Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 9, 2021

A Sky News investigation has found antisemitic, racist and white supremacist material in podcasts on one of the most popular streaming services, Spotify.

The company said it does not allow hate content on its platform.

But we found podcasts totalling several days' worth of listening promoting extreme views such as scientific racism, Holocaust denial and far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories.

And while some of the most shocking material was buried inside hours-long episodes, in some cases, explicit slurs could be found in episode titles and descriptions while album artwork displayed imagery adopted by white supremacists.

Spotify removed the content after we reported it to the streaming giant.

But many of these podcasts remain online elsewhere, including in largely unmoderated directories like Google Podcasts.

Google did not respond to our request for comment.

And experts are concerned that the "readily accessible" nature of this material could lure people towards extremism.

Content warning: this article includes references to racist, antisemitic and white supremacist language and ideas

One of the first results returned on Spotify when searching for the phrase "Kalergi Plan" directed us to a series which, at the time, had 76 episodes listed on the platform.

The so-called "Kalergi Plan" is a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which alleges that Jewish elites are behind a deliberate plan to erase the white European race by promoting mass immigration.

We have chosen not to name any of the podcast series mentioned in this article to avoid publicising their content.

In one episode, the speaker explicitly promotes the Kalergi Plan.

He claims that the European elite has been "replaced" by a "new urban nobility" made up of Jewish elites.

The nine-minute monologue ends with an explicit call to violence against Jewish people.

Another episode by the same creator advances the racist and unfounded idea that white people are biologically superior to people of colour.

"There is something about [white men] that makes us privileged, its in our blood," he says.

He promotes this view, unchallenged, for 13 minutes. The monologue is littered with dehumanising language and makes comparisons that are too offensive to be included in this article.

The album artwork for the series depicts the raven flag - a symbol originally found in Norse mythology, but one that has been appropriated by some white supremacists in recent years.

We showed our findings to Maurice Mcleod of Race on the Agenda, a social research charity focusing on issues impacting ethnic minorities in the UK.

"This is incredibly dangerous," he told Sky News.

"Early this May we had the highest [monthly] number of reported incidents of antisemitism and, in the year to March, we had 115,000 reported incidents of hate crime. Now that's just what's reported, which is always only the tip of the iceberg."

"It feels like it's normalising this sort of thing if you can go on Spotify and listen to Adele, and then you can listen to this stuff right next to it." he said.

The Kalergi Plan is a variation of the white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

Jacob Davey, head of research and policy of far right and hate movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said it was a belief that had been steadily increasing in popularity over the past decade.

"It's gone from what really was quite a fringe talking point among a few European extremists to the bread and butter discussion of extremists globally," he told Sky News.

But these ideas do not exist in an online vacuum, he said.

"In 2019, when an individual committed a really horrific terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, he was directly doing that in response to this theory," said Mr Davey

"And after that attack, there were a number of others throughout 2019. The spread of these ideas can really have a noticeable impact in compelling people to go on and commit atrocious violence."

This is just one of the series we came across.

Another one, hosted by US-based alt-right creators, uses racist slurs and white supremacist symbols in the episode titles and descriptions.

The hosts casually and openly promote a range of antisemitic and racist beliefs and theories, including Holocaust denial and scientific racism.

A third series from a different creator included episodes discussing what they refer to as the "beauty" of white supremacy, as well as readings of essays and books by prominent figures of the Nazi Party, including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.

The creator often used the episode description box on Spotify to advertise videos shared on other platforms. One link directs users to a video of a reading of what it calls "Dylann Roofs insightful manifesto".

Other episode descriptions link to a Telegram channel that has a swastika as its icon.

These three series amount to almost 150 hours of content.

In response to our findings, a Spotify spokesperson said: "Spotify prohibits content on our platform which expressly and principally advocates or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

"The content in question has been removed for violating our Hate Content policy."

The platform does allow users to report material that violates their content guidelines. The company also said it is developing new monitoring technology to identify material that has been flagged as hate content on some international registers.

But what is currently being done to moderate its podcasting platform beyond responding to user reports is not public knowledge.

The sheer volume of content online means that technology companies require algorithms as well as people to moderate their platforms.

And while technology capable of detecting hate speech in audio is being developed, it's not yet being widely deployed.

"One of the problems is that it takes a lot more memory to store long audio files. The other problem is that it's messy - you can have multiple speakers and fast-paced dialogue," said Hannah Kirk, AI researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and The Alan Turing Institute.

"There's also tonnes of extra linguistic cues in audio: the tone, the pitch of voice, even awkward silences or laughter. And that's a problem because we don't yet have the technology to accurately encode those kinds of extra linguistic signals," she told Sky News.

Ms Kirk said it is possible that companies like Spotify are hitting resource or technology constraints that mean they are not able to moderate their audio content at scale.

But, she said, the option is available for companies to transcribe audio content and run it through text processing models trained to detect hate, which are far more advanced.

We also found some of the same series on Google Podcasts.

Google's podcasting arm operates as a directory rather than a platform, meaning that it does not host content on its own server and instead collates podcast feeds that it automatically scrapes from the internet.

The company has received criticism before for allowing users to access extreme and misleading content on its interface. It's one of the few remaining places users can still find infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's podcast.

We reported our findings to Google, but it did not respond. The series we flagged remains on its platform.

A spokesperson for the company previously told the New York Times that it "does not want to limit what people can find" and that it only removes content in rare circumstances.

