February 11, 2017

This Week in Anti-Semitism: Duma Defamation and Heartless Valentines

THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP

The Forward plans to regularly monitor the surge of anti-Semitism in many parts of the country and the world. The mission of this column is not to unduly alarm, but rather to raise awareness of a disturbing trend that, from some vantage points, can prove difficult to spot.

1) Republicans Keep On Omitting Jews from the Holocaust.

On Tuesday, Feb. 7th Republicans blocked a resolution declaring that Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust. The resolution, which House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley introduced, was a clear attempt to either pin down Republicans (or to give space to the GOP to rectify their position) on the controversial statement made by Trump’s White House on Holocaust Memorial Day, which pointedly failed to mention Jews at all. Crowley’s resolution called for the House to confirm “the indisputable fact that the Nazi regime targeted the Jewish people in its perpetration of the Holocaust” and to condemn Holocaust denial. On Wednesday, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect responded by calling out both the initial White House statement and the refusal of House Republicans to condemn it as acts of anti-Semitism.

2) Pope Francis strongly condemned anti-Semitism.


During a meeting with a delegation from the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) on Feb 9th, Pope Francis announced a deep and unwavering condemnation of anti-Semitism. “Sadly, anti-Semitism, which I again denounce in all its forms as completely contrary to Christian principles and every vision worthy of the human person, is still widespread today,” the Pope said. “The Church feels particularly obliged to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies.” This meeting and announcement took place on the 50th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate, an important declaration on Catholic-Jewish relations that was announced in 1965.

February 8, 2017

When We Rise: The Epic Mini-Series Premieres February 27 on ABC!

When We Rise" was written and created by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. This mini-series event chronicles the real-life personal and political struggles, set-backs and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the U.S. Civil Rights movement, from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. Starring in the mini-series are Guy Pearce ("Memento," "L.A. Confidential&quot as LGBT activist Cleve Jones, Mary-Louise Parker ("Weeds," "Angels in America&quot as women's rights leader Roma Guy, Rachel Griffiths ("Brothers and Sisters," "Six Feet Under&quot as her wife, social justice activist Diane, Michael K. Williams ("Boardwalk Empire,""The Wire&quot as African-American community organizer Ken Jones and Ivory Aquino as transgender-activist Cecilia Chung. Get your first look here and see the full air schedule below!

more...

When We Rise

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ABC Shifts ‘When We Rise’ Airdate to Accommodate Trump Congressional Address

Dustin Lance Black’s eight-hour paean to the LGBT civil rights movement, “When We Rise,” was initially supposed to air over four straight nights, from Monday, Feb. 27, through Thursday, Mar. 2. Thanks to a recently scheduled Congressional address by newly-minted President Donald Trump, ABC has had to modify those plans. It will take a break on Tuesday, Feb. 28, to air said address, thereby pushing the next three installments of “When We Rise” by a day.

There’s an element of irony to the move, given that the airtime will be devoted to Trump addressing members of Congress who are mulling the reintroduction of a bill that would curb the ability of the federal government to penalize discrimination against LGBTQ or unmarried citizens, categorizing such discrimination as free speech protected by the First Amendment. Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Sen. Jeff Sessions, has already voiced his support of this bill.

more...

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Set those DVRs!

February 8, 2017

Washington Post: Five myths about anti-Semitism

For a phenomenon often dubbed “the world’s oldest hatred,” anti-Semitism is not well understood. From top Iranian officials who blame the Talmud for the international drug trade to British political activists who claim that the Mossad is stealing their shoes, anti-Jewish bigotry can be bewildering and bizarre. But given the prejudice’s longevity, virulence and recent resurgence in Europe and America — witness the waves of bomb threats against dozens of Jewish centers nationwide in the past month and the controversy over the Trump administration’s repeated refusal to include Jews in its Holocaust memorial statement — it’s well worth debunking common misconceptions that impede our ability to fight it.

Myth No. 1

Anti-Semitism largely subsided after the Holocaust.

In my time reporting on anti-Semitism, I’ve often encountered a certain well-meaning skepticism: Didn’t the Holocaust, with its shocking horrors, finally compel society to stamp out anti-Jewish bigotry? Sophisticated people don’t write this idea down, but it’s one I hear constantly in my reporting.

This is profoundly, depressingly wrong. According to the FBI, Jews in the United States are annually subject to the most hate crimes of any religious group, despite constituting only 2 percent of the American population. The picture is considerably darker in Europe, where Jews were the target of 51 percent of racist attacks in France in 2014, even as they made up less than 1 percent of that country’s population. In recent years, synagogues and Jewish schools and museums have been subject to terrorist attacks in France, Denmark and Belgium. A 2013 E.U. survey found that nearly 40 percent of European Jews fear to publicly identify as Jewish, including 60 percent of Swedish Jews. Non-Western examples abound as well. Populations of Jews in Arab lands, which once numbered nearly 1 million, have been reduced to only a few thousand, having been persecuted to the point of expulsion or flight in the past century.

--snip--

Myth No. 2

Anti-Semitism comes predominantly from the right.

