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The owner of a Liverpool security company has spoken out after a bomb hoax disrupted a film screening organised by a Jewish group at the Labour Party conference.

Around 200 people were evacuated from Blackburne House on Tuesday night during a screening of film organised by a Jewish group following a bomb hoax. The caller was reported to have told a receptionist that "there are two bombs that will kill many people" at the Grade II listed site.

Now the owner of the company responsible for security at Blackburne House has spoken out about the incident. Lee Jones , owner of the Stone Management Group, said to the ECHO: "Whoever made this call, which caused distress to all concerned and disrupted a film made about free speech needs tracing and dealt with appropriately.

"This should not be happening in the world today."

Mr Jones, who founded the Liverpool based Stone group in the late 90s, also said that he was proud of the way his staff ensured the building was evacuated.

He added: "Everyone remained calm and I was obviously pleased to hear that there were no injuries."

Roy Meharg, a security officer with the Stone group, was working at Blackburne House on the night of the bomb scare.

He said: "I was made aware from my colleague that the reception had received a call that there was a 'bomb on site and many people were about to die'."

We instructed the receptionist to call the police immediately, whilst we set about carrying out a full evacuation of the building. I am pleased to say the evacuation was a success, and we ensured everyone remained calm, which they did."

Speaking after the event Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, media officer for Jewish Voice for Labour, said: “A man said ‘Is this Blackburne House? Is there a Jewish event going on?’ to which the receptionist said she knew it was a Labour event but she didn’t know if it was Jewish.

“And he said ‘it’s a big Jewish event, I want to say there are two bombs that will kill many people’.

“And then he put the phone down.

“We hired extra security tonight because we know our film is controversial but we didn’t expect this kind of trouble.

“And it’s just terrible because it means a film about free speech is being suppressed.”

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-security-boss-slams-bomb-15210950
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Hillel Milwaukee is holding a “Simchat Sushi Roll” on Tuesday, Oct. 2 at noon.

Hillel Milwaukee serves the Milwaukee area’s college students and young adults, ages 18-26.

The idea is that participants can learn to roll their own sushi as the Jewish people roll the Torah back to the beginning for Simchat Torah. The event is to be held at Hillel Milwaukee, at the Joseph & Vera Zilber Building Hillel Student Center, 3053 N. Stowell Ave., Milwaukee. HillelMke.org.

The day after the sushi event, Hillel Milwaukee will hold a Sukkah take down event on Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 10 a.m.

https://www.jewishchronicle.org/2018/09/28/hillel-milwaukee-to-hold-sushi-event/
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Town Supervisor Alex Jamieson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in Albany County Court on Tuesday, agreeing to repay the state $5,695 in unemployment payments that he improperly collected and resign his $79,000-a-year Chester job as part of a plea deal with the state Attorney General’s Office.

Jamieson, who was charged in May with a felony charge of grand larceny and 22 felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of the false instrument charge, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He is expected to be sentenced to a conditional discharge with no jail or prison time.

As a condition of his plea, Jamieson, 54, agreed to resign on or before his sentencing on Nov. 20.

Jamieson entered his plea before Albany County Court Judge Peter Lynch. He did not respond to two phone calls from the Times Herald-Record, and it was not immediately clear when he would resign and who would replace him.

Deputy Supervisor Robert Valentine and other members of the Town Board did not return a call left for them with the town clerk.

Once Jamieson resigns, the Chester Town Board will appoint a replacement who will serve out his term that runs through 2019. Sept. 20 was the deadline for the supervisor position to be on the ballot in November.

Jamieson has been supervisor since the start of 2014 and is serving a four-year term. State authorities accused Jamieson - who was a councilman before he was appointed supervisor to fill a vacancy - of improperly collecting unemployment benefits in 2013 and 2014 while being paid as a town official.

