-Semitism similar to the definition adopted by the U.S. Department of States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, providing that anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jewish people, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people, rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism directed toward a person, his or her property, or toward Jewish community institutions or religious facilities.
Im proud to sign this bill to make clear through a bipartisan effort that anti-Semitism has no place in our state and our educational institutions will not tolerate discrimination against the Jewish people, said Governor DeSantis. I was especially proud to hold a ceremonial bill signing in Jerusalem. Florida is the most Israel-friendly state in the country and as long as Im Governor, we will continue to stand with the Jewish community.
In a time where open anti-Semites are celebrated in some corners of Washington, I am proud that Florida has chosen to move in a different direction and tackle this scourge head-on with ground-breaking legislation, said Representative Randy Fine. By requiring that Floridas public education systems treat anti-Semitism the same way as they treat racism, we send an unambiguous message that Jewish children will be protected from those who would discriminate against or maliciously target them.On behalf of my two sons, as well as hundreds of thousands of other Jewish children, I thank Governor DeSantis for his leadership today.
The rise of anti-Semitism and the recent attacks against Jewish Americans throughout our country are appalling and unacceptable, said Senator Joe Gruters. By signing this bill into law, Florida is sending a clear message that anti-Semitism and discrimination will not be tolerated or overlooked. I thank the Governor and the members of the Legislature for taking decisive action to address this issue head on.
Photo Credit: Governors Press Office
For a PDF copy of the transmittal letter, click HERE.
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Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Anti-Semitism Protections Bill CS/CS/HB 741
Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
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Posted By admin on December 31, 2022
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By Alexander BeiderSeptember 25, 2017
In 2010 I was contacted by the chief editor of a volume called Khazars: Myth and History, put together by the Russian Academy of Sciences. She knew my books on Ashkenazic names, and was familiar with my ongoing study of the history of Yiddish, eventually published by Oxford University Press in 2015 as Origins of Yiddish Dialects. The editor wanted me to write a paper explaining the traces of Jews from medieval Khazaria that she was certain I had observed in my research.
I tried to politely decline her proposal. I told her that my paper on that topic would be too short for inclusion, because it would consist of just one sentence: The corpus of personal names and surnames borne by Jews in Eastern Europe during the last six centuries, as well as the Yiddish language as a whole, do not contain any link to Khazaria.
The editor insisted that if I was so convinced of this argument, I should write it up, for it would be of interest to both experts and lay readers. I finally agreed and wrote a paper.
The paper allowed me to formulate some methodological principles about working in what are sometimes called soft sciences. Historiography and linguistics are not formal disciplines like mathematics or logic; nothing can be proved definitively. This allows for the introduction of what we might call junk science a category to which the Khazarian hypothesis belongs.
Nevertheless, the absolute lack of any fundamental proof for the theory has not stopped it from catching the imaginations of geneticists, linguists and hordes of lay folk alike.
Since the late 19th century, the so-called Khazarian theory has promoted the idea that a bulk of Ashkenazic Jews living in Eastern Europe descended from medieval Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people who founded a powerful polyethnic state in the Caucasus and north to the Caspian, Azov and Black seas. The theory received a recent boost with the 1976 publication of The Thirteenth Tribe, a book by Arthur Koestler. Most recently, the Khazarian hypothesis has been promoted by authors like the Tel Aviv University professor of history Shlomo Sand and Tel Aviv University professor of linguistics Paul Wexler, as well the geneticist Eran Elhaik.
Despite this institutional backing, the theory is absolutely without evidence. As any historian will tell you, generations of Jews, like generations of any people, leave historical traces behind them. These traces come in multiple forms. For starters, people leave behind them historical documents and archaeological data. Predictably, archaeologic evidence about the widespread existence of Jews in Khazaria is almost nonexistent. While a series of independent sources does testify to the existence in the 10th century of Jews in the Kingdom of Khazaria, and while some of these sources also indicate that the ruling elite of Khazaria embraced Judaism, the Khazarian state was destroyed by Russians during the 960s. In other words, we can be confident that Judaism was not particularly widespread in that kingdom.
The next historical record of Jews in a few cities that today belong to western Ukraine and western Belarus shows up in the 14th century, when Jews are regularly referred to in numerous documents.
And yet, no direct historiographical data is available to connect the Jews who lived in Eastern Europe in the 14th century with their co-religionists from the 10th-century Khazaria.