But experts are concerned that the accessibility of extreme material on these popular platforms could lead people into becoming radicalised.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Why data journalism matters to Sky News

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Antisemitism, racism and white supremacist material in podcasts on Spotify, investigation finds - Sky News

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Posted By admin on December 9, 2021

One day in 2018, the prolific documentary producer John Battsek received a call from Diane Weyermann of Participant Media, asking him if he would travel to the East Sussex village of Ditchling to meet a 69-year-old director named Luke Holland. Weyermann said that Holland had spent several years interviewing hundreds of Germans who were in some way complicit in the Holocaust, from those whose homes neighboured the concentration camps to former members of the Waffen SS. The responses he captured ran the gamut from shame to denial to a ghastly kind of pride. Now he wanted to introduce these testimonies to a mainstream audience, and he needed help.

Luke wasnt consciously making a film, Battsek says. He was amassing an archive that he hoped would have a role to play for generations to come. We had to turn it into something that has a beginning, a middle and an end. As soon as he saw Hollands footage, he knew it was important: It presented an audience with a new way into this.

At the time, Holland was in remission from myeloma, a form of bone marrow cancer, which had previously killed his brother, and B-cell lymphoma. In late 2019, while the film was in postproduction, he told Battsek that he had been given a year to live. That prognosis turned out to be optimistic. He died on 10 June 2020 at the age of 71, shortly after Weyermann visited him in hospital to tell him that Final Account had been selected for the Venice film festival. He wanted the film out in the world, Battsek says. He wanted his work to be appreciated.

When Holland embarked on the project in 2008, he wrote a mission statement in the form of a semi-haiku: My grandparents were murdered / I want to shoot old Nazis / I am a film-maker. His Jewish mother had fled Austria for England just before the German annexation in 1938; her parents had not. Holland had previously explored the period in his films Good Morning Mr Hitler! and I Was a Slave Labourer. Now he wanted to build an archive of interviews with perpetrators, coaxing often reluctant men and women in their 80s and 90s into unearthing uncomfortable memories. The main driver was: If we dont get these voices now, soon we wont have the opportunity to do so, says Sam Pope, an associate producer of Final Acccount.

Pope, who grew up in Ditchling, had known Holland since he was six. When they reconnected in 2011, Holland showed him some of his interviews, and Pope had the same reaction as Battsek would seven years later. The raw power of it leapt off the screen and I wanted to be a part of it, he says. None of this was easy. But hed set a mission for himself.

The interviews began in October 2008 and continued off and on until 2016. Holland travelled alone on a shoestring, living off donations from friends such as the composer Michael Nyman, because funding was hard to find. Jewish organisations said: Herr Holland, were not going to pay for you to speak to old Nazis, Pope explains. So Luke went to the German organisations and they said: Herr Holland, how would it look if we gave you money to speak to old Nazis? Eventually, the Pears Foundation, a Jewish charitable trust, agreed to help finance the archive.

Pope describes Holland as charming, persuasive and a very active listener. The reflections and confessions that the director elicited are testament to his ability to listen, but also to probe and thus get people to reveal more than they had intended. When Luke sat down opposite these people, he was always conscious of the door, Pope says. If he pushed too hard too early, then it could mean the shutters come down. But at the same time, he couldnt let them get away with mitigating or downplaying their involvement. Its a slow unravelling of someones tightly knitted personal history.

In one scene, Holland softly coaxes a man named Heinrich Schulze into admitting that the escapees from Bergen-Belsen who hid in his familys farm were recaptured because Schulze himself reported them to the camp guards. He [Holland] was very skilful, Battsek says. There are various moments when someone will say, I wasnt there, and he will very gently ask questions that enable them to make it crystal clear that theyre lying and they were there. He adds: We wanted to present their view of their experiences in such a way as to enable an audience to come to its own conclusions.

There are many such indelible scenes in Final Account, all the more chilling for taking place in small-town living rooms on quiet afternoons: knobbled fingers fondly stroking old medals and Nazi insignia; eyes flashing with pride at belonging to the SSs elite band of brothers; a croaking voice saying of Kristallnacht that I didnt feel any pity for the Jews. Cutaways are used sparingly so that we can see whether the interviewees unapologetically meet the cameras gaze or flinch and turn away. Some tremble on the precipice of acknowledging their guilt before retreating into denial or excuses. The faces are the most interesting part, Pope says. You see their emotional responses to these memories as theyre dredging them up.

One of the few interviewees who accepts the full weight of guilt is a former SS member named Hans Werk. In the films standout sequence, Werk meets young Germans in the Wannsee villa where the final solution was plotted, and loses his temper with one man who sounds like a neo-Nazi. In that moment of raw emotion, the reason for the films existence is clear. I feel like the film has a spooky relevance to the times weve been living in, and how easy it is to be swept along by ideologies, Battsek says.

Working with Pope, Battsek, co-producer Riete Oord and the editor, Stefan Ronowicz, Holland had to whittle a lean, 90-minute film out of almost 600 hours of footage, comprising around 300 interviews. These ranged from one-off half-hour conversations to those spanning 16 separate encounters. He was insatiable, Pope says. If he was still around, hed probably still be looking for more. He was doing it for his grandparents, but it took on a larger significance when he screened some material for survivors. One said that to hear it coming from the mouths of those who were responsible confirms your own suffering.

The unseen footage survives in the archive, which is available to researchers via three institutions in London and Paris, with more to come. That may ultimately prove to be a more enduring legacy than Final Account itself. There were three founding pillars for this project: education, research and memorial, Pope says. Perpetrator as opposed to survivor testimony is a relatively new field, so were taking great care that its properly contextualised.

