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Jewish Journal

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September 11, 2017

Is America Really a Good Place for Jewish Startups?

Leave a Comment / Business /

As a Jewish-born American, I have always had this debate with others, including those who are not Jewish, that America is not our land – we don’t belong here, never did belong here, and never will belong here. As President Trump gets a firm grasp around the gullible necks of the ultra-right, I believe we are beginning to collectively understand and acknowledge that more and more as each day goes by.

For those who are not abreast to the political activities in Washington these days, let me share with you some evidence to support what I am about to share with you in this article.

 

China Has Opened Its Doors to Israel While America’s Is Half Shut

 

The Chinese market and its investors are playing an ever important role in Israel’s tech industry. China is one country that doesn’t really have any political agenda behind their relations with Israel or the Jewish people.

Before the end of 2017, we may witness the first Initial Public Offering (IPO) of an Israeli high-tech company on a Chinese stock exchange. In 2016 alone, Israel saw $1 billion in investments in its high-tech sector, the experts reported.

Eli Tidhar of Deloitte Israel had this to say, “The Chinese stock exchange market will become another very viable option for Israeli companies looking for public funding.” But this is only if the first IPO is a success.

Tidhar calls it the “Israel-China corridor,” and others are calling it “China’s New Silk Road.” While China is opening its doors, Israel is, too, laying out its proverbial welcoming mat to foreign Chinese investors. For Israelis, finding investment opportunities in China is easier since there are less troublesome regulations and scrutiny than elsewhere in the world.

As a matter of fact, China is projected to spend an estimated $900 billion on its new Silk Road, which happens to go right through Israel. This is big for the Jewish state, and something not to be ignored.

 

America Forgets the Contributions Made by the Jewish Community

 

Whether it is renewable energy technology in Silicon Valley or website design Toronto company, it is a well-known fact that many of the top contributors and innovators in the tech industry come from the Jewish community. But when it comes to Donald Trump’s new America, where the far ultra-right is on the rise, this may no longer matter.

While anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head once again on an unprecedented scale, we have seen 67 bomb threats against Jewish Community Centres in 27 different states in the US. In St. Louis, Missouri, over 100 headstones were vandalized and overturned in a Jewish Cemetery.

The internet is awash with an increase of anti-Semitic hate speech and threats against the Jewish community. Even the diversity of New York City has been disrupted by numbers of Swastikas being spray painted in many places.

America has the second largest Jewish population in the world next to Israel. Once was considered a safe place to grow up Jewish is quickly turning into a country where our very presence is now being undermined by a group that is not exactly a minority in America. The ultra-right makes up a large portion of the lower to the middle class white American population. It only took a man like Donald Trump becoming president for their true faces to show.

 

The Invitation for All Jews to Migrate to Israel

 

There was an event that happened in 2015 that a lot of non-Jewish people weren’t aware of, or maybe it was they weren’t paying attention. I was paying attention, though. And this news story never left my mind. I remember it quite often.

It was the European leaders, most of whom are not Jewish, who were against Binyamin Netanyahu’s call for all Jews to migrate en masse to Israel, reminding us that Israel is indeed our home, and we can feel safe there – safe from attacks and prejudice.

Many people were against Netanyahu’s call for mass migration. They all had their reasons. Even the former Israeli president Shimon Peres called a “political move.” That is like the pot calling the kettle black, nevertheless.

Even through all this, Israel is still the number one country for start-ups these days. It’s my opinion that young Jews throughout the world should start taking a hard long look at their home country when thinking about launching a startup.

Is America Really a Good Place for Jewish Startups? Read More »

Palestinian Authority seeks membership in UN tourism body

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

A request filed by the Palestinian Authority last year to join the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is slated to come to a vote this week at the body’s summit in Chengdu, China.

In order for the Palestinians to gain acceptance, two-thirds of the UNWTO’s member states need to approve.

[This article originally appeared on themedialine.org]

Speaking to The Media Line, Vice President of the PA Mahmoud Al-Aloul (“Abu Jihad”) confirmed that the Palestinian leadership is being heavily pressured to not proceed with its bid.

“All I can tell you in this regard is that President Mahmoud Abbas will give a speech in China.”

He further revealed that PA is in the process of filing a request to the International Criminal Court to oppose the expansion of Israeli settlements,” among other issues.

In response, Israel has embarked on a diplomatic campaign to block the PA’s request to join the UNWTO. “Palestine is not a state and cannot be accepted as such in the United Nations or any of its affiliated organizations,” according to a statement released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

For his part, Hassan Ka’bia, a Deputy Spokesman at the Ministry told The Media Line “that all attempts by the PA to gain memberships at the UN will ruin the serious Israeli efforts to renew peace talks and will have no effect on the ground.

“At the end of the day,” he concluded, “our allies at the UN, including the U.S., are very strong and supportive of Israel so the Palestinians will not get anything there.”

In this respect, the latest move by the Palestinians to “internationalize” the conflict comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is engaged in a push to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, having sent his top envoys to the region on multiple occasions since his inauguration. Accordingly, the proposed moves by the PA risk derailing the effort.

“We will go to the United Nations anyways as well as the International Criminal Court,” Nabil Sha’ath, a senior Palestinian official, retorted to The Media Line. He said that this was necessary because while the Palestinians had already accepted the principles of the Oslo Accords they are looking for “peace on the ground and not just on paper.”

Sha’ath stated that under ideal circumstances there would be no need for the Palestinians to look to the UN, but that Israel had not held up its end of the bargain.

Ironically, the latest row over the UN comes against the backdrop of the Arab League’s decision to green light a proposal by the PA to form a high-level committee whose purpose is to block Israel’s attempts to be elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

According to the Ma’an news agency, the case against allowing Israel a turn on the Security Council roster will include the familiar charge regarding Israeli building on lands it conquered in the 1967 war that are claimed by the Palestinians for a future state; as well as accusations directed against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of having “introduced more than 20 racist legislations reflecting a systematic policy seeking to deface the historic rights of the Palestinian people.”

There formerly existed a longstanding convention that peace between Israel and the Palestinians could only come about through direct negotiations; however, this changed on September 23, 2011, when Abbas submitted a formal application to join the UN, which was overwhelmingly accepted one month later in a General Assembly vote.

Soon after gaining overall non-member observer state status in the institution, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) became the first affiliated agency to grant full membership to the Palestinians.

But the Palestinians’ momentum was soon stunted, as U.S. President Barack Obama decided to cut off funding to UNESCO, in line with Washington’s belief that the conflict with Israel can only be solved through the direct diplomacy of the peace process. As the Americans provide a huge portion of the UN’s overall budget, other bodies got the message and the Palestinians, despite repeated warnings to further pursue the UN route, have since not been accepted into any other related associations.

