Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 2, 2021

Jewish organizational administrators, faculty and Jewish student leaders agree that, though they are disturbed by a two antisemitic incidents that occurred on small online forums as well as an anti-Israel rhetoric sprayed on the MSU Rock, they are encouraged that the incidents were reported to campus law enforcement authorities by non-Jews.

On Wednesday, Sept. 15, MSUs Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel released a statement detailing the offenses under investigation.

In one incident, an individual joined a biology class group chat using a Nazi swastika as a profile picture, claiming they study biology to prove that Jews are scum. Other students in the chat denounced those statements, removed the perpetrator from the chat, and reported the incident to the class professor and to a number of campus units, including the Serling Institute.

An individual using the same screenname also made antisemitic comments in the chatroom of an off-campus apartment complex, responding to another residents message with, Shut the hell up Jew boy. When asked to leave the chat by other participants, the perpetrator answered, This is why you dont trust Jews.

MSU investigations are trying to determine if the individual is a member of the MSU community.

A third incident happened at the MSU Rock on Farm Lane, which featured an American flag with the caption Never Forget to honor the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks. The word Israel was spray painted over the American flag and the word never was painted over.

The Serling Institute views the use of the word Israel as an evocation of the conspiracy theory that Israel was responsible for the 9-11 attack and is a modern iteration of the centuries-old trope that Jews control world events.

The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety was made aware of an incident that occurred on Sept.13 in an online chat group. A police report was initiated, and a police investigator was immediately assigned to the case, which is ongoing.

Investigators are currently following up on all available leads and are in touch with people who were impacted by the incident, and the case remains an active police investigation, reads the statement released by the department.

As a local, proactive measure to curb the nationwide rising tide of antisemitism on college campuses, Serling Institute Executive Director Yael Aronoff said she has been working with the MSU Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to increase antisemitism awareness on campus and would like to see information about anti-Jewish bias to become standardized in orientations for all incoming students.

This year, as an initiative-taking approach to counter the presence of antisemitism at MSU, the Serling Institute will host The Jonathan Netanyahu Symposium on Antisemitism from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8. The free online event is hosted by the institute in partnership with the Lester and Jewell Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center and other MSU academic departments. It will feature insights from leading experts from around the country as well as a recorded message from MSU President Samuel Stanley. For more information and to register, go to jsp.msu.edu.

I think the symposium is going to be a great service to the university in terms of awareness and education, Aronoff said. But we know most students and faculty and staff will not attend. The next step for us is to try to get the university to include education about antisemitism in its orientations and workshops so all students coming to MSU can get some exposure to the issue.

Hillel Executive Director Cindy Hughey said despite what happened, the incidents were limited in scope and said she was encouraged that non-Jews acted against the hate.

It was non-Jewish students who reported these incidents and who repainted the rock, and to me that is amazing, Hughey said. It was really great to see that we have support of non-Jewish students on campus, and it is part of Hillels mission to keep building these partnerships and alliances.

Hillel has also been working with administrators in two newly created positions over the summer [concerning diversity and inclusion], and we are hoping we are going to expand antisemitism awareness into diversity training on campus.

The 3,000 Jewish MSU students in recent years have experienced several cases of antisemitism. In April 2021, Jewish student leaders were harassed and intimidated as they attempted to pass a bill to define antisemitism in MSUs student government.

There have been threatening phone messages, a defaced mezuzah and a swastika painted in front of a fraternity house. In 2019, Hillels sukkah was destroyed by drunken vandals.

With recent incidents here on campus, many Jewish students have been frightened and feel as if they have to hide their Judaism, said Ethan Price, MSU sophomore and StandWithUs Emerson Fellow. The latest incidents may be disturbing, but Price added there is excellent support for Jewish students among their peers and at places like Hillel.

As an Emerson Fellow, he participates in educational and leadership training seminars with the pro-Israel group to help offset anti-Israel bias on campus.

We hope to combat this antisemitism by getting the university involved and by educating as many students as we can about what antisemitism looks like and how we can all work to stop it in its tracks.

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MSU Fights Back: Antisemitic Online Interloper is Rebuffed Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

In one of the scenes from my book, The Poetry of Secrets, Isabel, the main character is served fritada espinaca, or spinach frittata, at a Shabbat dinner, her first one since she has been captured by the Spanish Inquisition.

My choice of that food was deliberate. Its an homage to my grandmother. She was born Columbia Gormezano, though she went by the name Corene Gorm. Her mother Fortun came from Istanbul, and her family before that, from Spain.

Grandma Corene spoke Ladino and enjoyed singing to the Spanish record albums of her more famous sister, Eydie. She loved me as her own, never blinking when her son married my mother, a widow with two children, ages 8 and 10. She would say things like Vaya con leche y miel Go with milk and honey and horasbuenas when we sneezed or coughed. She made the fluffiest Spanish rice, the crispiest biscochos, and the flakiest borekas.

But the family favorite were the spinach cakes. She would arrive at every holiday dinner, paper plate in hand, a tower of squares stacked high on top, covered in aluminum foil. We would ration them so they would last longer, but they always disappeared in a day or two. My favorite was eating them cold, right out of the fridge for breakfast.