Holland was diagnosed in 2013 and lost a year to chemotherapy. At one point he was given just days to live, before a successful course of stem-cell treatment. He recovered enough to see the film through to its final stages, but didnt live to see it find an audience. In a horrible coincidence, Weyermann died of lung cancer in October 2021. Dianes vision and courage are 100% the reason this film got made, Battsek says. Nobody else would have done that.

Pope only wishes that his friend was alive to see the reactions to the film that occupied his final decade. It was tragic, he says. There were so many doubts along the way: are we doing the right thing? Is it going to be understood correctly? I wish he could have had this feedback.

Final Account is released in the UK on 3 December.

This article was amended on 4 December to reflect the contributions of co-producer Riete Oord and the Pears Foundation.

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It became crystal clear they were lying: the man who made Germans admit complicity in the Holocaust - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

The Role of the Greek American Community in Advancing U.S.-Greek Relations

December 1, 2021

Grande Bretagne Hotel, Athens (podium, microphone)

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Let me thank General Floros and the Chiefs who are here with us this evening, you honor us by being here. I just want to underline what value we place on our partnership with all the Hellenic Armed Forces.

Im going to start tonight with a warm thank you to Nick Larigakis and AHI for inviting me to join this conversation this evening

But I want to say Im especially glad to be on this stage tonight with the Foreign Ministrys Political Director, Haris Lalacos. In the summer of 2016, when I was in Washington, DC getting ready for this assignment, Haris was Greeces Ambassador to the United States. In that capacity, he was one of the first and one of the key people that I turned to when formulating my agenda for this ambassadorship. He was exceptionally generous in sharing with me his advice for how to be effective in this role, and he and his wife Anna opened their home to Mary and me to help us get introduced to some of the key folks in the Washington diaspora community. And of course we were together a few weeks after my swearing in when President Obama paid his historic November 2016 visit to Athens.

So I was really delighted therefore when he was named MFA Political Director, and joined us last October for the fantastically successful Strategic Dialogue with Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Dendias in Washington. But for all Haris wisdom and diplomatic insight, I am confident that neither of us could have imagined in 2016 how far we would have advanced the U.S.-Greece relationship five years later. And so I very much look forward to hearing also what he has to say.

I also of course want to acknowledge Nick Larigakis and AHI. The last time I was speaking at this forum was almost exactly two years ago. Little did we know when we gathered in this same room at that point what the future would hold. And I really mean it from the heart when I say how wonderful it is to see everyone tonight in person and healthy.

I was in Washington, DC for the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue as I said in October and while I didnt have the opportunity during that brief visit to catch up with AHI and other Greek diaspora groups that I usually see when Im in town, I want to let you know that the work you do was very much in the room throughout the Strategic Dialogue conversations. AHI and the other Greek diaspora groups active in Washington remain incredible force multipliers in the U.S.-Greece bilateral relationship. There is no mistaking the role that you have played and continue to play in strengthening the truly important strategic relationship between Greece and the United States.

Through its advocacy work in Washington DC, Nick and his team at AHI are a part of a 47-year tradition that unites the Greek and Cypriot communities in the U.S. and informs and influences elected state and federal leaders regarding public policy issues that I know you all are so passionate about: defending religious freedom, promoting stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and strengthening relations between Greece the United States and Cyprus, making the United States stronger and more secure. And I am especially grateful for the work that AHI does to educate and inspire a younger generation with its annual student visits to Greece and Cyprus. I always meet with the AHI kids at my residence, and every single time I have come away encouraged by their intelligence and curiosity.

I hope, Nick, that you feel gratified to see your work reflected in some of the more recent positive outcomes in our bilateral relationship. It is truly remarkable to look back on how far the U.S.-Greece relationship has come over the past five years. Greece has become a driver of stability and a widely admired source of solutions in this region. The U.S-Greece defense and security relationship has grown dramatically over the past five years, and I am proud to say we are at a high-point in our military cooperation. This was reflected when Secretary of State Blinken and Foreign Minister Dendias signed amendments to our Mutual Defense and Cooperation Agreement in October agreeing to extend the duration and scope of the MDCA to advance our joint security goals. And we will spotlight this a little more on Friday when I will travel to Alexandroupouli along with Defense Minister Panagiotopoulos, General Floros, and others to observe the largest-ever military movement that we have staged in that strategically located city.

But thats not the only dimension of our cooperation. With the Prespes Agreement, Greece has rapidly normalized relations with North Macedonia, and it has shown great commitment to helping all of its Balkan neighbors to advance on the EU path, a goal that the United States emphatically shares. Greece is also cooperating with the Western Balkan countries on energy security, climate, and energy diversification in a way that advances our shared goals.

Greece has set an increasingly ambitious agenda in the wider neighborhood as well, forging new diplomatic and defense relationships with the UAE, Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia, among many others. And it is bolstering ties with Israel and Cyprus through the 3+1 framework that the United States also strongly supports.

Greece has proven itself to be a valuable U.S. partner, a pillar of regional stability, and an important energy and transportation hub capable of building bridges between NATO Allies and key regional partners.

As an important complement to the U.S. Administrations effort, we are also seeing sustained interest by members of the U.S. Congress, having hosted just in the past few months here in Athens Senators Menendez, Murphy, and Ossoff, along with Congressman Bilirakis. And I have been truly delighted to see the strong bipartisan support for the Menendez-Rubio authored U.S.-Greek Defense and Interparliamentary Partnership Act, and the parallel Bilirakis-Deutch legislation in our House of Representatives.