Jamieson garnered additional notoriety earlier this month when he told the Times Herald-Record that Chester was buying up as much land as possible to keep unwanted future Hasidic development in check. His comments drew sharp condemnation from public officials and members of the Jewish community who characterized them as anti-Semitic.

On Tuesday, Preserve Chester, a bipartisan citizen’s group, welcomed Jamieson’s impending resignation and said it was good for the town.

“It is sad he had to be forced out and it appears he was using his position as a bargaining chip,” said Stephen Keahon, cofounder of Preserve Chester. “Preserve Chester looks forward to getting back to work with whoever takes over in his place.”

http://www.recordonline.com/news/20180925/chester-supervisor-jamieson-pleads-guilty-will-resign
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The Manhattan socialite who is accused of bashing a man over the head with her lucite purse after allegedly making anti-Semitic comments towards the victim's mother is heading to court.

Jacqueline Kent Cooke, 30, appeared in New York Criminal Court on Tuesday for her first hearing in the case, which was continued until October 23, at which point a trial date will be set the Manhattan District Attorney's office tells DailyMail.com.

Assistant District Attorney Neil Greenwell has been assigned to the case, and is asking that Cooke receive three months in prison for the attack on Matthew Haberkorn.

She is the daughter of the late Jack Kent Cooke, who at one time had ownership stakes in the Washington Redskins, Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings.

Cooke is accused of attacking Haberkorn, 52, outside the Manhattan eatery Caravaggio on December 31 of last year.

The lawyer, who lives with his family in Redwood City, California, claims that the trouble with Cooke began when his mother was getting her coat after their meal at Caravaggio.

'Hurry up, Jew,' Cooke said to the 77-year-old grandmother claims Haberkorn.

'Hurry up Jew, I got places to be.'

Haberkorn decided to confront Cooke about the statement outside he said, and that is when she bashed him in the head with her mirrored Lulu Guinness clutch at around 11:45pm according to an NYPD spokesperson.

Video taken by his daughter shows Haberkorn bleeding from the head just moments after the alleged assault.

Cooke meanwhile can be seen laying on the ground and struggling to stand.

'You called me a f***ing bitch, you called me a c**t,' Cooke can be heard shouting in the video.

Haberkorn then looks at Cooke and shouts: 'You called me a f***ing Jew.'

His daughter meanwhile can be heard shouting don't touch him as Cooke's boyfriend wraps his arms around the man.

Cooke than appears to try and take a swing at Haberkorn, at which point she again falls on the ground.

As her boyfriend wraps his arms around Haberkorn, Cooke appears to get up and then fall as she takes another swing at him.

Cooke then rushes at the man and tries to pull him to the ground, which again results with her falling on the pavement.

'You're throwing a woman on the floor,' Cooke's boyfriend yells at Haberkorn.

Cooke and the man then run off with Cooke yelling 'self-defense' and Haberkorn saying he wants to call 'the f***ing police.'

Her Instagram page, which is set to private, reveals that she is preparing to launch her new business Cane Casa.

It will offer 'premium dog beds for premium canines.'

Cooke previously worked for shoe designer Isa Tapia as the director of PR and marketing.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6210279/Manhattan-socialite-heading-trial-attack-Jewish-man-faces-three-months-bars.html
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Due to rising anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, 40 percent of British Jews have considered leaving the country, up from 31 percent in 2017. With 90 percent of British Jews citing issues associated with the Labour Party, many of them acknowledged considering or taking concrete measures to emigrate.

According to the annual Antisemitism Barometer study by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a nonprofit organization that fights anti-Semitism, 82 percent of the 2,103 respondents said politicians were “doing too little to fight anti-Semitism,” and 84 percent blamed the uptick in anti-Semitism on “recent political events.”

Just 22 percent of British Jews say they currently feel welcome in Great Britain, and 49 percent believe that Jews have a long-term future in the United Kingdom, a decrease from 59 percent in 2017 and 62 percent in 2016, which is when the Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis surfaced.

