Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) Padma Lakshmis Taste the Nation, the acclaimed food docuseries, returned to Hulu this week with schmaltz and pickles.

In a special, four-part holiday edition, Lakshmi highlights traditional holiday foods from locations around the U.S. she visits Los Angeles to celebrate the Korean New Year, Miami to learn about Cuban Christmas and Cape Cod to learn about food traditions of the Wampanoag Nation, and to deconstruct the holiday narrative of Thanksgiving.

To learn about Hanukkah? Lakshmi only needed to travel around the corner from her East Village apartment. In the episode, titled Happy Challah Days, she visits the Lower East Side, where hundreds of thousands of Jews lived after immigrating from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century.

The episode is a New York Jewish food lovers dream. Lakshmi the author, model and food mogul whos been nominated for 11 Emmys for her hosting/judging work on Bravos Top Chef (her Jewish co-host Gail Simmons has been nominated for two) makes her first stop at Russ and Daughters appetizing shop on Houston Street, a Lower East Side landmark since 1914. The shop is run by Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, great-grandchildren of the stores original owner, Joel Russ.

At Russ and Daughters, Lakshmi learns to make latkes and samples many of the stores signature Ashkenazi offerings: caviar, schmaltz, herring and liver.Lakshmi next visits the Tenement Museum, the Pickle Guys an Essex Street mainstay since 2010 and New Yorks Central Synagogue, where she discusses the history of Hanukkah with Rabbi Ari Lorge.

After speaking with Ruth Zimbler, a Holocaust survivor, she learns how to make holishkes (stuffed cabbage) with the creators of the artisanal gefilte-fish brand Gefilteria. She also brings her daughter Krishna along to share a brisket and kugel meal with Deb Perelman, the food blogger behind Smitten Kitchen.

The episode tells viewers the Yiddish name for each of the foods Lakshmi tastes, and celebrates the freedom Jewish communities have to practice their religion in America. Throughout, Lakshmi compares the Jewish immigrant and family experience with her own experience immigrating to the U.S. from India as a child.

Lakshmi also takes care to de-emphasize the role Hanukkah has traditionally played in Jewish culture she knows the holiday is not as religiously important as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and even Passover. She tells her non-Jewish audience members that, contrary to popular gentile belief, the holiday is not Jewish Christmas.

Instead, Lakshmi uses Hanukkah as a way to explore how Jewish-American culture came to be its resilience, its community, its assimilation, its struggle, with food at the core of it all. She also explores her own relationship to the oil-drenched foods that play an important symbolic role during Hanukkah.

Personally, she said, Ive never needed an excuse to eat anything fried.

The Taste the Nation episode, Happy Challah Days, is streaming now on Hulu.

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Padma Lakshmi heads to the Lower East Side for a Hanukkah edition of Hulus Taste the Nation - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

Gefilte fish-loving gangsters who trade in horseradish meet in a parking lot for a deal that goes awry. Thats the plot of the new video by pop duo Vibers, updating the old Yiddish classic Chiribim, Chiribom to 2021.

Vibers (women in Yiddish, usually in the sense of chatterboxes or gossips) is Michal Karmi and Yael Tal, who formed their musical act last year in order to get back to their roots. Theyve just released their second single, which recounts a humorous Yiddish tale about a mother who cooks noodle soup and a rabbi who shouts at the heavens to stop drenching him.

The American Barry Sisters released the best-known version of Chiribim in the 1960s. But the song has also been covered by Dudu Fisher and legendary Israeli comedy trio Hagashash Hahiver, and is a staple in popular Yiddish medleys.

The stylish video was posted on YouTube less than a month ago and has already had over 40,000 views (agroyse metsie for a song in Yiddish).

The idea of Ashkenazi-style entertainment came to the folklore-loving Tal as she was listening to the A-Wa band (a female trio performing traditional Yemenite music mixed with hip-hop and electronic music). She was also inspired by the cultural flourishing of Yiddish in recent years, which is especially felt in Americas Jewish community. For instance, Yiddish has a starring role in the Netflix hit Unorthodox, starring Shira Haas, and of course in the Israeli TV series Shtisel.

The duo released their first video last year, a cover of the classic Bei Mir Bistu Shein (featuring Michael Moshonov), which has been watched almost 90,000 times on YouTube. It started as a personal song that connects both of us with our grandmothers, and it took off in a way we couldnt have imagined, Tal recounts.

In both videos, the styling is retro in a world that revolves around two semi-legendary divas who are elegant and hungry for life.

If the women look like theyre playing parts, thats probably because the two Vibers are first and foremost actors/comedians. Karmi, who studied at Ramat Gans Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts, has appeared in numerous TV series and ads. Tal, meanwhile, is a graduate of Yoram Loewensteins Performing Arts Studio in Tel Aviv, and is best known for playing Nechama in the second season of TV comedy Shababnikim (she also had a minor role in the award-winning Fill the Void).

The two met about three years ago while appearing in a play together, and since then we havent shut our mouths, right up to this interview, Tal says.

They wont reveal their ages at least not at first.

You can ask; you wont necessarily get an answer, Tal says. Age is irrelevant, in the same way that its irrelevant to ask a person their ethnicity. Its what it seems, thats all. Theres ageism: the moment people know, it immediately affects the way they see you. In our profession, its very easy to label people, especially women. Youre not allowed to ask that at auditions in the United States. She ends by declaring, Im as old as I look.

Radio gaga

The Vibers characters exchange rapid-fire witticisms in the best Yiddish tradition, reflecting Tal and Karmis own rat-a-tat dynamic.

Each of them contains something of our grandmothers theres a guiding hand from grandmother from above, Tal says. Karmi adds with a chuckle, Its very mystical!

Vibers or not, both women talk incessantly and at a certain point Tal sighs in Polish: Even so, I feel like Im not expressing myself in this interview.

Their act was born out of impatience with the acting profession and the constant sense of waiting around for roles.

When you finish acting school, your job is presumably to go to auditions and wait for them to hire you, Tal says. But the media has opened up now and you can upload content on your own. Thats how Udi Kagan and Tom Yaar succeeded, she adds, referring to two popular Israeli comedians.

It almost always begins from a silly idea on the balcony that keeps developing, Tal continues, explaining their working method. There are comedians who work on characters; we work on content with comic potential. That also reduces pressure professionally, because like in a couple relationship, the less eager you seem, the more they want you. We dont issue a declaration that were musicians, we wont go and record an album of original songs tomorrow. But its work that can be expressed in many ways, she says.