President Biden of course cares deeply about the democratic values that were born right here in ancient Athens and he has made very clear that he is personally committed to taking U.S.-Greece relations to an even higher level.

In sum, weve reached a moment in which Greek and American interests in this region are more closely aligned than ever before, and the U.S.-Greece relationship is at an all-time high. Multiple governments and two political parties in both of our countries have contributed to this accomplishment, but I would also want to give credit to the many individuals and organizations that have prioritized our bilateral relationship, including, importantly, the Greek-American community of the United States.

So, its a special pleasure to be with you, and to have the opportunity to talk about what I think is a truly enduring driver of the U.S.-Greece relationship: our strong people-to-people ties, and the vital role that the diaspora plays in advancing our shared goals.

Our conversation tonight takes place as we are wrapping up a truly memorable year. Despite the many challenges presented by the pandemic, the Embassy team throughout the past year has managed to forge some terrific partnerships in order to deliver on our campaign to commemorate the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution.

We called our campaign, USA & Greece: Celebrating 200 Years of Friendship. Indeed our countries histories have been intertwined from the beginning, linked by democratic values that generations of our citizens have pledged to uphold and defend. Our deeply ingrained beliefs in equality, human liberty, self-government, and rule of law are the basis for the philia between our countries. And it is on the basis of this philia that we wanted to focus our campaign on friendship.

Nurturing and strengthening the bonds between our countries and peoples is central to the work that we do at the Embassy not just this year, but every year. In fact, these people-to-people ties are so important that we have enshrined them as one of the pillars of the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, alongside regional cooperation, defense and security, law enforcement and counterterrorism, trade and investment, disaster preparedness, and energy and climate.

And we share this goal of promoting people to people ties with AHI and other Greek diaspora organizations not just because its a nice thing to do. We do so because we know that this helps lay an indispensable foundation for our foreign policy objectives and the work we do to promote security and prosperity in both of our countries.

The Greek diaspora plays an important role, putting our democratic principles into practice forming a bridge between the peoples of our two countries. As I often say, you and the diaspora are one of the secret ingredients of the U.S.-Greece relationship.

So weve been celebrating Greeces bicentennial throughout the past year, working to strengthen our ties through programming that supports Greek civil society, cultural, and educational institutions. The Greek diaspora has built on a long tradition of AHEPA leadership on issues around the revolution and engaged extensively this year to get the word out about the role of American Philhellenes in Greeces fight for independence and to convey the United States 200 years of support and friendship with Greece.

Members of the diaspora have helped us not only celebrate our countries historic relationship, but through your commitment and advocacy, you demonstrate Americas respect for the ancient Athenian ideals that inspired our founders and continue to inspire American democracy today.

I was delighted also that The Hellenic Initiative (THI), another leading Greek diaspora organization, received one of the Embassys competitive bicentennial grants. Earlier this year, we launched a virtual entrepreneurship program with THI called Connect the Dots, through which successful Greek American business leaders are mentoring young Greek entrepreneurs.

Connect the Dots, as well as our sponsorship of the Athens Science Festival and an Escape Room at the Serafio that I highly recommend you visit, seek to strengthen the entrepreneurial and scientific ties between our two countries. They look towards Greeces digital future, addressing Greek young people who have natural ties to the United States and our high-tech industries.

Other bicentennial events sponsored by the Embassy have included fantastic exhibitions at the Museum of Philhellenism and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as well as several upcoming performance featuring music from films about the American Revolution by the Greek National Opera on December 22 and 23.

And weve provided scholarship funding towards the establishment of a new American Studies Masters Program, which we launched a few weeks ago with the University of Piraeus, and Im really glad that several of those students are in the audience tonight.

Through all of these activities, we have endeavored to capture our respect for the past and our commitment to our shared future.

Looking beyond the bicentennial celebrations and into the next year, I hope that 2022 will see the defeat of COVID-19, and I know this will only happen through our continued close transatlantic cooperation.

Greeces democratic institutions have dealt valiantly with the challenges of the pandemic. And in many ways, the COVID crisis has strengthened and validated the partnership between our two countries, as evidenced by the many American companies that have stepped up to help the Greek government and private sector response.

Im very proud of U.S. companies like Pfizer, Abbott Corporation, and Johnson & Johnson for helping to strengthen our health care cooperation with Greece, just as our tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, and Google have generously stepped up to offer remote work and learning solutions to Greek citizens, and the Niarchos Foundation has generously funded the expansion of ICU capacity in Greeces public hospitals.

In particular, Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is a success story for transatlantic cooperation as well as a testament to the power of the Greek diaspora. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who led the team that produced this life-saving vaccine, is now quite deservedly one of the most famous Greek Americans in the whole world.

Another diaspora organization, AHEPA, also deserves recognition for its efforts to provide COVID-19 relief. At the very start of the pandemic in early 2020, AHEPAs Executive Director Basil Mossaidis called to ask me what they could do to help, never imaging how all-encompassing the pandemic would become. Moreover, theAHEPAUniversity General Hospital in Thessaloniki, founded in 1947 with the support ofAHEPAmembers in the United States, has become a lifeline for residents of Northern Greece and one of the countrys leading COVID treatment centers.

The U.S. Embassy has a history of working together with all of the various diaspora organizations, including AHI, to tell the story of the connections between the United States and Greece, including AHEPAs commissioning the statue of George C. Marshall, which sits outside my office in the Embassy courtyard, to symbolize the United States support for the Greek state and Greek people after WWII.

