August 27, 2019

CA Bill Requiring Ethnic Studies in High School Delayed for Another Year

Leave a Comment / California, Online / Aaron Bandler

A bill in the California state legislature making the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) a requirement to graduate high school has been delayed for at least another year, the Jewish News of Northern California (J.) reports.

Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside), who is part of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus but isn’t Jewish, said in a statement on his website that his bill, AB 331, will become “a two-year bill,” meaning that he “will continue to advocate for this bill over the course of the next year,” according to his website.

“The curriculum development and feedback process has shown how much consensus there is in support of Ethnic Studies,” Medina said. “It is not a question of whether the subject itself is necessary but rather, how do we ensure the curriculum is comprehensive, rigorous, and inclusive enough. This underscores the importance of taking the time necessary to ensure we get the curriculum right.”

Medina’s statement comes amidst criticism of the current ESMC draft for its favorable portrayal of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and failure to highlight the issue of anti-Semitism.

Medina had similar criticisms in an interview with the J., saying, “There were many things about it that seemed to be anti-Semitic. I think the omission of the Jewish experience in the United States is glaring. I don’t really think BDS should be included. And I also have an issue with the fact that anti-Semitism is not addressed.”

AB 331 passed the Assembly in May as well as the Senate Education Committee in June, according to the J.

On August 12, the State Board of Education announced that the current ESMC will “be substantially redesigned” before its approval; State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has similarly called for the ESMC to be revised to include Jews and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vowed that the current ESMC draft “will never see the light of day.”

The Beverly Hills City Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the ESMC in its current form and called for the SBE to investigate the “anti-Jewish bias” within the government body.

“For [the Instructional Quality Commission] to come up with this sort of divisive, racist propaganda and promote this as curriculum in the state is beyond disgusting,” City Councilmember Julian Gold said during the meeting. “It’s malpractice. It’s malfeasance. They deserve to go, all of them. And if the governor doesn’t do it, then he deserves to go too.”

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Israel Bombs Hamas Military Post in Gaza in Response to Mortar Fire

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army bombed a Hamas military post in Gaza on Tuesday in response to mortar fire from the coastal strip on southern Israel earlier in the day.

Four mortars were fired at Israel: Three landed inside Gaza and a fourth in an open area inside of Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces said. It did not cause any damage.

It was the fifth attack from Gaza on southern Israel in the past two weeks.

The IDF did not provide any reports as of Tuesday night about injuries or damage in the strike on the military post.

On Monday, Israel cut by half the amount of fuel it ships to Gaza in response to recent rocket attacks. On Sunday night, three rockets were fired from Gaza at Israeli territory. Two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and a third landed on the side of a highway, sparking a small fire.

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NY Chasidic Man Assaulted with a Brick

Leave a Comment / Online, United States / Aaron Bandler

A 63-year-old Chasidic Jewish man was assaulted with a brick in the Crown Heights area of New York City on Aug. 27.

The man, identified as Avraham Gopin, was walking through Lincoln Terrace Park when an unidentified man started yelling at him and then threw a brick at Gopin’s head. Gopin punched back and a struggle ensued; the assailant eventually fled.

According to Gopin’s son-in-law, Chasidic vocalist Benny Friedman, Gopin had his front teeth knocked out and his nose broken, as well as myriad lacerations throughout his body.

This morning, as my father in law was walking in Rochester Park in Crown Heights, he was attacked with a deadly weapon. This is absolutely frightening, and obviously something that a civilization should never tolerate. May Hashem protect us, and we should only share good news. https://t.co/ZEYjk92Fms

— Benny Friedman (@BennysMusic) August 27, 2019

This morning, at 7:45am, my father in law went for his morning walk, like he always does. Suddenly a man started yelling at him, and started chasing him, holding a huge brick. pic.twitter.com/YTVmlJ0msj

— Benny Friedman (@BennysMusic) August 27, 2019

He threw this huge brick at my father in law. My FIL says there was no question this man had murder on his mind. My father in law tried to defend himself. He is in hospital now with a broken nose, missing teeth, stitches on his head and lacerations on his body.

— Benny Friedman (@BennysMusic) August 27, 2019

Thank Gd, all things considered, my father in law is doing ok. Thank you Councilman @ChaimDeutsch for your help and concern. We need safer communities. Where I come from in Minnesota, this would be front page headlines. But here in Brooklyn this is just the latest event.

— Benny Friedman (@BennysMusic) August 27, 2019

Rabbi Getzy Markowitz, who is also Gopin’s son-in-law, told COLLive that if Gopin “had not fought off the attacker, there would possibly have been, G-d forbid, a different outcome. The attacker was clearly trying to kill him – just an innocent man walking in the park.”