Speaking of couples, Karmi and Taicher were married three years ago in a civil ceremony, after meeting in rather unusual circumstances. They met after she fell in love with his voice on the radio, and decided that she had to find him.

Many years ago I heard Taicher and Zarahovitsh on the radio [on 102 FM], she recounts. I listened to the program again and again, and said to myself: That voice! I have to meet that man. But I was in a relationship, so didnt anything about it. When the relationship ended, I dispatched several of my people in order to get Sharon to talk to me on Facebook.

The thing is that I was sure he didnt know it was a ploy, but under the chuppah [at the wedding ceremony] he told me he knew everything. I was sure that I was so clever and suddenly, in front of everyone and all the guests... she laughs.

Karmi says the casting of her husband in the video, playing a mobster with a love of horseradish, was not a cynical move to get more viewers. It simply fit perfectly, she says. Hes a great actor, versatile, not your typical gangster. We wrote an entirely different character and there was supposed to be a different actor. Two days before filming, we were touched by Gods hand and realized that Sharon could do it more accurately. And hes also my husband, so I could impose as many tasks as I wanted on him.

Tals husband also helped out as a production assistant on the video, even though hes actually a musician: Guitarist Ido Ziggo Ofek, who is one of the founding members of Hadorbanim, a pop-rock band that enjoyed hits with the likes of Lo Ba Li Lishmoa and Shuv Hadisco Kan.

Tals story is suspiciously similar to that of Karmis: I had my eye on [Ofek] at Hadorbanim performances when I was 19. Weve been together for 450 years. Write that: 450 years.

Casting some doubt on that statement is the fact that Tals father is Shabtai Tal, a photojournalist who is responsible for the iconic 1971 photo of David Ben-Gurion folding his hands under his chin.

Youre an independent actor and hes an independent musician. Hows your financial situation?

Tal: Theres no money, but its OK. We do what we can with great love, and we manage. I wish I didnt have aspirations and dreams and ambition I could have lived a very simple life. Its liberating not to want things; its very tiring to pursue. Thats the internal conflict between the diva who wants to achieve and make it, and the girl who wants to live in a village with an outdoor shower. Deep down, Im a diva. I always need more than that.

The problem, they explain, is their choice to create independently.

When you start, youre alone and the financing is also independent, Tal says. We got a lot of favors from friends who worked for a reduced price, and whom I also helped in the past. If you dont look out for yourself and are dependent on whether theyll accept you for an audition, youll go nowhere. Im not in favor of sitting and waiting for anything.

The video was directed by a friend of theirs, Tamar Keinan, and everyone from the makeup team to the camera operators chipped in. Its a guerrilla video that looks like a million dollars, Tal says. You get up early in the morning with a minor anxiety attack, adds Karmi. You go out for 12 hours of filming, during which youre in charge of making sure everything goes according to plan. And then you finish, pat yourself on the shoulder and return home and remove the makeup. Unless youre Karin from [the latest season of reality TV show] Married at First Sight.

Whats in a name

When Avigdor Lieberman wanted to humiliate Tzipi Livni during the 2013 election campaign, he called her one of the three vibers, along with Zehava Galon and Shelly Yacimovich. However, Tal and Karmi are more than happy to lean in to the name. My husbands mother has a group of friends, moshav women, who sit together at the pool, and their husbands call them vibers in other words, chatterboxes, Tal says. There are all kinds of interpretations for this word. A lot of Yiddish is derogatory, barbed expressions. Its hard to find anything that has only one meaning, theres always another spiel. Something about this language doesnt take itself too seriously.

Its impossible to doubt these two womens affection for the old language. The importance of our project is to make this language accessible, to make it relevant, to create pop songs, rap. It can open up to so many things, but it has to be contemporary, Karmi explains.

In order to pronounce the words properly, they use the guidelines of the Yiddishpiel Theater in Tel Aviv.

Our vibers are strong women, Karmi says. Theyre contemporary but theyre embracing the nostalgia, singing in a language that isnt common, thats considered somewhat unsexy, old, annoying. But theyre colorful and arent afraid of being like that.

Yael and I are also colorful, but not like them, Karmi adds. Were both kind of ugly ducklings from childhood. I was cross-eyed and had short hair.

And I was skinny and flat-chested with steel-wool hair, Tal adds. The Vibers are our alter ego the bullied girls who want to be women of the world.

Their affection for Yiddish shouldnt be mistaken for sentimentality, though, with the language having a deeper cultural meaning for both women.

My grandfather and grandmother tried very hard not to speak Yiddish. Anything that brought you back to the Holocaust was an open wound that shouldnt be touched, Tal says. They kept up a faade and dignity. There was a time when I didnt understand why; today I admire it. There was no sense of victimization about what was taken. My grandmother didnt like to talk about it; only at the end of her life did we talk about it. These were people without pleasure I always felt there was some kind of storm raging inside them.

For Karmi, singing in Yiddish also represents a kind of victory over the Nazis. I want to sing Chiribim on Polish soil. To jump around for them, in the town of my grandmother who was expelled from there. Even though she was a restrained woman, I believe it would have moved her. Its a victory especially now when theres a law against saying the Polish people participated in this thing.

Finally, how do they respond to claims that their use of Yiddish is just a gimmick? That everything is a gimmick, Tal shrugs. Anyone who wants to criticize me is invited to do so and if they can, please can they do it when Im having my period.

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Their gefilte fish brings all the boys to the yard - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

In recent years, there has been a concerted attempt by antizionists to rewrite Mizrahi Jewish history and disconnect us from our identity, culture and homeland.

The history of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa is rich, yet it is often omitted from the main discourse of Jewish history. Antizionists who rarely care about Mizrahi Jews take advantage of the lack of knowledge and try to rewrite our history for their own agenda. They are doing so by pushing a narrative of Arab Jews who were brought to Israel as second-class citizens just to have their Arab culture stripped away.

While you might find a handful of Mizrahi Jews today who do identify as Arab Jews," the term itself is historically inaccurate and is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Mizrahi Jews.

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The history of Jews in the Arab region goes back over 2,500 years to the Babylonian exile, after which the center of Jewish life shifted outside of the Land of Israel for the first time in history.