One day, my sister, my aunt, and I gathered in her apartment in the Barrington Plaza for a cooking lesson. I took notes, writing down her personal touches on empty bank withdrawal slips she had lying around. A bit more feta than cottage cheese. Not too much oil on the pan. Spread the matzah meal just so. She gave me a copy of Cooking The Sephardic Way, published by the Sisterhood of Temple Tifereth Israel, Los Angeles, in 1971. Its inscribed to me in her flowery cursive, To Cami with love, Grandma Corene.

Her married name was Cohen, my maiden name. In my jewelry drawer, I keep her sparkly brooch, marked with the initials CC, and on my cookbook shelf I keep that recipe collection, with its telltale red plastic comb binding facing out for easy access.

Now, for holiday dinners or just because I want to take my dad back in time, I make a batch. And no, they still dont last more than a day.

Ingredients2 packages frozen chopped spinach, completely thawed and drained (use your hands to squeeze out the water)6 eggs beaten plus one for topping1 tsp salt3 Tbsp plus 1/4 cup olive oil divided1/4 cup milk6 - 8 oz. combined cheeses (cottage, crumbled feta, grated Romano or Parmesan)1/3 cup of matzo meal or ground-up cracker crumbs (or corn meal if you prefer gluten-free)

By Cambria Gordon

InstructionsPre-heat oven to 400 degrees1. Combine spinach, cheese, egg and 2-3 tablespoons of matzoh meal thoroughly. If its too water-y, add a bit more matzoh meal. Let stand 15 minutes while you prepare a 9 square baking pan as follows:2. Sprinkle a thin layer of matzo meal over the bottom and add some olive oil to cover. Place in oven to lightly brown. Watch carefully not to burn.3. Remove from oven and pour mixed ingredients into pan, distributing evenly. 4. Prepare the topping: Combine some matzo meal (or cracker meal or corn meal) with grated Romano or Parmesan. Sprinkle it over the top. 5. Beat together well: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup milk, 1 egg and pour over the entire fritada.6. Bake for 1/2 hour or until brown on top and oil is cooking around mixture in a light boil. 7. Remove from oven and carefully pour out excess liquid, if any. Lower oven to 325 degrees and replace pan until fritada is crisp on top.8. Let cool before cutting into squares. Serve at room temperature.

Cambria Gordon is the author of The Poetry of Secrets, published by Scholastic. She splits her time between Madrid and Los Angeles.

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The spinach frittata that connects me to my Sephardic grandmother - Forward

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

As news of the conference spread, the Iraqi government and authorities in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar Province issued arrest warrants for at least six Iraqis they said were involved in the conference, though one warrant was later withdrawn. Other attendees were dismissed from their government jobs.

At several checkpoints between Baghdad and Anbar province, militia fighters erected huge banners with the faces of those on the arrest warrants, declaring them guilty of treason.

The main speaker at the conference, Sheikh Wissam al-Hardan, from Anbar, is now under Kurdish protection along with other conference attendees facing threats. But the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is semiautonomous from Baghdad, is also under threat.

The region, which broke away from Iraqi government control with U.S. help three decades ago, has faced increasing attacks, including drone strikes, linked to Iranian-backed militias because of a U.S. military base in Erbil.

We will not delay in burning all the traitors locations with smart missiles and drones, a group called Guardians of the Blood Brigade, which has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Erbil, warned after the conference.

In his keynote speech to the conference, Sheikh Wissam described the expulsion of Iraqi Jews after the creation of Israel in 1948 as a major tragedy and said Iraq should recognize Israel, as the United Arab Emirates and several other Arab countries did last year. He warned against Iraq becoming like Lebanon, which he said had been swallowed whole by a militia a reference to Hezbollah, backed by Iran.

After the speech, Sheikh Wissam, who was wounded fighting ISIS, was dismissed from the leadership of the Sunni Awakening movement, a collection of tribal forces that fought with the United States against Al Qaeda and later took on ISIS The sheikh said he was deceived by the conference organizers and did not write the speech that he gave.

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Talk of Iraq Recognizing Israel Prompts Threats of Arrest or Death - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

The fourth coronavirus wave, which Israel has been fending off with a world-first booster vaccine campaign, has hit its Arab community particularly hard.

Data shows thatvaccination rates among Arabs are significantly lower compared to Jewish Israelis. While this explains at least a part of the worse COVID situation in the Arab community, officials point to other reasons, and call on the government to do more to curb the spread of the virus.

According to Health Ministry figures, the 10 cities and towns where the pandemic is spreading at the highest rate are all Arab. The leading communities Taibeh, Nazareth, Yarka, Rahat and Kalansua are all across the country, suggesting the worrying spike is not bound by a specific geographic area.

The Arab Emergency Committee, which helps coordinate Israel's coronavirus response in the Arab community, reported that only about 35 percent of Arabs eligible for vaccination got their third dose, compared to 56 percent among eligible ultra-Orthodox Jews and 73 among non-Haredi Jewish Israelis.

71 percent of eligible Arabs got their first shot, but only 62 percent got their second.