That is, until the anticipated UNWTO vote this week.

Perhaps the Palestinian leadership is being driven by an absence in faith in Trump, or maybe the bid to join the UNWTO is simply a method of applying pressure on his administration, which is reportedly in the process of formulating a formal policy on the conflict.

Some analysts believe it could also be meant to send Israel a message; namely, that the status quo will simply no longer suffice.

Palestinian Authority seeks membership in UN tourism body Read More »

Hurricane Irma tears through Florida: Here’s how to help

Leave a Comment / United States /

Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston with historic floods, Hurricane Irma tore through Florida, delivering devastating wind and rain and forcing millions to evacuate. Though flooding did not reach the same catastrophic proportions as in Houston, the storm nonetheless left much of Florida’s Jewish population of 655,000 without basic necessities such as food, power and fuel.

Rabbi Levik Dubov of Chabad of O’Town in downtown Orlando spoke with the Journal Sept. 11 as family and friends cooked a meal on a portable stove in his home. Without power, they had to use up as much perishable food as they could before it spoiled.

Dubov said he had spent the morning checking in on friends and community members to make sure they were safe. Across the state, Chabad houses have become de facto storm relief centers.

“If they need food, if they need shelter, if they need fuel, if they need resources, we’re there to help,” Dubov said. “It’s whatever people need, and right now it seems food is the biggest thing.”

Click here to learn more about Chabad’s efforts in Florida and donate.

Chabad was among the Jewish organizations rushing to help communities impacted by Hurricane Irma. 3 On Sept. 11, more than two dozen Chabad houses planned to open their doors to community members in need of a dinner meal.

“People right now, they just want to have a sense of morale, a sense of togetherness,” Dubov said. “Food provides that.”

After Hurricane Harvey, Jewish Federations across the country opened fundraising pages to help storm victims. But as the extent of the damage in Florida became clear, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles extended its fundraising effort to include victims of Hurricane Irma.

Alana Weiner, vice president of media relations and strategy at the Los Angeles Federation, said funds raised through the Federation’s website would go to victims of each hurricane as needed.

Click here to learn more about Federation’s efforts.

Jacob Solomon, CEO of Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said while Jewish communal structures escaped serious damage for the most part, the lack of a functioning power grid posed a serious challenge.

“It looks like there’s relatively little structural damage to communal institutions,” he told the Journal. “The big issue right now is it’s something like 80 percent of Miami-Dade County is without power.”

In Atlanta, home to the closest large Jewish community to Florida, nearly a dozen synagogues opened their doors to Jews fleeing the hurricane.

“We were starting to get inquiries about Irma — two, three, four people asking about coming for Shabbat. We realized this is going to be a real need, and instead of dealing with a one-off, let’s open our community,” Rabbi Adam Starr of Young Israel of Toco Hills, one of the participating synagogues, told JTA.

The synagogues’ efforts were supported by thousands of kosher meals from the Orthodox Union.

Click here to learn more about disaster relief from the Orthodox Union.

A number of Jewish disaster relief organizations in the United States and Israel quickly moved to expand efforts launched in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to include victims in Florida.

Less than two weeks after dispatching an emergency response team to Houston, the volunteer group Israel Rescue Coalition sent 15 medics to help in Florida. Meanwhile, NECHAMA: Jewish Response to Disaster prepared to deploy a team to Florida to help victims recover from storm damage.

Solomon, the CEO of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said cash donations were preferable to other kinds of aid.

“Walmart and Target and JC Penny have a pretty good distribution system already,” he said. “What we need is the ability to go out and buy what we need when we need it.”

Solomon spoke on the phone Sept. 11 as he decided whether he was going to break a county curfew to go recite the Mourner’s Kaddish with a prayer quorum — he’s mourning the loss of three close relatives in the past year. But as the storm chugged northward towards Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama, he struck a note of confidence for Miami, a city that has seen its fair share of nasty storms.

“We’re going to be just fine,” he said. “We know this drill.”

Hurricane Irma tears through Florida: Here’s how to help Read More »

Even a bomb threat couldn’t stop this Jewish couple from getting married

Leave a Comment / Culture /

Gaby and Dan Rosehill wouldn’t let anything get in the way of their wedding day. Even if that thing was a bomb threat that forced all 218 guests to evacuate the hotel where the wedding was taking place

“I was just about to be named husband and wife when the alarm went off. We had to evacuate,” Gaby Rosehill told The Jewish Chronicle about the incident on Sunday in Brighton, England.

“I had to ask the rabbi ‘Is this divine intervention? Does God not want me to get married?’” she recounted. “But he told me it was ‘just a test’ and we would get through it.”

As the bridal party gathered in a nearby hotel, the couple’s wedding planners managed to put together an on-spot wedding, chuppah and all. That turned out to be a good decision, since it took five hours for the police to clear the original venue.

The couple got married in the new location, though the bomb threat changed the order of events a bit, including police questioning the couple about anyone who may have been angry at them — in the yichud room where couples retreat for a little privacy. But the pair managed to keep up their spirits.

“Dan managed to laugh off the situation the whole way through,” Rosehill told The Chronicle.

After police deemed the incident a hoax, the couple and guests were able to return to the original venue — just in time for dessert.

“It just goes to show all you really need is love,” Rosehill said of her special day.

Even a bomb threat couldn’t stop this Jewish couple from getting married Read More »

Holy hurricane

Leave a Comment / Marty Kaplan /

Denial just ain’t what it used to be.

Maybe it’s only me, but as recent news has delivered one gut punch after another, it’s been feeling like magical thinking has lost its mojo.

Case in point: Though I know Donald Trump is pathologically void of empathy, who can process a truth as dark as that? We’re not talking about a Batman villain here; this is the effing president of the United States. So as a coping mechanism, my psyche threw an invisibility cloak over his immorality. It didn’t always work, but it came to a dead stop when neo-Nazis – “some very fine people” – marched and murdered in Charlottesville. I plumb ran out of the strategic ignorance necessary to pretend he’s not complicit in evil.

Or take nukes. (Please.) By all rights, nuclear blackmail, nuclear terrorism and accidental nuclear war should have been giving me nightmares for years. But the human capacity for compartmentalization as a way to adapt to the unthinkable did a pretty good job of protecting me from that fear. I don’t know whether, on their own, Kim Jong-un’s accelerating bomb and missile tests would have blown through my soothing self-delusion, but Trump’s crazy rhetoric has undeniably exposed how short-fused those scary scenarios are.