So, when did Jews become Arabs? Is it only because of Arab imperial rule that the Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa suddenly changed their ethnic identity? And what does it say about other indigenous groups who live in the region, such as the Assyrians, the Copts and the Amazigh tribes, who have struggled to maintain their unique identity under Islamic rule, and do not identify with the Arab culture.

The same logic should be applied to Jews, who under harsh conditions, preserved their indigenous culture and kept it alive in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora.

An Al-Jazeera article published in 2017 falsely claimed Jews in Arab countries spoke Arabic, ate the same foods as their Christian and Muslim compatriots, celebrated the same national events and traditions and lived by the same social protocols."

Truth be told, Jews in Arab and Muslim societies kept their Jewish identity while not consider themselves Arabs, but rather Iraqi-Jew, Moroccan-Jew, Egyptian-Jew, etc. This distinction is made clear in early Islamic writings, which refer to the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz (Saudi Arabia) as foreigners, whereas the Christian Arab tribes were considered as fellow Arabs.

For example, in Yemen, where my family spent the diaspora, Jews were prohibited from wearing their traditional headdress, because it was considered too fancy. They spoke a dialect of Judeo-Yemenite, which incorporated biblical Hebrew phrases and were prohibited from learning how to read and write in Arabic. Their cuisine was distinctly different from the Arab-Yemeni one, and they considered themselves nothing but Jewish.

These very same struggles are often erased by anti-Zionist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In 2019, a coalition of Mizrahi organizations issued a statement against the appropriation and distortion of the history of the Jewish communities of the Middle East by JVP, who seek to strip the Jewish people of their indigenous origins.However, why are anti-Israel media outlets like Al-Jazeera and antizionist groups like JVP trying to push this false narrative?

This false narrative is part of their bigger "Colonialism" lie. Anti-Israel forces have tried to delegitimize the Jewish State by calling it a colonialist project, claiming that Zionism is a Jewish-European colonialism project, despite it being a project of indigenous awakening.

Since more than 50% of Jewish-Israeli citizens are originally from families that have lived in the Middle East and North Africa, and not Europe, these anti-Israel forces had to make up a story to isolate the European Ashkenazi Jews from the broader Israeli-Jewish population, to fit their "colonialism" sham. They have totally falsified history and are spreading lies, to push their narrative of delegitimization and that the State of Israel shouldnt exist.

Attempts to strip Jews of their Jewish identity and homeland always result in historical revisionism.

The existence of Jews in Arab societies has always been conditional, much like the existence of Jews in European societies has, not only in the 20th century, but throughout the entire history of the diaspora. Now that Jews finally have a place to rest, where we can feel safe in our indigenous homeland, we wont let our adversaries distort our identity and history, just to delegitimize our very own existence.

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The invention of Arab Jews erases Mizrahi Jewish history - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

In late October, the new U.S. Consul General of Israel to the Midwest Yinam Cohen was in Metro Detroit to attend the Yeshiva Beth Yehudahs Annual Dinner.

The next day, he joined Mark Davidoff, president and CEO of The Fisher Group, for lunch and conversation at his Southfield office. Davidoff presented Cohen with a gift, the autobiography of Max Fisher, The Quiet Diplomat.

Cohen, who replaced Aviv Ezra this summer, was enjoying his first visit to the state and already talking about returning to enjoy a Detroit Pistons game one day. Here are some highlights of their conversation.

I was born in Jerusalem. My parents were born in Jerusalem. My grandparents immigrated to Jerusalem in the 1930s from Egypt, from Yemen. I feel very much committed to continue this trend. My son is the fourth generation of our family born in Jerusalem, although he left when he was 1 month old to join us in my diplomatic career.

I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 15 years ago and served three years in Bogota, Colombia, where my second daughter was born. After three years in Colombia, we moved to Berlin where I served as a spokesperson of the embassy. There, I had my third child, who is a fifth-grader now in Chicago.

After five years abroad, we came back to Israel. I served as a policy adviser to the director general of the Ministry. My last mission was in Madrid, Spain, where I served as the deputy ambassador. It was three amazing years, very challenging from the political aspects.

Then, my family returned to Israel. I had some jobs in Israel, but I think the most exciting one was being senior policy adviser to then-Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi. Now, Im in Chicago. Its my first diplomatic mission in the United States. I have the biggest territory because I cover nine Midwestern states [Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin], which are very big and dispersed. Im so very happy to be here.

Midwesterners are very nice people, very embracing, very warm and very down to earth. Chicago is a wonderful city, very welcoming, Zionistic and very supporting. Being the top representative of Israel in the Midwest, I consider myself a member of the Jewish community there. Our kids go to Jewish day schools in Chicago.

I had breakfast this morning with the board of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator. Im very happy about this partnership. I visited the Startup Nation Central Europe before living in Chicago, and they spoke a lot about the connection to Michigan.

Business is a major one. At the consul, our mission is to serve as a facilitator for business in the Midwest, in Israel. I see myself not only as an ambassador of Israel here, but also as an ambassador of the Midwest in Israel, because I want to make more and more Israelis understand that theres a potential here for business.

Theres great potential here for traditional sectors in Israel, such as agriculture and water management, but also potential for more advanced manufacturing. Although Israel does not produce cars, it is a beautiful hub of a smart mobility innovation. There are so many Israeli startups and companies in this respect and the connections already. Both General Motors and Ford have research and development centers in Israel, for example.

I hope to be of assistance in bridging the cultural divide between Israelis and folks in the U.S. There are some protocol differences Israelis need to know about, which we hope to facilitate.

Like our or current Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, I have two strong messages regarding Israeli-U.S. relations. The first is bipartisanship is back. The new government is going to invest a lot in cultivating its relationships with both the Democratic and Republican parties. We see great coordination, communication and cooperation between the new government in Israel and the relatively new administration in the U.S.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had his first White House visit about a month ago. It was very successful. We were so encouraged by the words of President Joe Biden after the meeting. Biden referred to the fact that this is the most diverse government in the history of Israel something were very proud of. We are also encouraged by Bidens strong commitment to the security of Israel and specifically to continuous cooperation on the Iron Dome and his total commitment to guarantee that Iran never acquires nuclear military capabilities.

We had a strong week in Washington, D.C. Our foreign minister met with his colleague, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Vice President Kamala Harris, which was great. He also took part in a mini-summit, organized by Secretary Blinken, with the United Arab Emirates. This was a very strong signal to the commitment of the new administration to continue the Abraham Accords and to bring into the tent new Arab states, perhaps from the Gulf area or East Africa. We hope to hear some good news in the coming months on that respect.

