Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

A recent opinion piece by Alex Perry suggested a paywall to increase staff pay at The Daily. Perry correctly asked the question, Is what were producing worth paying for? As an alumnus who does not currently reside in Illinois and who does not have a journalism background but who has published several opinion pieces in The Daily through the years, I offer this perspective: in its current state, I do not believe The Daily is worth paying for.

The primary purpose that I read The Daily is to inform myself of the state of an institution, Northwestern University, that I was affiliated with for many years and that I hold high affection for. Major University events are often covered by Chicago newspapers, such as the Tribune and the Sun-Times. Therefore, one of the stronger enticements to read The Daily is the opinion section. Albeit biased, it provides a useful glimpse into campus life.

According to the 2019 diversity report, the political identification of The Daily staff was 55.9 percent moderate left, 35.5 percent far left and 4.4 percent centrist. Thus, only 4.2 percent remained to be moderate right, far right or without identification. The 2020 and 2021 diversity reports did not disclose updated information on political identification. As unsurprising as it is that few if any identified as far right, it is stunning that over one-third identified as far left. Far left politics has led to mass human extermination largely due to famine and execution around the globe during the 20th century.

I believe this imbalance of perspectives is reflected in the opinion section in recent years. Animated debate on charged topics, such as a recent exchange between Deanna Othman and Jonathan Kamel on Zionism, are too rare. As such, it is a disservice to both readers and contributors. Unidimensional politics not only tends toward totalitarianism, where those with differing options are vilified, but also deprives writers of the opportunity to have their positions challenged. Intellectual rigor demands opposition.

Whether a subscription-based model would yield higher revenue than advertisements and donations is worth debate. It is also worth pondering whether more balance in the political identification of the staff to foster more active and nuanced discussion within the opinion section would lead to more alumni interest and donations. Exposure to a variety of positions on important topics of our day is an essential component of higher education. This is worth paying for.

Norman C. Wang, McCormick 94, Feinberg 98

If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [emailprotected] The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.

Related Stories:

Perry: Paywall, please!

Kamel: Like most things in life, Zionism is not black and white

Othman: Anti-Zionism is anti-racist, not antisemitic

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Letter to the Editor: What are unidimensional political opinions worth? - Daily Northwestern

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

This search led our family to Israel, after illegally fleeing the Soviet Union by way of Helsinki. Two years ago, together with my family, I relocated to the United States. While this move was in order to accept a position as a rabbi and teacher at the Chabad-Lubavitch Shaloh House Jewish Day School in Brighton, it was a continuation of our dream back in Russia: to live, teach, and share Judaism with my fellow Jews in safety and freedom.

I believed in Americas promise and that hasnt changed one iota.

On July 1, I stepped out of Shaloh House to take a phone call. It was loud inside the building, where some 100 Jewish children were enjoying another day of fun and learning at our Camp Gan Israel, an experience in Jewish pride. I sat down in front of the building where it was quieter.

As I spoke on the phone, a man I didnt recognize walked up to me and produced a gun. He demanded I take him to my car, parked nearby. I immediately offered him the keys to my minivan not something worth dying for but then he tried to force me inside. I had cash and credit cards in my pockets and a phone in my hand, but he didnt want them.

I realized this wasnt a simple carjacking. If he wanted my vehicle, why did he need me to come along? I knew that if I got in, I might never see my wife and 12 children again.

The next thought that crossed my mind was of all the young campers inside Shaloh House. When a person walked by, my assailant quickly hid his gun. I took advantage of his momentary distraction and made a mad dash across the street and away from my synagogue. If hed catch up to me, I remember thinking, at least the children would be safe.

The stranger pulled out a knife and followed me, swinging and thrusting his knife at and into me again and again and again. I saw hatred in his eyes, and realized that this man would not be satisfied until his weapon found my heart. I started kicking him and tried deflecting his arm with mine. His blade struck me around my shoulder, arm, and ribs about eight times.

At the same time, I started making a commotion to call attention to the attack, and my assailant finally fled.

Since that day, I believe that the young man who tried killing me in broad daylight in front of the giant menorah outside a synagogue in Boston was motivated not by theft, but by hate. Hate for the Jews as individuals, hate for us as a people. He had loitered outside the synagogue the day before, acting so suspicious that a bystander took a photo of him. He has since been charged with hate crimes for his vicious attack that day.

He had planned for this. He had armed himself. But he missed something crucial about our matchup. He had a gun, a knife, and venom in his heart. I had my bare hands, a background in martial arts, and, most important, faith.

When I saw that gun pointed at me, something else flashed through my mind. It was the story of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who was arrested by the Communists in 1927 for the crime of sustaining Jewish life in the Soviet Union. During brutal interrogations, an investigator pointed a revolver at him and said: This little toy has made many a man change his mind. The Sixth Rebbe replied: That little toy can intimidate only the kind of man who has many gods, and but one world this world. Because I have only one God and two worlds, I am not impressed by your little toy.

It was a story I had heard countless times. Now I was facing that barrel myself.

The Soviets sentenced the Sixth Rebbe to death before ultimately releasing him and allowing him to leave Russia. In 1940, he escaped war-torn Europe and arrived on American shores, where he set about reestablishing the center of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement amid this countrys promise of freedom and foundation upon trust in God.