Magical thinking has also Photoshopped my image of the internet. The web’s seductive marvels have had a way of distracting me from mounting evidence of the destruction it enables. But in light of what’s been happening, it’s high time for me to kiss the last vestiges of internet triumphalism goodbye.

Last week the consumer credit-reporting company Equifax revealed that 143 million Americans in their database – half the country – may have had our Social Security and drivers license numbers compromised, as well as the keys to our credit card and bank accounts. Face it: Cyber-security sucks today, and it will suck tomorrow. If you believe your personal data can be reliably protected from hackers, identity thieves, blackmailers, spies, governments, trolls, gamer guys, mean girls and Julian Assange, there’s a Nigerian prince who wants to wire $10 million to your bank account I’d like to introduce to you.

Also last week, the New York Times reported that a cyber-army of counterfeit Facebook and Twitter accounts controlled by impostors linked to the Kremlin had been “engines of deception and propaganda” during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, spreading fake anti-Clinton news, pro-Trump memes and stolen Democratic email to targeted American voters. Facebook – having repeatedly denied it – also disclosed that Russian operatives had bought $100,000 in anti-Clinton ads that may have reached as many as 70 million Americans. Here’s a sobering fact: The digital tools already exist, and are getting better all the time, needed to create convincing counterfeit videos of anyone saying anything, and to confect bogus news stories and brand them as trustworthy journalism. Media literacy and critical thinking have never been more urgent, or up against worse odds.

It’d be comforting to think that companies like Equifax and Facebook have learned their lesson and from now on will deploy the technology needed to beat the devils. But believing what’s comforting in the face of ample prior behavior to the contrary is the definition of denial. Counting on Internet providers to voluntarily embrace an opt-in requirement that respects consumer privacy, like counting on a technical fix for security flaws and propaganda targeting, is the triumph of optimism over precedent.

I’ve clung to such optimism; even if I turn out to be wrong, isn’t that preferable to always fearing the worst? But these days the difficulty of turning a blind eye to reality is taxing my talent for self-deception.

Hurricanes have been dominating the news lately, and few events test the strength of denial as frontally as disasters. But while Harvey and Irma have held news networks hostage – with reason: danger is a magnet for attention – it’s the 8.1 earthquake off of Mexico last week that has me still shaking. I’ve lived in Southern California for a long time, and though earthquakes sometimes drop off my radar screen, I’m periodically conscious enough of their risks that I’ve taken disaster preparation to heart. The proximity of the Mexican quake refocused me on the seismic vulnerability of my everyday life: I checked my battery and water supply. But it also, unexpectedly, laid bare a deeper denial I usually bury fairly successfully, if unconsciously.

I carry around, but rarely examine, a point of view about the relationship between the horrors of natural disasters and my notion of God. I know no God sends these hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods. I’m secular, so I don’t require an intricate theodicy to acquit an omnipotent God of capricious cruelty or to sentence a sinful humanity to suffering. But I also don’t experience the universe as arbitrary and meaningless; I experience awe at the mystery of existence, and gratitude for its wonders.

How I reconcile the providence of those gifts with the pointlessness of random misery is too tentative, perhaps too childlike, to survive the scrutiny of abandoned denial. But this much I’m secure about: The power of the 8.2 earthquake that scientists predict for California is indistinguishable from the power that made the night sky’s starry sublime.

MARTY KAPLAN is the Norman Lear professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Reach him at martyk@jewishjournal.com.

Holy hurricane Read More »

Trump gives new hope to Jewish push for FEMA assistance to houses of worship

Leave a Comment / United States /

A tweet by President Donald Trump on Friday night, with Houston recovering from Hurricane Harvey and his sister Irma set to ravage Florida, is renewing hope among Jewish groups that have long advocated for emergency assistance to houses of worship.

“Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others),” Trump said on Twitter, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Attempts in the past two Congresses to extend FEMA protections to houses of worship had broad bipartisan support, but were stymied by the Obama administration’s concerns over church-state separation.

Jewish groups advocating for the change welcomed the change in tone.

Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union, which has led advocacy for the policy change, said that Trump needed only to order the change; there was no statute barring emergency funds from going to houses of worship. Still, he said, including houses of worship as beneficiaries of FEMA assistance should be written into law.

“There’s a little bit of distance between the president tweeting and actual policy,” he told JTA on Monday. “We also want it codified in legislation.”

Lawmakers who have favored the change have included Reps. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. and Chris Smith, R-N.J. in the House  and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. in the Senate. (Those bids were inspired in part by Superstorm Sandy, which clobbered the northeast in 2012.)

FEMA currently allows nonprofits such as community centers and zoos to apply for the funds.

“We’re asking for the same treatment as other nonprofits,” Diament said.

“They serve as shelters, they serve as collection and distribution centers for emergency assistance after natural disasters,” he said. “Community centers are on this list because they function as gathering places for the community and places for educational and other programs; houses of worship do that as well.”

Diament said as many as four OU-affiliated synagogues in the Houston area could use the assistance; it was too early to tell regarding Florida, he said.

The Orthodox Union is allied with religious umbrellas from other faiths in favoring the legislation, but Diament emphasized that the change has broad support, including from the Jewish Federations of North America, the Conservative movement and the American Jewish Committee, an organization that has in other areas emphasized church-state separations.

Richard Foltin, the AJC’s director of legislative affairs, said that as long as there were safeguards keeping the assistance from directly funding religious activity, expanding the assistance to houses of worship was the right thing to do.

“This is a natural disaster for which everyone has suffered and a house of worship ought not to be ineligible for support,” he said.

Among Jewish groups that usually voice church-separation concerns, the Anti-Defamation League in 2013 dropped its objections to legislative bids to include houses of worship as eligible for FEMA assistance, and the Reform movement has not raised objections.

Abba Cohen, the Washington director of Agudath Israel of America, said extending the assistance to houses of worship was common sense.

“It defies common sense or any sense of fairness to deny disaster relief to houses of worship, especially when zoos and other recreational facilities are eligible to receive such aid,” Cohen said in an email. “When disaster strikes, the stability of a community’s houses of worship and other religious entities is vital to its spirit and morale and ultimately to its ability to recover.”

Trump gives new hope to Jewish push for FEMA assistance to houses of worship Read More »

Now Israel has its own version of the ‘alt-right’

Leave a Comment / Israel /

For many Jews, Nazis are public enemy No. 1, and using Nazi imagery to make a political point is strictly verboten.

But some young, right-wing Israelis aren’t buying it.

