Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

A new Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam aims to tell the full story of the persecution of Dutch Jews during World War II.

As Flip Delmonte walks around the soon to be opened National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, he's reminded of the city's dark history.

Delmonte was just a baby when a relative and the Dutch resistance spirited him away from a teacher training college in Amsterdam's Jewish quarter during the Dutch capital's World War II Nazi Occupation.

His parents were detained across the street at a theatre used by the Germans as a collection point for Jews to be deported to death camps in eastern Europe.They were among the 102,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands and murdered in the camps.

The college Delmonte, now 80, was taken from as a baby has been transformed into the new museum that will be officially opened on 10 Marchby King Willem-Alexander.

The Jewish people were murdered. There are people, children who survived and we cannot forget them. They must be remembered also in the future, Delmonte, who is deaf, says through an interpreter.

The museum tells the story of the Holocaust throughvideo images, photos, scale models and mementoes of the Dutch victims of Nazi occupation.

Three-quarters of the pre-war Jewish population of the Netherlands were murdered by the Nazis, the largest proportion anywhere in Europe.

Head Curator Annemiek Gringold pulled together exhibition rooms that show the atrocities of the Holocaust, and also small mementoes of the lives lost - a collection of 10 buttons excavated from the grounds of Sobibor.

Perhaps this is the closest I can come to the thousands and thousands of anonymous people that were rushed into the gas chamber," Gringold says.

"This is something that they chose to wear, and it is one of the last items that they touched, she adds.

For Gringold, the museum opens at a vital time.The generation that survived the Shoah (Holocaust) is slowly leaving us, she says.

"It is our responsibility, we feel, in the Jewish Cultural Quarter, to tell their story from generation to the next. For the Netherlands, to know about this history, to be aware of where anti-Semitism might lead to in certain circumstances.

The walls of one room are filled from floor to ceiling with the texts of hundreds of laws discriminating against Jews that were enacted by the German occupiers of the Netherlands, to show how the Nazi regime, assisted by Dutch civil servants, dehumanized Jews ahead of operations to round them up and send them to their deaths.

Delmonte was happy to contribute a photograph to the museum, but he kept his most treasured keepsake for himself.

I have a cookie plate at home which used to be my mothers and my aunt has given that to me at my birthday," he says. "I still have that at home. So thats very special for me.

The National Holocaust Museum is situated in the Dutch capital's historic Jewish Quarter and officially opens on 10 March.

Video editor Theo Farrant

Continue reading here:

New Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam aims to tell full story of persecution of Dutch Jews - Euronews

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on New Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam aims to tell full story of persecution of Dutch Jews – Euronews
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

Not long after Feigele (Vladka) Peltels father died of pneumonia in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, the 17-year-old found herself at a lecture about Yiddish author I.L. Peretz hosted by her social democratic youth group, Tsukunft (The Future). She doesnt precisely remember the talk, but she does recall the energy in the room.

I still remember the atmosphere, the uplift, that in the ghettowith so much starvation and the typhoid epidemic which started and hunger and miserywe were talking about literature. And a young girl was talking to older people, and they were listening... And this kind of hope was constantly in the life of the ghetto.

Vladka saw this kind of hope in the secret schools that arose after the Nazis prohibited Jews access to education. She saw it in the way youth groups organized in the Warsaw Ghetto, which at its height held 500,000 people. And she saw it in her mother, in the way she kept their home neat and her children fed despite having no money, no soap and hot water, and no husband.

It was not the guns and the revolt. But it was the inner strength, it was the tradition, the morality, the ethic which our mothers lived and our generations before us lived, and it was expressed in simple, little things, in 1,000 instances of resistance [that] we take it for granted, Vladka said in a 1996 interview for the USC Shoah Foundations Visual History Archive.

In her testimony, Vladka said much of that initial hope felt in the Warsaw Ghetto was crushed on July 22, 1942, when the deportations from Warsaw began, and, building by building, block by block, the Germans began clearing out the ghetto. Between July and September 1942, the Nazis deported more than 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. Vladkas mother, Hanna, her younger sister, Henia, and her little brother, Chaim, were among those forced out of their homes and taken away in cattle cars.

By October 1942, when deportations paused, more than 20 youth groups and underground units had coalesced into a united front. And Vladka channeled her despair at losing her family into fighting the Nazis.

With her light complexion and high cheekbones, Vladka was asked to operate outside the ghetto, disguised as a Polish woman. Over the next few months, Vladka bribed guards and used secret passages to sneak in and out of the ghetto. She smuggled weapons in phony bottles and dynamite wrapped in greasy paper to look like butter. What she smuggled out of the ghetto was just as important: information that had come through the underground, including the first reports that nearly everyone deported to Treblinka was killed on arrival a devastating realization for Vladka about her own familys fate.