Building on this foundation, his successor as Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, launched a global campaign to engage Jews from all backgrounds wherever they may be. It was at Schneersons direction that Shaloh House was established in 1962.

America is a haven for all, and its up to each of us to keep it that way. We cannot allow attacks on our faith to cow us into hiding our Judaism. And were not.

I am determined now, more than ever, to continue living my life as a proud Jew and encouraging and teaching my fellow Jews to do the same. I have committed to opening a new Jewish educational center in Brighton, where I will be ordaining eight new rabbis.

In the days since I was stabbed, I have likewise been heartened by the countless messages Ive received from people expressing their conviction that this attack will not dampen their Jewish pride, learning, or practice. This is the attitude we all need.

I am proud to live in this country, one in which trust in God is on the currency. It is trust in God that enabled me to survive this attack, and it is trust in God that empowers us to uphold Americas promise of freedom and liberty for all.

Rabbi Shlomo Noginski is a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi serving at Shaloh House in Brighton.

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Making the case for the Citizenship Law, Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stated that it should be supported because it "aimed at ensuring Israels Jewish majority." In response, Carolina Landsmann wrote in Haaretz on July 10 that "a country that strives to deny a minority any possibility of becoming a majority, whether by force of arms or through the power of law, isnt a democracy."

This contention makes no sense.

Why should the Jewish state not do what it can legally do to maintain a Jewish majority? And what in heavens name has happened to the Zionist left? Why do so many of its champions find it difficult to affirm what is so clearly sensible and right?

Students of Israel and Zionism know that demography is destiny.

That Zionism, now and in the past, has always been about creating a democratic state with a Jewish majority. That the State of Israel can, and must, take appropriate steps to assure that a stable Jewish majority is maintained. That taking such steps, and being honest about your intentions, need not be inconsistent with democratic principles or with the ideals of Israels Declaration of Independence. And that the loss of a Jewish majority means the end of Zionism and the disappearance of the State of Israel.

And not only that. The premise of Zionism is that there are many Jews who desperately want to live among other Jews in a majority-Jewish state. Their eagerness is understandable, and they make no apologies for this fact. They are grateful that the State of Israel, after millennia of Jewish exile, finally enables them to do so.

Israel, they remind us, was created to promote the religion, civilization and culture of the Jewish people and its dominant Jewish majority. Thank God, they say, that Israel is the one place where it is non-Jews who must struggle with the problems of being a minorityeven as they are assured by Israeli law, at least in theory, of civil equality and democratic rights.

It is true, of course, as Landsmann states, that Israel must not use "force of arms" to suppress the number of its Arab citizens. To state the obvious, to forcibly transfer Arab citizens out of the country would be a violation of democratic norms and international law, not to mention Jewish values and tradition. It would be a repudiation of everything that Zionism stands for and the principles that it represents.

But assuring a Jewish majority by adopting laws and policies that are consistent with democratic governance is an altogether different matter. It is both acceptable and desirable.

Absent a Jewish majority, would Israel continue to provide no-questions-asked refuge to Jews facing danger and distress in countries around the globe? Almost certainly not; a non-Jewish majority would undoubtedly decide otherwise.

Absent a Jewish majority, would Israel remain the one country in the world where Jewish holidays provide the rhythm of the calendar and where Jews openly apply Jewish values and the Jewish spirit to every aspect of life? Unlikely.

And it was precisely for these reasons that Zionism came into being in the first place.

Having said all of this, Landsmann was right to be critical of Lapid, and right that the Citizenship Law deserved to be defeated. But not for the reasons stated.

The provisions of the Citizenship Law, which was intended to limit the immigration to Israel of Arabs from the territories married to Israeli Arabs, affected only 10,000 to 15,000 people, nowhere near enough to have any impact on the demographic balance. And Israels Arab citizens offered many convincing reasons why the law should be defeated or amended.

In other words, Lapid was right to assert the vital importance to Israel of preserving a secure Jewish majority, but wrong to suggest that renewing the Citizenship Law was a factor of any significance in doing so.

Still, I was pleased to see Lapid raise demographic questions at a time when both the Zionist right and the Zionist left have lost their way on an issue that stands at the very heart of Israels purpose and being.

The Zionist right has responded to the demographic problem with thuggery and denial. For more than 40 years, it has built settlement after settlement, and even worse, illegal outpost after illegal outpost.

While the settlements might conceivably remain in Israel in some version of a two-state solution, the more than 140 illegal outposts, scattered throughout the territories, make any division of the land less and less likely. And the probable outcome then becomes a single bi-national state, with an Arab majority.

If Lapid really cares about a Jewish majority, where was he when his government surrendered on Evyatar? Yet again, settler lawbreakers seized private land, defied the security concerns of the IDF, and bent the entire government apparatus of the Jewish state to their will. No government body gave approval for this act of stealth and deception; only in Israel are towns constructed not by the directive of government planners but by the actions of messianic settlers, answering only to their rabbis and to God.

If the outpost remains, and it probably will, it will be yet another victory for the creeping annexationism that is eating Zionism alive.

Please, Mr. Lapid, until you are prepared to evacuate the Evyatars of Judea and Samaria and take on the piracy of the settler fanatics, spare us the sermons on ensuring Israels Jewish majority.