Inspired by the so-called alt-right abroad, their online community makes liberal use of anti-Semitic and Nazi imagery to mock and malign what it sees as the real threat: Israeli and Jewish leftists.

“We’re fighting back in a new way,” said Guy Levy, 40, the manager of an advertising office in Beersheba and a member of the community. “Our messages aren’t politically correct, but that’s what makes them funny, and stinging.”

Many Israelis heard about this community for the first time Saturday when Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, credited its main Facebook page as the source of an anti-Semitic themed cartoon he shared. The page, called Tight Memes Against Kakihomoshit Leftists, has since been heavily referenced in the local media. The publicity significantly expanded it following.

Netanyahu posted the cartoon Friday with the caption “food chain.” It pairs the Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros — who the alt-right regularly portrays as a leftist “puppet master” — with at least two other figures associated with the far right and conspiracy theorists, a robed “Illuminati” figure and a lizard creature. All three in turn are seen as manipulating former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and other prominent critics of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Jewish leaders in Israel and the United States rushed to rap Netanyahu over the post. “The cartoon that Yair Netanyahu posted contains blatantly anti-Semitic elements,” the Anti-Defamation League’s Israel office tweeted Sunday in Hebrew. “The dangers inherent in anti-Semitic discourse should not be taken lightly.”

Meanwhile, leading white supremacists, including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke and those behind the U.S. neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, purported to embrace Netanyahu as one of their own.

“Welcome to the club, Yair – absolutely amazing, wow, just wow,” Duke tweeted Sunday, along with media reports about Netanyahu’s post.

The cartoon Yair Netanyahu uploaded to Facebook, Sept. 9, 2017. (Facebook)

However, members of the community centered around the Tight Memes Facebook page responded very differently.

Dan Gefen, 36, a libertarian economist and longtime member of the community, said the cartoon is meant as a criticism of anti-Zionist meddling in Israeli democracy, including by Jews like Soros, who has funded left-leaning Jewish groups like J Street and civil rights groups in Israel. The anti-Semitic themes are simply a sendup of political correctness, he said.

“If you’re in the culture, you don’t see it as anti-Semitic,” he said. “The general idea is every small thing a right-winger does, they’re calling you a Nazi or a fascist. So it’s making fun of that. It’s a lie that tells the truth.

“The [left-wing] reaction is very important,” he added. “Without the reaction, the joke doesn’t work.”

In recent days, the Tight Memes Facebook page has filled with posts mocking the media’s reaction to the cartoon as humorless and hypocritical. Many have highlighted past examples of Israelis comparing using Nazi imagery to condemn trends on the right, sometimes to the delight of Duke and other white supremacists.

Asked for comment in a Facebook message, an administrator of the group replied, “We don’t cooperate with journalists. Especially not the fake news.”

Yair Netanyahu, who took down the cartoon Sunday evening but did not apologize, has shared several of the posts along with his own comments, including on one, “The left is so sensitive that it’s something.”

Gefen said the Tight Memes community borrows “culturally and even ideologically sometimes” from the alt-right. Like that group, it is loosely organized online, nationalistic and delights in defying social norms it feels are imposed by left-wing elites. But unlike some in the alt-right, he said, his community is not anti-Semitic, for obvious reasons, or racist.

While it operates on a variety of Facebook pages that come and go, Gefen said, the Tight Memes page is the community’s central meeting place. The page’s cover photo features both Pepe the Frog, a cartoon figure that the ADL deemed a hate symbol after it was co-opted by the alt-right, and Benjamin Netanyahu wearing sunglasses. The profile picture is a rendering of Netanyahu drinking from a jug labeled “the tears of leftists.”

Some 3,000 people followed Tight Memes prior to Netanyahu’s post, and that number has now reached well over 4,000.

Most of the posts are relatively standard right-wing political attacks on Netanyahu’s critics delivered with troll-like memes, many adapted from content popularized on 4chan, an alt-right gathering place. Pepe makes frequent appearances, sometimes in Nazi uniform. Other times he appears as a Likud member or religious Zionist.

Alt-right pejoratives like “cuck” are mixed with Hebrew neologisms, like “kakihomoshit,” the nonsensical curse word used in the full title of the Tight Memes page. “Kaki” is Hebrew slang for feces, while “homoshit” is a combination of two well-known English slurs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with his son Yair in Jerusalem, March 18, 2015. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

Levy, the advertising office manager, who also runs a blog fact-checking the Israeli media, discovered Tight Memes about a month ago. He and said he was tired of seeing leftists bully Israel’s right wing, including the Netanyahu family.

“‘We’re fascists, we’re racists, we hate peace.’ These are the ways they’re trying to brand us. So we embrace it,” he said. “It’s even worse I’m sure for Yair. His family is being persecuted. I don’t know if he’s reacting in the best way, but this is the reaction.”

The Netanyahus face a raft of investigations. The prime minister has been questioned in a pair of fraud investigations relating to alleged illicit ties to executives in media, international business and Hollywood. His associates are being probed relating to a possible conflict of interest involving the $2 billion purchase of German submarines.

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelbilt announced Friday that he intends to indict the prime minister’s wife, Sara, for fraud over her alleged use of public funds for household expenses.

Yair Netanyahu posted the cartoon — which included likenesses of a former housekeeper at the heart of the case against his mother and another man leading weekly protests demanding indictments of his family — hours after Mandelbilt’s announcement. It was not the first time Yair has lashed out at leftists on Facebook in recent weeks.

Last month, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial response to the deadly violence at a far-right march in Charlottesville, Virginia, Yair Netanyahu suggested that American left-wing groups are more dangerous than neo-Nazis. Days earlier he questioned a left-wing NGO’s sources of funding and the supposedly illicit behavior of the sons of former prime ministers.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who reportedly takes social media advice from Yair, has hardly been less restrained, calling the investigations of his family a “witch hunt” by “leftists” and the “fake news.” He has sought to characterize the probes, apparently with some success, as an attack on all right-wing Israelis.

“They don’t want to just take me down,” he said in Tel Aviv last month in one of a pair of rallies he has recently held. “They want to take us all down.”

Netanyahu has yet to comment on the latest controversy surrounding his son. When reporters asked Netanyahu directly about the issue at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, he replied, “Thank you, but this isn’t a press conference.”

That, too, became a meme on Tight Memes. In a video clip, a pair of animated sunglasses and a cigar appearon Netanyahu’s face. The text reads, “I didn’t choose the thug life. It chose me.”

Now Israel has its own version of the ‘alt-right’ Read More »

The David Myers debacle

Leave a Comment / Rob Eshman /

With disturbing regularity, Jews hate on Jews.

The most recent example is the jaw-dropping case of professor David Myers.