Markowitz added that Gopin “is a visibly Chasidic Jew. He is a known person in the community, and well-liked by all. He gets along with all his neighbors – both Jews and non-Jews – who are all very fond of him.”

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is currently investigating the matter has video footage of the incident, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is offering an award of up to $5,000 for information on the assailant.

“We are alarmed and deeply concerned by this violent assault on an elderly Jewish man,” ADL New York and New Jersey Regional Director Evan R. Bernstein said in a statement. “The sheer brutally of this attack is beyond shocking and profoundly upsetting. At a time when violent assaults against Jews increased by 55% last year, we must not become complacent. All New Yorkers should be outraged by these incidents and come together to end this disturbing trend once and for all. We are grateful for the NYPD Hate Crime Unit for investigating.”

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Veteran Israeli TV Personality Apologizes for Calling Arabs ‘Savages’ On Air

Leave a Comment / Online / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A veteran Israeli television personality apologized on Tuesday for saying on the air that “Arabs are savages.”

Yaron London, 79, had made the remarks a day earlier during his show “London and Geula” on Channel 11, the Kan public broadcaster. They came during a discussion of the HBO series “Our Boys,” centering on the aftermath of the 2014 murder of three Israeli teens who were kidnapped by Palestinians from the Hebron area and the subsequent murder of a Palestinian teen, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, by three Jews.

“The Arabs are savages,” London said. “They hate not only Jews. Above all, they’re murdering one another. Right, left, forward, to the east, to the west, Arabs are slaughtering Arabs.”

On Tuesday, London said in a statement: “Many people, particularly our Arab viewers, were hurt by what I said. During the night, I heard a recording of the program and found that I had tripped up in my language. My choice of language was improper and they have reason to be offended. I apologize for that.”

London said the show looked at why “Our Boys” appeared to be more interested in the murder of Abu Khdeir than in the three Jewish teens, and that Israeli Jews were surprised that Jews would commit such a crime against an Arab but not that Arabs would kill Jews. He also said he was talking about leadership in Arab countries and not individual Arabs.

“I deeply apologize for that and make it clear: God forbid that I should think that the Arabs are savages,” he said.

In June, London admitted on live television that he groped a woman in an elevator a decade ago, but would not apologize.

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The Dinosaur on the Shabbat Table

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Marion Haberman

As the school year starts many little ones will be embarking on their first taste of formal Jewish education, and for many that begins at two years old in a preschool classroom. If your Jewish preschool is anything like ours, I want to warn you that you may find something large and surprising on the Shabbat table your first Friday morning there. A dinosaur.

There’s a very popular Jewish children’s song about a “Dinosaur, knocking at my door […] and he’s come to spend Shabbat with me.” The song is so popular that in my son’s preschool class a stuffed dinosaur toy is literally part of the Shabbat experience. He knocks on the door, he comes in to light the candles and he gets to sit next to a different child each week to eat challah.

At first I found this new custom especially adorable, it was an added element that heightened the excitement and joy around learning to celebrate Shabbat in the classroom. However, as the weeks went by, I began to wonder if this big green dino was doing more harm than good. Does Shabbat really need a dinosaur to make it attractive to the next generation? What would I find in his kindergarten classroom…a Hanukkah bush? Or was I just being a Shabbos grinch?

I decided the test would ultimately be how the Shabbat learning experience in the classroom translated into how things were practiced at home. On Fridays we usually listen to our favorite Shabbat music in the car and at home (Rick Recht, Isaac and Melita etc.) and I made it a point one particular Friday of playing the dinosaur song on repeat just so it was really top of mind. That evening I asked my son to help me gather everything we would need to celebrate Shabbat.

First we went hunting for our kiddush cup (which somehow ends up in a different place each week), next we took out our challah board and cover, and finally we spent about 10 long minutes placing the candles in and out of the candlesticks, because #thisistwo. Afterwards I double checked with him to see if anything was missing. “Max” I said, do we have everything we need for Shabbat now?” “Nope,” he answered… “Dada isn’t home yet.”

Phew, after all the distractions and dinosaurs he somehow had figured out what Shabbat is all about.

Marion Haberman is a writer and content creator for her YouTube/MyJewishMommyLife channel and Instagram @MyJewishMommyLife page where she shares her experience living a meaning-FULL Jewish family life. Haberman is currently writing a book on Judaism and pregnancy titled ‘Expecting Jewish!’ to be released Winter 2019. She is also a professional social media consultant and web and television writer for Discovery Channel, NOAA and NatGeo and has an MBA from Georgetown University.

