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Jewish Journal

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August 13, 2019

Palestinian Authority Representative Dodges UN Questioning of Anti-Semitism

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

A representative for the Palestinian Authority (PA) dodged questioning in the United Nations on Aug. 13 regarding the PA’s anti-Semitic rhetoric, the Jerusalem Post reports.

U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Committee Member Chinsung Chung asked the PA delegation to explain “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel prejudice and incitement to hatred, especially in the [Palestinian] media and speeches of state officials.” Committee Member Silva Albuquerque also asked the delegation about the anti-Semitism that permeates PA textbooks. 

PA Deputy Foreign Minister for International Affairs Ammar Hijazi replied, “We do not discriminate against any of our citizens based on ethnicity and religion or sex. We are a state that is trying to find its path and still formulating its laws.” He alleged that the NGOs’ reported instances of PA anti-Semitism were “untruths” meant to “deny Palestinians their rights.”

The PA also railed against “Israel’s racist occupation” while failing to address their own policies and statements, according to U.N. Watch.

“The PA exploits the reporting process of the anti-racism committee as yet another UN vehicle to attack Israel,” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. “This is a waste of the committee’s time and resources, as Israel is subject to its own review later this year.”

Prior to the aforementioned questioning, U.N. Watch Legal Advisor Dina Rovner provided a briefing to the committee about the PA’s anti-Semitism.

“This incitement is part of the basic Palestinian narrative which dehumanizes Jews and Israelis calling them ‘apes and pigs’ and accusing them of all manner of evils from drinking the blood of Palestinian children to poisoning Palestinian wells and ruling the world, likens Israeli officials to Nazis, and rejects the rights of Jews to their own state in any part of the territory,” Rovner said. She also pointed out the PA frequently denies the Jewish connection to Israel as well as encourages terror attacks against Jews.

The committee’s hearing regarding the PA will resume on Aug. 14.

Palestinian Authority Representative Dodges UN Questioning of Anti-Semitism Read More »

CA Jewish Caucus Members Hang Mezuzot to Celebrate New Law

Leave a Comment / California, Online /

Myriad members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus hung mezuzot on their offices to celebrate the passage of a bill barring building owners from taking down residents’ mezuzot.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the bill, SB 652, into law on July 30; it had passed the State Senate and Assembly on May 6 and July 8, respectively.

The caucus shared photos of the mezuzot on Twitter:

Anti-Defamation League San Francisco tweeted, “So great to see these mezuzot! Thank you again @CAJewishCaucus!”

The law, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, states that “a property owner shall not enforce or adopt a restrictive covenant or any other restriction that prohibits one or more religious items from being displayed or affixed on any entry door or entry door frame of a dwelling,” although it does provide a few exceptions, including an item that prevents a door from opening or closing.

Prior to the law’s passage, there have been various instances of building owners forcing Jewish residents to take down their mezuzot because of a building policy, according to Sen. Ben Allen (D-Los Angeles) and the Anti-Defamation League.

CA Jewish Caucus Members Hang Mezuzot to Celebrate New Law Read More »

IAC Announces Young Professionals Summit

Leave a Comment / Online /
Israeli-American Council (IAC) has announced the first national summit of its kind, IAC EDGE, which focuses on career development for Jewish and Israeli-American young professionals between the ages of 22 and 42. The summit will take place in Los Angeles on September 5.
Hundreds of attendees will come together to hear from and connect with leaders in real estate, health, media, entrepreneurship, technology, and other fields.
IAC EDGE said in a statement to the Journal that they hope to harness “the inspiration of Israeli entrepreneurship, innovation, and chutzpa to bring [attendees] closer to their roots and the Jewish state.”
“The IAC is thrilled to unite Jewish young professionals across the country around the spirit of disruptive Israeliness through career development programming that has never been offered in the Jewish world before,” IAC Co-Founder and CEO Shoham Nicolet said. “We hear all the time about how millennials are hungry for programs that will provide them with the hands-on tools to launch their careers. IAC EDGE is answering this call.”
Speakers at the Los Angeles summit will include Matthew Altman, Co-Star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” on Bravo, Ilana Golan, Board and General Partner at Homrun and Forbes Business contributor, and Gary Wexler, Award-Winning Creative Director & Professor at the University of Southern California. Speakers at the New York summit will include Moran David, Mobileye North American General Manager, Avi Cohen, Co-Founder and COO of LiveU, and Omer Zigdon, Founder & CEO of Zigdon Enterprises.
To learn more about IAC EDGE, visit their website. 