And finally, what of the Zionist left, which at one time could be counted on to lead the fight for a Jewish majority in a Jewish and democratic Israel?

It is a long and complicated story, but the heart of the matter is that in both Israel and the Diaspora, the Zionist left is wavering. Swayed by Israels Arab parties, post-Zionist thinking, revulsion at blood-and-soil nationalism, and sincere commitment to universalistic values, Zionists on the leftlike their counterparts on the righthave also begun speaking the language of a single state with a Jewish minority, often obscured by the rhetoric of a "Jewish-Arab confederation."

But such a confederation is a pipedream and will happen when hell freezes over.

Until then, the only possible solution, as unlikely as it now seems, must be pieced together from the actual realities on the ground. And that means a Jewish-majority state, consisting of a particular peoplethe Jewish people; a particular cultureJewish culture; and a segment of a particular landIsrael/Palestine.

And that also means a Palestinian-majority state, consisting of a particular peoplethe Palestinian people; a particular culturePalestinian culture; and a different segment of that same landIsrael/Palestine. Each state will have minorities, of course, but the dominant majority will set the political and cultural tone of public life.

This configuration will not be perfect. Getting there will not be easy. And it may take many years for the two-state arrangement to be constructed. But left and right take note: in the meantime, the job of Jews is to work for a separation of peoples that will make two states possible, and for a demographic reality that will leave the Jews as a clear, uncontested majority in their part of Israel/Palestine.

I repeat: We Jews want a state of our own, where the Jews, a secure and confident majority, will call the shots, govern democratically, and live in peace with our neighbors. That is what Zionism is. And in the final analysis, binational, one-state schemes and fantasies will give way to the compelling logic of Zionist principles.

Eric H. Yoffie, a rabbi, writer and teacher in Westfield, New Jersey, is a former president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Twitter:@EricYoffie

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What on earth is the problem with a Jewish majority in Israel? - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Local NewsJewish Festival Returns to Guilford Green with Family Fun

By Jesse Williams/Zip06.com 07/21/2021 08:15 a.m. EST

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It has been a long time since the Jewish shoreline community has been able to gather and wish each other a hearty Chag Sameach (happy holiday). Like many other faith groups, many families have subsisted on Zoom meetings and small family events over the last 18 months, unable to join together for the many traditional celebrations and services.

That will all change on Sunday, Aug. 1 on the Guilford Green, when Chabad of the Shoreline re-launches its Jewish Festival summer bash, inviting people of all faiths to join for an extensive spread of kosher delicacies, light-hearted Jewish music and storytelling, book and art vendors, and games and activities for the little ones.

Were going to make up for some lost time, said Rabbi Yossi Yaffe, director of Chabad who is overseeing the festival, now in its 15th year.

Canceled last summer during the pandemic, the Jewish Festival has been a way for Chabad to bring residents together just to celebrate Jewish life and culture, promoting family-focused activities and teaching about Jewish life and traditions. Yaffe said that for a long time now, the Jewish community has been somewhat relegated to in-home practices and do-it-yourself Judaism with Chabad just trying to safely facilitate whatever it can.

Its been a very interesting experience, Yaffe said. We really want to empower people to celebrate Judaism not just in a synagogue, but to make their family a center of Jewish life.

Yaffe said that Chabad has just begun to move back to indoor services, with a constant eye on evolving health guidelines. The hope is to celebrate the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this September with all the traditional gatherings and services, he added.

For the Jewish Festival, Chabad was only able to book the bands (which include Lazer Lloyd and the Schlepping Nachas and Brian Bender & Little Shop of Horas, among others) toward the middle of July, according to Yaffe, as everyone remains cautious about the still ongoing pandemic.

We literally did this last minute, he said. We werent sure it was actually going to happen...It takes a few months for most entities to pull together something like this.

Being able to walk around outside, peruse the unique Israeli and other traditional Jewish foods, shop for crafts, and enjoy Jewish folk tales told through puppet shows with the little ones is something Yaffe said he knows will be very welcome for the entire community.

We get people from all sorts of backgroundspeople who want to just enjoy the music...and traditional Jewish food, he said. I think everyone is looking forward to it. We need it, we really need it. Everyone needs it.

The Jewish Festival will run from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 1 on the Guilford Green. For more information, visit http://www.jewishoreline.org.

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Funerals are notoriously expensive and often loaded with unexpected fees. They come at a time when people are at their most vulnerable, intimidated and perhaps unable to make judicious decisions amid their grief.

Consequently, many bereaved family members make costly mistakes and find themselves at the mercy of funeral homes whose driving motive is profit.

These are the circumstances that gave birth 20 years ago to New Yorks leading nonprofit Jewish funeral home, Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.

At the time, New Yorks funeral home market was largely controlled by Service Corp. International, or SCI, a Houston-based behemoth that owned four of the five Jewish funeral homes in Manhattan and seven of 18 in Brooklyn. An anti-trust complaint by New Yorks attorney general resulted in an out-of-court settlement in 1999, and SCI was forced to sell some of its funeral homes, including Plaza Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.