One city in northwest Ukraine, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, does seem to have an uninterrupted presence of Jews from the 12th century. For example, in 1171 a Jewish merchant called Benjamin from that city lived in Cologne, and a Russian document refers to local Jews in 1288. Another Jewish source describes a circumcision ceremony in that city at the end of the 14th century. But it is only during the 16th century that references to Jews appear in large territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, and even in the mid-16th century local communities were not populous. Historical documents also indicate that the earliest known Jewish communities in Poland were all situated in its westernmost part.
But history is not the only discipline to debunk the Khazarian hypothesis. Linguistics, too, and the study of Yiddish help us rule out a Khazarian ancestry for todays Jews. Since the 17th century, Yiddish was the vernacular language of all Jews of Eastern Europe. All its main structural elements are German, though during the past few centuries, they also underwent a strong influence of Slavic languages.
This view is shared by all major Yiddish linguists but not by Paul Wexler. Wexler believes there to be certain structural Turkic and Iranian elements hidden in Yiddish.
His methods rely heavily on fortuitous coincidences. And if you apply them more widely, you can link Yiddish to any language in the world.
It is simply bad linguistics. All words of Turkic origin came into Yiddish via the intermediary of East Slavic languages. It is the lexicon that keeps the actual traces of languages spoken by ancestors of Yiddish speakers. For that reason, in addition to Hebrew and Aramaic words, Yiddish has a small set of words whose roots come from Old French, Old Czech and Greek.
Some proponents of the Khazarian theory admit the German basis of Yiddish, but pretend that it was learned in Eastern Europe by indigenous Jewish masses from rabbis who came from the West and who introduced Yiddish as a prestige language.
But such a scenario can hardly be accepted. Only the cultural languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, were prestigious. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Yiddish brought from Central Europe became the first language for all Jews of Eastern Europe, a vernacular rather than a prestige object. Slavic idioms were used in that area by both the Christian majority and (during the previous period) by local Jews of heterogenous origins. Far from prestigious, Yiddish, understandable even for children, was used to teach students the prestigious language of Hebrew. We know that Yiddish wasnt a prestige language, because girls, who were not taught languages in school, spoke it, too. The role of mothers in the transmission of the everyday language is by far more important than that of fathers.
In addition to history and linguistics, a third discipline can help us put to rest the Khazarian hypothesis: onomastics, or the study of proper names. Looking at names, both first names and surnames, gives us a sense of how a community saw itself, its language and its origins. And in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe over the past six centuries, not a single Turkic name can be found in documents listing Jewish names. Even in documents from the 15th and 16th centuries dealing with Jews who lived in the territories of modern Ukraine and Belarus have no such names.
In the corpus of given names used by Jews of Eastern Europe during the last centuries, we find the same linguistic layers as in the lexicon of Yiddish. There are numerous Germanic and Hebrew names and some Aramaic names. There are also Greek names (Todres from Theodoros, Kalmen from Kalonymos), Old French names (Beyle, Bunem, Yentl), Old Czech names (Khlavne, Slave, Zlate), and Polish names (Basye, Tsile), and very few East Slavic names (Badane, Vikhne). There are no Turkic names.
Finally, we come to genetics. One does not have to be a professional geneticist to see the inadequacy of the methodologies used by Eran Elhaik, the champion of the Khazarian theory in that domain. In his paper of 2013, he pretends to show that modern Ashkenazic Jews are genetically closer to Khazars than to biblical Hebrews. The last mention of Khazars is almost one thousand years old, while biblical times are also far from us. For these reasons, Elhaik needed modern substitutes, so he substituted Armenians and Georgians for Khazars (because all of them are related in some way to Caucasus); and he substituted Israeli Palestinians for biblical Hebrews. In his paper of 2016, he analyses the links between various population groups by introducing another bold idea, that of finding a sort of geographic average point for various genetic features. Using it, he links the Ashkenazic Jews to the southern part of the Black sea, not far from the Turkish border but still in places inhabited by fish only.
Globally speaking, his general method is applicable only in a context of families that remained for centuries in the same places (for example, in Sardinia) but certainly not for population groups characterized by geographic mobility. As one of my friends pointed out, if we apply his idea to Barack Obama, the former US president will be classified as Libyan just because Libya lies in the middle of a line that unites Kenya and the UK.
Globally speaking, all arguments suggested by proponents of Khazarian theory are either highly speculative or simply wrong. They cannot be taken seriously.
This has never stopped the theory from being popular. But the ideological reasons for this are for another article.
Alexander Beider is a linguist and the author of reference books about Jewish names and the history of Yiddish. He lives in Paris.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspective in Opinion.
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Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Khazars. Heres The Proof. - The Forward
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