She had one of the first maps of the Treblinka death camp in her shoe when she met Benjamin Miedzyrzecki (later shortened to Meed), whom she recruited to work for the resistance. The two fell in love, even among the death and despair around them.

It was very important that I knew that I have somebody so close who cares, who, if I will not exist, is a person who will find out maybe, who will look for me, Vladka said.

When the Nazis restarted deportations from Warsaw in January 1943, Jewish defiance disrupted German efforts. The resistance received word of a final deportation just before Passover, and on April 19, 1943, some 700 young Jewish fighters fought back at German troops entering the ghetto.

When the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started, Vladka was outside of the ghetto, still disguised as a Pole. She managed to get in contact with uprising leaders, and she began working to distribute appeals for help to resistance organizations outside the ghetto. But in the process, she and uprising leader Abraham Blum were arrested. With the help of her Polish collaborator, Vladka was able to get away. Abraham Blum was murdered by the Gestapo.

After weeks of hand-to-hand combat, the Germans began burning and leveling buildings. From the balcony of an apartment outside the ghetto walls, Vladka heard the gunfire, saw black smoke, and watched people jumping from windows.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was quashed after 27 days. Some 7,000 Jews were killed, and 42,000 were deported. On May 16, the Nazis blew up the Great Synagogue of Warsaw, once the largest Jewish house of worship in the world. The entire ghetto had been destroyed.

Over the following months, Vladka and Benjamin worked to extricate fighters from underground bunkers in the rubble and those in hiding outside the ghetto. They helped get money and provisions to Jews in hiding, to partisan units, and to resistance cells in camps and ghettos around Poland.

In August 1944, Vladka fought alongside Poles in the Polish Uprising in Warsaw, a two-month battle between the Polish Home Army and the Germans. Vladka, Ben, and his parents survived disguised as Christians for the remaining few months of the war in a small village.

After the war, Vladka and Ben went back to Warsaw to find the few Jews who had survived in hiding and then moved to odz, where Vladka became the director of the Jewish Cultural Department, which was responsible for organizing the Jews who were trickling back into the city to look for lost family members.

Among those survivors in odz, Vladka saw the same signs of hope she had seen in the early days of the Warsaw ghettosurvivors still willing to pray, still wanting to live, to love, to sing.

None of my family survived. Absolutely nobody. ButI organized at that time, the first Jewish event ofsurvivors for survivors. I did it with all my soul, what I still had in me. And with Jewish songs, Vladka said in her testimony.

Vladka and Benjamin married in 1945 and moved to New York City the following year. A series of 27 articles Vladka wrote for the Yiddish Daily Forward became one of the earliest chronicles of the Holocaust. In 1948, she published a book, On Both Sides of the Wall, which was translated from Yiddish in 1972.

Benjamin, who died in 2006, gave his testimony to the Visual History Archive in 1999. Vladka and Benjamin had two children and five grandchildren and were founders of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, were involved in the establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and created numerous educational, remembrance, and survivor resource organizations.

Vladka died in 2012.

For all the valor Vladka saw among the resistance fighters, in her testimony it was her mother and other mothers, she wanted to honor.

We talk about uprising. We talk about resistance. But about these simple, quiet, and dedicated souls, we give very little attention. And I think history has to see them a little bit more sharp, as they were.

Vladka Meed on the Aryan side of Warsaw, posing in Theater Square, 1944. ( From The Light of Days by Judy Batalion, William Morrow, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin [Miedzyzecki] Meed)

Vladka Meeds false identification card, issued in the name of Stanisawa Wchalska, 1943.( From The Light of Days by Judy Batalion, William Morrow, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Benjamin [Miedzyzecki] Meed)

Vladka Meed giving her testimony for USC Shoah Foundations Visual History Archive, 1996.

Read about resistance fighterFaye Schulman.

Read about resistance fighterAnna Heilman.

See Vladka Meeds full testimony here.

Vladka Meeds story was featured in The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitlers Ghettos by Judy Batalion. Watch Judy Batalion in conversation with Nancy Spielberg at a June 2021 event hosted by the USC Shoah Foundation, in partnership with Writer's Bloc and Holocaust Museum LA.

Read the original:

She Smuggled Love, Hope, and Dynamite Over the Ghetto Walls - USC Shoah Foundation |

Category: Shoah | Comments Off on She Smuggled Love, Hope, and Dynamite Over the Ghetto Walls – USC Shoah Foundation |
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

(March 6, 2024 / JNS)

World Jewry is facing its most dangerous period since the end of the Holocaust nearly eight decades ago, the head of the University of Southern Californias Shoah Foundation said on Tuesday.

The denial of the Holocaust and the attack of Oct. 7 are yet another version of antisemitic conspiracy theories which date back to ancient, centuries-old thinking blaming Jews for [ones] own suffering, USCSF executive director Robert J. Williams told JNS during a visit to Israel.