This past election season, the ascendant alt-right, a band of reactionary white nationalists with a penchant for harassing Jewish journalists, filled Twitter with neo-Nazi memes, Photoshopped reporters into gas chambers and concentration camps, and chanted anti-Semitic slogans at political rallies. (My critical reporting on Trump made me the second-most-harassed Jewish journalist on Twitter, according to an Anti-Defamation League study.) One could be forgiven for assuming that such bigotry flows from one primary political source.


But anti-Semitic outbursts were taking place on the left at the same time. At liberal Oberlin College, a writing instructor named Joy Karega shared Facebook memes about Jewish control of the global economy and media, alongside posts asserting Israeli responsibility for the Islamic State and 9/11. Yet when school officials and others criticized her conduct, the student council dismissed it as a “witch-hunt.” In New York, despite a local outcry, the hip leftist hub Brooklyn Commons hosted Christopher Bollyn, a conspiracy theorist who argued that “Zionist Jews” were behind 9/11. During the Democratic primaries, Jewish candidate Bernie Sanders was confronted by a questioner who declared that “the Zionist Jews .?.?. run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign.” Surveying this scene, TBS comedian Samantha Bee aired footage of an anti-Semite ranting at a Trump rally, then cracked, “To find anti-Semitism that rabid, you’d have to go to, well, any left-leaning American college campus.”

more...

Read a bit more about the above two myths and the other three myths are: Criticism of Israel is generally anti-Semitic.; Criticism of Israel cannot be anti-Semitic.; and, Anti-Semitism mostly threatens Jews.

February 7, 2017

Responding To Anti-Semitism In The Age Of The Alt-Right

“To truly understand anti-Semitism, one cannot look through the lens of race-based discrimination alone.”


Two weeks ago, a man wearing a swastika armband showed up — twice — on our university campus. Citing his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, Michael Dewitz, 34, questioned the Holocaust and extolled the Nazi party, seemingly well aware that authorities could legally do nothing to obstruct him.


Coincidentally or not, his unwelcome visits happened to fall during the week of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day the United Nations designated to commemorate the victims of the genocide that resulted in the murder of over six million Jews, along with homosexuals, disabled people, and other groups the Nazis deemed “undesirable.”


That same day, President Trump provoked anger within the Jewish community when he signed an executive order banning Syrian refugees from entering the United States, evoking memories of Jewish refugees turned away from U.S. shores during World War II, and then proceeded to issue a statement regarding Holocaust Remembrance Day which failed to mention Jews or anti-Semitism at all—a move later endorsed by white supremacist Richard Spencer.


Last week, the latest in a series of ongoing bomb threats were called in to Jewish Community Centers in Albany, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; West Orange, N.J.; Milwaukee, Wis.; San Diego, Calif.; and Salt Lake City, UT. The centers were evacuated, and though the threats were deemed not to be credible after the fact, that did not quench the feelings of intense vulnerability and uneasiness that lingered.


Over the weekend, Chicago authorities released a surveillance video of a man smashing the front window of a synagogue and placing swastika stickers on the front door. In Houston, Rice University campus police launched an investigation after a swastika was drawn on the base of a school statue. In Manhattan, passengers on a subway car witnessed anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and the phrases “Jews belong in the oven” and “Destroy Israel, Heil Hitler,” scribbled with Sharpie over advertisements and windows. As passengers sat in uncomfortable silence, one brave man announced that the alcohol in hand sanitizer could remove Sharpie. Promptly, passengers searched their pockets for sanitizer and tissues, and proceeded to scrub away the hate-filled messages.

much, much more...

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The article should be titled: "Don't ignore anti-Semitism" as it makes some very good and interesting points about anti-Semitism and Jews.

February 7, 2017

Rise in anti-Semitism graffiti and hateful images across the country as New Yorkers fight back

Source: CW News

NEW YORK, NY - Who is spreading these hateful images across America?

From New York City to Houston's Rice University, vandals are creating symbols and messages of hate and anti-Semitism.

In Chicago, a suspect was caught on surveillance footage shattering the glass windows of a synagogue and leaving behind these Nazi decals.

"Unfortunately, there seems to be some more of that going on these days," one observer said.

Even more alarming, the Feds are investigating bomb threats against dozens of Jewish community centers all across the country in 26 states over the past month!

"It is significant," the JCC Association of North America's Director of Strategic Performance David Posner revealed. "We've not seen things like this before....isolated incidents, but nothing like this."


Read more: http://cw39.com/2017/02/06/rise-in-anti-semitism-graffiti-and-hateful-images-across-the-country-as-new-yorkers-fight-back/

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Thank you to the DU'er who took a stand: I'm the Subway Sharpie/Purell guy.

In case anyone was wondering...

February 6, 2017

Anti-Israel UK lawmaker blames Jews for rising anti-Semitism

THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP!

LONDON — Reacting on a record high of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain in 2016, a well-known British lawmaker accused pro-Israel Jews of creating the situation by not criticizing the Jewish state.

The remark Thursday came from Jenny Tonge, who had represented the Liberal Democrat party in the upper house of the British Parliament before her suspension from the party in October for her penchant for anti-Israel rhetoric. Some of her critics allege that her rhetoric sometimes veers into anti-Semitism. Tonge has consistently denied these accusations.