Its an agreement that comes out of a strong sense of real partnership between Arab countries and Israel. We have had peace with Egypt and with Jordan for many years now. It is a very important peace but more of a peace between governments and less of a peace between peoples. This is very different with the new peace agreements because it is first and foremost peace between the peoples.

Thousands of Israelis flew to the Emirates. We have Emirati students all over Israel, which is super exciting. They are studying Hebrew, sciences, technology, innovation. It is so amazing to see Emirati students wearing traditional clothes together with Israelis at our universities.

The level of enthusiasm in these new countries is spectacular. They really believe in peace between the peoples. Its not just for the sake of security. So this is something that is very new, very unique and very encouraging for us because that means that its going to last.

Our biggest challenges are internal. First theres COVID, of course. This is something that is not unique to Israel. Were doing quite well right now. The trend is very positive. That means that the gates of Israel will probably open very soon making it much easier to enter.

Secondly, we have had an unprecedented lack of stability in Israel for two or more years because we held three elections during that time. We had no state budget for more than two years, and that had a serious effect, both for the society and economy of Israel.

Now we have an opportunity for change because we have a new diverse government. For the first time in the history of Israel, there is an Arab Muslim party that is part of the coalition. The government recently approved a bill that will provide slightly less than $10 billion to support the Arab sectors in Israel to facilitate access to higher education, to employment, to innovation, to infrastructure and to housing. This is something that probably should have been done before, but Im very excited that this government is doing it right now. I believe that its going to bring very positive change, not only to the Arab population of Israel, but to all of Israel.

Then we have some regional challenges. The biggest one is, of course, Iran, which is a source of instability. Not only is its nuclear program a serious strategic threat to Israel, but to the whole region. Through its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran creates permanent instability in the region. This is a source of great concern for all the moderate Arab countries. The Israeli government is determined to make sure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, and were thankful to the United States administration for its commitment on that as well.

Israel is not against the U.S. negotiating with Iran. The question is: What will they get out of this negotiation? We want to know that Iran never has access to nuclear weapons not just 10 or 15 years, but never. We want a guarantee that any agreement with Iran deals with all the major questions: its ballistic capabilities, its capabilities to launch missiles, its capabilities to destabilize the region by nurturing terrorist organizations across the borders of Israel with its neighbors.

Hezbollah today has more than 100,000 missiles directed toward Israel. I think Israels deterrence capabilities are strong enough to make them think not twice, but 10 times before they launched those missiles, but their potential capabilities are very, very worrying. So, this is something that we also have to take into account.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has proven to be very biased toward Israel. One of its agenda items, Item 4 Human Rights Situations that Require the Councils Attention discusses any human rights violations around the world, be it in China, in Japan, in France, in the United States, Canada or wherever. Then it also has Item 7 Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories which is dedicated only to one country, to one state in the world: Israel.

For example, since its establishment in 2006, this council adopted 90 resolutions against Israel. This is more than the number of all the resolutions that were adopted on Iran, Syria, China, Venezuela and Cuba together.

And if you ask any citizen of the world where he or she would prefer to live: in Israel or in Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and North Korea, the answer is clear.

Israel is a great place to live. Its open. Its a vibrant democracy. Do do we make mistakes? Yes, its totally okay to debate on that, but not to single Israel out and delegitimize it. The council has gone way, way, way too far.

We have made some progress, especially with European partners, in getting this item cut because it is totally crazy. But theres so much more to be done. I hope that by joining the council, the United States will be able to fix that.

Thats our expectation.

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Meet Israel's New Consul General to the Midwest Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

Writer, director and actor Taika Waititi, Oscar winner for his JoJo Rabbit screenplay, is adapting Alejandro Jodorowskys best-selling graphic novel The Incal as a feature film, comic book publisher and media company Humanoids announced on Thursday.

The project marks L.A.-based Humanoids first foray into film production, the company said in a statement. It is also the first time that The Incal, the top-selling science fiction graphic novel in history, has been adapted. Along with directing, Waititi is writing the screenplay with Jemaine Clement and Peter Warren.

Humanoids is producer with Primer Entertainment, a company led by David Jourdan that acquired a stake in Humanoids in 2019 and brought in a multimillion dollar development fund for a slate of projects. Humanoids plans to announce additional partnerships for the films distribution at a later date.

The films and graphic novels of Alejandro Jodorowsky have influenced me and so many others for so long, Waititi said in a statement. I was stunned to be given the opportunity to bring his iconic characters to life and I am grateful to Alejandro, Fabrice (Humanoids CEO Fabrice Giger) and everyone at Humanoids for trusting me to do so.

Jodorosky was equally enthusiastic about having Waititi at the helm in expanding the Jodoverse. When Giger introduced me to Taika Waititis work, it became obvious to me that he was the one, Waititi said in the statement from his home in Paris. I fully trust Taikas ceativity to give The Incal a summing take, intimate but at the same time of cosmic proportions.

Alejandro Jodorowsky/Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky

Created in the late 1970s by by filmmaker/writer Alejandro Jodorowsky, now 92, and French artist Moebius (1938-2012), is according to the statement an epic space opera about private investigator John Difool, who happens upon a mystical and powerfui artifact known as the Incal, that is coveted by various factions across the galaxy. The unlikely hero embarks on an improbable mission to save the universe which slowly becomes a spiritual journey examining the duality and meaning of existence.

Said Humanoids Giger: It began as the adventures of a jackass named John John Difool, and then it became something else we called it THE INCAL something that has transformed everything its ever touched and continues to do so: its creators, theother artsits who later became part of Johns journey, its publisher HUMANOIDS and myself in the process, countless readers, writers and directors, and soon, I believe, the great Taika Waititi himself and everyone who looks to him for inspiration.

Taika Waititi, also occasionally known as Taika Cohen, is from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of New Zealand. His father is Maori and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish, Scottish and English descent. He directed Thor Ragnarok (2017) and JoJo Rabbit (2019). He co-created FXs Reservation Dogs with Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, whom he met through the Sundance Institute.

Waititi is represented by CAA and Manage-ment.

Jodorosky and Waititi talk about the process of adaptation in the video below:

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Taika Waititi to Adapt Graphic Novel The Incal as Film - TheWrap

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

THE Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Israel yesterday for vetoing a US proposal to reopen a Jerusalem consulate catering for Palestinians.