I didnt think it would ever be this bad, said Williams, a Holocaust scholar who also serves as UNESCO chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research and as an adviser to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. This is the most dangerous moment for Jews since 1945.

Whats more, the Jew-hatred is now coming from multiple sources, he said.

We knew about antisemitism on the left but were led to believe that it is not as deep and present as from religious extremists on the right, he said, but it is just as real a threat.

Williams noted that while denialism was a fact of life in todays modern world, such distortion and omission of crimes against Jews is inherently antisemitic and a persistent historic theme dating back to the infamous forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

He panned a very subjective anti-Israel media culture in allowing conspiracy theories to germinate.

The media bias against Israel is part of the denial; whether it is intentional or otherwise the effect is the same, he said.

Contributing to the historical record of Oct. 7

With 56,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and a new focus on antisemitism and the collection of Holocaust testimonies, the USC Shoah Foundation decided in the days after the Oct. 7 attack to gather victims testimonies and has amassed more than 400 video testimonials to date.

We are contributing to the factual record of the crimes that took place [on Oct. 7] and have come here on a research trip to see not only who [the victims] are but where they lived, he said.

His visit to Israel included a tour of areas in the south hardest hit during the massacre, as well as a stop at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and a meeting with President Isaac Herzog.The visit was punctuated by an event inaugurating a joint partnership formed with the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.

The uniqueness of the Holocaust

According to Williams, since he took over the foundation last year, its renewed focus on the Holocaust and antisemitismprivate donors had reportedly sought such a shift from an earlier, more general focus on genocidestemmed from a sense that branching out would minimize the role of the Holocaust.

If were opening the door to move past the Shoah but not doing right by the Shoah, you risk distracting people from understanding why the Holocaust was so important, he said, calling the systematic murder of 6 million Jews during World War II one of the seminal events in human history which shape the world we live in.

I hope that this can be a moment to address antisemitism with eyes wide open and know that it knows no political, cultural, social or religious bounds, he said.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to receive emails from JNS and allied pro-Israel organizations.

You have read 3 articles this month.

Register to receive full access to JNS.

See the original post:

USC Shoah Foundation: We're in most dangerous era for Jews since Holocaust - JNS.org

Category: Shoah | Comments Off on USC Shoah Foundation: We’re in most dangerous era for Jews since Holocaust – JNS.org
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

(March 6, 2024 / JNS)

A majority of countries have made no progress on Holocaust art restitution over the last quarter century, a report released on Monday shows.

Twenty-four of 47 countries surveyed have made minimal to no progress in art and cultural property restitution, compared to only seven countries that have made major progress in the field.

The report, Holocaust-Era Looted Cultural Property: A Current Worldwide Overview, was authored by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) and the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference).

It was released at an event held together with the U.S. State Department at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

The seven countries that have made major progress since a landmark conference on the issue in Washington in 1998 are Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The two dozen countries that have made little or no progress are Albania, Australia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Uruguay.

Of the millions of works of art and cultural property stolen by the Nazis, countless objects still have not been returned to their owners, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a video address. Today, too many governments, museums, dealers, galleries, and individuals still resist restitution efforts while heirs confront staggering legal and financial barriers as they go up against opponents whose resources vastly outmatch their own.

Gideon Taylor, president of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, said, This report underscores the critical need for advancement in art and cultural property restitution.

We urge other countries, as well as museums, auction houses, dealers and private possessors to join us in ensuring justice and that rightful owners and their heirs are reunited with their cultural treasures, Taylor said.

Colette Avital, who survived the Holocaust in Romania and is chairperson of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, said, For us Holocaust survivors, [these] works of art are part of our cultural heritage, part of our lives, part of our past.

They are the silent witnesses of the lives and loves of individuals, families and communities who were murdered cruelly and whose memories we cherish, said Avital, a former member of Knesset for the Labor Party.

The Nazis looted about 20% of the art in Europe, and more than 100,000 items have not been returned to their rightful owners.

Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to receive emails from JNS and allied pro-Israel organizations.

You have read 3 articles this month.

Register to receive full access to JNS.

Excerpt from:

Most countries refuse to budge on Shoah art restitution - JNS.org

Category: Shoah | Comments Off on Most countries refuse to budge on Shoah art restitution – JNS.org
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

The vengeful, scheming, genocidal response unleashed since October last year in Gaza, by Israel, has prompted a profoundly intensified global review of the punishing history related to the establishment of the State of Israel and its colonial-settler expansion ever since 1948.

An exceptional commentator, Pankaj Mishra, has now contributed an avidly argued, candid extended essay situated within this framework. Entitled, The Shoah after Gaza, it has recently been published in the London Review of Books.