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CA Dem Party Criticizes Israeli Treatment of Palestinian Children, Condemns Anti-Zionism

Leave a Comment / California, Online / Aaron Bandler

The California Democratic Party (CDP) endorsed Rep. Betty McCollum’s (D-Minn.) bill over the weekend that called for withholding funding to Israel over their detainment of Palestinian children, and also adopted a resolution condemning anti-Zionism as “anti-Semitic hate speech.”

McCollum’s website states that the bill, H.R. 2407, is aimed at curbing Israeli’s detention of “an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children” who “are subject to abuse and, in some cases, torture.”

Progressive Zionists of California (PZC) Co-Founder Susan George told the Journal in a phone interview it was “very problematic” that the CDP’s Legislative Committee voted in favor of the bill 75 to 25 during the party’s executive board meetings in San Jose, Calif. from Aug. 24-25.

“We should be talking about children everywhere and how they’re treated,” George said. “and yet, what this is doing is saying that Israel is uniquely evil in its treatment [of children].”

Democrats for Israel Los Angeles President Andrew Lachman, who is also a member of the CDP’s Resolutions Committee, told the Journal in a phone interview that H.R. 2407 would require Israel to apply Israeli law to the West Bank when it comes to the treatment of children, which would violate Article 66 of the Geneva Convention.

“You can’t impose another country’s law in a conflict state,” Lachman said, adding that such a move would pave the way toward Israeli annexation of the West Bank. He also pointed out that the bill would only apply 0.055 percent of West Bank children.

“While I think we can all agree that making sure children are not mistreated in any law enforcement setting is important, the statistics and the solution… does not support the desired outcome the proponents are advocating for,” Lachman said.

The CDP had previously endorsed McCollum’s bill in 2017, so the CDP’s recent action was a reaffirmation, according to George and Lachman.

George said it was PZC’s understanding that the committee wasn’t going to address the McCollum bill, leading her to believe that the few people who want to make the issue of Israel “front and center” in the CDP kept pushing for the matter to be addressed at the convention, and they succeeded.

“We always have to assume that will still come up,” George said.

Additionally, the CDP passed a resolution that stated, “Everyone agrees that criticism of Israel, including its leadership, policies and actions, is not anti-Semitic, but asserting that the Jewish state be targeted as an illegitimate, uniquely evil, and racist entity that deserves to be dissolved— based on criteria applied to no other country—goes well beyond the boundary of critique and qualifies as anti-Semitic hate speech.” The resolution goes on to denounce “hate speech in all its forms against all ethnic and religious groups including all forms of anti-Semitic hate speech, including anti-Semitic anti-Zionism.”

George said that the passage of the aforementioned resolution, which was authored by PZC founding member Andrea Beth Damsky, was “groundbreaking” because it was the first resolution condemning “anti-Zionist hate speech” in the Democratic Party.

“The intention of it was to focus within our own backyard, similar to what happens on college campuses,” George said. “It isn’t a majority of people that is using that language, but it’s enough where it alienates people, makes people feel unsafe, it’s harmful, it’s divisive, and we wanted to make a very strong statement about that to bring awareness to it.”

The CDP also adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, condemned the Trump administration’s “hate speech” and denounced the criminalization of homosexuality in countries like Iran and Brunei. They also rejected an effort to support Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) resolution supporting the right to boycott.

Lachman said that as a whole, the CDP did some “amazing things” for the pro-Israel community.

“We managed to get through almost everything we thought,” Lachman said.

A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement to the Journal, “ADL welcomes the California Democratic Party’s resolution condemning anti-Semitism. It’s critical for all leaders to call out this hatred wherever they see it–whether inside or outside their own political party. Importantly, this resolution clearly denounces instances when anti-Zionism crosses the line into anti-Semitism.” At this time, the ADL has not yet weighed in on the McCollum bill.

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‘Calm Down,’ Netanyahu Tells Hezbollah Amid Threats of Retaliation for Israeli Strikes

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the head of the Hezbollah to “calm down” amid concerns the terror group would strike targets in Israel in retaliation for Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Syria.

On Sunday, Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah would take revenge following an Israeli airstrike on what it said were targets in Syria of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and Shiite militia left two Hezbollah fighters dead. There was also an attack on a Palestinian terror group’s positions in the Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, and the crash of two drones said to be carrying explosives in a Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut that are alleged to be by Israel.

President Michel Aoun of Lebanon called the strikes a “declaration of war.”