“Most British Jews who would ordinarily wear Jewish clothing and symbols said that they now conceal them when out in public,” the Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a statement. “British Jews also revealed that now they felt more threatened by the far-left than by the far-right.”

“It is clear that the current political climate has created an environment in which many have British Jews have considered leaving and some have even begun to take concrete steps to leave. Britain is our home, and for decades, it has been one of the best places in the world to be Jewish, but that is no longer assured,” said Campaign Against Antisemitism chairman Gideon Falter. “Now British Jews live in fear of the institutionally anti-Semitic Labour Party and its anti-Semitic leader [Jeremy Corbyn] coming to power. Once a community starts to take flight, it becomes almost impossible to remedy the situation.”

Falter added that “this polling shows that we are now at the 11th hour: Many British Jews are mentally, if not physically, packing their bags.”

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/114226/british-jews-emigration-anti-semitism/
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As a rabbi’s wife led a joyous bread-making event prior to the current Jewish High Holy Days, it was a reminder of another happy occasion eight years ago.

Along busy 10th Street outside the Hilton Omaha, a Hasidic couple married under the traditional canopy, a chuppa. As a goat’s horn blew, drivers who must have wondered what was going on honked back.

Many invitees had come from New York, the men all wearing beards and black hats. A Jewish friend of mine observed, “This isn’t something you see every day in Omaha.”

At the reception afterward in a Hilton banquet room — women on one side, men on the other — a New York rabbi playfully announced: “Welcome to the first annual Katzman wedding!”

That drew laughter, but it seemed like a good bet. Rabbi Mendel Katzman and wife Shani, assigned to Omaha in 1986 to “spread the light” of their faith, have raised their 12 children here, and bride Estie was the oldest.

The Katzmans practice their faith from a synagogue at the Chabad House, 120th and Shirley Streets. They also move about the community and beyond.

With nearly 250 attending Sept. 6 at the Hilton, Shani conducted her third annual pre-Rosh Hashana “Challa Bake,” preparing the rich, eggy bread of the Sabbath and holidays.

But the prediction of annual Katzman weddings? There have been no other marriages, though the rabbi sounds hopeful.

“There’s some dating going on,” he said, wearing an apron at the Challa Bake. “That’s about as much as I’m allowed to say.”

Dating, in the Hasidic faith, is far different from the societal norm. It’s not casual, and kissing or even hand-holding is not allowed.

Marriages aren’t exactly arranged, but dates sometimes are. Often parents know of another family with an eligible young adult and a date is set up. Or single folks might arrange their own.

Either way, once there is a date, the two are expected to begin considering each other for marriage.

I’ve met most of the Katzman kids over the years, and they are charming, smart, faith-filled and attractive. Shani home-schooled them, and in some cases they traveled to other cities for secondary schools or beyond.

Their names are not trendy, but come from a tradition thousands of years old: daughters Estie, Shevi, Mushka, Chani, Rochi, Devorah, Miri and Feigy, and sons Levy, Yossi, Zelig and Zalmen, whose bar mitzvah celebration I attended in 2016.

That same year, when visiting my daughter and her family in Brooklyn, I had lunch with three adult Katzman sisters at their invitation in the Crown Heights neighborhood.

Crown Heights, where Mendel and Shani grew up, is home to the worldwide headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jewish movement. Along tree-lined Eastern Parkway, men wearing black fedoras are a common sight.

“When you walk into Crown Heights,” Rabbi Katzman said, “you see the external fervor and life. It isn’t just putting together bagel and lox.”

The Katzmans were assigned to Omaha by the movement’s leader, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994 and whose memory they revere. He was known as “the Rebbe,” and the Katzmans say that in Jewish history, they consider him equal to Moses.