Mishra begins by outlining the enduring malevolent impact on Israeli thinking about modern Jewish history and the subsequent shaping of Israels view of itself by Menachem Begin, who became Prime Minister in 1977. He had previously been the leader of the Zionist, militant-terrorist Irgun group. Mishra describes him as:

[A] demagogue from Poland, who turned the murder of six million jews into an intense national preoccupation and a new basis for Israeli identity. The Israeli establishment began to produce and disseminate a very particular version of the Shoah [or Holocaust] that could be used to legitimise a militant and expansionist Zionism.

Certain, apt comparative reflections on the menacing political impact of amplified Hindu nationalism in India are also woven into the article.

The case convincingly made is that the roots of the mass slaughter in Gaza we are now witnessing in horror may be found in these vehement, self-justifying (and self-absolving) politics from many decades ago. Right now, Mishra says:

Every day is poisoned by the awareness that while we go about our lives hundreds of ordinary people like ourselves are being murdered, or being forced to witness the murder of their children. Adding that, Bidens stubborn malice and cruelty to the Palestinians is just one of the gruesome riddles presented to us by Western politicians and journalists.

This article compels one to think, right through to the final paragraph, where Mishra concludes:

Against the acts of savagery, and the propaganda by omission and obfuscation, countless millions now proclaim, in public spaces and on digital media, their furious resentments. In the process, they risk permanently embittering their lives. But perhaps, their outrage alone will alleviate, for now, the Palestinian feeling of absolute loneliness, and go some way towards redeeming the memory of the Shoah.

Follow this link:

Thinking intensely about the holocaust, Israel and Gaza - Pearls and Irritations

Category: Shoah | Comments Off on Thinking intensely about the holocaust, Israel and Gaza – Pearls and Irritations
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

A recent listening session hosted by Columbia Universitys new Task Force on Antisemitism devolved into chaos, with a task force leader yelling at students who questioned the groups refusal to define antisemitism, according to sources at the university. Meanwhile, the school is preparing to spend up to $135,000 to hire someone to support the task force, which was propped up just weeks after Hamass October 7 attack on Israel.

During a closed-door meeting last week, Professor Ester Fuchs, who is one of the chairs of the task force, invoked a Supreme Court justices famous line about pornography: I know it when I see it.

The task force is not going to parse words on the definition of antisemitism but will take an experientially oriented approach, Fuchs said. She added that they would not delve into which of the 25 definitions of antisemitism the group would subscribe to, because thats not the purpose of what were doing.

The task forces ambiguous mandate is concerning students and faculty who worry that not defining antisemitism could stifle criticism of Israels actions or hinder efforts to tamp down actual instances of antisemitism. In a leaked email exchange about the task force obtained by LitHub, one professor suggested that, since the task force is unwilling to define antisemitism, the group may as well be named The Task Force on, Like, Campus Vibes.

Amid the campus debate over the task forces purpose, the university has opened a 35-hour per week job posting for a research director for the group, with a salary range of $110,000-$135,000. The Director will work for at least one year with the possibility of an extension and will hire and supervise a staff of up to three Research Assistants, the job description notes. Among the directors responsibilities will be to design and execute an academically rigorous program of qualitative research on anti-Semitism at Columbia.

The resources the university is devoting to the task force stands in stark contrast to its handling of other issues plaguing the campus. While the task force has said it is concerned about other forms of discrimination, including Islamophobia and anti-Arab bigotry, Columbia has not set up any specific processes to study those issues. It has, however, banned two student groups for holding unauthorized protests for Gaza, and it has moved slowly on an investigation into a chemical attack during a Palestine solidarity protest in January.

The task force, announced on November 1, released its first report of recommendations this week. The report addresses everything from campus demonstrations to disciplinary enforcement, leaving faculty worried that the task force has too broad of a scope.

I dont even see why this task force gets to weigh in on events policies. If we wanted to have a task force on protests, we could have had one of those except we already have a Senate Rules Committee that put in a lot of work on the new events policy, said Professor Joseph Howley, a member of the universitys Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine group, and the chair of one of the schools core undergraduate classes, Literature Humanities.

Im still waiting to hear from the administration anything about the only actual violence that has occurred on our campus around this conflict: which has been against Palestinian students and pro-Palestinian Jewish students, Howley told The Intercept. Im still waiting to hear anything from the institution about that. Why have we not set up a task force just to look into that?

Over the last several weeks, the task force has hosted open listening sessions with students. Sources familiar with the meetings have told The Intercept that faculty hosting the sessions have dismissed, belittled, and even forced students out of the room.

In a session on February 29, students asked how the task force defined antisemitism. Professor Gil Zussman said that defining antisemitism was not a top priority for the task force, which would rather move forward with its work. Numerous students pounced, objecting to the idea of moving forward without defining the term the task force was ostensibly focused on. Some argued that not defining it could stifle criticism of Israels actions. Others pointed out that not defining antisemitism could hinder enforcement against it.