Last June, the UCLA professor of history — and Jewish Journal columnist — was appointed president and CEO of the Center for Jewish History (CJH), a collection of five New York museums that is the nation’s foremost repository and educational center for American Jewish history.

[MORE: Right-wing activists target David Myers]

The news initially was greeted with unanimous praise. The pre-eminent historian of American Jewish history, Brandeis University’s Jonathan D. Sarna, said Myers was “the very embodiment of what the center should be.”

But last week, an unsigned “expose” on Myers popped up on numerous Jewish websites. It accused him of being a radical anti-Israel leftist. Myers, the piece concluded, was “unsuitable to head a Jewish institution with the long-term and widespread influence of The Center for Jewish History.”

Such nastiness is not unique to this moment in Jewish history. The comforting myth of “all Jews are friends” is belied by the many times in history when Jews fought viciously against fellow Jews: Maccabees murdering “Hellenized” Jews, Zealots stabbing “collaborationist” priests before the fall of the Second Temple, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. All this violence was the last stop on a long road of verbal assaults.

What’s different now is slandering has never been so fast and easy. The internet has made it so that we can spread our slurs in seconds, under the guise of “breaking news.” Jews are mud wrestling in the same pigpen as the larger culture, where someone with a working email account can slop around gossip, half-truths and lies — which, astonishingly, otherwise sophisticated people accept as fact.

Few people in the world know how to do this better than Ronn Torossian.

The Brooklyn-born founder of a multimillion-dollar New York public relations agency freelances as a one-man, self-appointed defender of Israel against whatever and whomever he determines is “anti-Israel.”

Torossian decided, some four months after Myers’ appointment was announced, that it was time to get dirty. Together with associates Hank Sheinkopf and George Birnbaum, he wrote an attack piece that accused Myers of supporting the boycott of Israel and undermining the Israel Defense Forces.

For Torossian and the current Israeli leadership he is a flack for, any opposition to Israel’s occupation of Judea and Samaria and the settlement movement is hyped as a national threat. Myers — and the New Israel Fund (NIF), where he serves on the board — categorically oppose the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. But both Myers and NIF oppose continued Israeli settlement building, seeing it as a threat to Israel as a Jewish democratic state, and they leave open the possibility that boycotting goods originating from the West Bank could be a legitimate form of nonviolent protest.

I happen to disagree with the latter stand — that’s another column. The bigger problem is that over the past decade this particular Israeli government and its American cheerleaders have moved the goalposts of what is “pro-Israel.” Now, anything short of a warm embrace of a settlement movement and Israel’s 50-year occupation of Judea and Samaria is considered not just anti-Zionist, but anti-Israel.

A week ago, Torossian inserted the Myers hit piece into the ecosystem of right-wing Jewish news sites and, voila, clickbait for well-meaning pro-Israel readers. Arutz Sheva, the Jewish Press and Algemeiner ran the piece as a news article or op-ed. From there, like-minded pro-Israel activists reposted the piece or sent it through email blasts.

Immediately, American-Jewish and Israeli historians, as well as many Los Angeles Jewish leaders, came to Myers’ defense. Even those who sometimes disagree with Myers said there shouldn’t be a litmus test of political correctness for Jewish organizational leaders.

The CJH itself quickly issued a statement backing its president and CEO.

“Various allegations have been made about David Myers,” the statement said. “Professor Myers is an eminent historian. The Board of the Center for Jewish History has full confidence in his ability to lead the Center in the fulfillment of its mission to preserve the treasured sources of the Jewish past and advance public knowledge of the Jewish historical experience.”

But 36 hours after a handful of “news” websites ran Torossian’s hit piece without vetting, fact checking or publishing opposing viewpoints, the echo had entered the chamber.

Some supporters of the American Sephardi Federation, one of the five institutions that make up the CJH, got sucked into the one-sided “news” and sided with Torossian. A couple of far-right Israeli Knesset members demanded Myers’ head — because, you know, Israel has no more pressing problems than a Zionist historian taking over an American Jewish museum.

Myers has yet to speak out, other than to say he appreciates the many people who have come to his defense. In an email to me, he said he refused Torossian’s offer to “answer questions” before the piece went out, because he was unwilling to place his words in the hands of a nonjournalist who by reputation he simply didn’t trust.

The lessons? Just as in the larger media world, there is responsible and irresponsible Jewish media. The good ones don’t print opinion as news articles and don’t allow op-ed writers to create their own facts. The more you believe a story, the more you must seek out the other side to it.

Remember: At the end of a long road of verbal assault, nothing but division awaits. Any great Jewish historian can tell you that. Just ask David Myers.

ROB ESHMAN is publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. Email
him at robe@jewishjournal.com. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter @foodaism
and @RobEshman.

The David Myers debacle Read More »

Episode 55: Grammy Award-winning hip hop violinist Miri Ben Ari

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Today we have the privilege to talk with Miri Ben Ari, aka the Hip Hop Violinist, and probably one of the most famous and influential Israelis to hit the contemporary international music scene.

Miri was born in Tel Aviv and where she grew up playing classical music since the age of 5. Her encounter with world renowned violinist Isaac Stern brought her towards the violin, and ever since then her romance with this instrument flourished.

Following her military service in the IDF string quartet, she moved to New York to study jazz. She played gigs and worked hard and after some time it all paid off, when Jay-Z noticed her talent and invited her to play with him. She then went on to extraordinary accomplishments like playing with Wyclef at Carnegie hall, co-writing Jesus Walks with Kanye West (which got her the Grammy) and being featured in four tracks on his debut album, releasing her own debut album The Hip Hop Violinist, Performing on David Letterman’s late night, performing for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House and the list goes on and on and on.

In addition to all that, Ben Ari has devoted her life to social causes. She is a UN ambassador of Music, and Her NGO Gedenk has set as its mission to educate American youth about the Holocaust.

We are so honored to have Miri Ben Ari with us today.

Miri Ben Ari’s website and Facebook page

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Daily Kickoff: On 9/11, learning from Danny Lewin | Larry Silverstein on rebuilding the WTC | Jon Lerner profile | JI interview with Rep. Val Demings

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Ari Fleisher’s tradition: “Good morning. As I do every year on this day, I will do my best to recall what I saw on September 11, 2001. There was no Twitter then. But I will try to re-live history on twitter so others can know details of what happened behind the scenes.” [Twitter] 

REMEMBERING: “Learning from 9/11’s first victim” by Marco Greenberg: “On September 11, 2001, Danny Lewin, 31, my best friend, was working away on his laptop in seat 9B aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when he saw the two men sitting right in front of him — they would later be identified as Mohammad Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari — getting up and making their way to the cockpit. A veteran of the Israeli army’s most elite commando unit, Danny tried to stop them, as the 9/11 Commission report indicated, but the man seated right behind him, Satam al-Suqami, drew his knife and slit Danny’s throat, making him, as the report would eventually confirm, the first victim of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil.”

