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Jewish Journal

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May 21, 2020

White Nationalist Stickers Placed Near Wiesenthal Center

Leave a Comment / Los Angeles, News /

A series of stickers advertising a white nationalist group were found across the street from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance on May 20.

According to a statement on the Wiesenthal Center’s website, there were three stickers on streetlight poles emblazoned with the Patriot Front logo. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Patriot Front is a white supremacist group aiming to preserve “America’s identity as a European-American identity.”

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Journal that a member of the community noticed the stickers and notified the center, which is currently closed as part of Los Angeles County’s shelter-in-place restrictions. He added that the Wiesenthal Center has contacted local law enforcement about the matter.

Cooper said the stickers are part of Patriot Front’s modus operandi and that they seem to be particularly active in the Southern California area. “They’ve done similar stuff around UCLA, CSUN (Cal State Northridge), Cal State Pomona, and they’re active on Telegram,” he said.

Photo courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

He added he believes the stickers have been part of an overall trend of extremists taking advantage in the current climate of anxiety and fear surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, to incite hatred against Jews and Asians.

“As long as people are unnaturally locked in and getting mixed signals from the people in charge … everyone is unsettled, and that is the perfect setting for extremists across the world to reap the whirlwind, try to find messaging that will resonate with people out there based on their fears, concerns and sometimes panic,” Cooper said. “I think that’s the overall game plan of all the extremist groups, including those who directly promote conspiracy theories.”

He pointed to a March 23 ABC News report in which white nationalists were calling for those infected with COVID-19 to spread the virus to the Jews.

“We’re all closed down everywhere and bigots are open for business, virtually and in reality,” Cooper said.

“While the COVID-19 crisis has shone a bright light upon the better angels of our society, we also have seen a dark underbelly of hate emerge in some quarters.” — Richard S. Hirschhaut

Photo courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Other Jewish groups condemned the stickers.

“ADL was shocked to see extremist messages posted outside the Museum of Tolerance,” ADL Los Angeles tweeted. “One need only visit the Museum (when it is safely open again) to see evidence of where this kind of hate leads.”

ADL Los Angeles Regional Director Amanda Susskind also said in a statement to the Journal, “In 2019, Patriot Front was one of three groups responsible for 90% of the documented white supremacist propaganda incidents in America. Also, California continues to be the number one state in the nation for highest recorded number of white supremacist propaganda incidents.”

American Jewish Committee Los Angeles Regional Director Richard S. Hirschhaut similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “While the COVID-19 crisis has shone a bright light upon the better angels of our society, we also have seen a dark underbelly of hate emerge in some quarters. The hateful stickers posted outside the Museum of Tolerance are a reminder that much work remains to be done to push back against these dark forces.”

He added, “We can begin by advocating for passage of the NO HATE Act, now before the U.S. Senate. And we can support Assembly Bill 2236, sponsored by Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), which would strengthen California’s response to the recent rise in COVID-19 related hate crimes and anti-Semitic incidents with expanded training of law enforcement. For now, we join in solidarity with our colleagues at the Museum of Tolerance in rebuking this cowardly attempt to sow fear and intimidation.”

White Nationalist Stickers Placed Near Wiesenthal Center Read More »

This Organization Prepares Jewish Bodies for Burial During COVID-19

Leave a Comment / United States /

At the height of the COVID-19 crisis in New York, Mordechai Meisels, a volunteer for the Jewish burial nonprofit Chesed Shel Emes, was receiving phone calls every few minutes that another person had succumbed to the virus.

“I was being pulled from one hospital room to the next,” Meisels said in a phone interview with the Journal. “I saw Yiddishe neshamahs (Jewish souls) passing like flies without any family members around them.”

Meisels is responsible for preparing Jewish bodies for burial, which entails removing any medical tubes and ensuring the bodies undergo a ritual washing.