Diaspora groups also played a significant role in the 2018 Thessaloniki International Fair, when the United States was honored country. The extraordinary success of TIF 2018 has led to greater American investment throughout Greece, helping to drive economic growth and shape a positive narrative around American economic partnership in post-crisis Greece.

Individual Americans, many of them members of the Greek diaspora, also helped to provide a boost to Greek tourism this year. We had a record number of nine direct flights from the United States to Athens during the peak of the tourism season. And, these flights continued later into the fall than ever before, no doubt contributing to the all-time record number of passenger arrivals in Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Karpathos.

Im delighted that so many of my fellow Americans were able to experience the joys of the Greek summer, which those of us in this room know so well. They also helped to contribute to Greeces greatly improved tourism revenues in the summer of 2021.

The impact of the Greek diaspora organizations and individual Greek Americans is evident in the work we do here in Athens every single day. We need your collective voices to help ensure our strong bilateral relations remain that way and that we find new avenues for cooperation in the future. Id also like to challenge those members of the Greek diaspora who are in the business world to take a closer look at investing in Greece. The sweeping reforms that the Greek government has undertaken have created the most business-friendly environment in the country in many decades. These reforms have helped to drive major new investments in Greece by giants like Cisco, Pfizer, Mondelez, Digital Realty, AWS, and Microsoft. Its time for folks to give Greece another look.

Greece and the United States are united by principles that connect and empower our peoples. I want to thank you all for your efforts over the years to support the mission of the U.S. Embassy to strengthen those vital bonds and bring us closer together. And I urge you to work even more vigorously in the months and years ahead were not done yet!

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By U.S. Embassy in Athens | 2 December, 2021 | Topics: Ambassador, Featured Event, Speeches, U.S. & Greece | Tags: #USGreece2021

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Ambassador Pyatt's Remarks at AHI Event: "The Role of the Greek American Community in Advancing U.S.-Greek Relations" - US Embassy in Greece...

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators of the United States Congress have presented President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, with the first-ever International Nation Builders Award of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Presenting the award to President Akufo-Addo, the President of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators of the United States Congress, Congressman Billy Mitchell, explained that the Nation Builders Award was established to recognize those African-Americans who have distinguished themselves to live-long service and dedication to enfranchisement and inclusion of Americans of African discent into the national body of politics.

Speaking at the award ceremony on Wednesday, 1st December 2021, at the 45th Annual National Black Caucus of State Legislators in Atlanta, Georgia, Congressman Billy Mitchell explained the nation build award ceremony was renamed in 1995 to honour the late David P. Richardson, a twenty-three-year member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and NBCSLs third President.

I must say as the President of NBCSL, it is my belief, that we must unite and partner with our brothers and sisters of the continent and throughout diaspora. It is not lost on me that Ghana is widely regarded as the hub of pan-Africanism and the final resting place of many of our great thinkers, yes, even W.E.B. Du Bois, he said.

Describe himself as a student of Kwame Nkrumah, Congressman Mitchell, I know we are stronger together and when we unite and advance the causes of our people, internationally, we are all better.

It is for this reason I present to you this award Mr. President, for your commitment to working collaboratively to achieve the liberation of African people despite where we were born. Mr. President, I present to you, the first International Nation Builders Award of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, he added.

Ghana and the Diaspora

In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo noted that Ghanas connection with the African Diaspora pre-dates her independence, stating that currently, we are creating platforms for adoption of legal frameworks in key sectors to drive diaspora engagements. This has culminated in the Homeland Return Bill, on which we are currently working.

The Homeland Return Bill, he explained, recognises Ghanas moral and spiritual obligation, as an African nation, to facilitate the return of diaspora Africans to Ghana and the motherland, and to initiate the legal and regulatory processes for integrating them into Ghanaian society.

When enacted, the Law will provide the much needed regulatory and practical changes to improve the requirements for the acquisition of Ghanaian citizenship and permanent residence by diasporan Africans. Indeed, in the Year of Return, I granted citizenship to one hundred and twenty-six (126) members of the diasporan community in Ghana of African-Americans and Caribbeans, the President stressed.

He continued, It will, in fact, be a critical indication for business and investment, presenting an avenue for Africa in the diaspora to work towards partnerships, and establish Ghana as a launchpad to the rest of the continent of Africa through the AfCFTA.

The President told the gathering that We, in Ghana, and in Africa as a whole, have a keen interest in how you in the Diaspora fare. If you flourish, it will reflect well on us in Africa. Your success will boost our confidence. If we do well, and the continent flourishes, you will have an easier time of it here.

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Akufo-Addo receives first-ever international nation-builders award - BusinessGhana

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

The Jewish Student Union lit their menorah as they celebrated Hanukkah at Straz Tower

I think its important to offer events to Jewish students on campus during holidays like this because it allows us a chance to connect both in a religious and social sense. As a small group on campus, sharing our common traditions helps us build a strong community, Michaela Brooke, a junior in the College of Health Sciences and the vice president of JSU, said.

The holiday was instated after Israel (then Judea) came into the power of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who outlawed the Jewish religion and massacred thousands; it is seen as a celebration of the resistance of Jewish people in that time. Most of the traditions that take place in the holiday are an homage to Jewish history and spirit.

We followed the traditional customs of lighting the Hanukkah candles and saying the blessings, playing a game called a dreidel, and eating fried potato pancakes called latkes. We mostly wanted to provide an environment for everyone to come and have a good time together, Brooke said.