In stepped a group of Jewish philanthropists and community leaders along with UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Communal Fund who in 2001 came up with a $2.25 million loan to buy the facility and create Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, a nonprofit Jewish community funeral home.

Two decades on, Plaza not only has helped reduce the costs of Jewish funerals and bring unprecedented transparency to the process Plazas fees are about 35% less than comparable funeral homes, and Plaza was the first area chapel to post pricing on its website but it has become a leader in educating and supporting the Jewish community in end-of-life issues.

Our mission is to ensure that every member of the Jewish community receive a dignified Jewish burial, to take the profit motive out of funerals, and to provide education and bereavement support around the end-of-life conversation, said Stephanie Garry, Plazas executive vice president of communal partnerships.

The funeral chapel serves all Jewish denominations, from haredi Orthodox to the most progressive. It helps train clergy, educators and Jewish community professionals. It runs programs in synagogues and Jewish community centers on Jewish rituals surrounding death, including a curriculum for bnai mitzvah students designed to take the mystery out of death.

When Mount Sinai hospital was establishing its now nationally renowned palliative care program, it was given a significant boost from Plaza Jewish Community Chapel in the form of a sizable grant.

Palliative care was a relatively new medical specialty focused on improving the quality of life for people living with serious illness, their caregivers and an entire clinical team, recalled Dr. Diane Meier, a professor in the hospitals Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine.

The movement to provide palliative care in hospitals was so new at the time, and Plazas grantwas very helpful and really important in gaining support and endorsement from the community, Meier said.

Over the past 20 years, Plaza has spent more than $1 million on grants for end-of-life education and support, as well as sponsored or co-sponsored some 20 conferences dealing with loss and bereavement. It also runs about 50 educational programs annually, including in cities throughout the country. A 57-member board of directors comprised of clergy, social service executives and community lay leaders runs Plaza.

We built a whole model based upon helping people rather than trying to make a profit, said Alfred Engelberg, Plazas founding board chair. We support programs around end-of-life issues. Our funeral directors dont work on a commission; they get paid a salary. More than half of our funerals use a plain pine box.

Darren Picht, executive vice president of funeral operations, and funeral director Laura Vaslo outside Plaza Jewish Community Chapel in Manhattan, a nonprofit funeral home that has helped bring greater transparency and affordability to Jewish burials. (Courtesy PJCC)

Much of the community education Plaza does, Engelberg said, reflects the fact that many Jews today arent as familiar as previous generations with Jewish rituals surrounding death and therefore often need more guidance to provide the end-of-life options their parents want.

Among Plazas major initiatives is helping establish and sustain What Matters: Caring Conversations about End of Life, which focuses on advanced care planning to ensure that a persons health care wishes are known and honored. The program is a collaboration between the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan, the New Jewish Home (a long-term care facility in Manhattan) and the Center for Pastoral Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

What Matters focuses on an individuals values, goals and preferences, said Sally Kaplan, the groups program director. It asks what health care choices you would want made for you if you were ever in a position in which you could not speak for yourself. One of our goals is to help people complete the health care proxy and appoint an agent who can speak for them.

Plaza also has provided major grant funding to the Westchester End of Life Coalition for a program at Westchester synagogues called Can We Talk?

We go to synagogues that request us to raise their awareness regarding end-of-life issues, said Heidi Weiss, a volunteer with the coalition who is a health care social worker at Westchester Jewish Community Services in White Plains. The grant enabled us to produce videos and buy a card game called Go Wish that helps people discuss end-of-life care. It helps them verbalize their wishes and priorities.

Clergy in training go to Plaza for training and facility tours. Plaza works with rabbinical students from the Conservative movements JTS, the Reform movements Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Orthodox movements Yeshiva University, the pluralistic Academy of Jewish Religion and the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.

We pull the curtain back, Garry said. We show where it all takes place. We never lose sense of the fact that people are uncomfortable in a funeral chapel.

But when they leave our space after a tour or educational engagement, they understand and appreciate death as a lifecycle event. They understand and appreciate the Jewish rituals surrounding it. And they understand and appreciate the continuity of our shared Jewish existence and observance.

One of the issues Plaza is working on with clergy and community lay leaders is how to deal with end-of-life issues surrounding trans Jews. The Jewish ritual of tahara, washing the dead, is performed typically by volunteers of the same gender as the deceased. How should a tahara be performed for a trans Jew?

Garry said Plaza was spurred to think about this when in the space of a few months, the family members of several trans Jews all chose the unconventional options of cremation. Maybe they were cremating their loved ones because they werent sure how an alternative tahara would work, Garry speculated.

We need to ensure that everyone has a respectful burial whoever they are, and that those in marginalized communities know there is a voice that will be advocating for them as well, she said. Our communal conversations are on the side of inclusion, and Plaza sees one of its roles in the community as advancing that notion within end-of-life spaces.

Now entering its third decade, Plaza has captured a growing segment of the Jewish funeral business in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

People reach out to us when they hear we are nonprofit, Garry said. Since we opened our doors our business has more than tripled, and we are now one of the leading Jewish chapels in the metropolitan New York area. I believe we are the gold standard in terms of providing service to our families, and in being a thought leader and forward thinker for what we do to support the community.