The disparities are also clear looking at specific age groups.According to the Health Ministry, 19 percent of Arabs aged 20 to 29 have received a booster shot, compared to 56 percent of Jews of the same age group. Vaccination rates are also lower among older adults, who are at higher risk: 66 percent of Arabs aged 60 to 69 got a booster shot, compared to 88 percent of their Jewish peers.

Out of seriously ill coronavirus patients, about 29 percent are Arab, exceeding their 21-percent share of the population.

School year drives infection

Ayman Saif, the Health Ministry official leading the government's coronavirus response in the Arab community,told Haaretz that what keeps many Arabs from getting vaccinated is a lack of scientific and medical informationexplaining the importance and urgency of getting the third dose thats accessible to and adapted for the Arab community.

He added that theres also a kind of apathy, an absence of a feeling of crisis, which influences the slow pace of vaccinations.

Saif noted that in this wave of infection, unlike before,more than 60 percent of new cases are among teens and children under 18.

Arab mayors and officials speaking to Haaretz cited disregard of regulations, particularly mask mandates and bans on large gatherings, as reasons for the disproportionate toll the current wave has taken on the Arab community. But they agree a more significant factor contributing to a rise in infection ratesis the start of the school year.

Majda al-Krum Mayor Salim Salibi said that 70 percent of new cases in the town are among primary school children. He halted face-to-face teaching in his town, as did Taibeh mayor.

In Kafr Kara, where two primary schools were temporarily shut due to outbreaks, Mayor Firas Badahi said that most new cases come from students, teachers or students parents. "The problem is that we have no tools to deal with this in a suitable fashion," he said. If the public, and especially the parents, arent disciplined, its impossible to contain the outbreak.

But Badahi rests much of the blame on the Education Ministry, which he accused of failing to prepare properly for the start of the school year. Were screaming, but no one is listening to us, he said.

Umm al-Fahm Mayor Samir Mahameed added in a similar spirit: Its quite clear that most of the increase is the result of the education systems carelessness, he said, pointing out that plans to require students to show proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative virus test, as well as plans to conduct widespread testing in schools, were postponed until after Septembers Jewish holidays, as if we didnt exist.

He added that the government should apologize and admit that it has abandoned the Arab community and take immediate action together with Arab local authorities to stop the infections.

The Health Ministry's Saif also doesn't spare criticism from the Education Ministry, saying there is insufficient cooperation between it and municipal leaders. He noted that in some Arab communities where schools should have closed based on the governments criteria, in-person classes are taking place anyway.

Ahmed al-Sheikh, a member of the Emergency Committee and head of the Galilee Society NGO, says a lack of compliance with regulations in some towns also contributed to the rise in infection rates among the Arab population. "Theres an urgent need to mobilize for an emergency plan, with an emphasis on increasing awareness and increasing vaccination rates, he said.

In an effort to do exactly that, a committee of Arab doctors and senior clerics publicly appealed over the weekend for people to get vaccinated, stressing that research shows the vaccines pose no risk. Doctors on the committee explained to Haaretz that many Arabs are still afraid to get vaccinated, including some who fear the vaccine will impair their fertility.

'No appropriate response'

Last week, a forum of Arab mayors sent a letter to Education Ministry Director General Yigal Slovik to complain about the ministrys flawed preparations for opening the school year. Responses were not given appropriately, there was no evidence that the ministry had taken any action, said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz.

It seems that everyone was on vacation for the [Jewish] holidays, leaving Arab society without suitable answers despite the emergency, thereby exposing it, regrettably, to this terrible disease, the letter read.

The letter also charged that Slovik had postponed numerous meetings and termed his behavior disrespectful. The mayors, therefore, decided to boycott a meeting with him that was supposed to have taken place this Sunday and asked instead to meet with Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton.

The Education Ministry responded that Slovik ascribes great importance to working together with the Arab communitys leadership, including school principals. The last scheduled meeting, on September 22, was postponed due to a meeting with the prime minister and other professionals, including people in charge of the pandemic in the general and in the Arab society, about steps to limit the spread of coronavirus in Arab society. The Director General will hold a meeting with Arab leaders as soon as possible in order to continue ensuring the routine of studies in Arab schools while protecting the health of students and staff, the statement added.

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COVID in Israel: Vaccination rate low, infection high among Arabs, and officials are at a loss - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

A little over a week after S., 34, received her second vaccination against COVID, at a time when she was menstruating, she was surprised to discover that she had begun menstruating again.

It was strange because my period is as regular as a Swiss watch. At first, I didnt give it any thought, but two weeks later I got my period again for seven days. Two weeks after that, bleeding that lasted four days. It turned out that for almost six months there were more days when I bled than when I didnt. After I talked to my friends, I realized the phenomenon is much more widespread, she said.

Growing evidence from Israel and abroad is showing that the phenomenon extends much beyond S.s social circle. In February, shortly after women of childbearing age began receiving the second shot, many of them posted on social media that they were experiencing changes in their menstruation shortly after the shot, such as irregularity and increased bleeding. Other women reported that they had begun bleeding years after menopause.