The blessings said while lighting the Hanukah candles are all thanking God for helping their ancestors and letting them come together to celebrate.

Playing dreidel, another common Hanukkah tradition, was a way for Jewish people to study the Torah while it was illegal.

Eating latkes (potato pancakes) is also very significant to the times of Antiochus, Brooke claims.

In part of the story of Hanukkah, the Jewish people wanted to light the traditional oil lamps in the temple but they only had enough oil to last one night. But miraculously the oil lasted for eight nights, long enough for someone to make the long journey to get more oil. To celebrate this miracle, we eat foods fried in oil on Hanukkah such as potato latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts), Brooke said in an email.

The celebration was hosted by the JSU but was organized with the help of Hillel Milwaukee.

Hillel Milwaukee strives to create a dynamic, warm and celebratory Jewish environment for Milwaukees university students and young adults where they can explore and express their Jewish identities and gain a sense of belonging within the Jewish community, Anna Goldstein, assistant director of Hillel Milwaukee and Marquette alumn, said.

The organization (a branch of Hillel International, a Jewish organization with over 500 branches on campuses worldwide) helps the JSU and other clubs in the Milwaukee area.

We offer holiday and cultural programs, Shabbat dinners, leadership opportunities, social action projects, Israel programs, outdoor activities, and social gatherings. We welcome Jewish young adults from all backgrounds, including religious, secular, and interfaith. We are also open to all local students who have a sincere desire to learn more about Judaism, said Goldstein.

Although most students might not have the time or resources to celebrate Hanukkah with their families, the JSU tries to bring tradition to campus.

Were a small club, but we try to do as much as possible on campus, Jordan Pajeau, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and the president of the JSU, said.

All the work put into these celebrations, and most of what the JSU and Hillel Milwaukee do is to help young Jewish adults celebrate their traditions away from home.

It is important for Jewish students to be able to celebrate Jewish holidays on campus because many of them are celebrating these holidays away from their families for the first time. Being able to celebrate holidays like Hanukkah together with their Jewish friends and also share it with people who have never celebrated is very meaningful, Goldstein said.

This story was written by Clara Lebron. She can be reached at clara.lebron@marquette.edu

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

A Jewish World War II veteran and one of the first American soldiers to help liberate the Dachau concentration camp died on Friday at the age of 99.

Retired Colonel Edward Shames died peacefully at home, according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory in Norfolk, Virginia.

Shames was the last surviving officer and oldest surviving member of the famed Easy Company, which was part of the US Armys 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The World War II paratroopers and their bravery inspired the 1992 book Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose and the 2001 award-winning HBO miniseries of the same name, created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Born in Norfolk to Jewish parents, Shames reportedly forged his mothers signature to enlist in the US Army in 1942 at the age of 19. He became one of the officers in charge of Easy Company and took part in some of the most important battles of the war, according to his obituary.

He made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day [June 6, 1944] as part of Operation Overlord. He volunteered for Operation Pegasus and then fought with Easy Company in Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, the funeral home said. Ed gained a reputation as a stubborn and very outspoken soldier who demanded the highest of standards from himself and his fellow soldiers.

After the Nazis surrendered at the end of World War II, Shames was the first member of the 101st Division to enter the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, mere days after its liberation. He and his men from Easy Company also entered Hitlers Eagles Nest which was exclusively used by members of the Nazi Party for government and social meetings and Shames took a few bottles of cognac bearing a label that said, for the Fuhrers use only. Shames later used the cognac to celebrate his oldest sons bar mitzvah.

After the war, Shames worked for the National Security Agency as an expert on Middle East affairs, went on to serve in the US Army Reserve Division, and eventually retired as a colonel.

Shames was married to his wife Ida, who predeceased him, for 73 years. He is survived by his sons Douglas and Steven, four grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. A graveside service was held in Norfolk, Virginia, at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Sunday morning.

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

Jacob Kamaras got the San Diego Jewish World for an absolute steal $1, to be exact.

The journalist and public relations executive bought the publication for that ceremonial price from its previous owner-publisher, Don Harrison, who founded the online outlet in 2009 and was looking to step down from day-to-day operations; Harrison will become publisher emeritus.

Kamaras views his stewardship of the site as one important way to contribute to his adopted local San Diego Jewish community. Though he was born in Brooklyn, his wife Megans family is from the San Diego area, and they now live there.

But Kamaras brings something of a nontraditional mindset to the publication. Unlike most professional journalists, who seek to draw a clear line for their audiences between their own work and public relations, Kamaras will combine both.

I always kind of kept my hands in both worlds, in PR and journalism, and thats going to continue to be the case, Kamaras told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his new role. I believe that the two fields, or subfields within the same space, have a more symbiotic relationship than one would think.

The former editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, Kamaras left the wire service in 2016, though he continues to contribute to the publication; hes since founded his own PR and lobbying firm, Stellar Jay Communications.

The firm has drawn attention for its lobbying work on behalf of the government of Azerbaijan work that has included registering as a foreign agent andplacing pro-Azerbaijani columns in Jewish publicationstouting the Central Asian countrys partnerships with Israel. (Azerbaijan has been engaged in an ongoing armed conflict with neighboring Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh regionsince 2020; Israel has beensending arms to the country.)

Kamaras also has Jewish clients. Hes an associate at J Cubed Communications, an international firm based in Tel Aviv whose clients include The Jewish Agency for Israel, the Israeli-American Council and Nefesh BNefesh, a nonprofit that assists Jews in emigrating to Israel.