“I heard what Nasrallah said. I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down,” Netanyahu said in a speech Tuesday in Jerusalem. “He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies,”

Israel’s military on Tuesday began limiting civilian traffic near the border with Lebanon in expectation of retaliation by Hezbollah. In addition, it deployed an Iron Dome missile defense battery in northern Israel. Military bases in northern Israel have gone on high alert.

Bomb shelters for civilians have not been opened.

On Monday night, the Israeli army launched flares over border areas due to reports that people in Lebanon were approaching the border.

Hezbollah has come under international pressure to refrain from retaliating. Israel has warned that it would not limit its response to Hezbollah, threatening an escalation on its northern border.

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PA Fails to Condemn Murder of Israeli Teen, Netanyahu Advances West Bank Housing in Response to Killing

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority has not publicly condemned the bomb attack at a West Bank spring that killed an Israeli teenager and the terrorist group Hamas has praised the still-unidentified terrorists.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the attack by ordering the advancement of a plan for a new neighborhood of 300 homes in the Dolev settlement located near the site of the killing.

Rina Shnerb, 17, of the central Israel city of Lod was killed, and her father and 19-year-old brother were injured when explosives placed at the Ein Bubin spring were detonated remotely on Friday morning. The spring, which was named for a terrorist attack victim who died in 2015, is a popular destination for hikers. It is located about six miles east of the central Israeli city of Modiin.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rarely condemns attacks against Israelis, in the West Bank and Israel. The P.A. has a policy of paying stipends to the families of terrorists either in prison or killed in the attacks — a policy that Israel has dubbed “pay to slay.”

P.A. media reports incorrectly identified Rina as both a soldier and a settler, according to Palestinian Media Watch. She was neither.

Hamas in a statement released Friday called the attack “proof of the vitality and bravery of the Palestinian people, and of the fact that it will not surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation.” Its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in a sermon in the Gaza Strip called it a “heroic attack,” adding that “the West Bank has strong people who are no less faithful and steadfast than their brethren in Gaza.”

White House special Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt reacted to the Palestinian response in a tweet.

“Hamas praised 17yo Rina Shnerb’s murder by Palestinian terrorists. The PA must unequivocally condemn this attack & the recent murder of 18yo Dvir Sorek,” a yeshiva student and Israeli army recruit found stabbed to death near the West Bank settlement of Migdal Oz earlier this month. “If they don’t, donor countries should demand the PA answer for why their donor funds continue to be used to reward attacks.”

The left-wing organization IfNotNow, which opposes the occupation but does not take a position on anti-Israel boycotts or whether Israel should be a Jewish state, in a statement on Twitter said it was “mourning” the death of Rina Shnerb before adding that “the rightward drift of Israeli and US govts” for “mak[ing] the situation on the ground less safe for Israelis and Palestinians.”

We are mourning the death of Rina Shnerb, who was only 17 years old. Our thoughts are with her friends and family.

We're not confused: the rightward drift of Israeli and US govts make the situation on the ground less safe for Israelis and Palestinians. https://t.co/nt1vyWKX5d

— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) August 23, 2019

In response to the IfNotNow tweet, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian American who backs the movement to boycott Israel, condemned “extremism” and called for “nonviolent approaches to ending the Israeli occupation.”

“This is absolutely tragic & horrible. My heart goes out to Rina’s family,” her tweet said. “More than ever we need to support nonviolent approaches to ending the Israeli occupation and guaranteeing equal rights for all. Extremism that puts innocent lives at risk moves us no closer to peace.”

On Monday, Netanyahu ordered the approval of the construction of 300 new homes in Dolev, saying in a statement that Israel “will deepen our roots and strike our enemies. We will continue to strengthen and develop the settlements.”

The project reportedly had been scheduled to come up at the meeting of the Defense Ministry Civil Administration’s high planning subcommittee, which will meet again in three months. Right-wing critics of Netanyahu have criticized the prime minister in the past for advancing existing plans for settlement housing in response to such attacks instead of new plans.

Peace Now, which regards settlements as one of the largest obstacles to the two-state solution, said Netanyahu’s statement “cynically turns terrorism into a political tool to promote an ideological vision.”

On Monday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited Rina’s father, Rabbi Eitan Shnerb, whose condition has improved, and his son, Dvir, who was more severely injured. They are sharing a room at the Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem.

Eitan Shnerb told Rivlin that his daughter was “so deep and thought so much about life, her purpose in this life and what home she would have. Always with joy, a smile.”

Rivlin responded: “We weep for Rina, and she deserves our tears, but we also get up and carry on. And it is so important for us to continue to make sure Rina’s voice continues to be heard. Choose life and keep strong.”

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