From Purim to the end of April, Meisels and Chesed Shel Emes, which is based in the Chasidic community in Brooklyn, prepared 750 Jewish bodies from around the country. Usually during a busy month, the organization prepares 100, according to Rabbi Mayer Berger, the director of operations.

Although Berger doesn’t know exactly how many people died of COVID-19, he said that at the peak of the crisis in New York City, they were taking care of 30-40 bodies almost every day, as opposed to the normal four to nine bodies.

“These were terrible circumstances and there [were] no norms,” said Rabbi Shlomie Feldman, the nonprofit’s human resources director. “Whatever used to be normal was not normal now.”

“I was being pulled from one hospital room to the next. I saw Yiddishe neshamahs (Jewish souls) passing like flies without any family members around them.” — Mordechai Meisels

To ensure volunteers were protected from COVID-19, Berger and his team put some guidelines into place. After talking with the New York State Department of Health, they required volunteers to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) including face shields, gloves and booties. They put disinfectant in the water to wash the bodies, and volunteers over the age of 60 were not allowed to participate.

New York law requires that only funeral directors and undertakers check bodies out of the hospital, which proved to be a challenge, Berger said. However, thanks to an emergency executive order, students applying for their funeral director license or firefighters working for funeral homes could take out bodies, so they were able to expedite the process. And because rabbis and family members weren’t allowed in the hospitals, Chesed Shel Emes set up a hotline that patients could call to say their last rites and the vidui (confession prayer) before dying.

Although Berger said those weeks were “one long, tumultuous journey,” he added they also witnessed some moving moments.

“We went to pick up a person who died of COVID-19, and there was this guy there who was in the same hospital room but recovered from COVID-19,” Meisels said. “The guy asked me if someone was saying Kaddish for the patient who died, because he found out the patient had no family. It was very touching to me.”

In another instance, a Holocaust survivor, Moshe Grunwald, died from complications from COVID-19. After the funeral, the undertaker rushed in and told his family the wrong body was in the casket. The person in the casket was someone who had died alone without any family.

“Instead of the family being upset as expected, they spoke about how [their] zayde was always such a secretive person and tried to make sure every person [had] the right amount of respect,” Feldman said. “Zayde managed to give someone else a beautiful funeral.”

Meisels noted that things are no longer as hectic as they were at the outbreak of the virus; Berger added if there is a second wave as predicted in the fall, they will be ready with a stockpile of PPE.

Chesed Shel Emes West Coast Coordinator Rabbi Benjy Spiro told the Journal whether or not there is a second wave, the organization will continue to service the community. “When someone dies, they can never say ‘Thank you,’ ” he said. “It’s so important to bring closure to a family. Everyone deserves a proper burial. It’s rewarding to be able to do that.”

This Organization Prepares Jewish Bodies for Burial During COVID-19 Read More »

Stanford Student Senator Apologizes for Tweet Telling Israel Supporters to ‘Choke’

Leave a Comment / California, News /

A Stanford student senator who currently is running for reelection issued an apology on May 15 for her past tweets on Israel, including telling Israel supporters to “choke.”

The Algemeiner reported that the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) unearthed the tweets of Student Sen. Mia Bahr on May 14. The tweets that the SCR highlighted are:

  • A June 2018 tweet stating, “If you still support Israel you can choke, honestly.”
  • Retweeting a March 2019 tweet stating, “F— Israel free Palestine.”
  • Tweeting in August 2019 that progressives at Stanford “suddenly forget their values when their white friend is pro-Israel.”
  • Re-tweeting a September 2019 tweet that was supportive of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

https://www.facebook.com/StanfordGOP/posts/2963945483687921

 

Bahr appears to have deleted all of her past tweets.

According to the student-run Stanford Daily, Bahr issued statements apologizing for the tweets, stating she could have phrased them better. However, she said that the SCR had taken her tweets out of context.