“Danny, of course, would hate that word, victim. He had spent his entire life proving he was anything but. He believed in hard work, setting a personal example, and daring ingenuity; if you asked him, he’d tell you these are the values that have made America great… Danny was a complicated guy, with strong opinions that easily spanned the partisan spectrum and were never obvious or unreasoned, but I know he’d be outraged by seeing how rampant xenophobia, Islamophobia, racism and anti-Semitism have become in our nation, and I suspect he’d be baffled by the tendency, on the left and the right alike, to focus on the accidents of our birth instead of on our infinite human potential.” [NYDailyNews]

TOP TALKER: “Netanyahu’s son removes anti-Semitic meme from Facebook following outcry” by Ruth Eglash: “The image, posted by Yair Netanyahu on Friday, appeared to be a local take on a classic anti-Semitic cartoon suggesting that Jews control the United States. It has appeared widely on extreme alt-right websites. In this instance, it depicted his father’s perceived foes: American Jewish billionaire philanthropist and investor George Soros, outspoken former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, activist Eldad Yaniv, and Meni Naftali, a former housekeeper for the Netanyahus who successfully sued them for mistreatment. Yair Netanyahu, who goes by the name “Yair Hun” on Facebook, had captioned the meme “the food chain.” [WashPost]

KAFE KNESSET — Neo-Nazis embrace Yair Netanyahu — by Tal Shalev and JPost’s Lahav Harkov: David Duke posted a tweet praising Yair, and The Daily Stormer was quite pleased with him. On Sunday, after Bibi’s statement to the press at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, a reporter asked him about it, and the Prime Minister only said “this isn’t a press conference.” Last night, without a word of explanation, Yair deleted the post.

Meanwhile, the gag order on the testimony of Bibi’s former chief of staff Ari Harow is set to expire next week, and if it is indeed removed, new details are expected to emerge about Netanyahu’s alleged criminal affairs. Meanwhile, Haaretz reported today that Netanyahu tried to set Harow up with a job at Channel 10, after supporting the sale of the channel to Russian-born businessman Len Blavatnik. Blavatnik was interrogated by Israeli Police last month in London. The Channel 10 deal and Netanyahu’s contacts with Blavatnik are part of “Case 1000,” in which Netanyahu is suspected of receiving gifts and favors from LA producer Arnon Milchan and other businessmen. According to the report, Netanyahu asked Blavatnik’s people to appoint Harow, who was unemployed at the time, as chairman of the channel 10 news company. That appointment did not work out because of regulatory difficulties. Read today’s entire Kafe Knesset here [JewishInsider]

PROFILE: “Haley’s UN Brinkmanship Comes With Advice From Low-Key Adviser” by Kambiz Foroohar: “Jon Lerner, a political strategist who helped get Haley elected twice as the Palmetto State’s governor, is the ambassador’s Washington-based deputy. While [Nikki] Haley has talked about the direct access she has to President Donald Trump, the 49-year-old Lerner serves as her eyes and ears on the ground in the nation’s capital: a critical role as Haley’s profile rises in an administration buffeted by leaks and turmoil. Lerner accompanied Haley to Vienna last month to meet International Atomic Energy Agency investigators over Iran’s compliance with the nuclear accord opposed by Trump. And he helped draft Haley’s Iran-focused speech in Washington last week…

“In a rare public comment, Lerner described himself in an email as inspired by anti-Communist movements. “My hostility to anti-American authoritarian governments that began with anti-Communism remains my primary motivation,” Lerner wrote. “That manifests itself today in places that include North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia.”” [Bloomberg]

–Ambassador Haley will speak at the opening night of the IAC National Conference on November 3rd at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in DC. Yesterday, the IAC published a promo video featuring Haley as a “real-life Wonder Woman” [Video]

‘NEW YORK VALUES’: “Inside the Trump-Schumer marriage of convenience” by Mike Allen: “After shunning Trump for months because of possible blowback from the left, [Chuck] Schumer now has supreme leverage in December — hammer time for the debt and spending thickets that were postponed by the deal… My conversations with both sides make it clear that Trump plans to continue playing the field, and Schumer is game to make future deals with Trump as long as they suit the Democratic base.” [Axios] 

“Palestinians accuse Israel of sabotaging Trump-Abbas meet” by Daniel Siryoti: “The Palestinians have accused Israel of trying to sabotage U.S. efforts to hold a three-way summit… on the sidelines of the assembly… Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed in principle to the summit, but demanded a prior private meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The Palestinians say further that Trump and his team are amenable to a private meeting, but that it will only take place after Abbas’ speech at the assembly. The reason… is that the Americans want to hear what Abbas says in his speech before sitting down for a meeting, to ensure that he doesn’t incite against Israel… “This report is false. We are having productive conversations but never discussed the U.N. speech and are putting no pressure on them about the speech,” a senior White House official told Israel Hayom.” [IsraelHayom] 

HEARD YESTERDAY — Prime Minister Netanyahu before boarding to Latin American, U.S. trip: “I look forward to our meeting, to my meeting with President Trump, my friend, in the United States, in New York, and I want to take this opportunity to wish all our friends in the United States that they emerge safe and sound from these difficult times. This storm too shall pass and every citizen of Israel is praying for the safety of the citizens of the United States of America.” [Video; Reuters] 

“Trump’s negotiating skills are urban legends” by Aaron David Miller: “Even Mr. Trump’s delusionary promise to deliver the “ultimate deal” — a conflict-ending accord between Israelis and Palestinians — was an amateur move. Many people, especially Israelis and Palestinians, and Trump’s negotiator son-in-law should know that the deal — or anything close — cannot possibly be achieved. Former Secretary of State James Baker wisely advised me to keep public expectations low. Mr. Trump has done the opposite and engaged in grandiosity that damages his and America’s credibility.” [CNN]

JI INTERVIEW —  Representative Val Demings (D-FL) discussed her upbringing and her recent trip to Israel in an interview with JI’s Aaron Magid. “I see myself as a living witness that dreams really do come true,” Demings said. Having personally risen out of poverty, while facing the challenges of discrimination, the Florida lawmaker added, “I feel that a major part of my job now in the US Congress is to make sure that I am providing opportunities for other people regardless of their religion, gender, how much money they have in the bank.”