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

JERUSALEM Naftali Bennett once stated in an interview with Mehdi Hassan that, according to the Bible, Palestine or, as he calls it, Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Palestine is referred to as The Land of Israel by some people and, in this interview from 2017, Bennett insists that if Hassan wants to claim that the Land does not belong to us, I suggest you go change the Bible.

Bennett has since become Israels prime minister (a post he is not likely to hold for very long) and, while this claim seems to resonate with many, a closer look at what the Jewish scriptures actually say shows very clearly that what he said is not true.

According to the Torah (Jewish scriptures) and the words of generations of Jewish sages, the Holy Land belongs to the Almighty who graces it with holiness. The Jewish people were given license to reside in the Holy Land and enjoy its grace as long as they conducted themselves with righteousness and observed the laws that the Almighty prescribed in the Torah. When the Jewish people strayed from the path of the Torah, they incurred the wrath of the Almighty and were expelled from the Holy Land, prohibited from returning until such time as the coming of the Messiah and the return of King David to the throne.

The Land of Israel has no value in and of itself, only as a vehicle by which to serve the Almighty and follow the Torah. Furthermore, the coming of the Messiah is not about Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel either; it is a vision that speaks of a great many things. Mostly though, it is about a transformation of the world into a peaceful place in which Jews will once again be permitted to reside peacefully in the Holy Land, the purpose of which is to follow the laws of the Almighty on that land that was graced by the presence of holiness. It is a religious idea that has nothing to do with notions of conquest, nationality or sovereignty.

One may think that what the Bible says regarding Palestine is not important, but we must recognize that many people do feel that the words of the Jewish scriptures matter, and that they are the true words of God. Therefore, it is worth taking a close look at what the Torah and the sages of old actually say.

We should also remember that Zionism is a secular, racist ideology and the founders of Zionism cared little for the Bible or for Judaism. Israel the monstrous creation of that Zionist movement is an apartheid regime that is committing horrendous crimes. Israel claims that it speaks and acts in the name of, and for the good of, the Jewish people. However, we would do well to demonstrate that Israel and Zionist claims to Palestine have nothing to do with Judaism; in fact, the claim that the legitimacy for Zionism can be found in the Bible is completely false.

From Judaism to Fascism: How Zionists Turned Their Backs on Their Own Culture

According to Jewish scripture, the Hebrews were transformed into a people, the Jewish people, when they were given the Torah at Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Desert that is far from the Holy Land. The Jews transformation into a nation had nothing to do with acquiring land or sovereignty, or any of the other symbols associated with the modern idea of nationality. It was done through a religious commitment to the Almighty.

In his epic work, The Empty Wagon: Zionisms journey from identity crisis to identity theft, Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro discusses this issue at great length. He quotes the revered seventeenth-century Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, who is known as the Kli Yakar (or Precious Vessel) for his commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Luntschitz wrote, in his commentary to the five books of the Torah, that the Jewish people are merely tenants of the Land of Israel and that the Almighty is the sole owner of the Holy Land. Rabbi Shapiro continues with a quote from the Book of Leviticus 25:23, where the Almighty says to the Jewish People, The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers (emphasis added).

There is an even earlier story in the Book of Genesis, chapter 23, where it is made clear that even Abraham the patriarch saw himself as a foreigner in the Land of Israel. Abraham wants to bury his wife Sarah in the town of Hebron and he approaches a local man asking to purchase a plot of land to use as a burial ground. The man agrees and Abraham purchases the plot. Had the land been his by virtue of the divine promise there would be no need for him to purchase it. In this story, Abraham referred to himself as a stranger in the land.

Rabbi Shapiro goes on to explain that mere devotion to the land of Israel, without the observance of the laws of the Torah and devotion to the Almighty, is idolatry. There is no value to the Land per se, he says. Love of Eretz Yisroel is supposed to be part of loving Hashem (the Almighty) and the Torah.

As most people know, the Ten Commandments, which are part of the Torah, prohibit murder, theft, and the coveting someone elses home. This means that Zionists even ones like Naftali Bennett, who wears a yarmulke are committing idolatry, since their desire for the Land comes from coveting it, and they use murder and theft as a means of obtaining that land. They are a far cry from an honest observance of the Torah.

In the daily prayers, there is a line that Jews repeat regularly that says We were exiled because of our sins. Throughout the twenty-four books of the Old Testament, there are countless warnings and admonitions given by the Almighty to the People of Israel. They are warned time and time again that if they stray from the path given to them by the laws of the Torah, they will be banished from the Land. There are numerous passages where the Almighty warns the Jews that if they turn their back on him, the Land itself will vomit them just as it had vomited other nations who had lived there before them. Perhaps the best-known passage is from the Book of Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 28: Let not the land vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nations that came before you.

Once the people of Israel were exiled for turning their back to the Torah and its laws, they were prohibited from returning. The Great Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum known as the Rabbi of Satmar, who established an unprecedented following in the United States and around the world touches on this prohibition in his book Vayoel Moshe. Rabbi Teitelbaum speaks of the three oaths that were taken by the Jewish People in front of the Almighty. These oaths include: never attempting to hasten the end of the exile (they must wait for the Messiah before they can return to the Holy Land); never to return by use of force; and not to rebel against the other nations, nations where the Jewish People live in exile.