IAC Announces Young Professionals Summit Read More »

Holocaust Denying Blogger Says She Has Been Banned from France for 40 Years

Leave a Comment / Online, Worldwide /

(JTA) — Holocaust denier and blogger Alison Chabloz said she was banned from France.

Chabloz, who is British, said in a Monday post on Gab, a social media platform popular among those on the far-right, that she was questioned when attempting to board a train to Paris, The Jewish Chronicle reported. She said she was told she was barred from entering the country until 2059. Holocaust denial is banned in France.

Last May, Chabloz, who posted songs on YouTube denying the Holocaust, was convicted by a London court of sending “offensive, indecent or menacing messages.”

The 55-year old was found guilty of writing, performing and disseminating three songs about Nazi persecution. One was about the young diarist Anne Frank. In another, she claimed that the Holocaust was “just a bunch of lies.” During one session of her trial, Chabloz sang along in the courtroom as the judge reviewed the videos of her singing.

Holocaust Denying Blogger Says She Has Been Banned from France for 40 Years Read More »

Norway’s Public Broadcaster Apologizes for ‘Jewish Swine’ Cartoon

Leave a Comment / Online, Worldwide /

(JTA) — Norway’s public broadcaster has apologized for airing a cartoon in which a Scrabble player forms the word “Jewish swine.”

NRK initially defended the video, which was pulled offline this month, against allegations of anti-Semitism out of its desire to “defend the freedom of speech,” NRK broadcasting manager Thor Gjermund Eriksen told the Aftenposten daily, but ”occasionally you cross the border and it may happen again.”

Amid an outcry over the July 2 video, NRK’s entertainment director, Charlo Halvorsen, told Aftenpost that “it is not anti-Semitic.” NRK said it was inappropriate some three weeks later.

In the cartoon, a gray-haired man wearing a yarmulke and dressed conspicuously Jewish is playing Scrabble with a younger man in shorts. The Jewish man is frustrated over how long his opponent is taking to construct a word.

The camera switches to the young man’s point of view to reveal that he has constructed the word “Jewswine” (one word in Norwegian). The young man sighs in frustration as the Jewish player taunts him over his Scrabble skills.

“We are clearly on different cognitive levels,” the Jewish man exclaims.

“In this case we used a word that we later see we should not use,” Halvorsen wrote on July 27. “It subverted our intentions and hurt a group of people unnecessarily. We apologize for that.”

The cartoon was titled “Scrabble” and captioned “tag a Jew” on the Facebook page of the animators that created it, Norske Grønnsaker.

Norway’s Public Broadcaster Apologizes for ‘Jewish Swine’ Cartoon Read More »

‘Schitt’s Creek’ Star Dan Levy to be Honored by GLAAD

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

(JTA) — Dan Levy, a star and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated show “Schitt’s Creek,” will be honored by GLAAD at their annual gala in San Francisco in September.

Levy, the son of fellow star Eugene Levy, will receive the Davidson/Valentini Award, named after the organization’s first executive director, Craig Davidson, and his partner, Michael Valentini.

The Levys, who created “Schitt’s Creek” together, play father and son on the show, and their interfaith family mirrors their real life.

Dan Levy, who identifies as gay, plays a pansexual character on “Schitt’s Creek.” He made a conscious decision to make the world in “Schitt’s Creek” a world without homophobia, explaining to the Advocate: “I have made a very strong point to not ever show bigotry, homophobia, or intolerance on our show because to me, it’s a celebration of love.”

“Through his work on-screen and behind the scenes of ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Dan Levy moves LGBTQ visibility on television forward in humorous, compelling, and necessary ways,” Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, told Deadline on Tuesday. “By featuring and celebrating a pansexual character, Dan and ‘Schitt’s Creek’ are expanding representation of the spectrum of identities within the LGBTQ community in a way that other content creators should model.”

Previous recipients of this award include CNN anchor Don Lemon, Jewish musician Adam Lambert, and comedian Hannah Hart.