Demings returned from Israel last month along with a group of Congressional Democrats led by Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The lawmakers participated in a Shabbat dinner with an Israeli family, and Demings was particularly inspired by one of the children who currently serves in the military. “The commitment, dedication, and service of the Israeli people were very impressive,” she said.

While meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Demings said she was unable to forget what she called Netanyahu’s “inappropriate” 2015 speech before Congress criticizing the nuclear deal with Iran… After meeting with both Israeli and Palestinian officials, Demings voiced frustration at the Trump’s unwillingness to endorse the two state solution. “The Trump administration’s lack of support for a two state solution indicates to me that he does not have clear understanding of what is going on the region and has not understood both sides what is going on in the region,” she noted. Read the full interview here [JewishInsider]

IRMA: “For a Florida congressman, ‘safe room’ becomes his office” by David Cohen: “Florida Rep. Ted Deutch lost track of how many tornado warnings there were. Throughout the day Sunday, the Democratic congressman was forced to shelter from the ferocious effects of Hurricane Irma, even as he attempted to keep atop of the situation, or, as he put it, “trying to stay abreast while running back and forth to the safe room during tornado warnings.” That safe room was actually a walk-in closet in his in-laws’ residence in Boca Raton, on Florida’s Southeast side… Deutch said he and his family… had remained safe and gotten a bit more accustomed to the emergency drill as the day went along. “It was easier to find humor in it at 4 o’clock in the afternoon than 4 o’clock in the morning,” he said.” [Politico] 

INSIDE THE ADMIN: “New White House Chief of Staff Has an Enforcer” by Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush: “The new chief of staff has tried to shield Gary D. Cohn…  from Mr. Trump’s continuing wrath since the former Goldman Sachs executive went public with his disgust at the president’s response to the deadly violence last month in Charlottesville… [John] Kelly made a point… of throwing his arm around Mr. Cohn in solidarity, in full view of the news media, as they exited Marine One last week on the South Lawn. But he has not always been successful. Several aides said Mr. Trump is freezing out Mr. Cohn by employing a familiar tactic: refusing to make eye contact with Mr. Cohn when his adviser greets him. At a meeting on Thursday on infrastructure at the White House with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York… Mr. Kelly told participants that Mr. Cohn would lead the meeting. But Mr. Trump… virtually ignored him.” [NYTimes] 

“Former Sessions aides chart different paths in Trump’s White House” by Andrew Restuccia, Nancy Cook and Josh Dawsey: “[Stephen] Miller’s influence with the president has rarely been stronger than in the past few weeks, when, according to two administration officials, he joined with Sessions, his former boss, to convince Trump to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program… Two administration officials said Miller distanced himself from Sessions at the height of Trump’s anger with the former Alabama senator. Miller, according to one senior White House aide, has “risen to a status that’s beyond Sessions.” Lately, however, Kelly has sought to curb Miller’s access to Trump. White House aides have sometimes blamed Miller… for passing along bad information to the president, and he can no longer put printed-out Breitbart articles on Trump’s desk.” [Politico]

“Mueller gives White House names of 6 aides he expects to question in Russia probe” by Carol D. Leonnig, Rosalind S. Helderman and Ashley Parker: “[Robert] Mueller’s office has also told the White House that investigators may want to interview Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. White House officials are expecting that Mueller will seek additional interviews, possibly with family members, including Kushner…  according to the people familiar with Mueller’s inquiry.” [WashPost]

IRAN DEAL: “Iran Nuclear Inspections Double Under Deal Questioned by Trump” by Jonathan Tirone: “Iran has received nearly two snap nuclear inspections a month and almost double the overall number of visits it had just five years ago… International Atomic Energy Agency monitors conducted 402 site visits and 25 snap inspections in the first 12 months since the deal was enacted in early 2016, according to data from reports to IAEA members.” [Bloomberg] • UN atomic chief says Iran meeting terms of nuclear deal [AP]

HEARD YESTERDAY ON 60 MINUTES — Charlie Rose: There’s now talk you may not try to undo the Iran nuclear deal. Steve Bannon: “Decertify? I wouldn’t bet on that.” Rose: But there is talk about that. Bannon: “There’s definitely talk. The apparatus wants him to continue to certify. President Trump wants to get out of the deal and either go make a better deal or just view it from the outside.”

“North Korea ‘secretly helped by Iran to gain nuclear weapons’, British officials fear” by Ben Riley-Smith: “The Foreign Office is investigating whether “current and former nuclear states” helped Kim Jong-Un in his drive to mount nuclear warheads on missiles.  Senior Whitehall sources told The Sunday Telegraph it is not credible that North Korean scientists alone brought about the technological advances.  Iran is top of the list of countries suspected of giving some form of assistance, while Russia is also in the spotlight… “North Korean scientists are people of some ability, but clearly they’re not doing it entirely in a vacuum,” said one Government minister.” [Telegraph] 

Michael Oren: “British officials say Iran assists North Korean nuclear program. No surprise but what’s the world going to do about it?” [Twitter]

2018 WATCH: “Republican Sen. Bob Corker weighs whether to retire in 2018” by Manu Raju: “Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the influential chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee who was once considered for a spot in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, is weighing whether to call it quits next year. Corker told CNN last week that he has not made a decision about his future, and appeared to confirm Trump’s tweet that he asked the President for political advice about whether to run for reelection. “As far as what am I going to do in the future, I’m still contemplating the future,” Corker said in an interview. “It’s a tremendous privilege to do what I do, and to weigh in on the big issues. … But I have not decided what I’m going to do in the future.” [CNN]

“Nevada treasurer’s candidacy for governor sparks attack ads” by  Colton Lochhead: “On the day of the announcement, a digital and radio ad blitz attacked [Dan] Schwartz as a candidate from a Republican super PAC with ties to GOP megadonors Joe Ricketts and… Sheldon Adelson. Schwartz’s likely primary opponent, Adam Laxalt, received $55,000 in campaign donations from the Adelson family and Sands during Laxalt’s successful 2014 bid for attorney general.” [LVReviewJournal]

2020 WATCH: “How California could jolt the 2020 presidential race” by David Siders and Gabe Debenedetti: “California is pushing forward with a plan to change the state’s primary date from June to March, a move that could scramble the 2020 presidential nominating contest and swing the early weight of the campaign to the west… The earlier primary could benefit at least two potential presidential contenders from California – U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti…” [Politico] 