The Chabad mission encourages people to be optimistic and joyous and to think of others first. Chabad provides counseling, crisis intervention and education, and hopes that its chabad.org website is “the go-to for all things Jewish.”

https://www.omaha.com/columnists/plus/kelly-joyful-hasidic-couple-have-spread-the-light-in-omaha/article_1bc621bb-dd14-50f9-acde-0ba4e58f71cc.html
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The Anti-Defamation League and Preserve Chester have condemned comments made by Town of Chester Supervisor Alex Jamieson to The Times-Herald Record last week, in which he said the intention of a town initiative to buy the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center and other properties around town was to "keep the Hasidic out so that they can’t control the Town Board."

Jamieson responded to The Chronicle's request for comment in an email today: "I’m assisting residents in North Carolina affected by hurricane. Will be back Thursday."

Jamieson is due back in court in Albany on Sept. 25 to face charges that he stole unemployment compensation while employed as a town official. He faces one count of third-degree grand larceny and 22 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, all felonies.

The story in Friday's Record was about the town's decision last Wednesday night to borrow $3.5 million to buy the performing arts center from the nonprofit Mid-Hudson Civic Center for its continued use as a cultural center, and to buy other properties for outdoor recreational activities, like swimming and running. The proposal received a positive reaction from those attending the meeting, and was reported last Thursday at (https://bit.ly/2piPaIF) chroniclenewspaper.com.

Preserve Chester has called for Jamieson's resignation. The Anti-Defamation League is urging the New York State Attorney General to "investigate further," not only the comments made to the Record but also the town's proposal to adopt a ward system to elect town board members, which will be on the ballot this November.

Gerald Benjamin, a professor and director of the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz, spoke to Chester residents at the senior center on June 21 about the proposed ward system. "Hasidic citizens define their community religiously, not geographically, register to vote at high rates, are socially conservative, do not adhere consistently to one or the other major political party, and tend to vote in a block, directed by religious community leadership," he said.

The following month, Benjamin apologized for a comment he made in The New York Times about Democratic candidate Antonio Delgado, who is running as a Democrat in the 19th Congressional District. "Who makes a rap album the kind of guy who lives here in rural New York and reflects our lifestyles and values?" he was quoted as saying. He later said his commentary "is reasonably read as racist."

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If you are a fan of movies featuring Hasidic characters, over the past two years your cup runneth over. Menashe. One of Us. 93Queen. They respectively tell the stories of a widower fighting for the custody and respect of his son, a group of individuals trying to escape of their restrictive culture, and Hasidic women creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance service. Like many New York trends, part of this mini boom is being driven by real estate. Hasidim and creative types have been eyeing the same properties – first in Williamsburg, then Crown Heights and Borough Park. They are becoming neighbors, which naturally begets curiosity, and Kickstarter campaigns are never far behind.

I’m the maker of another film about Hasidim – the upcoming documentary City of Joel, which captures an American Jewish identity that is increasingly fracturing and diversifying.

When I was growing up in Western Massachusetts in the 1980s, I understood Judaism to be a monolith. We were the descendants of the Holocaust and other violent anti-semitic spasms around the world that sent our families searching for a place to practice religion without a looming existential threat. There were clearly different flavors of Judaism – orthodox and secular, sephardic and ashkenazi, socialist and capitalist, even self-hating Jews who were at war with themselves – but there was a genuine sense that we were in this thing (Judaism) together. Now, though, the big-tent identity of Judaism seems to be coming apart at the seams, with Judaism following a trend in polarization that has become our new national pastime. As the horrors of the Holocaust recede into memory, as well the 20th century immigrant experience, their unifying power is diminishing.