The medical establishment could not explain the phenomenon or associate it with the vaccination, among other things because irregular menstruation is common and influenced by many factors. It is usually not considered exceptional. However, the mounting complaints and increased concern women were showing over taking the shots due to the phenomenon, has spurred the medical community to look into the matter. Preliminary research has been published in Britain and the United States, and the U.S. government has allocated $1.67 million for research on the subject.

Prof. Roni Maimon, chairman of the Israel Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is moving ahead on the first Israeli study of the subject. In terms of biochemistry and endocrinology, we havent found a connection between disruption of menstruation and the vaccination. However, because we live in an age of evidence-based medicine, we decided to look into the phenomenon among a large number of women in Israel, he said. The exact number of women who will participate in the study is not yet decided.

The Health Ministry said it doesnt have exact data on the extent of the phenomenon in Israel. It has received reports, but because the condition is common and does not require hospitalization, there is no way to know how common it was in the population [before the vaccinations] and whether it is now more common. The ministry said similar reports have been received by major healthcare agencies abroad, and that the phenomena appear to be temporary and carry no risk.

The issue has become a topic of discussion on social media in terms of whether to take the third shot. For example, on the Facebook page Medicine for Women in Israel, one woman wrote: The two first shots brought on my period early, and six months later I began to experience bleeding between periods and irregular periods, and at the moment they cant figure out why Im very undecided about the booster.

The matter has also raised concerns aboutpossible damage to fertility. As H., 39, told Haaretz: After the first and second shots I had some irregularities in my period . The doctor explained that its because the immunological system is connected to the hormonal system, and its not really dangerous. However, H. added, In June, I started trying to get pregnant by artificial insemination. When they started talking about the booster, I was in the middle of hormone treatment. I asked the doctor whether to get the booster, and he said he didnt recommend it, that if I got pregnant, I should take it only after they see a heartbeat. When the insemination didnt work, I took got the booster.

Based on the data that has been collected, the theory is that the symptoms are connected to the vaccination but that they apparently do not stem directly from a specific vaccination. Experts believe this is the immune systems response to various vaccinations, including those not based on mRNA, like those of Pfizer and Moderna.

Dr. Ido Solt, head of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, said that although the phenomenon is connected to vaccination, it is apparently insignificant because it appears with Pfizer, Moderna and other vaccinations even though they use a different method of immunization. The theory is that this is not about a specific component of the vaccine, but rather another manifestation of an immunological response, he said.

Solt added that the papillomavirus vaccine is also known to cause menstrual irregularity. At present, women of childbearing age who contracted COVID reported phenomena of this type, Solt said.

In light of this, the treatment policy is that if the changes go one for more than two or three periods, or if a woman in menopause begins to menstruate, the case is treated as if she had not been vaccinated, Solt explained.

Its true that the vaccination impacts menstruation and can cause bleeding, but there is no evidence that this harms menstruation or fertility, Solt added. He said the symptoms had been compared to occurrences in the general population and in clinics and no negative effect had observed.

Conclusions so far

In Britain, health care authorities and researchers have said that data collection in a published study was based on voluntary reporting by women, which makes it difficult to reach definitive conclusions. Different research approaches need to be used to examine the differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated women with these symptoms.

The study, published about two weeks ago in the medical journal BMJ examined more than 30,000 reports of women with irregular menstrual symptoms from the beginning of the vaccination drive and until September 2. Most of the women who reported irregularities said things returned to normal by their next period, according to the researchers, who are from the Imperial College School of Medicine and Westminster Hospital. Unplanned pregnancies occurred at similar rates among vaccinated and unvaccinated women, and pregnancy rates at fertility clinics were similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated women.

The research indicated that the symptoms appeared among women vaccinated with vaccines using different means of immunization. The study concluded that if there is a connection between vaccination and menstruation, it is not due to a specific component in the vaccine.

In response to the study, Dr. Joe Mountfield, vice chancellor of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was quoted as saying there is no proof that the temporary changes would impact a womans future fertility. He recommended that taking the vaccination was important especially if a woman was planning to get pregnant, because of the higher risk pregnant women run of contracting COVID.

The Israeli Fertility Association will be holdings its annual conference on Monday, at which the impact of the vaccination on male and female fertility will be discussed. Dr. Talia Eldar-Geva, head of endocrinology and genetics at Shaare Zedek Medical Center and a former head of the association said, There is still no work dealing with long-term effects on fertility, but in the short term, there is no difference in response to fertility treatments, the number of eggs or the quality of the fetuses among men and women who have been vaccinated.

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Israel to research link between menstrual changes and COVID vaccines - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

Five people,including three children, were killed and dozens more injured on Wednesday in northern Israel following an accident between a bus and two cars.

The victims included 35-year-old Moran Ben Eli and three of her children Dekel, 15, Liam, 11, and Anael, five as well as 76-year-old bus driver Asher Basson. Three others, including the father of the children, are in a serious condition and were evacuated by helicopters to nearby hospitals.