The USs Jerusalem consulate had been its main diplomatic mission for Palestine until then president Donald Trump shut it down in 2019, handing control of relations to the US embassy to Israel in a snub to Palestinian claims to an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The Joe Biden administration had pledged to reopen the consulate, but Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett claimed on Saturday there was no room in Jerusalem, and any mission to Palestine ought to be set up in the West Bank.

Jerusalem is the capital of one state and thats the state of Israel, Mr Bennett added.

East Jerusalem is an inseparable part of the occupied Palestinian territory, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry retorted. Israel, as the occupying power, does not have the right to veto the US administrations decision.

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Palestine condemns Israel over 'veto' of US plan to reopen Jerusalem consulate - Morning Star Online

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

When former U.S. President Donald Trump cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 2018, he was widely criticized for eliminating a crucial source of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in need. Even critics of the embattled U.N. agency called the decision a mistake, arguing that working with UNRWA, not against it, was the best way to facilitate long-needed reform.

It came as little surprise when U.S. President Joe Biden renewed funding to UNRWA in April. According to the U.S. State Department, the United States is now providing UNRWA with close to its pre-Trump level of funding$318 million in 2021making the United States once again the agencys top donor.

Yet this renewed aid comes with an unprecedented push for changesomething the Trump administration, for all its criticism of UNRWA, never endeavored.

According to the Framework for Cooperation signed by the U.S. State Department and UNRWA on July 14, continued U.S. financing will require UNRWA to implement various reforms, including combating incitement and antisemitism in its educational curriculum, requiring the neutrality of its staff, and ensuring UNRWA facilities are not used by terrorist organizations and its staff are not affiliated with them. The frameworkalong with recently introduced bipartisan legislationfollow numerous reports on the problematic nature of UNRWAs education system.

Speaking at the U.N. Security Council briefing on the situation in the Middle East on Oct. 19, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told member nations, we need to see UNRWA undertake the necessary reforms to ensure its financial sustainability. And we will work with UNRWA to strengthen the agencys accountability, transparency, and consistency with humanitarian principles, including neutrality.

Eliminating antisemitism, incitement, and links to terrorism might sound like obvious conditions for a U.N. agency whose slogan is Peace Starts Here. But its far from clear whether these are conditionsespecially as applied to UNRWAs educational programsthe organization will be able to fulfill.

The United Nations established UNRWA in 1949 to aid the more than 700,000 Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during the establishment of the state of Israel.

Nearly 73 years later, UNRWA operates 58 refugee camps and 715 schools for more than half a million boys and girls in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Originally designed as a temporary agency, UNRWA is now one of the largest U.N. organizations, employing some 30,000 people and serving around 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, nearly all of them descendants of the original refugees. UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees, its website says. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, meanwhile, oversees all the worlds other refugees, employs more than 18,000 people, and aids a population of nearly 59 million.

Nearly 60 percent of UNRWAs roughly $1 billion annual budget is allocated to education programs which claim to teach children values of peace, tolerance, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Yet according to various studies of the Palestinian curriculum, which is taught by UNRWA in the Palestinian territories, the agency is falling far short of that goal.Textbooks depict Jews as enemies of Islam, glorify so-called martyrs who have died while committing terror attacks, and promote jihad for the liberation of historic Palestine, including areas firmly within Israels pre-1967 borders, such as Jaffa and Haifa. Maps of the region do not include the state of Israel, which throughout the curriculum is referred to as the Zionist Occupation.

A comprehensive report released in June, financed by the European Union and conducted by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, examined 172 Palestinian textbooks used in UNRWA schools. It found ambivalentsometimes hostileattitudes toward Jews and the characteristics they attribute to the Jewish people, noting frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people in, for example, textbook exercises [that] suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded within the current political context.

The only mention of peace with Israel was in one 10th grade history book, which quotes a speech delivered by late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and letters of mutual recognition exchanged between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1993. The recognition of Israels right to exist in peace and security documented in the letters by [former Palestinian leader] Yasser Arafat to [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin stands in contrast to the questioning of the legitimacy of the State of Israel expressed in other passages and textbooks, the report states. It also determined that although textbooks focus heavily on human rights, they do not apply these notions to Israel or to the rights of Israelis.

A 5th grade Islamic education lesson asks students to discuss the repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the Prophet and then asks them to think of other enemies of Islam. The report goes on: It is not so much the sufferings of the Prophet or the actions of the companions that appear to be the focus of this teaching unit but, rather, the alleged perniciousness of the Jews.

Another troubling example is a 5th grade lesson about Dalal Mughrabi. A perpetrator of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, she carried out one of the worst terror attacks in Israeli history, killing 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The lesson about her reads, our Palestinian history is full of many names of shuhada (martyrs) who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, including the shahida (martyr) Dalal Mughrabi whose struggle took the form of defiance and heroism, which made her memory immortal in our hearts and minds. The report found that no further portraits of significant female figures in Palestinian history are presented, so the path of violence implicitly appears to be the only option for women to demonstrate an outstanding commitment to their people and country.

A 7th grade social studies textbook propagates the conspiracy theory that Israel removed stones from ancient sites in Jerusalem and replaced them with stones bearing Zionist drawings and shapes. A 9th grade Islamic education textbook features passages on jihad and the wisdom behind fighting the infidels.

In addition to criticism of its education system, UNRWA has also been roiled by other scandals. During the 2014 Gaza War, the agency discovered rockets stored in its schools and, on at least one occasion, returned them to Hamas. In 2019, the head of UNRWa resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, including abuse of power and suppression of dissent within the organization. Long accused of lacking transparency, a leaked ethics report that year led several European countries to suspend their funding.

In early September, I spoke with UNRWAs chief spokesperson, Tamara Alrifai. Asked if and how the UNRWA curriculum would be modified to address the concerns contained within the new U.S. framework, Alrifai told me: We do not change the curriculum because these are not our curriculums. UNRWA uses host government textbooks everywhere they operate, she said.

We acknowledge that sometimes there are parts in the PA [Palestinian Authority] textbooks that are not fully in line with U.N. standards and values, and that is where we interfere, she explained. With passages that are not gender sensitive or carry discrimination and incitement, we interfere there to make sure that either they are not being taught or that they are approached critically. For example, she told me, We stopped teaching the Dalal Mughrabi lesson in UNRWA schools. Even before that lesson was removed last year, she said, we instructed our teachers to approach this critically with the kids.