** Good Monday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email Editor@JewishInsider.com **

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Israel and China sign $300 million ‘clean-tech’ trade agreement [Reuters] • Netanyahu Taking Along Israeli Business Delegation on Latam Trip [Bloomberg] • Roberto Spindel, head of the Israel – Latin American Chamber of Commerce: Netanyahu’s Latin America trip ‘too short, too late’ [JPost] • Chief executive of Israel supermarket chain arrested [FinancialTimes]

SPOTLIGHT: “Larry Silverstein on rebuilding the World Trade Center after 9/11” by Sarina Trangle: “When we first acquired the Twin Towers … about six weeks before 9/11, never dreamed as to what was going to happen … I have now been at this, the rebuilding, for the last 16 years of my life. So it’s been the passion of my life. We’ve come a very long way. You can see the buildings that we’ve erected down here… It didn’t because very quickly after 9/11, I just in my mind concluded that we needed to rebuild the trade center to defeat the terrorists and their attacks — what they sought to do to us on 9/11. Not to have rebuilt would have been a terrible tragedy because then, effectively, they would have won.” [AMNY]

MEDIA WATCH: “How fake news in the Middle East is a powder keg waiting to blow” by Bethan McKernan: “It is common for Lebanese to share news updates and other messages via WhatsApp and SMS, copying and pasting the text to others in their contact lists. Given the context, however, one fake news story which circulated recently raised more than a few eyebrows. “Urgent”, read the message, which purported to be from Reuters news agency. “Hezbollah kidnaps top-ranking Mossad intelligence officers in Israel’s elite class.” The Arabic text went on to quote an unnamed Israeli intelligence officer who said that Israel had decided to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon as a result of the Mossad kidnappings.” [Independent] 

“Why ‘Fauda’ Is the Best-Kept Secret on Netflix” by Itay Hod: ““Fauda” has become a favorite among Hollywood A-listers… Conan O’Brien, who is currently shooting a special in Israel, filmed a skit with [Lior] Raz, telling the “Fauda” crew that he is a “huge fan.” While few expect a TV show to erase years of animosity between Israelis and Palestinians, “Fauda” has given both sides a little bit of hope…“‘Fauda’ has achieved something  remarkable,” Itay Stern, who covers entertainment for Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told TheWrap. “On one hand, it allows us to look at ourselves from the point of view of the commando soldiers. But it also exposed people to how the other side is thinking.” … Asked what viewers should expect next season, Raz kept his cards close to his vest… The show may not lead to the next Oslo Accord, but it’s already made Raz a hot commodity in Hollywood.” [TheWrap] 

“The Israeli Film Condemned by Israel’s Cultural Minister Is a Fascinating Look at Grief” Jordan Hoffman: “Foxtrot, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, begins with a ring at the front door, and young mother Dafna (Sarah Adler) fainting when she sees who it is. The two soldiers know exactly what to do… They’ve come to inform Dafna and Michael (Lior Ashkenazi, the hardest working man in the Israeli film industry right now) that their son has died in the line of duty. The next thirty minutes are a terse and precise procedural. With Dafna doped-up in the next room, Michael tries to keep it together in his elegantly furnished home as handlers explain what will happen next. Then, a miracle. It’s all been a mistake. A soldier was killed, but it isn’t their son, just someone with the same name.” [VanityFair] 

SPORTS BLINK: “Watch Victor Daviet snowboard in Israel” [Transworld] 

DESSERT: “This Israeli Startup is Making Edible NYC and Other City Maps Out of Chocolate” by Matt Coneybeare: “Founded by Anat Errell and Liat Zvi, Tamtik is an Israeli startup that is looking to bring edible maps of New York City, Tel Aviv, London and other cities to life, each made from gourmet chocolate… The company has launched a Kickstarter campaign where they are seeking a modest $10,000 of pre-orders to get the ball rolling… Tamtik has already raised about 25% of the funding for the urban chocolate maps.”[ViewingNYC] 

“Looking for the Last of the Power Lunchers: Are the city’s power lunchers gone forever, or just sipping fruit smoothies at Google?” by Simon van Zuylen-Wood: “At any given lunch hour at Davio’s, you’re likely to spot shopping-center mogul Stephen Karp, auto tycoon Herb Chambers, or hedge-fund master of the universe Seth Klarman. John Kerry, when he was secretary of state, was known to usher delegations of foreign diplomats into one of the restaurant’s discreet private dining rooms. Robert Kraft, meanwhile, beelines for the ever-desirable Table 60, which is visible from Arlington Street and offers a panoramic view of the dining room.” [BostonMag]

MAZEL TOV: “Stephanie Taylor Butnick and Benjamin Zachary Cohen were married Sept. 9 at the Old Westbury Golf and Country Club in Old Westbury, N.Y… The bride, 29, is the deputy editor of Tablet magazine… and host of “Unorthodox,” its weekly podcast… The groom, also 29, is a sports reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York.” [NYTimes] 

BIRTHDAYS: Founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund based in Short Hills, New Jersey, David Tepper turns 60… Three time winner of an Academy Award as a lyricist and songwriter, Alan Bergmanturns 92… De Pere, Wisconsin resident, Janis Kohlenberg turns 78… French physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics, Serge Harocheturns 73… Pediatric nephrologist practicing at the Children’s National Medical Center, Dr. Jonathan Heiliczer turns 67… Member of the New Jersey General Assembly since 2006, Gary Schaer turns 66… Co-executive producer of an 8-hour documentary series on climate change for National Geographic Channel, formerly of ABC and CBS, Jon Meyersohn turns 61… Agoura Hills, California resident, Marian Rubinstein turns 60… Manager of the UK hedge fund, Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, former director of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Alan Howard turns 54…

London-based, British-French financier and author, he is the CEO and founding partner of Stanhope Capital, the asset management and advisory group, Daniel Pinto turns 51… CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Mark Dubowitz turns 49… Israeli journalist, political commentator and investigative reporter, his reports have formed the basis for a number of the pending investigations aimed at PM Netanyahu and his aides,Raviv Drucker turns 47… Executive director at JP Morgan Chase, Daniel E. Berger turns 44… CEO of  government relations firm S4Group, LLC, Yehiel Mark Kalish turns 42… Graduate of Harvard now attending Cardozo Law School, Jessica S. Setless… Journalist whose essays and reports have appeared in the NY Times, Salon, Tablet, the Forward and Haaretz, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt… Udi Ben Zeev…

Gratuity not included. We love receiving news tips but we also gladly accept tax deductible tips. 100% of your donation will go directly towards improving Jewish Insider. Thanks! [PayPal]

Daily Kickoff: On 9/11, learning from Danny Lewin | Larry Silverstein on rebuilding the WTC | Jon Lerner profile | JI interview with Rep. Val Demings Read More »