A decade ago, I moved to Crown Heights – the spiritual center of the Lubavitch community – and I realized how little common ground I shared with my neighbors. I didn’t understand their politics, history or rituals. Perhaps the most jarring discovery was when I walked into my neighborhood synagogue to look into attending Rosh Hashanah services and learned that they still segregate the congregation by gender, with a woman’s section in the balcony. This was my entree into an identity politics that seemed antithetical to 21st-century norms of equality, to put it mildly. Most Hasidic women shave their heads based on their menstrual cycle. They won’t shake a man’s hand. And they’re not supposed show their elbows in public.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool believer in the humanistic power of film, I set out to make a documentary that could help me understand my neighbors. My initial idea: a film called Future Jew that would follow individuals who were going “off the derech” – leaving their community. Their stories would reveal the gulf between Jewish communities through their eyes. As I met people making this transition, I performed the requisite pre-production psychoanalysis and asked myself: Why am I making this film? What story do I need to tell? I realized that I was less interested in Hasidim who left – because that seemed like the decision I would make in their place – than in the people who stayed.

So I wanted to go to the white-hot center of the most insular and orthodox Hasidic community and try to understand them. That led me 60 miles north of New York City to Kiryas Joel, home to 25,000 members of the Satmar sect. I wanted to make a Wiseman-esque year-in-the-life documentary chronicling the rhythms and rituals of this village. Five years later, I’m finally wrapping up the project, with a planned festival run this fall. Documentary-ing can take a while.

One of the big obstacles was access. The Satmar are weary of both cameras and popular culture. My pitch was two-fold. First, they were involved in a small-town political brawl about land rights, and they were often caricatured in the media. I offered a chance to tell their story in their words. Second, my motivation was that I was a Reform Jew who sincerely wanted to understand their culture. On some level, a number of Satmar understood the chasms between different groups and saw the virtue in building empathy. I’m thankful for the generosity of every person who agreed to go on camera. Each of them taught me something new about their faith, community and individual lives.

One profound lesson was that even within a community as homogenous as Kiryas Joel, there is a wide range of experiences. While there is a uniformity to their public faces, private life is another story. For all the leadership’s warnings against the evil of the internet, I’ve received a lot of Facebook friend requests from Satmar I have met. They love, hate, gossip and break the rules, just like anyone else. I’ve met Hasidim who play on a flag football team. There are plumbers and Uber drivers. Women entrepreneurs and rabbis who have lost faith. And within this tightly bound community, there are warring factions – at least three subgroups each claim to be the true heir to Satmar faith. In a fittingly Biblical turn, the groups take the names of two brothers, who are the two Grand Rebbes of the Satmar: the Aaronites (for Aaron Teitelbaum) and Zalmanites (for Zalman Teitelbaum). The Old Testament is alive and well in Kiryas Joel.

This community is held together in part by their faith, traditions and a weariness of outsiders. Upon learning I lived in Crown Heights, one Satmar rabbi joked, “The Lubavitch is such a beautiful religion. So beautiful.” Then he held up two barely separated fingers for the kicker: “And it’s this close to Judaism.”

It’s a joke that reveals an unsettling truth: the tendency to invalidate Jewish people who are not in your group. One Satmar man – a friend of mine – told me that Reform Jews are the most anti-semitic people he’s met because they take the prejudices and slurs that have been hurled at them and turn around and apply them to Hasidim. (He later apologized when he learned I fall into this category.) To be clear, Hasidic groups are also on the receiving end of a fair share of ignorance and disdain. A few of supposedly open-minded secular Jews whom I’ve told about my film have said it sounds fascinating because the Hasidim are “crazies” or “a cult.”

I see the recent spate of Hasidic films as rooted in these two trends: a splintering of the diaspora and a desire to find some understanding of the far end of this spectrum. Each film I mentioned at the top of this article uses its own unique lens to move past the well-worn 20th-century archetypes of Jewish American life and discover at the fraying, splintered cacophony of Jewish voices today.

My documentary City of Joel is ultimately a culture-clash film that examines the fault lines between this Hasidic community and their secular neighbors, reform Jews, their dissident members and their own factions. There are breakdowns and in-fights, alliances and dissonances.