In the session Fuchs and Professor Rebecca Kobrin hosted on March 1, similar rifts emerged.

Multiple Jewish students spoke up in that meeting, saying they were worried that their anti-Zionism could be conflated with antisemitism. One Jewish student, who said their grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, described feeling like their Judaism was being erased and worried that the task force wasnt taking their perspective seriously. They said that they didnt feel comfortable being on campus if other students could feel comfortable calling them a Nazi simply because they didnt agree with what is happening in Palestine.

Read our complete coverage

Much of the conversation centered on the lack of an agreed-upon definition for antisemitism. After Fuchs invoked the I know it when I see it line, a Jewish student said they were extremely alarmed over the task force not defining antisemitism. That led to a tense exchange in which Fuchs repeatedly interrupted the student and briskly reminded the room that the meeting was confidential. When the student pushed back, the task force co-chair called out the student for taking notes and beginning their question in a very provocative, antagonistic tone.

For several minutes, Fuchs continued to interrupt the student as they expressed concern about how the group was put together and about how faculty and student dissent is being disregarded.

Fuchs at one point responded that it was not appropriate for the student to suggest that she had spoken over them.

Later, a student asked whether criticism of Israel is antisemitic, prompting Fuchs to escalate further. You think youre so clever, she said to the student, accusing them of trying to back her into a corner. She told the student they were being disruptive and invited the student to leave. The student walked out.

The clearly stated ground rules governing all Task Force listening sessions have been and continue to be that the proceedings are confidential and off the record, Fuchs wrote in a statement to The Intercept. I adhere to those rules even if other participants fail to do so.

Kobrin, for her part, tried to calm tensions in the room. She suggested that they go around the room, giving everyone a chance to speak for five minutes. A student expressed support and suggested that while people speak, the co-hosts not, prompting Fuchs to yell once again. I would suggest that you dont make the rules, the task force co-chair said. This is my meeting, and you dont make the rules, she added, before saying that shed never had such a disrespectful student. Write that down, Fuchs challenged.

Kobrin said the task force intentionally did not land on a specific definition of antisemitism so as not to alienate people with their perceived experiences. She offered that hate, discrimination, or prejudice against Jewish people was a definition, and affirmed a Jewish student who asked whether harassment from pro-Israel Jewish people would fit the definition. Fuchs ultimately said that the task force is not taking political positions and critiques of Israel as antisemitism.

Fuchs also apologized during the meeting, saying that she had felt personally attacked. She reportedly seemed genuinely apologetic for reacting how she did though for some students, it was too little, too late.

On Thursday, a group of students sent a letter to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell, and other officials and student Senate representatives about the meeting. We have no confidence in Dr. Fuchss ability to produce a report reflecting the experiences of all of the members of the Columbia community and ask that she be replaced, they wrote, urging the university to replace Fuchs with an anti-Zionist member.

Despite the tumultuous meetings, the task force has continued its work. On Monday, the committee released its first set of recommendations, focused on the right to protest on campus, ensuring that protests dont interfere with the rights of others at Columbia, and to combat discrimination and harassment.

Although our report focuses on antisemitism, we hope our recommendations will also bolster efforts to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and other forms of bigotry. We condemn all these toxic forms of hate, and we look forward to working with colleagues and to partnering on initiatives to counter them across the University, wrote co-chairs Fuchs, Nicholas Lemann, and David M. Schizer.

In the report, the task force frames its mandate around federal laws around discrimination and harassment and calls on the university to clarify the meaning of discriminatory harassment and what speech contributes to a hostile learning or working environment.

When members of our community exercise their right to protest, they must be free to do so in safety and without fear. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case in recent months, and this is not acceptable, the report said. The report also notes that the university has a policy of completing investigations into conduct violations within 15 days and recommends that the timeline be extended, so as to give complainants more time, and encourage investigators to get all the facts before acting.

Despite the 15-day policy currently on the books, the university has yet to complete its investigation into an attack on a January 19 rally for Gaza, during which students described a noxious-smelling chemical substance being launched at the crowd.

When asked about the status of the investigation, a university official pointed The Intercept to a statement from January 30 37 days ago that said the investigation is ongoing, and referred to the New York Police Department for more information. The official reiterated that the suspected perpetrators are banned from campus as the investigation proceeds. In recent weeks, Columbia students have told The Intercept that theyve repeatedly seen the suspected assailants on campus and reported them to the authorities. The university official said that the Department of Public Safety has investigated those claims each time and found them to be unsubstantiated.

An NYPD spokesperson told The Intercept that the case is still open and that the department is still investigating on who the people who are wanted, they just havent caught them yet. The spokesperson continued: Theres some people who are wanted that are still, like, unknown.