“The organization [SCR] has called me anti-Semitic for my support of a peaceful two-state solution and the admonishment of police and military violence,” Bahr said, adding that she “will not be lectured on anti-Semitism by an organization that invited a speaker who openly retweeted a tweet saying #BurnTheJews.” The speaker was conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza; he claimed that he didn’t see the hashtag.

She also told the Daily that she recognizes Israel’s right to exist.

The Stanford Israel Association (SIA) wrote in a May 18 Facebook post that although it appreciated Bahr’s statement and that she said she has distanced herself from BDS, her tweets “reflect a broader misperception of Israel that pervades our campus. Although we have been disappointed by her words, SIA considers this incident to be an opportunity for growth.”

The SIA added: “Too often, rather than express thoughtful criticism of the actions of the Israeli government, students are quick to question the legitimacy of Israeli statehood and wrongfully attack its supporters and students from Israel. The fact that this opprobrium, directed at the only Jewish state, is pervasive even on our campus and makes members of the Jewish community feel targeted and unsafe. This is especially true when these statements are made by an incumbent Student Senator who should be representing all members of the Stanford community.”

https://www.facebook.com/StanfordIsraelAssociation/posts/3254037624627119

 

J Street U Stanford President Olivia Szabo defended Bahr, her former roommate, to the Daily, saying that while the two of them disagreed on Israel, Bahr isn’t anti-Semitic.

“[Conservatives] label anything anti-Israel as anti-Semitic,” Szabo said.

Stanford held its student government elections on May 18 and 19; the results will be announced on May 22.

In August 2018, Stanford Resident Advisor (RA) Hamzeh Daoud posted on Facebook that he wanted to “physically fight Zionists on campus.” He later apologized and revised the post to state “intellectually fight Zionists on campus.” Daoud eventually resigned from his position as RA. In a 2018 op-ed in the Daily, Daoud described himself as a third-generation Palestinian refugee whose grandparents took refuge in Jordan after the Arab-Israeli war.

Statement from Hamzeh Daoud

 

The university said in a statement at the time that Daoud did not pose a physical threat to anyone on campus.

“At the time of the original Facebook posting, the author rapidly amended it to make clear that he does not support physical violence, and he apologized for the original post in a letter to members of the Jewish community at Stanford,” the statement read. “In addition, in a new statement he has made, the student acknowledges the adverse effects this episode has had in our community. His decision to step down as an RA puts the interests of the broader community first.”

Stanford Student Senator Apologizes for Tweet Telling Israel Supporters to ‘Choke’ Read More »

Chelsea Handler to Create Stand Up Special for HBO Max After Six Year Hiatus

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

Actress, author and comedian Chelsea Handler will make her first stand-up comedy special in six years for the new streaming service HBO Max. Handler will discuss her life, family, friendships and therapy in the hour-long special.

“I didn’t want to return to stand-up until I had something important to say. I do now,” Handler, who hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list with her memoir “Life Will Be the Death of Me,” said in a statement. “I’m absolutely delighted to be doing this with HBO Max and always excited to be reunited with Bob Greenblatt, one of the only executives I can never have sex with.”

“No one makes me laugh like Chelsea and we are thrilled to partner with her on this long-awaited return to standup,” Suzanna Makkos, executive vice president of original comedy and animation for HBO Max added. “We feel lucky to be able to share with our audience her evolution and personal growth that she relays so beautifully in this hour special.”

Chelsea Handler to Create Stand Up Special for HBO Max After Six Year Hiatus Read More »

A Global Virtual Color War for Jewish Millennials Could Save Camp During COVID-19

Leave a Comment / News, United States /

Every summer, Emma Kaplan would be assigned a color.

If it was green, she would find all her green clothes. She would paint her face green and gather with hundreds of other green folks.

And then, like Jewish campers across the country, she would go to war — fighting it out on the basketball court and the soccer field, in a three-legged race or a leapfrogging competition. Sometimes she would carry an egg on a spoon, blindfolded.