As the Satmar graciously welcomed me into their lives, I learned to appreciate and empathize with aspects of their culture that I had found alien. I learned to understand their self-segregation, dedication to rituals and religious texts. There are many aspects of Kiryas Joel that I genuinely find beautiful: their love of family and charity. But there are still some things I can’t get past. Foremost is gender. I’ve had long discussions with Satmar men and strong-willed women who defend the treatment of women. But I still can’t see it as anything but placing them in a subservient role. On the flip side, there are details of my life that they view as a betrayal of Judaism. We could probably stop and start the list with the fact that my wife – and the mother of my three children – is not Jewish.

Making this film has made me realize we are at a crossroads. Can we find enough common ground to maintain the idea of capital J Judaism as a big catch-all group so we still hang together? Can we still be part of one group and find space to question each other without revoking one another’s Hebrew cards? Or are our values so divergent that we are becoming the “other” to our former brothers and sisters? For the sake of a rich, complicated, and morally engaged Jewish community, I hope for the former. But based on the Jew-on-Jew conflicts I’ve witnessed, I fear we’re on the path for the latter.

https://www.talkhouse.com/future-jew/
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The ultra-Orthodox candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, Yossi Deutsch, is set to win wall-to-wall Haredi approval, putting him at the front of the race for city hall. Deutsch, who is currently deputy major and represents the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael party, managed to garner the support of the non-Hasidic Degel Hatorah party last week.

According to a senior ultra-Orthodox source, the division of support between the two secular mayoral candidates – city councilman Ofer Berkovitch and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin – is what persuaded the rabbis in question that Deutsch has a good chance to win the first round.

Deutsch has been running an ad-hoc campaign featuring Happy New Year ads in local newspapers, but he reportedly waited to officially throw his hat into the ring until securing the backing of the entire ultra-Orthodox camp. His efforts did not bear fruit until a few days ago, when the leading Degel Hatorah rabbi in Jerusalem, Baruch Soloveichik, announced he was backing Deutsch.

Deutsch still needs the support of the Degel Hatorah rabbis from the ultra-Orthodox bastion of Bnei Brak, especially Haim Kanievsky and Gershon Edelstein. Deutsch and Soloveichik sent emissaries to Bnei Brak to discuss the matter, and senior member of the non-Hasidic, or Lithuanian, branch of ultra-Orthodoxy said he believed the issue would be resolved in a few days and Deutsch would announce his candidacy.

If Deutsch ends up winning the support of both of the Hasidic and non-Hasidic wings of Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodoxy, the Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox party Shas will have to follow suit to avoid putting the unity of the Haredi camp at risk, political sources say. This is believed to be the case despite Shas chairman Interior Minister Arye Deri’s reported preference for his friend, Jerusalem city councilman Moshe Lion.

According to one source, Deutsch pledged to the rabbis who backed him that if he did not win in the first round, and would have to face off in a second round against Ze’ev Elkin (who is more popular than Deutsch in the polls, but not more popular than Elkin’s secular rival, Berkovitch), he would drop out of the race and reach an agreement with his opponents. Thus the ultra-Orthodox camp in Jerusalem will avoid a defeat the likes of which they saw five years ago, when they supported Moshe Lion, who lost to the current mayor, Nir Barkat, who is secular.

But Dery is still an obstacle to Deutsch, as are a number of other ultra-Orthodox politicians. The holdouts are said to believe that it would be better if the city did not have an ultra-Orthodox mayor at all, as a Haredi mayor elected by Haredi Jerusalemites would grant them more funding. “When you look at who has given more to the ultra-Orthodox community, [ultra-Orthodox former Deputy Mayor] Uri Lupoliansky or Barkat, you want it to be Barkat,” an ultra-Orthodox source said.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-could-this-ultra-orthodox-man-be-jerusalem-s-next-mayor-1.6472330
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Fans of Will & Grace were left reeling after Minnie Driver promoted the sitcom while wearing garb that is traditionally worn by Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish men, DailyMailTV has learned.

The guest star on the popular show wore a black hat, curly sideburns - called payot - and a low-cut top underneath a prayer shawl, known as a tallit, as she waved and said: 'Shalom everybody! Lorraine Finster is back on Will & Grace!'