Meanwhile, in February, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce led by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. sent a letter to university leadership, announcing a congressional investigation into Columbias response to antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students. Earlier this week, after a roundtable with Jewish students, Foxx spoke with Fox News about how no student should feel fearful on any college campus in the U.S. Foxxs office did not respond to a question about the chemical attack on Columbias campus or whether the committee would look into the schools response to it.

More here:

Columbia's New Antisemitism Task Force Won't Say What It Thinks Antisemitism Is - The Intercept

Category: Anti-semitism | Comments Off on Columbia’s New Antisemitism Task Force Won’t Say What It Thinks Antisemitism Is – The Intercept
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

On October 8, 2022, Ye tweeted, Im a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up Im going to death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually cant be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jews also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.

A few hours later, my Journalism class, munching on bagels and stifling yawns, began to argue as Yes tweet was brought to our attention. After taking up most of our first-period block debating, we eventually came to a conclusion: We naively dismissed the tweet, relying on the assumption that although problematic, Wests words were likely to be canceled and condemned.

A few days later, Ye denied the Holocaust Museums invitation to tour by stating that Planned Parenthood was his Holocaust museum. Soon after, the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles reported that they had received a tremendous influx of hateful anti-semitic comments on their social media pages.

On October 24 a group of anti-semitic and Neo-Nazi demonstrators hung banners off of a 405 overpass, with the phrase Kanye Is Right About The Jews. As demonstrators yelled, they raised their arms, recognized as the Nazi salute.

Less than a month later, Ye casually remarked, I like Hitler, on Alex Jones Infowars platform. In the same breath, Ye continued, Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler, and I see good things in Hitler also.

As the Milken students navigated the next few months following the tweet, we came to realize the extent of our assumption. Ye, as not only a popular artist but as a brand, was featured on the shoes, pants, and hoodies of Milken students. His indifferent, too cool for school attitude was heavily ingrained in the minds of students, and so when their favorite artist, brand, and influencer became the representative of modern antisemitism, it left many students in shock.

Suddenly, Ye, whose music and clothing had been a prominent part of the Milken community and the Gen-Z community at large, became a symbol of hate and violence. Yeezy slides and Yes hit songs now carried a weight, representing an individual whose words provoked demonstrators to raise their arms in support of Nazis and the annihilation of the Jewish people. The danger of endorsing Yes rhetoric not only became apparent but at a point cynically comical.

Yet, what seems most terrifying are not the words themselves. Its the fact that Ye was given a platform to express unchecked hate without restrictions or pushback. Ye felt free, safe, and protected. He was given a space in which his words of unadulterated hate were accepted and encouraged, while Jews from all over the world became riddled with fear and anxiety about their safety and future.

Different social media platforms exploded as users debated the ramifications of Yes words, provoking a surge in antisemitic rhetoric. The ADL reported an influx in anti-semitism and the voices calling for condemnation weakened. As time weakened Yes blow, and students embraced the protective bubble of Jewish private school, soon nobody bothered to press skip on Yes song.

But then, 366 days later, something happened that didnt just pierce our community it destroyed it. This time around, the bubble of Jewish private school could no longer provide respite. October 7, 2023 marked a moment of atrocity, tragedy, and devastation.

Yet, what feels most baffling is what occurred on October 8th, 2023; how the world reacted to October 7th. October 8th, 2023 marked a moment when we no longer had the luxury for excuses. Posts on Instagram, praying for the protection and return of hostages were flooded with comments promoting Hamas and preaching the genocide of Jews. On Twitter, instead of users wishing for peace and protection, there were online riots calling murders and terrorists an inspiration.

The platforms that once promised universal protection and equality for everyone, regardless of gender, race, religion, or ethnicity, allowed for the spread of anti-semitism as if it were a passing trend. Users, who had previously advocated for humanity, peace, and a general understanding that murder is bad, suddenly had a double standard.

They made an exception for humanity. An exception for peace. An exception for murder.

The lack of denunciation creates exceptions to hate and allows for an environment that fosters hostility. It is paramount that we as a united community make the safety, conservation, and livelihood of Jews a priority. Even small acts of condemnation emphasize the danger in Yes words and actions and make it clear that as a community, we do not stand for hate, discrimination, or bigotry.

The small act of skipping a song or choosing to buy different shoes brings us one step closer to confidently being able to say the phrase, never again.

Go here to read the rest:

Ye the Prophet? How Ye's Anti-Semitism Foreshadowed the Post-Oct 7 World - The Milken Roar

Category: Anti-semitism | Comments Off on Ye the Prophet? How Ye’s Anti-Semitism Foreshadowed the Post-Oct 7 World – The Milken Roar
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

The University of Pennsylvania Faculty for Justice in Palestine group has filed a federal lawsuit against the Ivy League institution in an attempt to stop documents from being sent to a House of Representatives committee investigating campus anti-Semitism.

According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the lawsuit was filed by two professors with the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine group and alleged that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce investigation into anti-Semitism at the institution threatens academic freedom.