The notion that Jewish scripture promises the Land of Israel to the Jews as a homeland is a Christian notion that the Zionists have since adopted. According to Jewish scripture, the Land of Israel is not the homeland of the Jewish people. The Almighty made Jews into a nation at Mount Sinai when he imparted to them the Torah. This was not done in the Land of Israel but, as was already mentioned, far, far away from it. The notion of a peoples connection to a homeland is a modern idea, one that involves nationalism and is in no way a Jewish idea.

Rabbi Shapiro writes, The Zionist concept of Eretz Yisroel does not come from the Torah. This idea, according to the countless sources that he quotes in The Empty Wagon, is a Christian idea. He continues to point out that [t]he perception of Eretz Yisroel as the birthright or the national homeland of the Jewish people first appears in Restorationist Protestant Christian sources. This idea was born with the advent of the Protestant movement in the second half of the previous millennium; it spread throughout the Protestant world and it continues today with Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, which is one of the most significant supporters of Israel in the world.

The idea that the Almighty gave all of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people permanently and unconditionally, and that the Jews will ultimately return, is a Protestant idea, not a Jewish one. This is largely the reason behind the support that Zionists were able to secure from mostly Protestant countries like Great Britain and the United States, where Christian Zionism has been thriving for several centuries.

From the late sixteenth century to Napoleon, from The London Society for Promoting Protestant Christianity among Jews (a Christian Zionist mission that is part of the Church of England and known today as Churchs Ministry Among Jewish People), to John Quincy Adams and even Abraham Lincoln, the idea of the return of the Jews to their homeland has been a popular one among the Protestants of the world.

Even the slogan a land without a people for a people without a land is not an original Zionist one. Although usually assumed to have been a Zionist slogan, the phrase was used as early as 1843 by a Christian Restorationist clergyman, the Reverend Dr. Alexander Keith DD of the Church of Scotland. The phrase continued to be used for almost a century by Christian Restorationists before Zionists adopted it. Similarly, the idea to turn the Hebrew language into the national language of the Jewish people in their homeland was also a Protestant idea that was later adopted by Zionists.

So when the current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is also the first yarmulke-wearing Israeli prime minister, refers to the Bible to justify his claim to the Land of Israel, he is not referring to Jewish scripture but to Protestant religious doctrine. When he and other Israeli politicians like former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes these claims, they are not addressing Jewish people, but Christian Zionists. The most important allies the State of Israel and Zionists have are evangelical Christian Zionists.

Statements like Bennetts are made in order to make assure that Christian Zionists continue to work for Israel and for the Zionist movement by lobbying governments and raising money. This Protestant doctrine, by the way, calls for the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel, not for the purpose of serving the Jewish people. The purpose of this return is so that the Jews may convert to Christianity and hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Since the ideas expressed by the Zionists are clearly not Jewish ideas, opposing Zionism cannot be anti-Semitic. Once it is made clear that the Zionist claims to the Land of Israel, or Palestine, are not only not Jewish, but come from Christian Protestant theology, we understand why opposing Zionism cannot possibly be anti-Semitic. Being an anti-Zionist is not at all anti-Semitic because the basic tenets of Zionism are actually not Jewish at all. They are Christian.

Feature photo | A Christian tourist dressed as Jesus walks the Old City of Jerusalem in 1988. Aris Saris | AP

Miko Peled is MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books areThe Generals Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, and Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.

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Why Opposing Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitic: The Christian Roots of Zionism - Mintpress News

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

U.S. House Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). (Credit: EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo,/Israel Hayom)

By Ron Kampeas

Muslim and Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have joined to call on the Biden administration to create an Islamaphobia monitor position.

The proposal in a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken was shaped by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is Muslim, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is Jewish.

A source close to the drafters said that the governments antisemitism monitor, a position created in 2004, was a model for the proposal. The name proposed in the letter, Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting Islamophobia, is a precise echo of the existing office, Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.

In recent years, we have seen a dramatic increase in violent Islamophobia and the persecution of Muslims manifesting itself around the world, said the letter, which cites ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China and Rohingya Muslims in Burma, as well as a mass casualty attack on a New Zealand mosque in 2019 and a recent deadly attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario.

Among the 23 Democrats signing are the Houses two other Muslims, Andre Carson of Indiana and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and seven of the 25 Jewish Democrats in the House, including Schakowsky; Steve Cohen of Tennessee; Sara Jacobs, Alan Lowenthal and Mike Levin of California; Brad Schneider of Illinois; and Dean Phillips of Minnesota.

Phillips and Schneiderare among the Jewish Democratswho had fraught exchanges with Omar and Tlaibover their harsh criticism of Israel during the Israel-Gaza conflict in May.

Omar and Schakowsky in 2019launched a media tour together to combat bigotryafter Omar came under fire for online comments about the AIPAC Israel lobby thatwere criticized as antisemitic.

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Muslim and Jewish Democrats in Congress Call for Creation of Islamophobia Monitor - Jewish Exponent

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

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Jewish groups and professors are alleging the University of Toronto Faculty Association has a problem with anti-Semitism. Their concerns centre on the conduct of UTFAs president, Terezia Zoric, who is alleged to have used anti-Semitic language and created a hostile environment for faculty who have more moderate views of Israel.