An initial probe found that the bus veered off its lane, but the police have not yet established the reason for this. "I saw a bus driving toward me," a driver recalled. "I saw it entering my lane," he added during a conversation with the police chief. Kinneret District Police Chief Avi Danieli said the bus apparently struck one car, then another, and then overturned.

Magen David Adom reported that a total of 48 people were injured and were evacuated to hospitals. One person, who was seriously injured, was evacuated toRambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, while 20 people, including 2 in serious condition, were rushed to Ziv Medical Center in Safed. Twenty-seven more people were taken toWestern Galilee Hospital in Nahariya.

Yedidia Korman, a 10-year-old who was on the bus during the accident, said the driver swerved in response to a multi-vehicle accident on the road. The driver saw a multi-vehicle accident. He tried to break, turned sideways and flipped over three times. Afterward there was a lot of screaming; I fell on my bag so I didnt get cut as much from the glass. Then the screaming began and everyone started running to get off the bus, and climbed out the windows.

Israel's Fire and Rescue Service sent a total of six teams to the scene. A firefighter said that "Helicopters landed at the scene to evacuate the injured."

In addition, the military is sending medical help as well as other forces that assist with evacuation efforts, a statement by the IDF confirmed.

The accident occurred on Route 89 in the vicinity of the Druze town of Hurfeish and the bus was carrying about 40 members of the religious Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva who were on their way back from a Sukkot trip.

According toOr Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel,a not-for-profit traffic safety lobbyist organization, 663 car accidents occurred on this road over the past decade, in which 23 people were killed and 1,881 were injured.

Erez Kita, Or Yarok's CEO, wished a speedy recovery to the injured and said that while Israel had seen an uptick in the number of car accidents since the beginning of the year the government has still not allocated the sufficient funds to fight the surge of accidents.

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Five dead, dozens injured as bus overturns in northern Israel - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

On May 4, 1967, the workers daily Davar announced that it was a done deal: Then-director general of the Transportation Ministry, S. Bar-Zeev, had informed the Israel Airports Authority that the Dov Hoz airport (Sde Dov), just north of the Yarkon River, would be shutting down. According to the Davar correspondent, the final date was to be September 1, 1967. The airport would be evacuated and its operations transferred to Lod Airport, later to be renamed Ben-Gurion Airport.

The same Davar issue also included a story by Miriam G., regarding an ambitious commercial enterprise that would put an end to ironing shirts. The ATA textile company had just purchased the patent of a company in Manhattan that had invented, so it claimed, cotton shirts that did not require ironing. ATA would soon start producing and selling these shirts in Israel, said the story. Whereas the evacuation of Sde Dov was described as a done deal, Miriam G. expressed great doubt regarding the no-iron shirts venture. Housewives are already accustomed to the fact that from time to time some manufacturer or other comes out with a declaration that salvation has finally arrived; finally, she will be free from the toughest ironing job, the ironing of cotton. She was no feminist, Miriam G., but right she was. All of us, men and women, are still ironing our cotton shirts.

In contrast to the shirts enterprise, the evacuation of Sde Dov did come to be albeit rather belatedly, in February 2020 instead of September 1967. But if youd told a reporter from the workers daily at the end of the 1960s that on the ruins of Sde Dov there would one day be apartments priced not much lower than ones in Manhattan, Berlin or Paris, theyd have laughed at you.

When the Israel Land Authority recently opened the envelopes revealing the bids of developers vying to build the first 1,500 apartments on the evacuated land, another record was broken in Israels real estate market. Developers were willing to pay 4.5 billion shekels ($1.4 billion) for the land. Given the price they were willing to fork out, TheMarker correspondent Gili Melnitcki estimated that the starting price for an apartment in this project would be 4.5 million shekels ($1.4 million). Most of the cost is based, of course, not on cement, bricks and development costs, but on the price of land, the only component over which the government has total control.

Who are the people who can afford an apartment at these prices? They belong to the upper decile, obviously. The price of apartments in Tel Aviv and in most employment hubs in Israel has doubled over the last decade, whereas the adjusted average salary has risen by less than 15 percent. Mortgages and rent have become the most expensive and oppressive component of the household budget for millions of Israelis.

Expressions such as the landed nobility or landed gentry, which were used by authors, historians, journalists, politicians and reformers in Western countries for centuries, from the days of feudalism and up until the early 20th century, have become rarer in recent generations, but the plan Israels government is promoting will bring them back, writ large. The young generation growing up here is learning that there are two classes here: people who own land, apartments and houses, and those who work for them. The first year of the government of change may go down in history as the year of the sharpest spike in Israels housing prices, with great wealth passing rapidly from the lower eight deciles to the upper two, who hold most of the real estate bought for investment purposes.

This isnt a result of market forces at play, of course. The inflation of housing prices is a result of government policy. Moshe Kahlon, Israels finance minister between 2015 and 2020, declared his clear commitment to lowering housing prices, but the results were very disappointing given the promises made. At the end of his term there was, however, a hiatus in the trend of price increases. Over the last year, in contrast, politicians have taken a new direction: Former Finance Minister Yisrael Katz stoked the surging prices by reducing taxation on real estate investments. The Bennett-Lapid-Lieberman government has taken things a step further. It is completely ignoring the housing crisis and is basing a growing portion of its forecast of tax revenues on insane real estate prices.