This nation is seeing a new form of McCarthyism, in which accusations of anti-Semitism are substituted for the insinuations of Communist leanings which were the tool of oppression in the 1950s, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also states that the committees bad faith questioning during a Congressional hearing on Dec. 5, 2023 was so effective that two of the three presidents have since been forced to resign.

[RELATED: Faculty for Justice in Palestine groups form, emulating anti-Israel student organization]

According to the outlet, the lawsuit also states that the university is privileging, protecting, and endorsing pro-Israel speech over that of those who are pro-Palestinem stating that anti-Semitism has previously been used in egregious ontological error, to chill, punish, and end virtually all moral, political, legal, and other criticism of the nation-state Israel.

In a press release, the group wrote that their protests have come under intense scrutiny, and said they have been doxxed.

After October 7th, our protesting the beginning of Israels retaliation against Gaza were met with the doxing of many of us students, postdocs, staff and faculty and little if any statements on the part of the administration to support our right to free speech, Africana studies professor Eve Troutt Powell wrotein the press release.

[RELATED: Dirty Jew. Monster. Colonizer. Jewish students share anti-Semitic campus encounters before Congress]

The Committee is engaged in a partisan witch hunt by seeking syllabi, academic papers, and other material from Penn faculty of all ranks, with the search highlighting keywords like Jew, Israel, antisemitism, Palestine, Gaza, resistance, settler colonialism and diversity, equity and inclusion, to name most of their criteria, the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine wrote in its press release.

The House Committee on Education asked several documents to be produced, including the following:

See more here:

UPenn faculty sues university in attempt to stop anti-Semitism documents being sent to Congress: 'McCarthyism' - Campus Reform

Category: Anti-semitism | Comments Off on UPenn faculty sues university in attempt to stop anti-Semitism documents being sent to Congress: ‘McCarthyism’ – Campus Reform
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

The Conservative governments criminalisation of opposition in Britain to Israels genocidal assault on the Palestinians in Gaza is escalating.

Continuing to slander anti-Zionist views as antisemitism, Higher Education Minister Robert Halfon announced in February that an Expert Adviser on antisemitism in Higher Education will be appointed.

In an interview with Times Higher Education, Halfon said that action against antisemitism needs to come from within and complained that, so far, university vice-chancellors have been merely reactive in their curbing of free speech instead of being proactive.

As an example of the type of antisemitic actions Halfon had in mind, he said he was distressed that Jewish students have to have to walk past posters saying Israel is committing genocide and that there are demonstrations with protesters saying, Zionists off campus. He continued, Thats why the secretary of state [for education] and I havewritten twice to universities on this. And why were looking to introduce an antisemitism charter to give teeth to the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA) definition is an anti-democratic construct, designed to paint political anti-Zionism and opposition to the Israeli states persecution of the Palestinians as anti-Jewish hatred. It was successfully deployed by a cabal within the Labour and Tory parties, in league with Zionist organisations and the intelligence agencies, in the campaign to slander and eventually remove Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour leadership, after he had allowed the Blairites to expel or drive out thousands of his supporters on trumped up charges or allegations.

In 2020, then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson pressured UK universities into adopting the definition.

In the current frenzied atmosphere that dominates in British political circles, as they back Israels war crimes to the hilt, merely adopting the definition no longer suffices. More efforts must be made to enforce it as strictly as possible to eliminate all dissent.

Exactly what this means was outlined by Lord Mann, John Mann, the former Labour MP (2001-2019) and left antisemitism witch-hunter who, after leaving the House of Commons became Adviser to UK Government on Antisemitism. He told the pro-Tory Telegraph that students involved in antisemitic incidents should be kicked out. As an example, he cited an instance of a Jewish student centre being sprayed with graffiti saying, Free Palestine.

The targeting of individual students was confirmed by Professor Adam Habib, director of University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), who told Times Higher Education that he has received letters from ministers asking him to act against a group of student leaders that we dont like for these particular reasons.

As opposition to Israels onslaught has intensified left-wing SOAS students have been targeted by a pro-Israel police dragnet.

In a measure of just how unhinged the accusations have become, Baroness Foster, a Tory member of the House of Lords was forced to pay damages to an Oxford University student after Foster maliciously accused her of antisemitism on X/Twitter. Foster claimed, Malika Gorgianeh, a doctoral student in astrophysics, displayed a disgusting antisemitic octopus symbol when appearing on the BBCs University Challenge. The stuffed toy was in fact her teams chosen mascot. She was also accused of wearing a jacket displaying the colours of the Palestinian flag. It was in fact navy blue, orange, pink and green. The Palestinian flag's colours are red, black, green and white. Foster called for Gorgianeh to be expelled by her university and arrested by the police. She has been forced to issue a public apology and pay substantial damages.