Alrifai acknowledged that the issue of neutrality is a challenge, as the vast majority of UNRWA employees are themselves Palestinian refugees. However, she said, there is zero tolerance for incitement, antisemitism, and discrimination.

Numerous UNRWA staff have been found to be affiliated with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip. Many others have posted violent, antisemitic content on social media, with some praising Adolf Hitler. Seven teachers have been suspended while investigations into these incidents take place, Alrifai said. If the allegations are proven, there will be disciplinary action that can amount to being dismissed, she said.

Regarding accusations that UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas, Alrifai assured me: For sure theyre not allowed to have a formal political position in Hamas and be UNRWA employees. But after that, I dont know where the line is drawn. If they can be members of Hamas, they would be subject to disciplinary action by UNRWA.

Although UNRWA primarily teaches the PA curriculum, it also produces some of its own material. For example, Alrifai noted, UNRWA schools teach their own human rights, conflict resolution, and tolerance curriculum on top of host country material. Yet that curriculum does not reference peace with Israel or tolerance toward Jewish peoplein fact, it does not mention Israel or Jewish people at all.

During the pandemic, UNRWA published its own learning material online to support at-home schooling. A study of that content by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found the curriculum to be filled with violent language and glorification of militants. A 6th grade grammar lesson, for example, includes the phrase, we shall defend the motherland with blood. An 8th grade lesson teaches students that Jihad is one of the doors to Paradise, and Palestinians have become an example of sacrifice.

In response to the IMPACT-se report, UNRWA acknowledged that some of the curriculum was not in line with U.N. values and the agency took steps to ensure that only approved material was used going forward.

In late September, I visited a UNRWA school in Shuafat, East Jerusalem, at UNRWAs invitation, to see how the new school year was beginning in the wake of renewed U.S. funding and the push for reform that came with it. The visit was cut short by UNRWA administrators, however, when I tried to speak with students about their curriculum inside the school.

I then caught up with several of them as they were beginning to walk home. My interpreter and I introduced ourselves and asked students if they could tell us a bit about their lessons at school. The children were eager to speak.

Asked what they are taught about the martyrs of Palestine, a 5th grade student replied that her class had just learned about Dalal Mughrabi (the perpetrator of the Coastal Road massacre who I had been told was no longer a part of the UNRWA curriculum).

They taught us that she is a hero, she said, showing us the page in her textbook. We are taught that martyrs go to a very high level of heaven, said another girl. Asked what they have learned regarding peace at school, the second girl replied: We havent learned about peace. This is for older students.

When we met a 9th grade student, we asked her what she had learned at school about the two-state solution. We are taught to defend Palestine, so there can be no two-state solution.

All of these interviews were conducted in the streets of Shuafat and not inside the school. When we passed the gates of the school several hours after we had left, one of the guards came to the entrance to remind us we were not welcome there.

Leaving Shuafat late that afternoon, I hailed a taxi from within the camp. The driver, Muhammad Taha, asked me what I was doing there. I told him I was writing about the renewal of U.S. funding to UNRWA. The U.S. is giving millions of dollars to UNRWA, and where does it go? Taha asked, gesturing to the streets we passed. UNRWA isnt helping anyone. Look around, and you can see it. The streets are filled with drugs and crime.

In his introduction to the camp before we met with students, an UNRWA officer also mentioned to me that crime, drugs, and family disputes were rampant there. Taha, the taxi driver, was born in the camp and had spent 30 years of his life there. He was also educated by UNRWA. He left Shuafat when he became a father, he told me, to give my children a better life.

Responding to questions for this story, an official at the State Departments Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration wrote, the United States condemns in the strongest terms any manifestations of anti-Semitism, hate, or incitement. The Department has been very explicit about the reforms we expect to see to ensure UNRWAs operations, including staff activities, facilities, and education materials, are conducted consistent with U.N. principles, such as neutrality, tolerance, respect for human rights, and non-discrimination. The Department has made it clear to UNRWA as part of our resumption of funding that acting in accordance with U.N. principles is non-negotiable. We canand willhold UNRWA accountable to these commitments now that we are back at the table.

While the framework signed in July ensures funding will continue for the next two years, it sets clear benchmarks that UNRWA will need to follow moving forward, said Joel Braunold, managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. If they dont meet these requirements, there will be huge political pressure on the Biden administration to cease or limit funding.

That political pressure is beginning to mount.When Biden restored funding to the Palestinians in April, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act. First introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman in late 2019, the bill made it out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee without opposition but failed to reach the House floor before the end of session. The legislation, which now has nine Democratic and 19 Republican sponsors, would mandate annual State Department reports to Congress for 10 years on whether educational material produced by the PA and UNRWA contain content and passages encouraging violence or intolerance toward other nations or ethnic groups and what steps are being taken to reform the curriculum.

Shortly after the State Departments framework with UNRWA was signed in July, a group of Republicans introduced the UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act. With 13 sponsors in the Senate and 34 in the House, the bill would freeze UNRWA aid if the State Department cannot meet certain criteria, including confirmation that no UNRWA employees are members of or affiliated with terror organizations, that no UNRWA resources are being used by terror groups, and that the U.N. agencys schools do not provide educational materials containing antisemitic content.

I dont think there is any question that UNRWA is an impediment to peace, Sen. James Risch, who introduced the legislation, told Foreign Policy. If the Biden administration is serious about reforming UNRWA, Risch said, it should ensure these reforms are made before providing aid. Until we see those reforms, they shouldnt get any money from us. Its that simple. In addition, we should be pressing our allies to cut their funding until we see those reforms.

While some advocates of UNRWA reform applaud the Biden administrations resumption of aid and its push for improvements, many say the framework does not go far enough. Although it encourages increased oversight, for example, that oversight would largely be carried out by UNRWA itself. Many say the agency has proven itself incapable of internal oversight.

According to a 2019 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, although UNRWA vowed to confront problematic material in Palestinian textbooks by providing alternative teaching materials and guidance for teachers, UNRWA did not train teachers or distribute the complementary teaching materials to classrooms.

Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, a nonprofit organization that has been analyzing the Palestinian curriculum for 20 years and published a critical report of UNRWAs online material earlier this year, said, the opacity of UNRWAs operations does not befit a U.N. or humanitarian organization. There has to be transparency, actual oversight, and accountability to ensure compliance. This is the only thing which will restore confidence in UNRWA.