The new base of the 2021 model of the Labor Party, headed by Merav Michaeli, is less concerned by high housing prices; some members and supporters are even pleased with the situation. Called in the distant past the party of Israels workers, Labor petitioned the High Court of Justice three years ago in order to thwart the attempt to dampen investor demand. Labor explained the petition aimed at foiling a plan to tax investors who own more than three apartments as a procedural matter, but the bottom line was that it served the uppermost percentile.

And Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, in her role as Ayelet Shaked, already announced last month that there would be no decline in housing prices. It was clear that the developers who wrote the Land Authority a check for 4.5 billon shekels the other week believe her.

If we wrapped up this brief analysis of government policy regarding housing prices at this point, wed be overlooking something: the fate of the 4.5-billion-shekel check, given by the developers who will build the first cluster of apartments at Sde Dov. This money will go into government coffers this year, and will no doubt serve to finance worthy social causes.

Indeed, the government did not waste a moment. In fact, even before the check was deposited, the Bennett-Lapid-Lieberman-Michaeli-Horowitz government rushed to find a purpose for the billions it got from evacuating the old airport. A day before the envelopes were opened, the government decided to approve illegal increases to defense establishment pensions. These are not paltry sums. The NGOs Financial Justice and Pure Profit, which revealed this highway robbery and petitioned the High Court of Justice in order to block the move, discovered that the illegal increase to salaries and pensions totals 1.3 billion shekels this year, and becomes 1.5 billion shekels a year in the very near future. In other words, the impressive check the Land Authority just received will go straight into the pockets of army pensioners, and thats before the first tenants even move into the apartments built on the ruins of Sde Dov.

Since the majority for passing this cruel and scandalous decision was assured in advance, coalition leaders allowed some left-wing ministers to vote against it, so that they could tell the media later that they had opposed it. Real opposition, if it exists, will be evident if the decision fails to pass in a Knesset vote in the coming months. In the meantime, the inflated salaries and pensions with their illegal raises continue to flow into the pockets of these millionaire pensioners every month. The Supreme Court continues to grant the Defense Ministry repeated extensions that enable this abomination, instead of doing the right thing, which is what we believed the court to be there for: enforcing the law.

And thus, we close the circle: Data published by the Treasurys chief economist Shira Greenberg last month reveal an amazing phenomenon. The biggest buyers of investment apartments in Israel this year were not developers or people in high-tech, a sector experiencing an unprecedented surge this year. It turns out that there is another group whose real estate acquisitions are much larger than their proportion of the population. These are senior public sector officials, including members of the defense establishment.

Thus, we get a picture of what is happening or will happen from the following:

* In the coming 30 years, money will flow from taxpayers to Israel Defense Forces pensioners, most of them having sat in offices or engaged in civilian professions. When we embarked 20 years ago on a campaign that warned against this time bomb, we were talking about 70 billion shekels. Today, the figure is 370 billion shekels ($116 billion), with the military still using strong-arm tactics in matters of pension, salaries and conditions for its senior members and associates.

* The surging housing market index over the last decade.

* The graph the Treasury and Tax Authority do not wish to produce, let alone share with the public, which illustrates the wealth disparities between real estate owners and people without any real estate.

* The graph describing inter-generational transfer of wealth. Are wealth disparities in Israel preserved over decades due to the inter-generational transfer of assets, mainly houses and apartments? In other words, who are the real estate aristocrats in Israel, and is their economic and political clout on the rise?

But we dont have to wait until the Finance Ministry, the Tax Authority and the chief economist provide us with better figures on the impact of housing prices on inequality. We can already say that the present government of change is truly a unity government at least when it comes to housing policy. The widely politically divergent team of Naftali Bennett, Nitzan Horowitz, Merav Michaeli and Ayelet Shaked will provide Israels real estate aristocracy with exactly the same services that were provided by Benjamin Netanyahu, that neo-liberal and cruel capitalist. In the eyes of all our politicians right, center or left housing and a roof over ones head are not products the government is meant to worry about. At best, these are services provided by the market; at worst, they are a source of income that helps finance the increasing amounts that go to powerful interest groups with links to political leaders.

There are quite a few such groups in Israels economy, but only one of them has no fewer than six full-time lobbyists in this government, former generals who enjoy both a ministers salary and a military pension that has been illegally increased. At their helm is Defense Minister and former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who enjoys an enhanced pension and salary totalling more than 100,000 shekels ($31,000) a month. One can only reminisce about those amusing days in which he, his associates and satiated donors, the richest people in this country, were sold to us in the media as members of the change bloc namely, people who could, and wanted to, bring about the social and economic change this country is waiting for.

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Homes that only Israel's 'landed gentry' can buy - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

Theres something distorted and exhausting in the criticism of Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts failure to refer to the Palestinians in his speech at the United Nations and in blaming him for perpetuating apartheid. The man is a fascist. What did you expect? The country is fascist. Israelis are fascists. A country that operates on their behalf and whose governments are elected by them has been violently occupying another nation since the establishment of the state. First by military rule over Israels Arab citizens, and later by occupying the West Bank and Gaza.