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On June 15, when speaking at York University, Zoric made reference to an entitled powerful Zionist minority which was engaging in psychological warfare against critics of the Cromwell report a document that exonerated the University of Toronto of wrongdoing in a decision not to hire Valentina Azarova, a militantly anti-Israel activist.

In response, Bnai Brith Toronto, a Jewish human rights organization, condemned Zorics remarks as blatant dog-whistling, noting that they invoked centuries-old anti-Jewish conspiracy myths. The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation has similarly condemned Zoric, while four Jewish faculty members at U of T have started a petition to remove Zoric for her comments.

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Rather than a conspiracy by Zionists to censor pro-Palestinian activism, it appears that the Azarova affair boils down to a temper tantrum by activists who unsuccessfully attempted to use an under-qualified candidate to inappropriately politicize U of Ts human rights program.

In 2020, Azarova was recommended for the directorship of the International Human Rights Program in U of Ts Faculty of Law but was not hired due to her legal ineligibility to work in Canada until months after the positions start date. Additionally, the position firmly required a candidate who is licensed to practice law, but Azarova was not licensed in any jurisdiction.

However, independent of this, a Jewish federal judge, David Spiro, whose extended family had donated millions to U of T, expressed concern to a friend, who was a university administrator, that Azarovas candidacy would be controversial.

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Azarova quickly became the cause du jour for Palestinian supporters who, titillated by rumours of powerful Jews pulling strings, unshakeably believed that Spiros concerns were the reason why Azarova was dropped. Zoric is one of those stalwart supporters.

In October 2020, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) hastily released a report decrying perceived attacks on Azarovas academic freedom and threatened to censure the university. The invocation of academic freedom was ironic given that, in 2018, Azarova controversially attempted to prevent a Jewish academic from speaking at an international legal conference.

Around that time, Zoric had UTFA initiate a CAUT-funded association grievance against U of T, seeking to punish the university for not hiring Azarova. Louis Florence, the former treasurer of UTFA, alleged to me in an interview that Zoric did this secretly, violating normal procedures by not consulting UTFAs full executive team, which Florence alleges was not informed of the grievance until months afterwards, in December 2020.

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In response to this uproar, the University of Toronto commissioned the Honourable Thomas Cromwell, a former Supreme Court judge, to conduct an independent and impartial review of the issue. In March 2021, Cromwell released a 78-page report where he concluded that Spiro had no impact on Azarovas cancelled candidacy.

Cromwell confirmed that the reason why Azarova was not hired was because she resides in Germany, is not a Canadian citizen, and almost certainly would have been unable to secure a work permit until months after the positions start date.

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Cromwell also noted that Spiro had only stated that Azarovas appointment would be controversial (which turned out to be true 3,000 people signed a petition against her potential hiring) and did not actively advocate or campaign against her.

Curiously, the report details how, when questions arose about Azarovas eligibility, one member of the hiring committee (which had recommended her) threatened to resign, raising questions about the committees impartiality.

U of Ts president accepted Cromwells findings. However, Azarovas supporters have rejected them and continue to press the narrative that Azarova lost a lucrative job opportunity due to powerful Jews, not visa issues. Chasing windmills, they have insinuated that the report has issues with external influence and false testimony.

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In March, CAUT moved to censure U of T for the Azarova affair an exceptionally rare decision (the last time CAUT censured an organization was in 2008).

Meanwhile, others petitioned to have Spiro fired, claiming that he could not be trusted to impartially adjudicate court cases. In May, the Canadian Judicial Council determined that Spiro should suffer no discipline, concluding that, though Spiro should not have weighed in on Azarovas hiring, the fear of bias on the part of Justice Spiro is based on misinformation and speculation that is inaccurate. Azarovas supporters have sought a judicial review to overturn that finding.

It seems that, for Zoric and those like her, when your narratives are contradicted by a former Supreme Court judge and the Canadian Judicial Council, the only possible explanation is that a shadowy cabal of Zionists (Jews) are crusading against you.

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I emailed Zoric, as well as David Robinson (CAUTs president), with a list of specific questions about the association grievance (i.e. the scope of funding UTFA is receiving from CAUT; how UTFAs membership was consulted prior to launching the grievance).

Neither acknowledged these questions and only referred me to public-facing online resources which left most concerns unaddressed. Zoric has not responded to requests to clarify which exact organizations, individuals or entities she was referring to in her complaint about an entitled powerful Zionist minority conducting psychological warfare against her.

Florence, the retired treasurer of UTFA who is also one of the professors behind the petition to remove Zoric, was not surprised that the UTFA president resorted to apparent anti-Semitic dog-whistling.

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At the beginning of 2021, Florence recommended that, given growing anti-Semitism, UTFA ought to explore supporting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism.

The IHRA definition attempts to capture more subtle forms of anti-Semitism and has been formally adopted by Canada and several major Western countries. It is opposed by militant anti-Israel activists who believe that it is overly broad.

Zoric organized a committee meeting to discuss the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, but Florence chose not to attend, feeling that the meeting was structured as an ambush. He alleges that, based on how the meeting was described to him by those who attended, his concerns were validated. Florence shared screenshots with me of UTFA online discussions where professors expressed concerns about dissenting voices being denied opportunities to share their views.