‘Schitt’s Creek’ Star Dan Levy to be Honored by GLAAD Read More »

CA State Board of Education Says Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum Will ‘Be Substantially Redesigned’

Leave a Comment / California, Online /

The California State Board of Education (SBE) announced on Aug. 12 that the proposed  Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) will be replaced with an entirely new draft.

SBE President Linda Darling-Hammond, Vice President Ilene Straus and Board Member Feliza Ortiz-Licon said in the statement, “The current draft model curriculum falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned. Following the Instructional Quality Commission’s review and response to all public comments, a new draft will be developed for State Board of Education review and potential approval. The Board will ultimately adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum that aligns to California’s values.”

Myriad Jewish groups have criticized the drafted ESMC for supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and failing to mention anti-Semitism as an example of bigotry; other ethnic groups have also called for the ESMC to be re-drafted. More than 13,000 people have signed an Israeli-American Council petition against the ESMC. The Los Angeles Times also came out against the ESMC in an Aug. 2 editorial. 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement to the Journal that the SBE’s decision is a “victory for all Californians and a defeat for anti-Semites and extremists” and they are “Grateful to elected officials who intervened.” The Wiesenthal Center said they are “ready to help revise [the] curriculum.”

American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Regional Office Acting Chief of Staff Dganit Abramoff said in a statement to the Journal, “We thank the California Jewish Caucus, especially Senator Ben Allen and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, for their diligent efforts in challenging this biased and politicized curriculum. In the weeks and months ahead, we look forward to working with our state legislators and the California Department of Education to ensure that the next draft is more inclusive.”

StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “We are proud of our community for standing up together and demanding changes to this deeply flawed curriculum. While we still have a long way to go, this statement is clear evidence that all of our voices are being heard. We need to keep speaking out until the state comes up with a curriculum we can all be proud of.”

The Progressive Zionists of California (PZC) also said in a statement to the Journal, “PZC is heartened that so many people and groups came together to voice their opposition, and that we were heard. We also are committed to holding the State Board of Education accountable to creating a fair and transparent writing and review process to ensure this does not happen again. PZC looks forward to seeing a more balanced and inclusive Ethnic Studies curriculum for California’s 2 million high school students.”

AMCHA Initiative Director and Co-Founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin said in a statement to the Journal that the AMCHA Initiative is “pleased” that the board is going “back to the drawing board” but the board needs to “establish overall safeguards to ensure that abusive and unconscionable attempts to hijack an educational curriculum in order to indoctrinate students with political, religious and ethnic hate is never attempted again. If the State Board of Education does not do this, it is imperative that our state’s elected leaders introduce legislation to right this wrong and protect our students.”

Israeli-American Council Co-Founder and CEO Shoham Nicolet said in a statement, “We believe the narratives and experiences of American Jews and Israeli Americans, which constitute distinct ethnic groups facing discrimination, must be included.”

We look forward to working with the California Board of Education to ensure that the next draft curriculum will exclude hateful and discriminatory movements such as BDS, and includes the narratives of our community.”

The Israel Group Founder and President Jack Saltzberg said in a statement to the Journal that while it’s good that the board “admitted that there are problems with the curriculum,” it’s bad “that an Ethnic Studies curriculum was drafted in the first place that omitted the American Jewish heritage, reinforced anti-Semitic stereotypes, and included virulently anti-Israel propaganda. No draft would ever have had slurs against African Americans or any other ethnic group. This is nothing more than Jew-haters masquerading behind their disdain for Israel.”

CA State Board of Education Says Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum Will ‘Be Substantially Redesigned’ Read More »

Report: Iran Hoping Trump Loses in 2020 Election

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

A Switzerland intelligence report revealed that the Iranian regime is hoping President Donald Trump will lose in 2020, citing the Trump administration’s sanctions posed on the regime.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Switzerland Intelligence Service of the Federation report stated that Iran will stay in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump exited from in May 2018 “and wait for a new administration in Washington.” The report noted that the United States sanctions against Iran have been “strong” because “international companies have virtually no choice but to withdraw from doing business with Iran.”

The report also said that “Iran will continue its efforts to improve the precision of its longer range missiles” and “continue to support anti-Israeli forces in the region, albeit with much less financial commitment.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated recently, as in June, Iran seized a couple of oil British oil tankers and shot down a U.S. drone.

Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow John Hannah argued in a May 31 Foreign Policy piece that the downward spiral of Iran’s economy due to U.S. sanctions suggests that the regime might not be able to wait out Trump.

“The Iranian economy was already forecast to shrink by up to 6 percent in 2019, with inflation raging and the currency having lost almost two-thirds of its value,” Hannah wrote. “The U.S. push to end all oil sales now threatens to tip the economy into a death spiral unlike any the regime has experienced before—and all at a time when by many accounts its legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people has eroded substantially.”

Hannah added that Iran’s recent aggression is due to the regime attempting the U.S. cease its “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran. If Iran fails in this regard then “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will face an excruciating choice: either revert to a policy of trying to ride out the ever-intensifying U.S. economic tsunami that threatens to damage his regime, perhaps even fatally, or swallow hard, lose some face, and figure out a way to take Trump up on his repeated offers to open negotiations,” Hannah argued.

Report: Iran Hoping Trump Loses in 2020 Election Read More »

The Search For Clarity In The Face Of Struggle

Leave a Comment / Blogs /
Everyone is wearing a mask in this world. Every single one of us, including me. But, I am taking the mask off this very moment. I refuse to let fear take over my life. I choose to be courageous. I choose to be vulnerable. I choose to be authentic. I choose to be ME.
We are all marred with limiting beliefs, self-doubts, and shame.
 We have the choice to believe these negative stories we tell ourselves or we can shift the narrative to an uplifting story of self-love.
I recently had surgery to remove a 12 cm ovarian cyst. A moment I have chosen to believe as one of the greatest blessings God has given me, aside from my lovely husband and fur-baby Shelby, of course.
My surgery truly served as a reawakening. The sort of reawakening that has enabled me to work towards addressing the mental torture I’ve put myself through for so many years.
My road to recovery has started to develop a heightened level of self-awareness.
I began to notice the replaying of negative scripts I tell myself from the moment I wake up to the moment I lay my head down to rest.
I tell myself I am a socially awkward freak and that I can’t hold an intelligent conversation. I tell myself I am too dumb to ever be successful. I tell myself I am not good enough to leave an impact on this world.  How self-loathing and outright cruel am I to myself, right?
Then I start playing the laundry list of judgmental thoughts others have labeled me with— the most popular being that I am “too quiet and too shy.” It is the two common characteristics that are sadly perceived as weaknesses in a society built upon praising the extroverts of the world. It’s actually a side note I need to address briefly as I so badly feel the need to stand up for my fellow “quiet” and “shy” comrades.
 If you’re one of the quiet and/or shy folks like me—you are part of a fantastically awesome tribe. Your quietness is beautiful. There is nothing wrong with being introspective and exercising your incredible listening skills. Your shyness is a superpower. The people who truly love you will adore your shyness and overtime it will grow into catapulting you into further embracing your true inner you.
So, now here’s the part where I should be saying that I’ve totally turned into the queen of positivity.
You’re probably expecting me to tell you that I completely overcome the negative self-talk. You’re probably thinking I am about to reveal that I have totally eliminated all my self-doubt and shame.
 The reality is—I haven’t. I am a work in progress. I am taking it one step at a time. The only thing that has truly shifted for me is that I now feel empowered to share my struggles. Why? Because I know there are people just like me right now battling with the very struggles I am working so hard to overcome.
 So, I want you to know, you are not alone. I want you to know that you are ENOUGH. Your imperfections are part of what makes you beautiful. You deserve GREATNESS. These are the scripts I have started to recite to myself. I invite you to use these mantras or to rewrite and recite whatever resonates with you so that you can start your very own journey through self-improvement and self-discovery.
I remain hopeful that my vulnerability will inspire you to stand tall in your truth.

I challenge you to not only share your wins, but even more so to share your moments of insecurity, self-doubt, and shame. For it is the moments where we open up about our pain that embolden deep human connection. It is then, when we can work together to overcome anything.

Berenice Famili is the CEO and founder of the Jewish emoji app Shalomoji and a Los Angeles based writer who covers lifestyle, health, and entrepreneurship. 

The Search For Clarity In The Face Of Struggle Read More »