Kamaras said he has no intention of hanging up his work in PR and lobbyingjust because he now owns and operates a news site; in fact, he expects his PR work will continue to be his main source of income for quite a while.He knows this arrangement wont sit well with journalists.

I think some journalists would look at PR reps and have an attitude, he said, but added, I kind of think were all in the same team here in Jewish journalism, and that includes PR.

Nearly all local Jewish publications have struggled for a viable economic model in the last decade, with their financial woes intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bostons 118-year-old Jewish Advocate ceased operationsentirely last fall; in March, the 75-year-old Arizona Jewish Postdid the same. Other Jewish news organizations have been reinventing themselves: The 60-year-old Canadian Jewish News shut down in 2013,restarted operations within a year, and in August hasrelaunched as an all-digital news site. Andthe New York Jewish Week joined JTA as part of 70 Faces Media in January.

I kind of think were all in the same team here in Jewish journalism, and that includes PR.

The ongoing upheaval has had the effect of causing some local Jewish outlets to abandon certain journalistic practices and values in favor of a more economically viable approach, says Jonathan Sarna, a Jewish media historian and professor of Jewish studies at Brandeis University.

The bottom line here is that many local Jewish newspapers, looking for a model that can sustain them as advertising and circulation decline, seem to be returning to an older pattern of feel-good journalism that eschews controversy and looks to boost the values and institutions that community leaders uphold, Sarna told JTA.

The Jewish community suffers by not having journalistic watchdogs, but the cost of having no Jewish newspaper at all may be even greater, Sarna added.

The currently all-volunteer-run San Diego Jewish World will remain focused on local community news; Kamaras doesnt represent any San Diego-area Jewish interests in his PR work. He does plan to run press releases on the site, including from organizations he represents, though in those cases he says he will disclose his relationship with them. Eventually, the Jewish World may charge publicists to run their releases.

The site will pursue traditional advertising for its revenue model, and will also experiment with sponsored content, conduct online fundraising campaigns and solicit individual donors, Kamaras said; hes also planning their first gala fundraiser in 2022.He says he will follow the industry practice of disclosing when content is sponsored.

Kamaras said the publication under Harrison, whom he calls the de facto Jewish historian of San Diego, would often run press releases from his clients. It was one of the things that, as a PR professional, hed come to appreciate about the Jewish World; Harrisons willingness to do so was one of the reasons the two of them had become close enough for the publisher to eventually trust Kamaras with his outlet.

Kamaras also points out that San Diego Jewish readers will have local options. In addition to the World, the region is also home to theSan Diego Jewish Journal(a JTA syndication client) andLChaim San Diego Magazine, both print monthlies. He hopes to distinguish the Jewish World by building it up as a hub for writers from the younger demographic.

A recent homepage of the Jewish World includes an interview with a comedian abouther upcoming San Diego engagement and a profile of a San Diego man who wants Congress to honor his fathers World War II unit. There arealso press releases about a recent speech in Boston by the Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt and a promotion forUnited Hatzalah, the Israeli ambulance service.

At the end of the day, Kamaras said, keeping the lights on at the Jewish World was the most important part of the equation, regardless of how that happens. I did not want to see this product go by the wayside.

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

Tom Waits, whose colorful career in music and entertainment began around 1970, turns 72 today Dec. 7. While he may not be as prolific as he once was as a recording artist, Waits continues to perform and record, and he still shows up in feature films like Licorice Pizza, the new Paul Thomas Anderson film starring Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Maya Rudolph and Alana Haim of the sister singing group Haim. While mainstream commercial success has evaded Waits whose style is sui generis and more than a bit off-center he has garnered a cult following as well as the respect of his peers, who have showered him with numerous Grammy Awards and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Back in the aughts, Bob Dylan hosted a weekly, one-hour satellite radio show called Theme Time Radio Hour. The program harked back to the days of freeform radio, featuring an eclectic mix of music, including pre-rock pop, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, country, rockabilly and rock n roll, interspersed with musings and commentary by Dylan himself. Dylan recorded 100 episodes of the program between 2006 and 2009 before calling it quits.

The program occasionally featured call-ins from celebrities, usually comedians and musicians. Waits was a frequent guest, appearing at least five times to expound upon various subjects, including passenger pigeons and body parts. One time, and without any explanation, Waits called in (he actually sent Dylan cassette tapes, since the program was prerecorded) to share a list of Jewish curses, which from the sound of them must have begun life as Yiddish aphorisms.

Dylan introduced his special guest thusly: One guy whos always got something on his mind is Tom Waits. Lets hear what he has to say.

In his inimitable deep, gravelly voice that exudes the mood of a hangover, Waits who is not Jewish said to the future Nobel Prize-winning rock poet:

Hey Bob, its Tom. Heres a little morsel of information. The Jewish people have always had a penchant for colorful cursing. Here are some of the most famous Jewish curses:

May God call the tune, and may your enemies play the music.

May you lose your faith, and may you marry a pious woman.

May all your teeth fall out except one, which should remain for a toothache.

May you grow like an onion with your head in the ground and your feet in the air.

May you have a good long sleep, and may your dreams be only of your troubles.

May you be the proof that man can endure anything.

May your wife eat matzohs in bed and may you roll in the crumbs.

So there.

To which Dylan replied succinctly, Thanks Tom. That was something else.