Few traditions are as universal to Jewish summer camp as color war, where the camps divide into teams by primary color for a day of athletic (and silly) competitions. It’s a tradition Kaplan thought she had left behind five years ago after her last season as a counselor at a Reform movement camp in Wisconsin.

But this year, in her 20s, stuck in her apartment and with a full-time job, she’s doing color war again as part of a five-person team competing with 300 other squads from 28 countries in a global virtual color war. With sports fields off limits and wheelbarrow races impossible, the competition has leaned into the goofier side of color war, inviting participants to give their pets makeovers or record a synchronized swimming performance on Zoom.

“We’ve had a blast,” said Kaplan, who lives in Chicago and works for a Jewish organization. “It’s just silly. It’s a way to rechannel those camp vibes and get reinvested in the things we used to do as campers and counselors.”

Called Expedition Nai, the event is being organized by Camp Nai Nai Nai, a three-day Jewish summer camp for adults that, like many camps, has canceled its 2020 session because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online color war is intended to connect young people isolated by the pandemic and have them indulge in summer camp nostalgia from their own homes.

Expedition Nai could serve as a model for how the camps that have canceled one after another could operate virtually this summer.

“When COVID started, we had all this experience creating really impressive and immersive educational experiences,” said Lisa Klig, the director of Camp Nai Nai Nai, which is organized by Moishe House, the community network for post-college Jews. “How do we create those experiences virtually? … We’re finding new ways to give people a sense of belonging, to give people a sense of joy.”

In one event, participants were asked to take an old piece of clothing and turn it into something cooler. One guy made a T-shirt into a tie-dyed crop top. Another made a face mask from an old pair of boxers.

Some tasks aim to get the competitors moving, like Parkour at home, an aerobics workout or producing a music video. Other activities were more Jewishly oriented, such as composing a wordless Jewish melody. Another challenge was to count the Omer, the 49-day period between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot.

“We want to make sure people are practicing self-care or taking a bath or having a meditation practice,” Klig said.

Scoring is relatively straightforward: The more tasks you do, the higher you score. But that’s harder than it seems, as there are dozens of potential tasks to fulfill each week. The most imaginative submissions can win weekly prizes of $100 gift certificates.

Kaplan’s team is called the Adomie Homies. Each team had to incorporate the name of a color, and “adom” is the Hebrew word for red. They kicked off their run with a pretty involved submission, making a video introducing the squad modeled after the opening credits of a 1980s sitcom.

But once the Adomie Homies realized they hadn’t cracked the top 10 in the overall standings, they decided to focus on the tasks they were most excited about. Kaplan is particularly proud of their online synchronized swimming performance, where team members made it look like they were passing a book between their screens.

“We look at the challenges and say, who’s taking what? How are we going to win this thing?” she said. “Suddenly, when the new challenges come out, nothing else matters.”

A Global Virtual Color War for Jewish Millennials Could Save Camp During COVID-19 Read More »

Coronavirus Has Us Sheltering in Our Cocoons, Preparing to Soar

Leave a Comment / Columnists, Opinion /

For the past several months, humanity has been fighting a new threat: the coronavirus. A  microbial organism invisible to the naked eye, this powerful mutation emerged from a distant corner of the world. At first a marginal news story, today COVID-19 is the only news story, day after day. It’s no exaggeration to say that this coronavirus has upended our lives, toppled our economies, exposed our vulnerabilities and our venality. Nothing is the same. Nothing has remained untouched.

And yet, in the face of this worldwide pandemic, the greatest attack on all we hold dear, we are told to shelter in place and to cover our faces when we do venture out.

Sit still. Stay home. Do nothing.

Our instinct, of course, is to mobilize into hyperactivity. A threat this severe invites a massive response. It is so counterintuitive for us to imagine that staying home is the exact thing we need to be doing right now.

