Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

National Review

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has re-awoken to a profound truth: Rich, secure capitalists are the natural enemies of authoritarian regimes. In a hybrid autocratic-capitalist model, capitalism is the means to generate wealth, but power is the end goal. Successful capitalists naturally begin to demand that their personal and property rights be protected from authoritarian fiat. Capital in the hands of entrepreneurs is a political resource; it poses a threat to the implementation of centralized plans.Realizing this, the CCP has begun to assert control over the private sector by installing . . . Party officials inside private firms and having state-backed firms invest in private enterprises. In the absence of civil rights or an independent judiciary, private companies have no real independence from the government in China. Dissent and demands for civil rights are a threat to the regime and will be crushed.Chinas shift from encouraging external investment and internal market competition toward treating capitalism as a threat has an obvious historical precedent. From 19211928, the Soviet Union instituted a policy of economic liberalization, which allowed for the privatization of agriculture, retail trade, and light industry. This partial and temporary return to a controlled and limited capitalism, known as the New Economic Policy (NEP), saved the Soviet economy from collapse and enabled Russia to modernize. But, in 1928, Stalin suddenly reversed course: He collectivized agriculture and liquidated the most prosperous farmers, thereby necessitating the frequent resort to grain imports, notably from the United States.Chinas own experiment with economic liberalization began in 1981, when Premier Deng Xiaoping began to decentralize and privatize economic activity while continuing to assert the ultimate authority of the CCP. With liberalization, international businesses were invited into China. The price was high: the Chinese regime demanded that they work with and train local firms. This arrangement led to widespread theft of intellectual property, and soon enough, domestic competitors displaced their international rivals in the domestic market, often with the help of government subsidies. CCP-sponsored firms leveraged domestic dominance to enter the international marketplace, undercutting their competitors worldwide. International partners were then subjected to asymmetric regulatory action, excluding them from China. (Uber is one recent case of this phenomenon. There are countless others.)Now that the West is waking up to this game, the inflow of capital to China is slowing. Is Chinas neo-mercantilist form of capitalism about to end? That seems unlikely; it is too far entrenched to be uprooted quickly. But the freedom of action accorded to Chinese companies and executives is already being dramatically curtailed as Xi Jinping asserts explicit political control over the economy. For example, in November, the CCP unexpectedly prevented the IPO of Ant Group, a company whose business model was considered misaligned with the goals of the party.International businesses that are heavily invested in the PRC must prepare for the worst: Offers of the sort that cant be refused will be made to coerce the sale of onshore facilities and operations. Given the capital controls imposed on the movement of money out of China, it is likely that many Western investments in China will be confiscated as Dengs experiment is wound down. Western competitors in the global market should finally recognize that their Chinese competitors are both at the mercy of the CCP and backed by instruments of state power.The central conceit of Chinese relations with the West has been that while political authority is monopolized by the CCP, China has a free-market economic system, and should be treated as a free-market trading partner. This was always a convenient fiction. But whatever distance might have existed in the past between economic and political activity in China has disappeared as the party takes control of nominally independent companies.A number of Chinese state-backed companies, including some in strategically important industries, have begun to default on their debt obligations. Will international creditors be allowed to claim the assets? Will the equity holders in many cases the CCP or regional and local governments in China be wiped out? If these companies are bailed out by the government, will domestic and foreign debt-holders be treated equally? Or will foreign creditors find their assets wiped out, while these companies continue operating under nominally new ownership and perhaps a new corporate brand? It seems a safe bet that foreign debts will be repudiated, either explicitly or implicitly. What was previously commercial debt now has the risks that are typically associated with sovereign debt, which can be canceled by government fiat. In short, a wave of write-downs is coming for Western businesses invested in China.Western businesses are not competitors operating in a free market in the PRC. As we wrote in a recent article, the CCP consistently treats western firms as adversaries to the sovereign interests of the PRC and uses all the tools at its disposal to target them. Western business executives need to prepare themselves for the very realistic possibility of extensive confiscation of Western assets in China in the near future. Before this happens, the U.S. government should pass legislation allowing Western companies to claim compensation from CCP-controlled entities in U.S. courts for the confiscation of assets. And since the CCP is asserting control over all Chinese companies, all of these companies should be treated as part of a single, government-controlled entity for purposes of litigation and regulation. When the bill comes due for capitalism in China, the West must be ready.Michael Hochberg is a physicist who has founded four successful semiconductor and telecommunications startups. Leonard Hochberg is the Coordinator of the Mackinder Forum-U.S. and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

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Buck Rescue Was Months In The Making - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