In addition, Sheff said, UNRWA should not be able to make the excuse that the PA curriculum is problematic, but we have mechanisms to redress it. This was never something that could be ascertained one way or the other. UNRWA claims that it has to use the host countrys teaching materials, yet this is not something they have to do. Its not something the donor countries insist they do. If UNRWA is going to teach the PA curriculum, he added, that curriculum must change. It can no longer teach jihad and martyrdom and that young people should wish to sacrifice themselves.

IMPACT-se also analyzes Israeli textbooks, and although Sheff acknowledges the Israeli curriculum is not perfect, references to the occupation, the suffering of Palestinians, and the Palestinian narrative of the conflict are prevalent. Israeli students are taught, for example, about the Israeli appropriation of Palestinian lands, the massacre of Palestinian civilians at Deir Yassin in 1948, and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948. This, Sheff wrote in a recent op-ed, would be considered a left-wing curriculum by many Israeli parents.

Advocates of UNRWA reform believe an organization of its size and budget should be more than capable of producing material that excludes violent or antisemitic material and includes lessons on peace and tolerance as it pertains to Israel.

There should be a realistic approach to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would mean two states for two peoples and not something in which Israels Jewish character is called into question, said Daniel Shapiro, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration and, at the time of our conversation, was a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies. He is now an advisor to the State Department.

Those pushing for reforming the Palestinian curriculum and UNWRAs use of it believe the indoctrination of generations of Palestinians against peace is one of the reasons this conflict has remained so intractable. Referring to the PAs refusal of Israels offer to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza during the Camp David summit in 2000 and a similar proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state in 2008, Risch said, I dont think you can point to another conflict in the world where there is so much resistance to reaching a settlement. The Palestinians have passed up every opportunity they have had to end this conflict.

Palestinians, for their part, have been protesting the new terms of U.S. financing for UNRWA for months. At a demonstration outside UNRWAs Gaza office in September, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced all Palestinian factions would work to bring down the framework, which he said targets a large segment of Palestinian refugees, including members or those who have received military training in the Palestine Liberation Army or any other Palestinian organization.

Education, Sheff said, is one of the most overlooked and obvious factors in this conflict, which could have more impact than perhaps any other effort. If Palestinian children have no idea that peacemaking is the way to resolve this conflict and that there should be Israel and Palestine living side by side, if there is no chance that the next generation of Palestinian children will be educated toward the possibility of peace, there will be no peace, he said. This is not a complicated idea.

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Palestinian Schools Have a Problemand Are Running Out of Time - Foreign Policy

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

This fall, my hometown of Great Neck, New York was one of several Long Island communities that adopted the working IHRA definition of antisemitism.

With a concerning rise in antisemitic incidents in cities across the United States and university campuses, the IHRA definition is an incredibly useful tool to help city officials, law enforcement and academic administrations understand antisemitism, and undermine those who seek to seek to do harm and spread bigotry.

A few significant examples denoted by the IHRA definition include Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion, accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews, or accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, and 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.

Although in my own personal experience, I am lucky that I have not been targeted by the disease of antisemitism growing up, I credit that to the high Jewish demographic of my hometown and Long Island as a whole.

As I got older and attended a university outside of local areas, I began to comprehend the existence of antisemitic notions often demonizing the state of Israel and misconstruing facts to illustrate self-motivated ideas regarding Israels self-defense.

Students for Justice Palestine, a group present at Binghamton announces on their website that they advocate for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.

A campaign that targets Jewish peoples rights to self-determination, a goal that directly violates IHRA guidelines. The quote states: This organization intends to campaign for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against politicians, institutions, and corporations that support Zionism and fund the State of Israel.

A recent bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives resolution stated that BDS leads to the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students and others who support Israel.

The fact that age-old antisemitism is currently featured on a Binghamton-affiliated student group is appalling, and such hate should be addressed immediately when it surfaces.

Furthermore, the letter stating that the US Department of State targets solely non-violent human rights campus organizations is almost contrary to reality.

To start, there have been countless instances of self-proclaimed human rights groups which unfairly use their power to pressure pro-Israel students on campus.

For example, Students for Justice in Palestine, a national network of pro-Palestinian support groups which spread anti-Israel propaganda often laced with provocative rhetoric, has repeatedly illustrated their willingness to demonize Zionism and harass pro-Israel activists.

At an SJP-sponsored event in March 2018 at Eastern Michigan University, a speaker claimed that Zionism is a hateful, racist ideology..

Additionally in March 2018, Columbia Universitys JVP and SJP groups featured ardent anti-Israel speaker Steven Salaita, parroting the same rhetoric alleging that racist violence is based on the ideology of Zionism.

Furthermore, in May 2019, SJP at Brandeis University vandalized a Hillel a

rt seminar for Israels Independence Day with the phrase Free Palestine. These are some of the thousands of incidents that portray supposed human rights groups using their influence to repeatedly target pro-Israel and pro-Zionist activists. The attempts to equate plain harassment and demonization of students supporting Israel truly demonstrate the necessity of the newly established IHRA definition of antisemitism.

In conclusion, we as representatives of free speech on campus have a responsibility to protect it when it becomes threatened. Unfortunately, it is abundantly clear that antisemitism incidents on campus have risen tremendously, reaching an all-time high in 2019. As clearly illustrated above, powerful student groups are unfairly demonizing pro-Israel activists.

Thus, our response, as future leaders of democracy, should be to put our support behind the new working IHRA definition of antisemitism. By doing so, we will build a path toward healthy and productive discourse.

Eden JanfarGreat Neck

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Readers Write: Elaborating on the significance of Great Neck adopting IHRA's definition of antisemitism - Readers Write - The Island Now

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

In the halcyon age before Covid, I caught a flight to a small town in Germany to see an opera about love between two philosophers. The love was not in the least bit Platonic. Hannah Arendt was 18 years old, fatherless, a virgin. Martin Heidegger was in his mid-30s, married with two sons, a leader in his field. In modern terms, the liaison was a classic #MeToo scenario, an abuse of trust and duty.