Theres no Israel without occupation. There never has been. First the Nakba, then the occupation. Even if Bennett says two states a hundred times at the UN, there wont be a Palestinian state. There is one state. There will be one state. It will be an apartheid state.

It will end if, and only if, the world ends it. First and foremost, the United States, and primarily the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. What will end wont be the single state. Its already a fait accompli. The settlers are here to stay. Thats the publics decision. What will end, if it ends, will only be apartheid, en route to a binational state with one vote for everyone.

Yitzhak Rabin, with public support of half a nation, was trailing behind Benjamin Netanyahu in the polls when he was assassinated because of the Oslo Accords. Bennett, with six seats, is far less able to take action on the Palestinian issue. Those who aspire to replace Netanyahu were well aware of that when they supported the establishment of a government of change under Bennett.

There is a change. Bennett is not trying to change the system of government and to establish an authoritative autocracy of his own. He doesnt attack the justice system and doesnt incite against leftists and Arabs. He doesnt address the nation every evening and doesnt claim that Israel will collapse when Yair Lapid replaces him.

As opposed to Netanyahu, he wont foolishly strengthen the Iranian nuclear project. Of course he ignored the Palestinians in his speech. After all, he isnt perfect. In his attitude towards the Palestinians he is an extreme ultranationalist, blind and racist. Those are his fatal flaws.

Bennett is not the one who will end the occupation and apartheid. Who will end it? Lapid? Even Ehud Barak, the sharpest critic of the right and of Bibi-ism, didnt end the occupation and apartheid. As we have said, the world will do that. One of these days. Until then, we recommend enjoying our freedom from the compressor. When he rattles our brains less, theres no question that the despair is more comfortable.

The Palestinians in the Hebron Hills still have no water. Settlers are continuing with their violent attacks against Palestinians, including young children, and beating them up, under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces, which encourages its officers to beat up anti-occupation demonstrators. Did anyone really expect Bennett to oppose the occupation? Has anyone heard Lapid defend the Palestinians?

How many Israelis voted for parties that oppose the occupation? What is the source of the absurd expectation that Bennett will voice his opposition to the occupation or try to end it? The despair is more comfortable for the Jews, but that doesnt make them more moral. In the UN they got a speech from Bennett that reflects their basic opinion: They totally ignore the Palestinians. Why expect Bennett to reflect a different opinion?

If Bennett cancels the observance of Isru Chag in the school system (the day following a major Jewish holiday, when schools remain closed), he will be crowned a new Churchill. He will release the parents from Isru Chag, but not the Palestinians from the occupation. Thats all that is expected of him.

This occupation does not belong to Bennett, nor to Netanyahu, nor even to Rabins assassin Yigal Amir. It belongs to Jewish Israeli society. It is societys creation. It is Israeli society that implements it by means of the young storm troopers it gives birth to en masse and educates to join the IDF and to become fighters against an occupied civilian population. With the help of the Iron Dome and the Shin Bet security service, its happy with its occupation. Until the United States, Europe and China cause economic distress to Israel, it will continue to be happy with its occupation.

And happy Isru Chag to all the parents of young children!

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Only the world can end the Israeli occupation. It won't come from Bennett - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

German automotive giant BMW and South Korean electronics multinational LG were among some of the biggest brands worldwide to unveil new products this month using smart glass technology developed by Israeli company Gauzy.

At the annual IAA Mobility 2021 conference (also known as the International Motor Show Germany) starting September 7, BMW showcased the BMWi Vision Circular, a compact, all-electric vehicle conceived in line with the principles of the circular economy that integrates dynamic shading headlights developed with Gauzy for a futuristic exterior, the automaker said.

The headlight systems for both the front and back offer digital surfaces that look like grilles using ultra-thin curved glazing. The headlights come on when the vehicle is turned on and the lighting systems can be controlled to varying degrees.

Separately, LG Display debuted a 55-inch Transparent OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panel using Gauzys tech that can replace windows in public transportation vehicles for more dynamic displays. The panel is laminated with Gauzys SPD (Suspended Particle Device) technology, which allows for adaptability to bright environments and shifting light conditions. According to the Israeli company, the SPD technology dims the Transparent OLED panel to any desired opacity, blocking up to 99 percent of light and allowing high contrast and rich colors through day and night.

LG Display is pleased to showcase Transparent OLED displays designed for trains in the European market for the first time ever, said Cho Min-Woo, head of the Transparent OLED business at LG Display, in an announcement during IAA. LG Display is a subsidiary of LG and one of the worlds largest makers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal panels, flexible displays and OLEDs.

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The firm, added Cho Min-Woo, will bring new possibilities with its Transparent OLED to the signage and mobility markets while delivering innovative and trendy new ways for all kinds of companies to display information through eye-catching spatial designs and interior effects.

Last year, LG began replacing subway train windows in Beijing and Shenzhen with Transparent OLED panels, providing commuters with travel information like subway times and flight schedules, in addition to weather forecasts and news. The panels were also incorporated into overground trains in Japan and in key displays in the parking lot of Seouls Trade Tower in South Korea.