National Review

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has re-awoken to a profound truth: Rich, secure capitalists are the natural enemies of authoritarian regimes. In a hybrid autocratic-capitalist model, capitalism is the means to generate wealth, but power is the end goal. Successful capitalists naturally begin to demand that their personal and property rights be protected from authoritarian fiat. Capital in the hands of entrepreneurs is a political resource; it poses a threat to the implementation of centralized plans.Realizing this, the CCP has begun to assert control over the private sector by installing . . . Party officials inside private firms and having state-backed firms invest in private enterprises. In the absence of civil rights or an independent judiciary, private companies have no real independence from the government in China. Dissent and demands for civil rights are a threat to the regime and will be crushed.Chinas shift from encouraging external investment and internal market competition toward treating capitalism as a threat has an obvious historical precedent. From 19211928, the Soviet Union instituted a policy of economic liberalization, which allowed for the privatization of agriculture, retail trade, and light industry. This partial and temporary return to a controlled and limited capitalism, known as the New Economic Policy (NEP), saved the Soviet economy from collapse and enabled Russia to modernize. But, in 1928, Stalin suddenly reversed course: He collectivized agriculture and liquidated the most prosperous farmers, thereby necessitating the frequent resort to grain imports, notably from the United States.Chinas own experiment with economic liberalization began in 1981, when Premier Deng Xiaoping began to decentralize and privatize economic activity while continuing to assert the ultimate authority of the CCP. With liberalization, international businesses were invited into China. The price was high: the Chinese regime demanded that they work with and train local firms. This arrangement led to widespread theft of intellectual property, and soon enough, domestic competitors displaced their international rivals in the domestic market, often with the help of government subsidies. CCP-sponsored firms leveraged domestic dominance to enter the international marketplace, undercutting their competitors worldwide. International partners were then subjected to asymmetric regulatory action, excluding them from China. (Uber is one recent case of this phenomenon. There are countless others.)Now that the West is waking up to this game, the inflow of capital to China is slowing. Is Chinas neo-mercantilist form of capitalism about to end? That seems unlikely; it is too far entrenched to be uprooted quickly. But the freedom of action accorded to Chinese companies and executives is already being dramatically curtailed as Xi Jinping asserts explicit political control over the economy. For example, in November, the CCP unexpectedly prevented the IPO of Ant Group, a company whose business model was considered misaligned with the goals of the party.International businesses that are heavily invested in the PRC must prepare for the worst: Offers of the sort that cant be refused will be made to coerce the sale of onshore facilities and operations. Given the capital controls imposed on the movement of money out of China, it is likely that many Western investments in China will be confiscated as Dengs experiment is wound down. Western competitors in the global market should finally recognize that their Chinese competitors are both at the mercy of the CCP and backed by instruments of state power.The central conceit of Chinese relations with the West has been that while political authority is monopolized by the CCP, China has a free-market economic system, and should be treated as a free-market trading partner. This was always a convenient fiction. But whatever distance might have existed in the past between economic and political activity in China has disappeared as the party takes control of nominally independent companies.A number of Chinese state-backed companies, including some in strategically important industries, have begun to default on their debt obligations. Will international creditors be allowed to claim the assets? Will the equity holders in many cases the CCP or regional and local governments in China be wiped out? If these companies are bailed out by the government, will domestic and foreign debt-holders be treated equally? Or will foreign creditors find their assets wiped out, while these companies continue operating under nominally new ownership and perhaps a new corporate brand? It seems a safe bet that foreign debts will be repudiated, either explicitly or implicitly. What was previously commercial debt now has the risks that are typically associated with sovereign debt, which can be canceled by government fiat. In short, a wave of write-downs is coming for Western businesses invested in China.Western businesses are not competitors operating in a free market in the PRC. As we wrote in a recent article, the CCP consistently treats western firms as adversaries to the sovereign interests of the PRC and uses all the tools at its disposal to target them. Western business executives need to prepare themselves for the very realistic possibility of extensive confiscation of Western assets in China in the near future. Before this happens, the U.S. government should pass legislation allowing Western companies to claim compensation from CCP-controlled entities in U.S. courts for the confiscation of assets. And since the CCP is asserting control over all Chinese companies, all of these companies should be treated as part of a single, government-controlled entity for purposes of litigation and regulation. When the bill comes due for capitalism in China, the West must be ready.Michael Hochberg is a physicist who has founded four successful semiconductor and telecommunications startups. Leonard Hochberg is the Coordinator of the Mackinder Forum-U.S. and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

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New Year's Eve will have different feel in Times Square - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