In real life, Arendt was in denial, and Heidegger drew a line between life and mind. He would tell his students: Aristotle was born, worked and died, now lets turn to his ideas. Ella Milch- Sheriffs opera, The Banality of Love, projected something of his view that an individual human being is uninteresting. But in this case and many others, the ideas are shaped by the all-too-human flaws of the lives that conceived themthe two sides are inseparable. It is surely time to reassess Arendt, a major philosopher of totalitarianism, in light of her formative philosophical influence, a brilliant chameleon who would transform himself into an intellectual apologist for Nazism.

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Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin Review: Clash of the Titans - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on November 8, 2021

Oren Jacobson

By Oren Jacobson

Ive spent most of the last decade focused on grassroots organizing and capacity building inside the American progressive movement.

From helping build the largest leadership development organization on the left, to launching a first-of-its-kind organization to mobilize male allies into the fight to protect and expand reproductive freedom, Ive proudly helped elect progressive change makers and pass landmark legislation.

Ive done all of that as a Jew who wears a kippah in public, as someone who, statistically speaking, shouldnt exist. My grandfather is one of the 10% of Polish-born Jews to survive World War II. Three million of his Jewish neighbors, and another 3 million across Europe, were packed into boxcars and sent to the slaughter, to gas chambers, to the ovens.

What I am is central to who I am. So when I saw the statement from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise Movement explaining its refusal to march in a voting rights rally with Jewish groups because they are Zionists, I understood immediately that it was deeply problematic. Not only did the decision have the potential impact of spreading anti-Jewish bigotry, but it also weakened our movement more broadly at a time when democracy, which is necessary to ensure civil rights, is under assault in America.

I also understood right away that, for many people, the anti-Jewish nature of the statement wasnt so obvious. When moments like this arise, I get texts and calls from progressive peers across the country who ask: Is this antisemitic?

To answer the question, I begin by explaining what it means to be a Jew. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. But Jewish identity is so much bigger and more diverse than religion. Some of us are deeply religious. Some of us are totally secular. All of us are Jews.

Were a people, not simply a religious community. Contrary to what most think, antisemitism is not anti-Judaism in its modern form (several hundred years). Its anti-Jew. Its not about how Jews pray, but rather about who they are and what they are accused of doing.

Jews get attacked for supposedly controlling the world (governments, banks, media), for being disloyal to our home countries, for killing Jesus, for making up the Holocaust, for being greedy, for undermining the white race and subverting people of color (among other things).

Weve been blamed for plagues, famine, economic hardship and war. Whatever major problem a society has, Jews have been blamed for it. None of those things has anything to do with religion.

Criticism of Israel or opposition to it isnt necessarily antisemitic. Harsh criticism of Israeli government policy may make us uncomfortable but isnt antisemitic. But the Sunrise DC statement wasnt about policy. By attacking Zionist organizations in a voting rights coalition, and saying that they cant participate in a coalition that includes them, Sunrise DC basically said it wont work alongside Jewish organizations (or Jews) that believe the state of Israel has the right to exist.

For the average Jew, Zionism has become simply the idea that Israel has the right to exist, rather than an embrace of the policies of its government. The Zionist movement got its name in the late 19th century, but it really put a label on a 2,000-year-old yearning to return to the native land Jews were violently forced out of (in an act of colonization). That yearning grew over time as we failed to find sustained peace and security elsewhere, including in Europe, North Africa and the broader Middle East.

Thats why when people attack Zionists, we hear Jews. We hear them saying that the 80-90% of Jews who believe Israel has a right to exist are unacceptable, and that Israel, a country that came into existence with the vote of the international community and today is home to 7 million Jews, must be ended.

Why is that antisemitism? First, it singles out Jews when most people believe Israel has the right to exist. (In fact, 85% of the general public in America believes the statement Israel does not have a right to exist is antisemitic, according to a survey released this week.) Second, it seeks to deny Jewish people the right to self-determination by erasing our peoplehood and connection to the land. Third, it declares that a national movement for Jews is uniquely unacceptable, while at the same time advocating in support of another national movement.

Fourth, it divides Jews into good and bad. Only those who oppose their own national movement can stay. Only Jews who reject Zionism are allowed. Replace Jew with any other group and ask if that would be acceptable.

Even if you forswear coalitions with anyone, Jewish or not, who thinks Israel is legitimate, that still denies the Jewish peoples right to self-determination. It says that Jews must be a perpetual minority on this earth subject to the whims and bigotries of the societies they live in. For thousands of years Jews tried that and failed to find permanent refuge which, fairly or not, is part of the reason most Jews believe in the right to, and need for, national self-determination in some portion of a contested land.

Sunrise DC wasnt interested in the nature of their shunned Jewish allies support for Israel even though each of the three groups, like most Jews in America, have advocated for a Palestinian state and for an end to policies by the government of Israel that harm the Palestinian people, including, but not limited to, the occupation of the West Bank.

Ultimately, only Jews get to define who and what we are and what antisemitism is. Too often in progressive spaces that right is denied to Jews. Instead, to justify their own positions, some rely on Jews whose voices, while relevant, are far from representative on the question of what constitutes antisemitism. If someone ignored the voices and lived realities of 80-90% of any other minority group, most progressives would quickly recognize that as an act of tokenization to shield biases (or worse).

Some who identify as progressive feel its OK to use the word Zionist to attack others, claiming that the word is not about Jews. I encourage everyone to go on far right-wing message boards on occasion. Once there, youll see how white supremacists typically call Jews Zionists. The prominence of the word, in connection with claims that they control the governments and are trying to replace white patriots with Black and Brown interlopers, will stun you.

While there is plenty of room for criticism of Israeli government policy, there should be no room for the exclusionary, reductionist and dehumanizing language of white nationalists in progressive discourse on the topic, or the denial of the right for Jewish self-determination on this earth.

I believe in standing up for those who are attacked for the crime of being who they are as much as I believe in standing up for Jewish life. For me, this work is personal. Not because every issue affects me directly. But because I feel like I owe it to my grandfather. To Jews who were murdered and never had a chance to live. To my peers here who face systemic racism and bigotry. And yes, because I believe Never Again isnt just a slogan to hope for, but rather a mission to fight for.

Oren Jacobson is the co-founder of Project Shema, which helps Jewish students, leaders, organizations and allies explore the difficult conversations surrounding Israel and antisemitism. He previously served as national chapter development director for the New Leaders Council.

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My Fellow Progressives Are Always Asking Me if Anti-Zionism is Antisemitic. Here's What I Tell Them - Jewish Exponent

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