Gauzy CEO Eyal Peso told The Times of Israel in a phone interview last week that, with this technology, companies can take glass [panels] and make them full-blown displays for advertisements and entertainment.

This opens up a world of possibilities for automakers and other manufacturers, he indicated.

Peso co-founded Gauzy in 2009 with Adrian Loffer, who serves as the companys chief technology officer. The Tel Aviv-based operation went on to develop liquid crystal glass panels, or smart glass, for use in a variety of industries including automotive, consumer electronics, construction, home appliances and solar.

Its LCG (light control glass) products bring high technology to glass, films and other materials, allowing for a number of applications, including controlling the transparency of windows, making a window go from clear to frosted at a touch of a button, and creating optical blinds within the glass for privacy and shading.

LG showcases its Transparent OLED panel with Gauzys technology at IAA 2021 in Munich, September 2021. (Courtesy)

Gauzy has been working with a number of carmakers worldwide, including Daimler, to integrate its light control glass technologies into their vehicles. It has running partnerships with BMW, LG, automotive supplier Brose, Vision Systems, Texas Instruments, and others on a range of light and shading products, Peso said.

The future of displays is transparent, and its here now. The ability to make any window active, multifunctional, and the ability to provide both visual and thermal comfort alongside communication is one of Gauzys core goals, Peso indicated in a company statement this month. By adding our LCG smart glass technologies to glass and other technologies like transparent OLED, together, we are setting a new standard in signage.

Promisingly, the tech can also be applied to refrigerators, for example, where Gauzy can make the doors either transparent or translucent and people dont have to open it to see whats inside, Peso said.

Gauzys glass technology allows ads to be projected on windows (Courtesy)

This can waste a lot of energy because people can sometimes have the door open for two minutes until they decide, and the appliance works very hard to keep its cooling system operating. With Gauzy on the door, this can be prevented, he added, indicating that some announcements related to these capabilities are in the works.

For now, Peso welcomed the new products by two huge companies rolling out big applications.

Gauzy is headquartered in Tel Aviv, with additional manufacturing, operations and sales offices in Germany, China and the United States. Its distribution channels serve leading brands in over 40 countries, the company says.

Gauzy co-founders Eyal Peso, right, and Adrian Loffer. (Libby Green)

Last year, Gauzy raised approximately $10 million in Series C funding from investors Hyundai Motor Company, Singapore-based fund BlueRed Partners, and Avery Dennison Corp., a US maker of labeling and packaging materials.

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BMW, LG unveil new products using smart glass tech by Israeli company Gauzy - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on September 30, 2021

Oakland University will host Jewish Communities in Mexico: A conversation with writer Jacobo Sefami from 10-11 a.m. on Thursday, October 7 in Founders Ballroom A inside the Oakland Center on the OU campus.

Prior to becoming an academic reference in Sephardic literary production, Jacobo Sefami was already internationally recognized as an expert in Latin American contemporary poetry, said Dr. Adolfo Campoy-Cubillo, associate professor of Spanish at Oakland University. We are delighted to have him at OU to help us celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Mexico is home to a large and diverse Jewish community whose members hail back from places as diverse as Syria, Turkey, Poland, or Ukraine. Like in the United States, Jewish communities in Mexico have had to negotiate their own ethnic and religious identities in the larger context of the countrys national narratives.

Sefami is himself a Syrian Jew that grew up in Mexico. He will guide audiences through the maze of cross-cultural references that have contributed to consolidate Jewish Mexican identity.

Sefami will tell us about the fascinating experiences of the Jewish diaspora in Latin America, Campoy-Cubillo said. From the connections between Jewish communities and Native American peoples to the highly idiosyncratic syncretism of the Mexican Sephardim.

Sefami is a professor of Latin American literature at the University of California, Irvine. He has published articles, interviews, notes, and book reviews for various literary journals in Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Chile, and the United States. His books include: El destierro apacible y otros ensayos. Xavier Villaurrutia, Al Chumacero, Fernando Pessoa, Francisco Cervantes, Haroldo de Campos (1987), Contemporary Spanish American Poets: A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources (1992), El espejo trizado: la poesa de Gonzalo Rojas (1992), De la imaginacin potica: Conversaciones con Gonzalo Rojas, Olga Orozco, Alvaro Mutis y Jos Kozer (1996), Medusario. Muestra de poesa latinoamericana (co-editor, 1996), La voracidad grafmana: Jos Kozer (editor, 2002), and Vaquitas pintadas, an anthology of texts related to the cow (2004).

This event is sponsored by Oakland Universitys Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, the Center for Religious Understanding, Religious Studies, and the Cis Maisel Center for Judaic Studies and Community Engagement.

While this event can be attended in person or via Zoom, registration is required. To register, visit http://www.eventbrite.com.

For more information, contact Professor Adolfo Campoy-Cubillo at campoycu@oakland.edu.

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OU to host 'Jewish Communities in Mexico: A conversation with writer Jacobo Sefami' - 2021 - Center for Multicultural Initiatives - News - OU Magazine...

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