National Review

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has re-awoken to a profound truth: Rich, secure capitalists are the natural enemies of authoritarian regimes. In a hybrid autocratic-capitalist model, capitalism is the means to generate wealth, but power is the end goal. Successful capitalists naturally begin to demand that their personal and property rights be protected from authoritarian fiat. Capital in the hands of entrepreneurs is a political resource; it poses a threat to the implementation of centralized plans.Realizing this, the CCP has begun to assert control over the private sector by installing . . . Party officials inside private firms and having state-backed firms invest in private enterprises. In the absence of civil rights or an independent judiciary, private companies have no real independence from the government in China. Dissent and demands for civil rights are a threat to the regime and will be crushed.Chinas shift from encouraging external investment and internal market competition toward treating capitalism as a threat has an obvious historical precedent. From 19211928, the Soviet Union instituted a policy of economic liberalization, which allowed for the privatization of agriculture, retail trade, and light industry. This partial and temporary return to a controlled and limited capitalism, known as the New Economic Policy (NEP), saved the Soviet economy from collapse and enabled Russia to modernize. But, in 1928, Stalin suddenly reversed course: He collectivized agriculture and liquidated the most prosperous farmers, thereby necessitating the frequent resort to grain imports, notably from the United States.Chinas own experiment with economic liberalization began in 1981, when Premier Deng Xiaoping began to decentralize and privatize economic activity while continuing to assert the ultimate authority of the CCP. With liberalization, international businesses were invited into China. The price was high: the Chinese regime demanded that they work with and train local firms. This arrangement led to widespread theft of intellectual property, and soon enough, domestic competitors displaced their international rivals in the domestic market, often with the help of government subsidies. CCP-sponsored firms leveraged domestic dominance to enter the international marketplace, undercutting their competitors worldwide. International partners were then subjected to asymmetric regulatory action, excluding them from China. (Uber is one recent case of this phenomenon. There are countless others.)Now that the West is waking up to this game, the inflow of capital to China is slowing. Is Chinas neo-mercantilist form of capitalism about to end? That seems unlikely; it is too far entrenched to be uprooted quickly. But the freedom of action accorded to Chinese companies and executives is already being dramatically curtailed as Xi Jinping asserts explicit political control over the economy. For example, in November, the CCP unexpectedly prevented the IPO of Ant Group, a company whose business model was considered misaligned with the goals of the party.International businesses that are heavily invested in the PRC must prepare for the worst: Offers of the sort that cant be refused will be made to coerce the sale of onshore facilities and operations. Given the capital controls imposed on the movement of money out of China, it is likely that many Western investments in China will be confiscated as Dengs experiment is wound down. Western competitors in the global market should finally recognize that their Chinese competitors are both at the mercy of the CCP and backed by instruments of state power.The central conceit of Chinese relations with the West has been that while political authority is monopolized by the CCP, China has a free-market economic system, and should be treated as a free-market trading partner. This was always a convenient fiction. But whatever distance might have existed in the past between economic and political activity in China has disappeared as the party takes control of nominally independent companies.A number of Chinese state-backed companies, including some in strategically important industries, have begun to default on their debt obligations. Will international creditors be allowed to claim the assets? Will the equity holders in many cases the CCP or regional and local governments in China be wiped out? If these companies are bailed out by the government, will domestic and foreign debt-holders be treated equally? Or will foreign creditors find their assets wiped out, while these companies continue operating under nominally new ownership and perhaps a new corporate brand? It seems a safe bet that foreign debts will be repudiated, either explicitly or implicitly. What was previously commercial debt now has the risks that are typically associated with sovereign debt, which can be canceled by government fiat. In short, a wave of write-downs is coming for Western businesses invested in China.Western businesses are not competitors operating in a free market in the PRC. As we wrote in a recent article, the CCP consistently treats western firms as adversaries to the sovereign interests of the PRC and uses all the tools at its disposal to target them. Western business executives need to prepare themselves for the very realistic possibility of extensive confiscation of Western assets in China in the near future. Before this happens, the U.S. government should pass legislation allowing Western companies to claim compensation from CCP-controlled entities in U.S. courts for the confiscation of assets. And since the CCP is asserting control over all Chinese companies, all of these companies should be treated as part of a single, government-controlled entity for purposes of litigation and regulation. When the bill comes due for capitalism in China, the West must be ready.Michael Hochberg is a physicist who has founded four successful semiconductor and telecommunications startups. Leonard Hochberg is the Coordinator of the Mackinder Forum-U.S. and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

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How to safely ring in the new year in Sacramento - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

The Week

The nation's top infectious disease expert is expressing disappointment that the U.S. hasn't met its goal of administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of the year.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke Thursday with Today about the United States' rollout of two COVID-19 vaccines, as officials say almost 2.8 million Americans have received doses, according to The New York Times. This number falls short of the goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020."We'd have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today, by the end of 2020, which was the projection," Fauci said. "Obviously it didn't happen, and that's disappointing."Fauci expressed hope that the U.S. vaccination program will gain "momentum" in the first few weeks of January, but he added that there needs to be "a lot more" resources provided to states and cities "to help them to get this task done." Asked if the federal government should take over the vaccination effort, Fauci again suggested instead that more resources be provided to states."Rather than stepping in and taking over, I think it would be maybe better to give more resources and to work in tandem with them," Fauci said. "In other words, not saying, "We're taking over, we're going to do your job,' but saying, 'We're going to really help you to do your job, particularly by giving you many more resources.'"Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who earlier this month said the goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans this year should be reached, previously acknowledged that the number of vaccinations "is lower than what we hoped for," per The New York Times. He added, "We know that it should be better, and we're working hard to make it better." > "The good news is that it does not appear to be more virulent."> > Watch @craigmelvin's full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the dangerous new coronavirus strain now in the United States, and what it will take to fix the slow start to the vaccine push. pic.twitter.com/Z8yK7IpJCt> > -- TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 31, 2020More stories from theweek.com 4 predictions for 2021 5 cartoons about the end of a very, very bad year How to de-clutter your home for the new year

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Breakdown of when and where to get COVID-19 vaccine in Houston - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

The Week

The nation's top infectious disease expert is expressing disappointment that the U.S. hasn't met its goal of administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of the year.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke Thursday with Today about the United States' rollout of two COVID-19 vaccines, as officials say almost 2.8 million Americans have received doses, according to The New York Times. This number falls short of the goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020."We'd have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today, by the end of 2020, which was the projection," Fauci said. "Obviously it didn't happen, and that's disappointing."Fauci expressed hope that the U.S. vaccination program will gain "momentum" in the first few weeks of January, but he added that there needs to be "a lot more" resources provided to states and cities "to help them to get this task done." Asked if the federal government should take over the vaccination effort, Fauci again suggested instead that more resources be provided to states."Rather than stepping in and taking over, I think it would be maybe better to give more resources and to work in tandem with them," Fauci said. "In other words, not saying, "We're taking over, we're going to do your job,' but saying, 'We're going to really help you to do your job, particularly by giving you many more resources.'"Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who earlier this month said the goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans this year should be reached, previously acknowledged that the number of vaccinations "is lower than what we hoped for," per The New York Times. He added, "We know that it should be better, and we're working hard to make it better." > "The good news is that it does not appear to be more virulent."> > Watch @craigmelvin's full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the dangerous new coronavirus strain now in the United States, and what it will take to fix the slow start to the vaccine push. pic.twitter.com/Z8yK7IpJCt> > -- TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 31, 2020More stories from theweek.com 4 predictions for 2021 5 cartoons about the end of a very, very bad year How to de-clutter your home for the new year

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Yahoo Sports' Transcendent 12: Athletes who inspired us outside the lines in 2020 - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

The Week

The nation's top infectious disease expert is expressing disappointment that the U.S. hasn't met its goal of administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of the year.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke Thursday with Today about the United States' rollout of two COVID-19 vaccines, as officials say almost 2.8 million Americans have received doses, according to The New York Times. This number falls short of the goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020."We'd have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today, by the end of 2020, which was the projection," Fauci said. "Obviously it didn't happen, and that's disappointing."Fauci expressed hope that the U.S. vaccination program will gain "momentum" in the first few weeks of January, but he added that there needs to be "a lot more" resources provided to states and cities "to help them to get this task done." Asked if the federal government should take over the vaccination effort, Fauci again suggested instead that more resources be provided to states."Rather than stepping in and taking over, I think it would be maybe better to give more resources and to work in tandem with them," Fauci said. "In other words, not saying, "We're taking over, we're going to do your job,' but saying, 'We're going to really help you to do your job, particularly by giving you many more resources.'"Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who earlier this month said the goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans this year should be reached, previously acknowledged that the number of vaccinations "is lower than what we hoped for," per The New York Times. He added, "We know that it should be better, and we're working hard to make it better." > "The good news is that it does not appear to be more virulent."> > Watch @craigmelvin's full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the dangerous new coronavirus strain now in the United States, and what it will take to fix the slow start to the vaccine push. pic.twitter.com/Z8yK7IpJCt> > -- TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 31, 2020More stories from theweek.com 4 predictions for 2021 5 cartoons about the end of a very, very bad year How to de-clutter your home for the new year

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Anti-violence leader frustrated as Philly nears 500 homicides on the year - Yahoo News

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

Anti-hate advocates are calling on Facebook to ban posts denying the Armenian genocide, which led to the deaths of over 1.5 million ethnic Armenians, saying the social media giant's policy on hate speech fails to address crimes against humanity.

The call to action follows Facebook's October announcement that it would ban posts denying the Holocaust, which came after pressure from human rights groups, Holocaust survivors, and a 500-plus company ad boycott. However, the change did not include the denial of other genocides, such as the Rwandan and Armenian genocides, Bloomberg reported.

"They have an obligation to responsibly address all genocide," said Arda Haratunian, board member for the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), the largest non-profit dedicated to the international Armenian community. "How could you not apply the same rules across crimes against humanity?"

Now, voices from across the Armenian diaspora and anti-hate groups are calling for the company to change its policy. In November, the Armenian Bar Association penned a letter to Facebook and Twitter (which banned posts denying the Holocaust in the days after Facebook did), proposing that they expand their ban to posts denying the Armenian genocide, too.

"It made us hopeful, because it was a sign that Facebook is taking steps towards fixing its speech problem," said Lana Akopyan, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property and technology, and member of the Armenian Bar Association's social media task force. The Armenian Bar Association has yet to receive a response from either company, Akopyan told Business Insider.

The calls to expand hate speech policies come as social media platforms face a wider reckoning on how they regulate speech. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have criticized section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a legal provision that shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted on their sites by users and gives companies the ability to regulate that content.

In recent years, Facebook has struggled with human rights issues on the platform. In 2018, a New York Times investigation found that Myanmar's military officials systematically spread propaganda on Facebook to incite the ethnic cleansing of the country's Muslim Rohingya minority population. Since 2017, Myanmar's military has been accused of carrying out a systemic campaign of killing, rape, and arson against Rohingyas, leading over 740,000 to flee for Bangladesh, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Facebook's current hate speech policy prohibits posts that directly attack a protected group, including someone of a racial minority, certain sexual orientation or gender, or religion. But the platform lacks a cohesive response to other "harmful false beliefs," like certain conspiracy theories, said Laura Edelson, a PhD candidate at NYU who researches online political communication. Rather than a systematic approach to harmful misinformation, Edelson likened Facebook's strategy to a game of "whack-a-mole."

"You are allowed to say, currently, the Armenian genocide is a hoax and never happened," said Edelson. "But you are not allowed to say you should die because you are an Armenian."

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire killed 1.5 Armenians and expelled another half a million. However, Turkey still falsely claims that the genocide never happened.

"Holocaust denial is typically done by fringe groups, irrational entities. The denial of the Armenian genocide is being generated by governments... which makes it a far greater threat," said Dr. Rouben Adalian, Director of the Armenian National Institute in Washington, D.C.

It also makes enforcement a thorny issue for Facebook, since it may involve moderating the speech of political leaders.

"Facebook doesn't want to wrangle with this issue, not because it's technically difficult, because it isn't, but because it is difficult at a policy level," said Edelson. "There's a government agent here, that you are going to have to make unhappy. In the case of the Armenian genocide, it's the Turkish government."

Facebook did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment. Twitter said hateful conduct has no place on its platform and its "Hateful Conduct Policy prohibits a wide range of behavior, including making references to violent events or types of violence where protected categories were the primary victims, or attempts to deny or diminish such events." The company also has "a robust glorification of violence policy in place and take action against content that glorifies or praises historical acts of violence and genocide,"a spokesperson said.

Yet online the falsehoods proliferate, advocates told Business Insider. On Facebook, the page "Armenian Genocide Lie" has thousands of followers, and screenshots of tweets shared with Business Insider show strings of identical posts that appear to be posted by bots, calling the Armenian genocide "fake."

And stateside, Armenians point to a string of hate crimes, including the arson of an Armenian church in September and the vandalism of an Armenian school in July, as evidence that anti-Armenian sentiment is a growing issue.

The calls for change come amid international conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and is populated by many ethnic Armenians. War broke out in September. In November, Armenia surrendered and Russia brokered a peace deal. Tensions continue to flare in the area and videos of alleged war crimes have surfaced online.

"Facebook has a responsibility, first and foremost, to its users, to protect them against harmful misinformation. The idea that the Armenian genocide did not happen pretty clearly falls into that category," said Edelson.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which successfully lobbied for social media companies to ban Holocaust denial, is also supporting the calls for change.

"ADL believes that tech companies must take a firm stance against content regarding genocide and the denial or diminishment of other atrocities motivated by hate," said an ADL spokesperson in a statement to Business Insider. "Tech companies should, without doubt, consider denial of the Armenian genocide to be violative hate speech."

Dr. Gregory Stanton, founding president of human rights nonprofit Genocide Watch, says that denial is a pernicious stage of genocide, since it seeks to erase the past and can predict future violence.

"Denial occurs in every single genocide," said Stanton. "I think it's irresponsible.... with Facebook's incredible reach, it absolutely should be taken down."

As for Akopyan, her fight to change Facebook's policy is personal. Her family survived the Baku Pogroms in Azerbaijan, a campaign in 1990 in which Azeris killed ethnic Armenians and drove them from the city. Akopyan's family left all their belongings behind and fled in the night, Akopyan said. The International Rescue Committee sponsored her family, and she relocated to Brooklyn, New York, at 10-years-old.

"I grew up in that tension as a child, where Azerbaijani mobs tried to kill me and my family, and I escaped," she said in an interview. "How many times [do] our people have to lose everything and be driven away from their homes to start over?"

"And it continues to happen," she added. "I can't help but think it's because there's constant denial of it ever happening to begin with."

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Activists call on Facebook and Twitter to ban Armenian genocide denial - Business Insider - Business Insider

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

Theres no sugarcoating it: 2020 was a difficult, trying, tragic year.

But just because COVID-19 dominated the headlines and our personal lives, that doesnt mean there werent any Jewish bright spots. Plenty of history was made, from a march of tens of thousands against antisemitism to a new kind of vaccine that Jewish doctors helped create, to a Jewish vice-presidential spouse.

Here are some of the Jewish stories that helped distract us from the pain of the past year.

The Jews involved with the vaccine

Several Jewish scientists have been at the forefront of the rush to produce an effective COVID-19 vaccine, trying to alleviate the suffering inflicted on the world by the virus in the past year.

There is Mikael Dolsten, the Swedish Jewish head scientist at Pfizer, who was key in helping the pharmaceutical giant produce the first approved vaccine and talked to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the role of immigrants in scientific innovation and the new form of mRNA vaccines. Tal Zaks, an Israeli, is the chief medical officer of Moderna, the other American company to produce a vaccine authorized by the FDA. And the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, is a Greek Jew proud of his heritage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that helped Israel become one of the first countries to secure a Pfizer vaccine contract.