Perhaps it was just coincidence, but Waitss curses numbered seven in all. Way back in 1963, Dylan wrote a song called Seven Curses. The obscure number, written in folk-ballad style, told the story of a cruel hanging judge. Dylans seven curses were not funny like Waits; they were much more grim, more akin to Chad Gadya than to the Borscht Belt:

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:

That one doctor will not save him

That two healers will not heal him

That three eyes will not see him

That four ears will not hear him

That five walls will not hide him

That six diggers will not bury him

And that seven deaths shall never kill him

One thing we do not know is how or why Waits came to know and share those Jewish curses. What we do know is that early in his career, Waits manager and publisher was Herb Cohen. David Geffen signed Waits to his first recording contract, with Geffens Asylum Records label. Waits and Bette Midler were romantically linked in the mid-to-late 1970s; Waits also dated Jewish comedian Elayne Boosler in the 70s.

When Waits moved from Los Angeles to New York City, he befriended Jewish jazz musician John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards, and the duo began sharing a music studio in the Westbeth artist-community building in Greenwich Village. The two also appeared together in Down By Law, a film by Jim Jarmusch, and Waits was a guest on Luries TV show, Fishing with John. The cover of Waits 1992 album, Bone Machine, was designed by Jesse Dylan, a filmmaker whose father is Waits pal Bob. In 2008, Genesis Prize-nominee Scarlett Johansson recorded an entire album of Tom Waits songs called Anywhere I Lay My Head.

In January 2008, Waits performed at a benefit for Bet Tzedek Legal Services The House of Justice, a nonprofit poverty law center, in Los Angeles, founded in 1974 by a group of Jewish attorneys. Their social justice philosophy was rooted in a central tenet of Jewish law and teaching: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof Justice, justice you shall pursue.

So perhaps those Jewish curses were just something Waits picked up along the way.

Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward. He frequently mines popular culture for its lesser-known Jewish stories.

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

At a fundraising dinner Monday, Michael Bloomberg criticized Jewish Americans for too often failing to call out antisemitism when it comes from political allies.

Partisanship can be blinding, the former New York City mayor said in a speech at the UJA-Federation of New Yorks annual Wall Street Dinner in Manhattan. It blinds us to shameful wrongs in our own party that we would be outraged by if the other party committed them.

The consequence is a Jewish community that is not truly defending itself at a time when across the country, we have seen Jews harassed, beaten, and killed for their faith, Bloomberg continued, imploring Jewish Americans to root out antisemitism no matter where it originates.

He singled out Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial Republican from Georgia, and Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic progressive from Michigan; both have been accused of making antisemitic comments and aligning with antisemites. He said they should be treated in the same way we treat those who traffic in any form of bigotry: as extremists who are a danger to our country, who are unfit for public office, and who should be relegated to the fringes as political pariahs.

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Greene has made a number of antisemitic statements since running for office, and most recently has equated COVID-19 safety measures with the treatment of Jews under the Nazis. Tlaib has invoked antisemitic tropes and called Israel an apartheid state, which Democratic members of Congress have criticized as antisemitic.

It would be funny, if it were not so dangerous, Bloomberg said of Greenes 2018 Facebook post in which she claimed that a Jewish-funded space laser had started a California wildfire.

Bloomberg was a Democrat until he ran for New York mayor in 2001 as a Republican. He won three consecutive terms and governed as a social liberal and fiscal moderate. He then ran for president unsuccessfully in the 2020 Democratic primary. To an audience of about 700 Monday, he invoked the destruction of the Second Temple to describe political differences within the Jewish community.

Today is the last day of Hanukkah a holiday that marks a miracle, he said. But it began with a civil conflict among Jews, torn apart by the pressure of living under Greek rule.

He asked American Jews to quit engaging in what he called a perverse form of what-about-ism in which they say in effect, the antisemites in your party are far worse than the ones in mine.

He said he was alarmed by American Jews who seem to care most whether news is good for Republicans or Democrats. For such people, partisan affiliation has become a religion and their new tribe is their political identity.

Bloomberg also criticized the far left and activists on college campuses who are using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to spread what he deemed lies and prejudices about the Jewish State and pro-Israeli groups in America , and to attack liberal Zionist students. We cannot allow a new generation of Jews to be intimidated from supporting the very existence of Israel or to feel shame about their heritage, rather than pride, he said.

Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, was presented at the event with the Gustave L. Levy award, an honor bestowed by the UJA-Federation of New York for vision and generosity.

At the start of his remarks, Bloomberg joked about his failed presidential campaign in 2020, saying he was the only Jewish candidate in the race who didnt want to turn America into a kibbutz, referring to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a progressive Democrat.

Even though it didnt work out, the good news is: I didnt have to move to Washington, and I could stay with you in the greatest city in the world, he told the crowd.

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Posted By admin on December 7, 2021

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) The Birmingham Jewish community is a small one, meaning there are fewer opportunities to celebrate than one may think. But one local restaurant is serving up the Jewish culture and traditional food to those looking for it.

Owners Laurel Worthmann-Markshtein and Eli Markshtein, who was born and raised in Israel, are making latkes for the area; Elis is of the only local establishments making latkes those signature potato pancakes many of us have heard about.

Eli said hes just honored to be the one serving and educating the community on Jewish faith and culture.

Here is kind of a bridge to let people get involved in Israel and the traditional food. People here gladly visit Israel a lot. They come before and after they go to Israel and tell us how wonderful everything is. Its a compliment to us and we try to spread the knowledge as much as we can.

Laurel and Eli said that those latkes go like hot cakes during this time of year. They said even non-Jewish customers in the area put in their orders early to secure their own batch.

You have until Monday to order latkes here at Elis Jerusalem grill.

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