So, I want to offer an image of what we really are achieving with all this apparent passivity. It is not that we’re doing nothing, going nowhere. We are, instead, like a caterpillar entering its cocoon. On the surface, it looks like the little pupa is doing nothing, resting in place. But in fact, it is doing a great deal. Inside that cocoon of shelter and of safety, our little friend is doing the work necessary to be able to emerge resplendent, to be able to soar.

We are, instead, like a caterpillar entering its cocoon. On the surface, it looks like the little pupa is doing nothing, resting in place. But in fact, it is doing a great deal.

We, too, need to use this time to do the work that prepares us for a better tomorrow.

    • After recognizing the chasm between who truly are “essential” as opposed to those who are overpaid or excessively lauded, can we honor the essential workers by reorganizing our society to provide those workers and their families with sufficient income, health care and retirement benefits to honor their efforts in keeping us alive?
    • After recognizing the disproportionate ways the coronavirus is striking communities of color, can we mobilize to remove the toxins of racism and bigotry that continue to blight our society?
    • After witnessing the resurgence of anti-Semitism, can we join with other victims of hate to create an unprecedented society that celebrates diversity of all kinds and learns from the wisdom of all faiths?
    • As the brutality of COVID-19 reveals itself in mockery of those with special needs, of varying body sizes, the denigration of women, can we stand up in real solidarity for all genders, orientations and bodies?

One last caterpillar insight: Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar isn’t merely sleeping. The body of the chrysalis dissolves and is reorganized as butterfly. The old, dysfunctional structures must be liquefied in order to emerge as something new and beautiful.

Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar isn’t merely sleeping. The body of the chrysalis dissolves and is reorganized as butterfly.

We, too, must dissolve the old habits that do not serve — bigotry, privilege, habit, ego — and do the largely invisible work of positioning ourselves for a world of shimmering colors, of fluttering flight, of breathtaking beauty.

Now is the time to do that work. The world is sheltering in a cosmic cocoon. But we will emerge, and it can be beautiful.

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson (bradartson.com) holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is vice president of American Jewish University in Los Angeles and dean of the Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany, ordaining Conservative rabbis for Europe. 

Coronavirus Has Us Sheltering in Our Cocoons, Preparing to Soar Read More »

Everybody Counts – a poem for Torah Portion Bamidbar

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Poetry /

This was [the sum of] the children… the firstborn of Israel,
…all who were fit to go out to the army.

It’s a census year and I’ve already given
the government all the information.
They know the number of souls
quarantined in these walls.
They know the color of our skin,
our ages and, through extrapolation, they could
probably figure out who is the tallest.
I don’t know why they’d need that,
but many of the ways of this particular
group of people who fancy themselves
in charge are a mystery to me
when they’re not making me angry.
It’s not all bad. They sent us all checks
with a note that essentially read
we’re so sorry you’re stuck inside
buy yourself something nice, or
maybe groceries. I suppose they
wouldn’t have known where to send
the check, or that we existed at all
as people who should be sent a check
if I hadn’t taken the census.
Does one take a census?
Or answer it? Or fill it in?
Since the census only comes
once every ten years, shouldn’t
we throw it a party? Can I put up
census decorations?
I can tell you this, even though they
know who I am, I’m not going into the army.
Even though I’ve aged out and
they don’t want me. I’m not going.
I am counting and counted.
Like my ancestors an entire history ago.
Setting up civilization at the bottom
of a mountain. It’s about time I
used the word mountain again.

God Wrestler: a poem for every Torah Portion by Rick LupertLos Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 23 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “Hunka Hunka Howdee!” (Poems written in Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2019) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.

Everybody Counts – a poem for Torah Portion Bamidbar Read More »

Netanyahu Responds to Khamenei’s ‘Final Solution’ Poster: ‘Any Regime That Threatens Destruction of Israel Faces a Similar Danger’

Leave a Comment / Israel, News /

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a tweet responding to Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s poster calling for a “final solution” against Israel, warning Khamenei that Israel would respond in kind to efforts to destroy the country.