On Thursday, Tonge sent an email to the Community Security Trust in reply to their report, sent to all lawmakers, that recorded a record 1,309 anti-Semitic incidents last year in the United Kingdom, constituting a 36-percent rise over 2015, the Jewish News reported.

“Do you NEVER consider that the actions of the Israeli government are contributing towards this rise?” Tonge wrote. “If the Board of Deputies and the CST spoke up against the abuse if (sic) human rights, flagrant disregard of international law and the Geneva Conventions they would do much to improve the situation here.”

more...

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Typical bigot; blaming the victimized group for their victimization.

February 6, 2017

Anti-Israel UK lawmaker blames Jews for rising anti-Semitism

LONDON — Reacting on a record high of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain in 2016, a well-known British lawmaker accused pro-Israel Jews of creating the situation by not criticizing the Jewish state.

The remark Thursday came from Jenny Tonge, who had represented the Liberal Democrat party in the upper house of the British Parliament before her suspension from the party in October for her penchant for anti-Israel rhetoric. Some of her critics allege that her rhetoric sometimes veers into anti-Semitism. Tonge has consistently denied these accusations.

On Thursday, Tonge sent an email to the Community Security Trust in reply to their report, sent to all lawmakers, that recorded a record 1,309 anti-Semitic incidents last year in the United Kingdom, constituting a 36-percent rise over 2015, the Jewish News reported.

“Do you NEVER consider that the actions of the Israeli government are contributing towards this rise?” Tonge wrote. “If the Board of Deputies and the CST spoke up against the abuse if (sic) human rights, flagrant disregard of international law and the Geneva Conventions they would do much to improve the situation here.”

more...

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Typical bigot; blaming the victimized group for their victimization.

February 6, 2017

Five myths about anti-Semitism

THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP!

For a phenomenon often dubbed “the world’s oldest hatred,” anti-Semitism is not well understood. From top Iranian officials who blame the Talmud for the international drug trade to British political activists who claim that the Mossad is stealing their shoes, anti-Jewish bigotry can be bewildering and bizarre. But given the prejudice’s longevity, virulence and recent resurgence in Europe and America — witness the waves of bomb threats against dozens of Jewish centers nationwide in the past month and the controversy over the Trump administration’s repeated refusal to include Jews in its Holocaust memorial statement — it’s well worth debunking common misconceptions that impede our ability to fight it.

Myth No. 1

Anti-Semitism largely subsided after the Holocaust.

In my time reporting on anti-Semitism, I’ve often encountered a certain well-meaning skepticism: Didn’t the Holocaust, with its shocking horrors, finally compel society to stamp out anti-Jewish bigotry? Sophisticated people don’t write this idea down, but it’s one I hear constantly in my reporting.

This is profoundly, depressingly wrong. According to the FBI, Jews in the United States are annually subject to the most hate crimes of any religious group, despite constituting only 2 percent of the American population. The picture is considerably darker in Europe, where Jews were the target of 51 percent of racist attacks in France in 2014, even as they made up less than 1 percent of that country’s population. In recent years, synagogues and Jewish schools and museums have been subject to terrorist attacks in France, Denmark and Belgium. A 2013 E.U. survey found that nearly 40 percent of European Jews fear to publicly identify as Jewish, including 60 percent of Swedish Jews. Non-Western examples abound as well. Populations of Jews in Arab lands, which once numbered nearly 1 million, have been reduced to only a few thousand, having been persecuted to the point of expulsion or flight in the past century.

These facts underscore a crucial point: It’s wrong to subsume anti-Semitism under Nazism, its worst manifestation, when the centuries-old prejudice usually takes less extreme or exterminationist forms. The end of American slavery did not mean the end of American racism; likewise, the end of Nazism as a dominant political force did not silence anti-Semitism.

Myth No. 2

Anti-Semitism comes predominantly from the right.

Myth No. 3

Criticism of Israel is generally anti-Semitic.

Myth No. 4

Criticism of Israel cannot be anti-Semitic.

Myth No. 5

Anti-Semitism mostly threatens Jews.

more...

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I included the other myths so it might entice a full read.

February 2, 2017

50 Iconic Black Trailblazers Who Represent Every State In America

There’s not a single state that hasn’t been touched by black excellence.

36 Oklahoma: Ralph Ellison



Born in 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, novelist Ralph Ellison wrote the classic 1953 National Book Award winner in fiction “Invisible Man.” Ellison was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.

Check out your state here...
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Invisible Man

Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison about an African American man whose color renders him invisible, published by Random House in 1952. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity.

Invisible Man won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953.[1] In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.[2] Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005, calling it "the quintessential American picaresque of the 20th century," rather than a "race novel, or even a bildungsroman."[3] Malcolm Bradbury and Richard Ruland recognize an existential vision with a "Kafka-like absurdity".[4] According to The New York Times, U.S. president Barack Obama modeled his memoir Dreams from My Father on Ellison's novel.[5]

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Guess I got another book to read.