In early November, Science Minister Michelle Donelan called for UKRI (UK Research and Innovationan independent public body that funds and directs academic research in the UK) to shut down its equality committee after some of its members showed solidarity with the Palestinians on social media.

Asked about this incident, Halfon said that Donelan had done the right thing, and We have to give a signal that we will not tolerate antisemitism in any shape or formnot just with the law but also with the spirit of the law.

The latest initiatives were spurred by a report issued last month by the Zionist Community Security Trust (CST), claiming there was a huge increase in antisemitism in Britain since the October 7 Hamas-led incursion into Israel. The CST claimed that antisemitism was rife in education at all levels, in school classrooms and on campuses, with 325 incidents in schools and 182 on campusa 300 percent increase.

Many of the incidents the CST records involve opposition to the state of Israel, rather than antisemitism. Even shouting Free Palestine during demonstrations or using the terms Zionism or Zionist are deemed instances of antisemitic behaviour.

In a choreographed response, on February 16, just 24 hours after the CST report was published, theDaily Telegraphannounced that a University anti-Semitism tsar would be appointed as Jewish students face death threats. The Government will create a post of Expert Adviser on anti-Semitism in Higher Education to tackle hatred on campus.

Halfon commented that the CSTs figures were deeply concerning, adding, To see this form of hatred also take place in education is unacceptable.

I have contacted all vice-chancellorsreaching out to many personallyto ask them step up and crack down on antisemitism on university campuses.

'The government has been clear that hate crime on any kind will not be tolerated and anyone found to have committed it will face the full force of the law.

This offensive was all the more critical for the government due to the February 5 ruling by an employment tribunal that Professor David Miller was wrongly sacked for his anti-Zionist political beliefs. It found that University of Bristol was guilty of direct discrimination against Miller, contrary to Section 13 of the Equality Act, both in its decision to dismiss him on October 1, 2021, and in its rejection of his appeal against dismissal on February 23, 2022.

Millers was the first successful challenge in Britain to the campaign of manufactured allegations of left antisemitism. Halfon confirmed that there were serious discussions taking place at the highest levels of government about the result of the tribunal.

He also revealed that the government plans to introduce a seal of quality awarded only to universities that adhere to the highest standards in dealing with anti-Semitism, i.e., where the IHRA definition is used to punish and censor as many students or faculty members holding oppositional views as possible.

A new 5.5 million contract was released last month for a government supplier to propagate the IHRA definition in schools and universities. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Jewish schools, synagogues, and other community centres will also receive a 72 million security package. The figure includes 54 million of new funding for the Community Security Trust, in addition to the almost 100 million the government has handed over in various grants and awards.

The capitalist class is deathly afraid of the increasing radicalization of the working class by the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It seeks to crush this with the full force of the law and will spare no expense to do it.

On March 1, Sunak delivered his now infamous speech outside Number 10 describing the recent election of George Galloway, on an explicitly pro-Palestine and anti-genocide platform, as beyond alarming and the result of extremism. In the same speech he pledged, We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism.We will demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus.

The anti-democratic Prevent strategy is enforced in schools and throughout the public sector under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and used to demonise Muslims in particular.

Join the fight for socialism

Go here to see the original:

British government intensifies school and campus clampdown under guise of combating antisemitism - WSWS

Category: Anti-semitism | Comments Off on British government intensifies school and campus clampdown under guise of combating antisemitism – WSWS
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

Anti-Israel protest at Columbia (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The president and board co-chairs of Columbia University will appear before Congress next month to discuss their response to rising campus anti-Semitism, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced.

"Some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred at Columbia University," the committee's chairwoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), said in a Monday statement.

"Due to the severe and pervasive nature of these cases, and the Columbia administrations failure to enforce its own policies to protect Jewish students, the Committee must hear from Columbias leadership in person to learn how the school is addressing antisemitism on its campus."

The announcement comes roughly one month after Foxx sent a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik and board co-chairs David Greenwald and Claire Shipman requesting documents on the school's "failure to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff." All three officials will testify before the committee on April 17.

A similar hearing in December contributed to the ouster of two former Ivy League university presidents, Harvard University's Claudine Gay and the University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill.

During that hearing, Gay and Magill said calls for "intifada" against Jews may not violate their schools' rules. Both institutions faced intense criticism from prominent alumni and donors as a result, with one Penn donor withdrawing a $100 million gift from the school.

Magill resigned just days after the Dec. 5 hearing, while Gay resigned on Jan. 2. In addition to her disastrous congressional testimony, Gay faced mounting allegations of plagiarism.

See the rest here:

Columbia President Will Testify Before Congress on Response to Campus Anti-Semitism - Washington Free Beacon

Category: Anti-semitism | Comments Off on Columbia President Will Testify Before Congress on Response to Campus Anti-Semitism – Washington Free Beacon
Tags: