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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

June 8, 2016

Letters to the editor: Lee Baca, Memorial Day, Trump and more

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor, Opinion /

Political Cronyism

The issue is not why Congregation Bais Naftoli, an Orthodox synagogue, chose to honor ex-Sheriff Lee Baca at its annual event (“Ex-Sheriff Awaiting Sentencing Honored by Orthodox Congregation,” June 3). The real issue is political cronyism and why our elected political leaders still abide by the same “old-boy network” of political spoils and nest-feathering.

Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who’s “secretly” exploring a run for governor, and Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz openly sitting at an event honoring a disgraced former sheriff (who resigned with federal charges pending) is political cronyism at its worst. Sheriff Baca lied to federal investigators about serious constitutional violations occurring on his watch at the county jails. That makes him a liar who may very well go to jail for his deception. Shame on our elected political leaders Koretz and Villaraigosa for turning a blind eye to Baca’s corruption and embracing his corrupt form of politics.

Michael Rubinstein, Beverly Hills

Bad Grammar? It Was for a Reason

That headline — “Who Do You Love?” (June 3) — made my eyeballs hurt! Oy!  How about, “Whom Do You Love?” Yes, please use the objective case. Would you write, “Do you love she?”  Or, “You do love I?” No. You would use the objective case. 

Judi Bloom via email

Editor’s note: We purposely used the familiar colloquial phrase to give impact to the headline.

Respect The Fallen in All Wars

Whether I agree or disagree with why a war is waged, the combatants in that war who died need to be remembered positively and unconditionally. “Greenberg’s View” (May 27) belittling the valiant efforts of those who gave their lives in the Iraq War, making their ultimate sacrifice secondary to other actions taken on behalf of this country, is simply unconscionable. If Greenberg wants to show his wit as to the matter, then he should use another subject as his launching pad, instead of stepping on those who served bravely and honorably. 

Gerry Burk via email

Looking Back on Memorial Day

I would like to commend Tom Tugend for his stirring piece “Looking Back at War on Memorial Day” (May 27) and for his service during World War II. He fills my Jewish heart with pride. Mr. Tugend was absolutely right when he eloquently opined that the most heroic among those of his generation were righteous gentiles who hid Jews from the Nazis at the probable cost of their own lives. 

Marc Yablonka, Burbank

Who’s for Trump?

I read Rob Eshman’s column “Trump and Israel” (May 13) and I was relieved. And then I read Dennis Prager’s endorsement of a vote for Trump “even if only to block a democratic win” and I was shocked (Where Do Jewish Conservatives Stand on Trump?” May 13). I find it incomprehensible that anyone who is aware of what happened when the Nazis came to power would endorse a candidate for “economic well-being or endorse a candidate for any reason — and I mean “any reason” — who speaks of mass transports of human beings as a part of the plan for his presidency! Have we forgotten that quickly?

Dagmar Moscowicz, Los Angeles

Sheldon Adelson and I grew up in the same Jewish neighborhood in Boston. I remember him well, and can readily understand his strong support of Israel. In those days, anti-Semitism was rampant: Kids from neighboring gentile areas often attacked us: police were openly anti-Semitic; and there were Jewish quotas in colleges. And so Adelson strongly advocates for the State of Israel.

While I would not like Trump as our president, I believe Rob Eshman is not being fair. Yes, Trump is crude in his working of his position as he calls for banning Muslims coming into the U.S., but Eshman overlooks that Trump added words to the effect that the ban would be only until each Muslim was checked out to ensure he was not a terrorist; and the Mexicans to which Trump object are the criminals seeking entry to the U.S.

Adelson, I believe, has chosen Trump because he trusts him more than he does Hillary, especially where Israel is concerned.

George Epstein, Los Angeles

Letters to the editor: Lee Baca, Memorial Day, Trump and more Read More »

Two questions for Atheists

Leave a Comment / Dennis Prager, Opinion /

I have had the privilege of debating five of the top seven “25 Most Influential Living Atheists” as listed at SuperScholar.org:

No. 2: Sam Harris (“The End of Faith”)

No. 3: The late Christopher Hitchens (“God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”)

No. 4: Daniel Dennett (“Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”)

No. 6: Steven Pinker (“How the Mind Works”) 

No. 7: Michael Shermer, founding publisher of the Skeptic Magazine

Recently, however, I realized that I never asked any of them two questions that I would now ask before any other:

1. Do you hope you are right or wrong?

2. Do you ever doubt your atheism?

The answers to those questions would tell me what I would most like to know about the person: how intellectually honest he is, and what motivates him.

To be sure, the answers to those two questions neither validate nor invalidate any atheist arguments. Atheist and theist arguments rise and fall on their merits, not on the motivations or personal characteristics of the atheist or the believer. But on a purely human level, their answers would enable me to understand the atheist as a person and as a thinker.

Take the first question: Do you hope you are right or wrong?

I respect atheists who answer that they hope they are wrong. It tells me that they understand the terrible consequences of atheism: that all existence is random; that there is no ultimate meaning to life; that there is no objective morality — right and wrong are subjective personal or societal constructs; that when we die, there is nothing but eternal oblivion, meaning, among other things, that one is never reconnected with any loved ones; and there is no ultimate justice in the universe — murderers, torturers and their victims have identical fates: nothing.

Anyone who would want all those things has either not considered the consequences of atheism or has what seems like an emotionally detached outlook on life. A person who doesn’t want there to be ultimate meaning to existence, or good and evil to have an objective reality, or to be reunited with loved ones, or the bad punished and the good rewarded has a rather cold soul.

That’s why I suspect atheists who think that way have not fully thought through their atheism. This is especially so for those who allege that their atheism is primarily because of their conclusion that there is too much unjust human suffering for there to be a God. If that is what has led you to your atheism, how could you possibly not hope there is a God? Precisely because you are so disturbed by the amount of suffering in the world, wouldn’t you want a just God to exist?

Now to the second question: Do you ever doubt your atheism?

A few years ago, the largest atheist organization in the United States, American Atheists, to its credit, invited me to Minneapolis to debate the head of the organization at its annual meeting. 

At one point, I looked at the audience and asked people to raise their hands if they ever doubted their atheism. Not one hand went up. 

I found this interesting, if not disturbing, and said so. Nonreligious individuals often accuse religious believers of not challenging themselves. And, depending on the religion and on the individual, that is often the case. Yet it would seem that believers challenge themselves more than atheists do. 

As I explained at the debate, I never met a believer who hadn’t at some point had doubts about God. When experiencing, seeing or reading about terrible human suffering, all of us who believe in God have on occasion doubted our faith. So, I asked the atheists, how is it that when you see a baby born or a spectacular sunset, or hear a Mozart symphony, or read about the infinite complexity of the human brain — none of these has ever prompted you to wonder whether there really might be a God?

I remember sensing that I had a struck a nerve.

So, then, while I still debate God’s existence with atheists, I do so in order that the audience will hear sound arguments for God’s existence.

But what really interests me — and I think should interest any believer or atheist — are the answers to these two questions. 

Because only if the atheist responds, “I hope I am wrong” and “Yes, there have been occasions when I have wondered whether there really might be a God” — do I believe that I have encountered an individual who has really thought through his or her atheism. I also believe that I have probably met a truly decent person. 

But a sad one. For to know how awful the consequences of atheism are and still be convinced that there is no God is an unhappy fate indeed. 

Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio talk show is heard in Los Angeles on KRLA (AM 870) 9 a.m. to noon. His latest project is the Internet-based Prager University (prageru.com).

Two questions for Atheists Read More »

Anti-bullying: The musical

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Where will you sit at lunch?” Anyone who is now or has ever been a high school student can relate to that question. 

I remember well the cliques from my high school in Southern California many years ago. We had the “jocks,” the “drama kids,” “the “stoners” and the “nerds,” to name a few. At fictional Miracle High School, the setting for the original musical “The Intimidation Game,” there’s an updated roster of cliques for 2016: the “Fashionistas,” “Geeks,” the “A Capellas” and the most feared group of all, “The Bullies.” 

The show, which ran May 22-24 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, centered around Tyler, played by gifted songwriter and singer Domonique Brown, 18, as the new kid in town at Miracle High, who is trying to figure out which group he should join for lunch during his first day of school. Before he can decide that, however, the bullies start taunting him and ultimately start a huge food fight in the cafeteria, leading to detention for all of them.

The script and songs of “The Intimidation Game” are based on the real-life accounts of bullying told by the students and volunteers at The Miracle Project, an inclusive performing arts program for teens with and without disabilities. Although many kids may find themselves victims of bullying, students with autism are especially vulnerable. A 2012 study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine showed that children with autism spectrum disorders, who typically have difficulty in communicating and understanding unwritten social rules, are far more likely to be bullied than their non-autistic peers. In fact, out of a national sample of 920 middle school and high school students with an autism disorder,  46 percent self-reported that they have been bullied. By comparison, in the general adolescent population, an estimated 10.6 percent of children have been bullied. 

The Miracle Project was started in 2004 by Elaine Hall (full disclosure: a very good friend), funded initially with a multiyear grant from The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. Over the years, The Miracle Project has expanded and changed venues, and classes are now held at the Wallis, along with The Help Group’s Culver City and Sherman Oaks locations and C.R.E.A.T.E. in Santa Monica. The Miracle Project was also the subject of an Emmy Award-winning documentary that appeared on HBO called “Autism: The Musical.”

Hall’s backstory is that while she was working as a top Hollywood acting coach, her then toddler son, Neal, was diagnosed with severe autism. When conventional therapies and approaches failed, she turned to her creative friends in the entertainment industry, trained them to understand autism, and they began to work individually with Neal, slowly helping him to engage and communicate nonverbally (he now uses electronic technology and sign language). 

As described by Hall, “The Intimidation Game” is a cross between the classic teen film “The Breakfast Club” and the Tony Award-winning musical “A Chorus Line,” in which dancers auditioning for a show share their own personal journeys to becoming professional performers. The most moving moments in “The Intimidation Game” happened during the song “Me Too,” when the cast members stepped forward one by one and spoke about how it felt when they were bullied, or were the bully. Cast members with autism also talked about how their sensory sensitivities to loud sounds and bright lights can make everyday experiences difficult. Another highly memorable number was “Whatever,” which laid out the optimal way to respond to a bully: Know who you are and align yourself with others who are similar to you, and then don’t let the insults and goading get to you.

Even though I have known many of the cast members with autism and other abilities for years, because our kids used to participate in The Miracle Project, I was still impressed by how much each person has matured and grown more comfortable singing and acting in front an audience. There was Spencer Harte, who was in our son’s special education preschool class, singing a beautiful solo; she is now an aspiring opera singer/actress and has sung with LA Opera’s Community Opera and guest starred on the NBC show “Parenthood.” Tristen Bonacci Miller has been part of The Miracle Project for 10 years, performing throughout Southern California and at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She now attends Santa Monica College, where she is majoring in voice, theater and foreign languages. Both have autism. As is often the case with inclusive groupings, it was hard to figure out which of the cast members had a disability and which didn’t, which is pretty much the point.

The universal anti-bullying message of “The Intimidation Game” is extremely timely and relevant; as our public schools ostensibly welcome an increasingly diverse student body in terms of ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability, students who are seen as “different” can still feel invisible, marginalized and humiliated. Funding for the production at the Wallis was provided in part by a grant from the Mandell L. and Madeline H. Berman Foundation, and as part of that grant, there’s an outreach component to take this show to local middle schools and high schools, where the staff of The Miracle Project can come in with the script and musical score and anti-bullying curriculum. Students from the schools will be chosen to act, sing and dance in a scaled-down version of the show. A DVD of the show also will be available soon.  

The Miracle Project is in need of volunteers, in-kind support and, of course, financial donations. Tuition for the classes and ticket sales for the recent three-day run don’t begin to cover all the costs of providing high-quality performing arts training for children, teens and young adults with autism and other disabilities, along with their non-disabled peers and siblings.

For more information, visit themiracleproject.org

 

—————–

FOR THE RECORD: The Miracle Project was the subject of an Emmy Award-winning documentary on HBO, and not a Grammy Award one.

Anti-bullying: The musical Read More »

Torah portion: Seen and unseen

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Torah /

The Book of Numbers begins with a head count of the entire Jewish people, before they depart from their Sinai encampment on their way to the Promised Land. Moses organizes this massive undertaking, with the help of representatives from each of the Tribes, and comes to a count of approximately 600,000 people who make up the Israelite nation.

In Bamidbar Rabbah (2:13), the collection of midrashim (rabbinic teachings) on the Book of Numbers, we find the famous dictum that just as there were 600,000 Jews who stood at Sinai, there are 600,000 letters in the Torah. This beautiful teaching has given rise to countless sermons about the value of the individual — just as a Torah scroll requires each and every letter in order to be complete, so, too, our community requires each and every one of us in order to be whole. We are irreplaceable elements in a great story, as precious and holy as the letters that reveal God’s will for us on Earth.

But there is a small problem: The Torah does not contain 600,000 letters. In fact, it doesn’t hold even close to that number. The Torah contains a little more than half that number — 304,805 letters, to be precise. While the rabbis can be forgiven for not being entirely accurate in their count, their estimate is considerably off. There are nearly twice as many Israelites in the census as there are letters in the scroll. What, then, can this midrash mean?

Judaism’s mystical tradition long has taught that the black letters of the Torah scroll contain only half the story. The other half — with potentially the more revealing truths — is contained in the white spaces that surround each letter. In fact, the Talmud teaches that the white spaces are as crucial as the black letters themselves, ruling that each letter must be mukaf gevil, completely surrounded by blank parchment, to be considered kosher (Menachot 29a). 

Just as in conversation where what is unsaid often is more important than what is said aloud, and in literature where context is surely as important as the text itself, the white spaces that surround the black letters are equally vital to understanding what Torah is trying to teach us. As the jazz great Miles Davis once said, “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.” Counting the white spaces as well as the black letters, we arrive at 600,000 — and the lovely midrash is redeemed.

Yet, another and more troubling contradiction lurks below the surface of this text. When the Torah records that 600,000 stood at Sinai, it is again telling only half the story. As feminist scholars Judith Plaskow, Rachel Adler and others have taught us, a closer look at the text reveals that many of those actually present at Sinai were not counted at all. The Torah records only the names and stories of the adult men; the women and children who stood beside them have been erased from the count and rendered invisible in our collective memory. Our count again is radically off because it reflects only what those who recorded this moment in the history of our people chose to see.

Perhaps, then, there is a deeper truth to our teachings. Just as our understanding of Torah only is complete when we count both the black letters and the white spaces in between, so, too, our understanding of ourselves only is complete when we notice and acknowledge the whole community. That means cultivating our capacity to see who traditionally has been counted and who has been excluded, those who have been allowed to fade, like white spaces between the letters, into the background. 

It is not enough simply to affirm in words that each and every member of our community is precious and valuable, like the letters in our sacred scroll. We must actively strive to make sure that such inclusion is a living reality.

Let us teach our eyes to see the whole of what is in front of us, both the dark and the light, both seen and unseen, that we might build a world in which we recognize that if a single one of us is forgotten, our story is incomplete. 

Rabbi Adam Greenwald is the director of the Miller Introduction to Judaism Program at American Jewish University (intro.aju.edu) and a lecturer at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. 

Torah portion: Seen and unseen Read More »

No Fear = Acceptance? Getting there.

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Culture, Judaism, Living Well, Mitzvahs and More, More Culture /

[Ed. Note: This entry was written as a followup to a recent posting in this blog by Rabbi Karen B. Kaplan entitled , which appeared on 5/25/2016. — JB]

 

Every individual, coming from their own life experiences, deals with death in their own unique way.  As Rabbi Karen Kaplan mentioned, bargaining with G-d is not always a preferred choice, for a variety of reasons. One reason stands out in my mind — acceptance. Acceptance can partner with calm and serenity. Often these positive characteristics are mistaken for “negative’ qualities such as “throwing in the towel” and “giving up.”

It is really not unusual for an individual – who is facing a dire outcome, to have come to terms with the infinite in their own mind. I have found, more often than not, they have no outlet to state their case without others misunderstanding their position. Particularly if the person is young, others will try to change their mind, tell them not to speak foolishly, try harder, don’t give up and just hang in there.

Ø Yes, those of us who are NOT imminently needing to consider our own demise are frequently the ones who will express fear of dying. Yes, it does happen that someone terminally ill may express fear – fear of the unknown – but, for many- the realization that pain, suffering, lingering and languishing will end…is welcomed. Sadly – few want to hear that expressed, because those who are listening are NOT in that situation.

Ø Yes, G-D fearing people may have reservations about their past conduct and fear for where they will end up. Hard to reconcile that it is likely that the very religion they hang their hat on is what makes them fearful and stressed. Without the overtones of hell and eternal punishment …undoubtedly there would be less fear. The reality is, most people believe they are basically good, caring people. While that should bring peace, strength, and acceptance to the soul, religious teachings can get in the way.

Ø Yes, bargaining, praying, hoping, wishing, and longing are ruses we engage in grasping on an outside chance it will change the outcome. If and when a person allows themselves to “accept” what they intuitively understand…talking about it is not necessarily a help. Turning away may be their comfort zone…while others may interpret it differently.  

Ø Yes, sometimes, in instances such as impending death – ignoring a reality is one’s best way to cope with it. It is sad that societal ideas that do not jive with personal convictions will overrule, override and cancel personal choice.

Ø Yes, how we read into someone’s reactions, someone’s choices and someone’s story colors how we see and view their preferences.

Ø Yes, some people are just overcome with sadness that they will not be around to be part of this world. Sadness is measurable and observable, ranging from acceptance – “it is what it is,” to resignation – “whatever happens, happens,” to total despair and/or fear. Without trying to change their mind, make light, or convert them, we can just be there for them as they internalize and work thru their own understandings. Even if it occurs in total silence. As Karen so aptly stated: “one other is simply sad about his book of life coming to the end with no chance to reread it again.”

Ø Yes, the “fear” of no longer existing often pales to the awareness of no more pain, no more battles.

Ø Yes, there are those who look forward to “seeing” family and friends in the afterlife.

Ø Yes, there are those who can’t wait to walk with their G–d.

I love Karen’s closing statements, “Maybe fear is the predominant emotion surrounding death, but not when it is within easy reach. Paradoxically, we fear it when we are feeling fine and it is a long way off. We tend to fear it the most when we are young. I have often heard people say that as they age, and despite death being closer, they fear it less. I must say this is all very good news, especially as we do not have any choice in the matter. As afraid as I may feel at the moment, it is of some comfort to trust in a future when I will be more likely to face my closing pages with less dread and more calm, however tinged with disenchantment it may be.”, and to it I would add this:

The Death Café, a brilliant and relatively new concept, gives people an opportunity to meet in a non- judgmental environment that allows all aspects, topics, views and ideas regarding death to be discussed. The ultimate goal of Death Cafes is to bring the taboo subject of death into mainstream conversation, and during which, through dialogue, exchange of ideas, open and uninhibited conversations, the fears can be allayed.  Google Death Café and you will see that you too can run a death cafe and become part of the movement to eliminate the taboo on death conversation!!!

 

Laurie Dinerstein-Kurs: I am from Brooklyn, currently living in NJ.  Having originally learned about Taharah as a yeshiva student, I knew I would participate as soon as the opportunity presented itself.  I have participated in doing Taharah for almost 30 years. I am currently the ROSHA of our chevrah. When not doing Taharah, I taught school – up until I retired and went back to school and became a chaplain. I held the Federation position of County (Mercer) Chaplain for 15 years. Married for 46 years, our two children have blessed us with grandchildren.

 

 

 

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No Fear = Acceptance? Getting there. Read More »

Israel unsure how many Palestinians live in West Bank areas it controls

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Israel does not know how many Palestinians are living in Area C, the part of the West Bank under Israeli civil and military control, the Civil Administration told a Knesset committee.

The Civil Administration relies on figures provided by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, which does not break down the figures by area. On Wednesday, its representative told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s subgroup on Judea and Samaria that the Palestinian figures could be inflated in order to maximize the amount of international aid the Palestinian Authority receives.

The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics listed some 2.9 million Palestinians listed as living in all of the West Bank, not including eastern Jerusalem, as of April, the representative said. Most of them live in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which is under Palestinian civil control.

Estimates of the number of Palestinians living in Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank, run from 75,000 to 300,000.

Moti Yogev, a member of the right-wing national religious Jewish Home party, heads the subcommittee. Jewish Home has called for the annexation of Area C, which is where most Jewish settlements are located.

Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel of Jewish Home told The Times of Israel Tuesday that the Jewish state “must aspire to the annexation of Area C”  and expel the Palestinians who live there.

“We would remove a few thousand, who do not constitute a significant numerical factor,” he told the Times of Israel.

Ariel is the head of the far-right Tekuma faction in the Jewish Home party; Yogev also is a member of that faction. Ariel told the Times of Israel that he agrees that the Jewish Home party should leave the government coalition if Israel agrees to cede land to the Palestinians during peace talks.

“There is no way that we remain in a government that takes territory from the Land of Israel and hands it to others — the word ‘return’ isn’t appropriate — it’s ours, not theirs,” he said. “We have been there [in the West Bank] for 49 years, 50 years — compared to 19 years in which the Jordanians [controlled it.] There can be no comparison. It’s absurd.”

Yogev ordered the Civil Administration to return in two weeks with more solid figures on the Palestinian population in the West Bank.

Israel unsure how many Palestinians live in West Bank areas it controls Read More »

Four dead, four seriously wounded in shooting attack in central Tel Av

Leave a Comment / Israel /

This story is developing.

Four people were killed and four seriously injured in a shooting at Sarona Market, a fashionable new food and retail shopping center in Tel Aviv.

The two gunmen who carried out the apparent terror attack were disarmed, according to the police. One was shot by police and taken to a hospital, according to reports; the other is in custody.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said it took nine victims to Tel Aviv hospitals. One is said to be in critical condition, and four others are in serious condition.

Khaled Abu Toameh, the Jerusalem Post's Palestinian affairs reporter, wrote on Twitter that Palestinians celebrated the shooting in Hebron and Tulkarem in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, 48 News, an Arabic news network based in East Jerusalem, reported that Palestinians in Istanbul lauded the attack by handing out sweets.

Ismail Haniyyeh, a leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, tweeted a picture purportedly from the attack, with a caption referring to the terrorists as a heroes and calling for mercy on their souls.

Quds News Network, a Palestinian news organization, reported on Twitter that Israeli forces were gathering near the entrance to Yatta, the village south of Hebron where the suspects are reported to have come from.

Roi Shivek, a tech entrepreneur who lives in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, was taking a cooking class at the Culinary Hub in Sarona Market when he started hearing gunshots from about 60 feet away.

After the first two shots, he thought it might be the sound of firecrackers.

“I think around the fifth shot it was pretty obvious that it’s a terrorist attack,” Shivek said.

Immediately, people began running and screaming.

“We all hid behind the counter,” he said. “Some of the people ran inside the kitchen. Someone locked the door, and that’s it. We just waited on the floor for something to happen.”

When the crowd heard police sirens, he said, they felt safe to exit the shop. Stepping out into the market, he found a swarm of police officers, border police and first responders. As soon as it became apparent that there was a potential bomb threat, bystanders began running south towards Ha’Arba’a Street.

“All OK here in Jerusalem,” Evan Kent, formerly the cantor at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, who made aliyah to Israel, said on Facebook.

Kent, a faculty member at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem, said in an interview with the Journal that he expects Israelis will continue to lead regular lives despite Wednesday night’s attack. 

“One thing I’ve noticed. Israelis, and maybe I'll put myself among them, we’re pretty strong and tough. It [violence] doesn’t deter us, people will be at Sarona tomorrow, shopping, buying food for dinner. They know they can’t succumb to the will of terrorists,” Kent, who lives in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talbiya with his husband, Rabbi Donald Goor, said. “Israel wont let that happen.” 

The two moved to Israel almost three years ago. Do incidents such as these make him second-guess his decision to relocate to the Jewish state? Kent said not in the slightest. 

“We live in a very strange and bizarre world. You could have been on the UCLA campus last week; you could have been in San Bernardino nine months ago. I think we live in a crazy world, in Jerusalem I feel remarkably safe. It’s a strange thing to say, we always sort of comment we feel very, very safe, and then things like this happen, but things like this happen in many parts,” he said. “I think Israel is under a
microscope, the chances of getting shot in Chicago are far greater than anything to happen here, and, at same time, it is an emotional and psychological toll that takes place.”

An eyewitness told Israel Radio the gunmen were dressed up as Charedi Orthodox men.

A popular retail and dining hub, Sarona Market was in April cited for security and safety violations. According to The Jerusalem Post, the problems — including  the way security guards were inspecting visitors at the entrance — were corrected within 24 hours.

Four dead, four seriously wounded in shooting attack in central Tel Av Read More »

David Duke blames Trump U controversy on Jewish control of media

Leave a Comment / United States /

White supremacist David Duke blamed the current controversy over Donald Trump’s now defunct unaccredited university on Jewish control of the media.

Duke said Tuesday on his radio show that media coverage of the Trump University case is “very illustrative of the Jewish tribal nature.” Duke also said: “They’re like a pack of wild dogs when they go after someone who they see as a threat to the Jewish agenda, as the neocons see Trump as a threat as a non-interventionist.”

According to Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, an “overwhelmingly Jewish” firm is behind a fraud lawsuit against Trump University. Trump has been slammed for saying he does not believe the judge in the case, an Indiana native of Mexican descent, can be impartial due to Trump’s stated views about building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

He also said “the powerful Jewish establishment that dominates international banking and finance, that dominates media, and dominates our political system” is “absolutely zeroing in now on Donald Trump.”

“The viciousness of these Jews is unbelievable. I think this whole Trump University case really exploited, can really expose the entire Jewish manipulation of the American media, the American political process,” Duke said.

Duke singled out CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who is Jewish, for leading the attack on Trump, as well as the network’s host Jake Tapper, also Jewish, and pointed out the network is run by Jeff Zucker, who he called “another Jewish extremist.”

In February, Duke endorsed Trump on his radio program, telling his listeners to volunteer for and vote for Trump.

In an interview days after the endorsement on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump told host Jake Tapper: “Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.”

Trump disavowed the endorsement hours after the “State of the Union” interview, for the second time in three days, after refusing to do so on the program.

Duke is who has publicly asserted that Jews control the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. government and the media.

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Thousands of items belonging to Auschwitz victims newly uncovered

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

The Auschwitz Museum says it has rescued from storage 16,000 personal items belonging to Jews killed at the Nazi death camp.

Museum officials said Tuesday that Poland’s former Communist government stored the items — including empty medicine bottles, shoes, jewelry and watches — and then neglected them, Agence France Press reported.

“In most cases, these are the last personal belongings of the Jews led to death in the gas chambers upon selection at the ramp,” the museum said in a statement.

The items were first discovered in 1967 in the ruins of the camp’s crematorium and gas chamber, then stored — and almost forgotten — in cardboard boxes in a building at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

The museum, which  had 1.72 million visitors last year, recently searched for and found the boxes.

“I can only try to imagine why the lost objects were deposited in these boxes just after digging up. … Presumably, they were supposed to be analyzed and studied,” the museum’s director, Piotr Cywinski, said in the statement.

But “a few months later, there was a political turnabout in 1968 and the communist authority took a clearly anti-Semitic course,” he added.

“Perhaps that is why they did not hurry with the implementation and closure of this project. The times then were difficult for topics related to the Holocaust.”

In a separate development last month, the museum found a gold ring hidden in a false bottom of one of the cups on display in the main exhibition.

One million European Jews and more than 100,000 others died at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945.

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Both Jewish 25-year-olds bidding to be youngest member of Congress come up short

Leave a Comment / Election 2016 /

Erin Schrode and Alex Law, Jewish 25-year-olds running to become the youngest lawmakers in Congress, both lost to incumbents in their respective Democratic primary races Tuesday for a House of Representatives seat.

Schrode, an environmentalist and entrepreneur, garnered 7 percent of the vote in Northern California’s 2nd District in falling to two-term incumbent Jared Huffman, who had nearly 75 percent.

Days before the election, Schrode was flooded with anti-Semitic social media and cellphone messages. The progressive activist called the messages “pure evil” and told Buzzfeed that people contacted the FBI on her behalf.

Law, a former IBM consultant, won 30 percent of the vote in Southern New Jersey’s 1st district in his loss to Donald Norcross, who had 70 percent.

Both of the young candidates — who each told JTA they support Bernie Sanders — had made national headlines for their upstart efforts but were projected as heavy underdogs.

Schrode entered the race on March 29.

Law, who earned an endorsement from the Philadelphia Inquirer, faced an opponent supported by what is widely acknowledged as the most powerful political network in New Jersey. Norcross, 57, was a longtime union leader before being elected to his House seat in 2014 after former Rep. Robert Andrews, also a Democrat, resigned in the wake of an ethics probe.

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