The first Jewish second husband

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wasnt the only member of the Biden presidential ticket to make history in November. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, became the first second husband in American political history and the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. He has relished the role, speaking at events aimed at Jewish voters and with Jewish politicians.

Along the way, Emhoff and Harris have helped charge a wave of love for intermarried families. The couple released a video together this month about Hanukkah one of our favorite holidays in our big, modern family, Emhoff said.

Zach Banner as mishpocha

The 6-foot-8, nearly 350-pound offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers of Chamorro and African-American ancestry became one of the Jewish communitys favorite sons this year.

After fellow NFL player DeSean Jackson made headlines in July when he posted a series of anti-Semitic messages on social media, Banner was among the most prominent people to call him out and say publicly that Jews deal with the same amount of hate, similar hardships and hard times as the Black community. Banner said he was partly inspired to speak out after being in Pittsburgh during the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018.

Following Banner, a stream of other Black athletes and commentators, including the former basketball stars Charles Barkley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, took stands against antisemitism.

Banners love for the Jews didnt stop with one post after what he called an outpouring of love from the community, he donated some of his earnings to a Tree of Life-related charity and tried challah to raise money for his charitable foundation.

The year of the celebrity Hanukkah video

Maybe it was all of the quarantine isolation. Maybe it was the sense of solidarity brought on by the pain experienced around the world this year. Whatever the reason, this was the year that a large chunk of the celebrity zeitgeist, both Jewish and non-, had fun marking Hanukkah.

Non-Jewish rock star Dave Grohl and his Jewish producer posted eight entertaining covers of songs by Jewish musicians, one for every night. Haim, the Jewish pop band, marked the holiday like never before, from song and dance to a guitar giveaway. Daveed Diggs, the Black and Jewish star of Hamilton, among other things, gave us a delightful Hanukkah rap (for kids). The Jewish Broadway star Nicolette Robinson and her non-Jewish Broadway star husband Leslie Odom Jr. covered Maoz Tzur for a holiday album and chronicled their familys holiday experience on Instagram. And the list didnt stop there.

The Abraham Accords

Before 2020, Israel only had formal diplomatic relations (and historically not the warmest of relations) with two neighboring Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan. As 2020 ends, Israel now has relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and pending ties with Sudan and Morocco (it also formalized ties with Bhutan, the tiny Buddhist-majority nation known for prioritizing the happiness of its citizens).

While the deals include tradeoffs that have made some on both sides of Congress aisle uncomfortable including advanced military weapons to the UAE and taking Sudan off the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors the moves have also been widely lauded for enlarging the Arab worlds acceptance of Israel. The small communities of Jews living in those countries have rejoiced, and Israelis have been pretty excited, too over 50,000 of them have already visited the UAE, one of the worlds glitziest vacation spots.

Lots of Nobel Prizes

Jews are known for their proclivity for winning Nobel Prizes, but 2020 was an extra-successful year on the Nobel front. Academic Paul Milgrom shared the economics prize for his discoveries in the field of auction theory. Poet Louise Gluck won in literature for her for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. And Harvey Alter, a researcher for the National Institutes of Health, shared the Nobel in medicine for helping identify the hepatitis C virus. (Not to forget two retired Jewish mathematicians won the Abel Prize, which is seen as the Nobel equivalent for a field that does not award one.)

A childs Avinu Malkeinu goes viral

One break from the heaviness of a pandemic High Holidays came in the form of a beaming 6-year-old in Australia, Bibi Shapiro, who went viral with his version of Avinu Malkeinu. His mother, Nina, told JTA that she never meant for the video to become public but was glad it did.

People have said its made them happy and given them hope, she said, and even though I dont understand it, the fact that it has done that to people especially at this time in the world, Im so grateful for it.

Bibi appeared over Zoom during Yom Kippur services at Central Synagogue in New York City, collaborated with a favorite singer from his native South Africa and spurred an international conversation among Jewish childrens musicians, showing the global reach of good news.

A historic march against antisemitism

Its hard to remember a time before the pandemic raged through the country this year, but as the calendar turned to 2020, the New York City area was reeling from a spate of violent anti-Semitic attacks, including a Jersey City kosher store shooting and a stabbing in Monsey, New York. Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn were the victims of a sharp uptick in random assaults.

In response, New York City officials and local Jewish groups helped organize one of the largest marches against antisemitism the country has ever seen, which symbolically started in Lower Manhattan and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

What has happened in Brooklyn, what has happened in Monsey, New York, was an attack on every New Yorker and every New Yorker has felt the pain, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said before the march.

While its impact was blunted by the pandemic, the march offered a sense of optimism and unity to start the year.

An Israeli phenomenon makes the NBA

Its rare for an Israeli athlete to make it to one of the top-tier American sports leagues. Its unprecedented for an Israeli athlete to be touted as one of said leagues top prospects. Deni Avdija achieved both of those feats when he was picked ninth overall in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards.

The lanky 6-foot-9 forward with heaps of potential (hes just 19), born to a Jewish Israeli mother and Muslim Serbian former Israeli basketball player father, has not been afraid to show off his Jewish pride he even lit a Hanukkah menorah in a video on the Wizards Instagram page.

The Wizards have embraced Avdijas identity and the new fans it has produced by creating a Hebrew Twitter account. The teams Jewish announcer called him the mensch off the bench on Hanukkah! in his first preseason game, and Avdija was in the starting lineup for the clubs regular season debut, albeit a losing one, in which his coach said the Israeli was fantastic.

A mayoral Rosh Hashanah baby

In 2019, Minneapolis Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey, was a rising star. He made significant changes in the citys historically fraught zoning rules, endearing him to many fans on the left, and became a Twitter target for President Trump. But in the aftermath of George Floyds death at the hands of police officers in his city, Frey was thrust into the center of the countrys raging debate on police reform. His refusal to defund the citys police department made him a poster child enemy for many progressives.

Just before Rosh Hashanah this year, though, he had a joyous reprieve the birth of his first child, a girl he and his wife, Sarah Clarke, named Frida.

For us, her birth leading into Rosh Hashanah symbolizes new beginnings and hope in the midst of tough days, Frey tweeted. Shes our reminder of a better tomorrow.

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10 heartwarming Jewish stories from 2020 - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on January 1, 2021

Scary Mommy and Ira L. Black/Corbis/Getty

October 27, 2018. A lone gunman walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and three pistols, and opened fire on the congregants who were gathered for Shabbat morning services. After shooting up the main floor, the gunman went down to the basement to find more victims, shouting, All Jews must die! Eleven were killed, six more injured. It was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

My students and I were in New York, some 400 miles away. It was the second month of my new job teaching at a small, private Jewish school. We were nowhere near the incident in Pittsburgh, but that didnt matter. The essence of a hate crime or terror attack is that it affects more people than just its immediate victims. Everyone who belongs to the targeted group knows they could be next. An attack on Jewish people was an attack on us.

There were new protocols. The friendly old security guard, Louie, was replaced by an elite team of agents who surrounded the building, guarding every entrance, looking and acting like the U.S. Secret Service. They gave us codewords and passwords and a new, more secure school ID. When we went on field trips, the boys were instructed to wear baseball caps instead of the yarmulkes they wore at school, so they could keep their heads covered without boldly identifying themselves to the world as Jews. Of course we were already doing the shelter-in drills and active shooter drills that have become commonplace in recent years, but the drills took on a different tone now. The hypothetical scenarios didnt seem quite so hypothetical anymore.

I dont normally think a lot about my identity as a Jew. I dont wear a kippah or belong to a synagogue. I dont observe Shabbat or keep kosher. I light candles on Hanukkah but I need a cheat sheet to say the blessing. I took the job at a Jewish school because it was, well, a job. But that makes no difference to the substantial number of virulent antisemites who are increasingly committing acts of harassment and violence across the country. To someone like the Pittsburgh shooter, a Jew is a Jew and All Jews must die.

When I thought about it, as tragic and harrowing as the Pittsburgh attack was, it surprised me that this incident (eleven dead, six injured) was the worst in our history. Havent there been worse antisemitic rampages? The answer, of course, is yes, there have been deadlier attacksin Russia. Latvia. Romania. Poland. Germany. But not here.

We tend to think of bigotry and hate as remnants of the pastthough hate is very much still with us, we are comforted by sentiments like Martin Luther Kings: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. In this case, though, were actually moving in the wrong direction. 2018 and 2019 saw record high numbers of antisemitic attacks, and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) notes that in 2020 the situation is still persistent and worsening.

As America faces a long-overdue national reckoning on race, it is important to note how racism, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry are inextricably connected. The right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis who gathered in the summer of 2017 for a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, were chanting, Jews will not replace us! This replacement theorythat white/European heritage is threatened by the addition of other ethnic/racial groups to the cultural and genetic poolis a standard antisemitic trope which predates Hitler, but which Hitler energetically promoted.

That same replacement theory is at the heart of other forms of bigotry and hate that are on the rise in America. The common refrain that Immigrants steal American jobs is a closely related trope. Right-wing commentators have claimed that immigration makes our country poorer and dirtier. Racist language describing immigrants and others as invading or infesting our cities mirrors the language Nazis used to describe Jews, Roma, and others.

Of course, most Jewish people in this country dont have the same issues as Black and Brown people in America. People arent profiled by law enforcement, stopped and frisked, or disproportionately shot by police, for being Jewish. While there are Jewish people of every race and color, most Jews in America just look like any other type of white folks.

The fact that Jews enjoy some degree of white privilege is one of the things Nazis are most mad about. The antisemites theory is that because Jews look (basically) like white folks, they can infiltrate white society, passing as white Europeans or European Americans while secretly poisoning the white civilization, culture, and gene pool. This is one of the reasons Hitlers Nazis forced Jews to identify themselves by wearing yellow Stars of David: that way, they could not pass themselves off as white.

The Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, was of course an avowed antisemite but he was equally committed to the related neo-Nazi tenets of hating and fearing immigrants. The Tree of Life shooting was motivated, in large part, by Bowers anger and fear over the caravans of Central American migrants who were approaching the U.S. border in the fall of 2018. That year, especially in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, the political conversation was dominated by talk of a Central American invasion; nativist politicians referred to migrants as gang members and animals.

Like many neo-Nazis, Bowers blamed Jews for aiding the Central American invasion. In particular, he pointed a finger at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). HIAS was originally founded to aid Jewish refugees, but in recent decades it has expanded its mission to help refugees of all nationalities and creeds. On the morning of the attack, Bowers posted on Gab (a social media site that, like Parler, was founded as a right-wing alternative to Twitter): HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered Im going in.

The essence of a terror attack is that everyone in the targeted group knows they might be next. My young students and I felt it in our bones: what happened in Pittsburgh could happen anywhere. The next time might be in our backyard.

We werent wrong. This month, the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, New York was victimized by a malicious cyberattack. Its website was hacked, and the hackers posted Nazi imagery including swastikas, a photo of Hitler, and video clips of Gestapo officers. The text of the sites main page was rewritten to include gleeful references to Auschwitz, the most notorious of the Nazi death camps. The hackers were also able to access students contact information and send threatening messages. One such message read, YOURE NEXT I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE HEIL HITLER.

This attack was terrifying, shocking, disturbing, a nightmare. And at the same time, it is not exactly surprising. These sentiments, these threats, these attacks, have been on the rise for the past several years.

An attack on Jewish people is an attack on usall of us who believe in a pluralistic, diverse society, and reject bigotry and hate. I still hope that, in the long run, the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. But with a new generation of racists and neo-Nazis emboldened by extreme rhetoric on the right, weve clearly got a long way to go.

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Antisemitism Is On The Rise As A Teacher And A Jew, Im Terrified - Scary Mommy

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Posted By admin on December 30, 2020

What will we witness in 2021?

In a startling Tweet that went viral, Jodi Doering, RN, a nurse in South Dakota, described caring for COVID-19 deniers, patients who believed the coronavirus was a hoax. During a rare night off, she lamented on Twitter: I cant help but think of the COVID patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still dont believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick, she tweeted. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that stuff because they dont have COVID because its not real. Yes. This really happens. Their last dying words are, This cant be happening; this isnt real.... It just made me really sad.

For expressing her feelings publicly Doering has since suffered backlash including death threats. Such can be the risk of challenging someones strongly held beliefs in America today. You can hold onto a belief more tightly than to the facts that challenge that belief. You can hold on to it until your dying day.

The baffling question for many of us is why do humans instinctively reject evidence contrary to their beliefs? Do we understand why and how people might change their minds, for example, about the pandemic? Or climate change? Or those who deny the Holocaust or that the earth is round?

We understand the world and our role in it by creating narratives that have explanatory power, make sense of the complexity of our lives and give us a sense of purpose and place. These narratives can be political, social, religious, scientific or cultural and help define our sense of identity and belonging.

Narratives are not trivial things to mess with. They help us form stable cognitive and emotional patterns that are resistant to change and potentially antagonistic to agents of change (like people trying to make us change our mind about something we believe). Its the mechanism that helps us to make sense of the world around us.

Societies are founded, cohere, develop, degenerate and die based on their belief systems. Reason cannot prove the beliefs they are based upon. Its pretty much agreed that belief systems are a part of our environmental experience. We accumulate thousands of beliefs throughout our lifetime, about every aspect of our life. We gain these beliefs through things that people say to us, things we hear on the news, things we read, or any other external influences that we may be exposed to.

What was your experience as a child? Was your family poor, middle class or wealthy? Was your skin color black or white? Or somewhere in between? Did you live in the South or New England or California? What is your religious preference? Which media outlets do you get your news from?

These factors, together with other factors such as our personality, our genetic make-up and our habits form our belief system which becomes one of the strongest influences affecting any decision that we make. The way we interact with others. The ways in which we react to any of the things that happen in our lives.

Following is a chilling example of a widely held belief that denies history and promulgates anti-Semitism. A recent 50-state survey found that a disturbing number of young Americans have bought into the Holocaust denial conspiracy that has spread like wildfire on social media. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on CNBC that he believed that social media platforms need to face stronger regulation in the U.S. to help manage the spread of false information.

False information (fake news) is shaped inadvertently or intentionally. We have all witnessed intentional political propaganda (the stolen election) and corporate propaganda (U. S. Tobacco and Oil industries).

Contrast Holocaust denial with the truth witnessed by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower when the allies liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp in April 1945. The things I saw beggar description. In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the near future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.

As we escape from 2020, the question before each of us is what will we bear witness to as truth as we head into the near future of 2021?

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My Turn: What will we bear witness to as truth as we head into 2021? - The Recorder

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