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Stuart Kamenetsky, another of the professors behind the petition against Zoric, has called her association grievance morally bankrupt and procedurally ludicrous, given Azarovas history and lack of qualifications. Kamenetsky alleges that voices like his are being stifled within UTFA, and that he received emails implying harm would come to him after publicly signing a petition against Azarovas hiring.

Anti-Semitism continues to simmer at the University of Toronto. Sometimes it is explicit (such as when Jewish students have coins thrown at them). Other times, it takes more subtle forms, such as when a faculty leader leverages offensive tropes in defence of a witch hunt.

The big issues are far from settled. Sign up for the NP Comment newsletter,NP Platformed.

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Adam Zivo: U of T faculty association targets 'powerful Zionist minority' in temper tantrum over hiring scandal - National Post

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Google has parted ways with an executive on Thursday, following a LinkedIn blog he posted in June, where he confessed to being antisemitic in his past, news sites reported.

Amr Awadallah was VP of developer relations for Google Cloud. He joined the company in 2019. Google Cloud's Israeli VP of engineering and product Eyal Manor sent an email, viewed by CNBC, to employees on Thursday, stating that "today is Amr Awadallahs last day at Google."

In his 10,000 word blog titled "We Are One," Awadallah confessed to hating Jews, though he noted he no longer does. He also listed Jews he knows and describes as "good people," discussed the origins of his antisemitism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at length, Zionism, and his dream of a "United States of Jerusalem."

"I hated the Jewish people, all the Jewish people," Awadallah wrote. "Ever since I was young, the only narrative I heard from everybody around me was that the Jewish people are here to kill all of us," he added. Awadallah was born in Egypt, and explained that as a child, he absorbed his antisemitism from the "widespread anger over the many Palestinians slaughtered in the Nakba of 1948, and the many Egyptians killed during Israel's occupation of Sinai."

In Awadallah's blog, he mentioned how Mendel Rosenblum's, who was his research advisor for his PhD thesis, Jewish name made him "very cautious" about working with him. "Over the years, I came to know Mendel as the most humble, ethical, smart, and humanistic person that I have ever come across. He was my first Jewish angel," Awadallah wrote.

"Until recently, I was still an anti-Zionist. I believed Zionism was super evil," Awadallah wrote. "Zionism, as far as I understand it, is the need to have a safe home where Jewish people will no longer be persecuted like they were in the past. It is such a respectable goal how can anyone, including myself, stand against that cause?," the Egyptian-American stated in his LinkedIn blog.

In his blog, Awadallah also claimed former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "twisted Zionism to the point of Fascism."

"Zionism is such a pure goal, until it gets twisted to favor safety at the expense of humanity, which is what Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly doing," he claimed.

According to CNBC, Google employees confronted Awadallah on his blog post at a meeting on Wednesday, expressing their discomfort. When confronted, Awadallah doubled down on the message of his post, insisting they misunderstood him.

Daniel Golding, a Jewish employee at Google, said: "On one hand, Im grateful that you no longer hate my children. On the other, this has made my job as one of your colleagues much harder," he wrote.

Amar Awadallah commented on his dismissal on Twitter, saying he is in "complete shock."

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Google executive dismissed following blog post confessing antisemitism - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

JERUSALEM: Members of the Zionist security forces stand guard as a group of Orthodox Jews enters the Al-Aqsa mosque compound yesterday. AFP

JERUSALEM: Zionist police clashed with Muslim protestors yesterday at a flashpoint Jerusalem Old City shrine as Jews were headed there to mark a religious holiday, police said. The tensions and the Jewish pilgrimage to the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound were condemned by the Palestinians.

The Zionist entitys rightwing nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stood by the states decision to allow Jews to visit the site. The EU delegation to the Palestinian territories in a tweet said it was concerned over ongoing tensions and urged that there be no acts of incitement. It also called for respect for the sites status quo and urged Zionist, religious and community leaders to urgently calm down this explosive situation.

The incident took place on the Jewish festival of Tisha Bav, marking the day of the year thousands of years ago when, according to tradition, both Jewish temples located on the Temple Mount were destroyed. The holy site lies in east Jerusalem, which the Zionist entity occupied and annexed in 1967, but is administered by the Muslim Waqf organization.

The Waqf condemned the violations and attacks carried out by Jewish fanatic groups, with the support and political cover of the (Zionist) government, it said in a statement carried by official Palestinian website Wafa, claiming the Zionist entity was aiming for a religious war. And the Palestinian Authority accused the Zionist entity of tampering with the security and stability of the region by enabling the incursions of worshippers.

Newly sworn-in premier Bennett, who is from the Zionist entitys religious right but heads a coalition including leftist and Islamist parties, said he had instructed that the organized and safe visits by Jews to the Temple Mount continue, while maintaining order at the site.

In a second statement following the Waqf and PA condemnations, Bennett stressed that freedom of worship on the Temple Mount will be fully preserved for Muslims as well, pointing to the upcoming festival of Eid al-Adha. Two years ago, when the Jewish and Muslim holidays coincided, violence at the site left dozens of Palestinians wounded and led to seven arrests. AFP

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Tensions over Aqsa incursions by Zionists - Kuwait Times

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