Khamenei’s office had released a poster on May 19 that stated “PALESTINE WILL BE FREE” in all capital letters as well as the words “the final solution: Resistance until referendum.”

Netanyahu’s office tweeted on May 20, “Khamenei’s threats to carry out “The Final Solution” against Israel bring to mind the Nazi “Final Solution” plan to annihilate the Jewish People. He should know that any regime that threatens the destruction of the State of Israel faces a similar danger.”

 

Other world leaders have condemned the Khamenei poster.

“The leader of the world’s top sponsor of terrorism and anti-Semitism denies the Holocaust, sends money and weapons to anti-Israel terrorists, and now has invoked the Nazi call for the Final Solution,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted. “I ask all nations: Is this someone who can be trusted with deadly weapons?”

 

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union Foreign Affairs High Representative and European Commission vice president, similarly tweeted: “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the call by the Iranian Supreme Leader @khamenei_ir to fight #Israel. This is a threat to international peace and security. The security of Israel is of paramount importance and the EU will stand at its side.”

 

German’s Foreign Ministry also said in a statement to The Jerusalem Post, “The federal government sharply condemns all glorification and legitimizing of terror, [as well as] calls for the annihilation of Israel, inciting terrorist acts or spreading anti-Semitic content. Such hostile comments to Israel are in no way acceptable. Israel’s right to exist is not negotiable. The federal republic regularly addresses critical points in all areas in an open way with Iran.”

Khamenei tweeted that his “Final Solution” poster was aimed toward eliminating Israel, not Jews.

“It means abolishing the imposed regime & Muslim, Christian & Jewish Palestinians choose their own govt & expel thugs like Netanyahu,” he tweeted.

Netanyahu Responds to Khamenei’s ‘Final Solution’ Poster: ‘Any Regime That Threatens Destruction of Israel Faces a Similar Danger’ Read More »

Federal Lawsuit Accuses New Jersey Township of Discriminating Against Orthodox Jews

Leave a Comment / News, United States /

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a discrimination lawsuit against a New Jersey township over zoning restrictions that allegedly target the Orthodox Jewish community.

The lawsuit accuses the Township of Jackson and its Planning Board of violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the Fair Housing Act by passing zoning ordinances that restrict religious schools and bar religious boarding schools.

Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, called it “anti-Semitic conduct.”

“Using zoning laws to target Orthodox Jewish individuals for intentional discrimination and exclude them from a community is illegal and utterly incompatible with this Nation’s values,” Dreiband said in a statement issued by the Justice Department. “Let me be clear. The Department of Justice will use the full force of its authority to stop such anti-Semitic conduct and prevent its recurrence.”

According to the complaint, two ordinances passed by the South Jersey township and its Planning Board expressly prohibit dormitories throughout Jackson, making it impossible for religious boarding schools such as Orthodox yeshivas to operate there. But the Planning Board has since approved, without requiring a variance, plans for two nonreligious projects with dorm-type housing.

The complaint further alleges that the township and Planning Board enacted the ordinances against a backdrop of extreme animus by some Jackson residents and township decision-makers toward the Orthodox community and a movement by residents to keep Orthodox Jews from settling in Jackson, according to the Justice Department.

Jackson, a Shore town with about 55,000 residents, borders Lakewood, a township of some 104,000 with a large Haredi Orthodox population.

Federal Lawsuit Accuses New Jersey Township of Discriminating Against Orthodox Jews Read More »

david suissa podcast curious times

Pandemic Times Episode 44: How do we celebrate Jerusalem Day?

Leave a Comment / Podcasts, The David Suissa Podcast /

New David Suissa Podcast Every Morning at 11 a.m.

Reflections on the City of Dreams, including selected poems.

How do we manage our lives during the coronavirus crisis? How do we keep our sanity? How do we use this quarantine to bring out the best in ourselves? Tune in every day and share your stories with podcast@jewishjournal.com.

Pandemic Times Episode 44: How do we celebrate Jerusalem Day? Read More »