The short clip was uploaded to the NBC show's official Instagram account on August 30 but was quickly deleted after viewers pointed out how distasteful it was.

The British actress was also seen wearing the garb in a video clip posted by star actress Debra Messing as she and co-stars sang and goofed off behind the scenes.

There appeared to be no obvious reason as to why Driver was wearing the Hasidic clothing.

DailyMailTV reached out to NBC for comment but representatives for the network declined to comment on the video.

One Jewish fan of the show felt Driver and NBC's decision to record and then upload the promo was in poor taste, even showing family members who agreed.

The offended fan told DailyMailTV: 'It wasn't up for too long and after I sent my objections [which] were not even addressed, they took down the story.'

The upset viewer explained that only male Hasidic Jews wear the black hat and the payot, which are the long curls on the sides of the head.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6155625/Jewish-fans-Grace-dismayed-Minnie-Driver-wears-curly-sideburns-worn-Hasidic-men.html
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A 23-year-old Jewish man from the US passed away in Uman over Rosh Hashannah after fulfilling his dying wish to be near the grave of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, in Uman, Ukraine.

Over 2,700 people were evacuated to the hospital over the holiday in Uman, when over 30,000 religious Jews visited the town where Rebbe Nachman is buried.

The young Jewish man suffered from an advanced case of cancer and knew he was in his final days. As he dying wish, he asked to be flown to Uman for Rosh Hashannah so that he could die near Rebbe Nachman's grave.

The funeral procession is now moving to the grave of Rebbi Nachman. From there the body will be brought to the US for burial.

Yisrael Stark, the head of the United Hatzalah branch in Uman, said that the organization would continue to support Jewish pilgrims in Uman through Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which will take place next Wednesday.

"Hundreds of medics in the Union of Rescue volunteers helped strengthen the life saving unit of Ichud Hatzola's Uman branch on the occasion of the arrival of the tens of thousands in honor of Rebbi Nachman of Breslov in the city of Uman in Ukraine on the occasion of Rosh Hashana," he said.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/251824
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From 50,000 to 80,000 Hasidic pilgrims are expected to arrive in Ukraine to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.

This was discussed at the meeting of chief of the National Police of Ukraine Serhiy Knyazev and deputy chief of the National Police - chief of the patrol police Oleksandr Fatsevych with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Ukraine Joel Lion and head of the Main Directorate for the Protection of Public Order at the Ministry of Public Security of the State of Israel Alon Levavi, the press service of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reports.

"According to the information we receive from travel agencies and airlines, from 50,000 to 80,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive in Ukraine. A local consulate will be opened to help the Israeli citizens," Ambassador Joel Lion said.

In turn, Knyazev stressed that the National Police was ready to ensure the safety of such a significant number of people. He asked the representatives of the State of Israel to conduct joint exercises of Ukrainian and Israeli police officers to exchange experience. The Israeli side expressed interest in such exercises.

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/2533157-up-to-80000-hasidic-pilgrims-expected-to-arrive-in-ukraine.html
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This summer, the failure by Stanford University to adequately respond to threats of violence made by a Muslim student against other students dramatically illustrates that anti-Semitism does not rank anywhere near the same level of concern as hate speech against blacks or gays.

Indeed, the incident made clear that the justice system and even many Jewish groups were reluctant to act or even issue strongly worded rebukes. When Jews are the targeted hate population, many today give only weakly worded expressions of “concern,” but do nothing of consequence to stop anti-Semitism which only encourages more such expressions of hatred and endangers the safety of Jewish college students.

The incident at Stanford occurred in July, university student Hamzeh Daoud made violent threats on Facebook against pro-Israel students. Daoud had some stature on campus as a former student Senate member and a soon-to-be, residential advisor (RA) for a dormitory. He also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was active in the terror-linked, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Daoud’s SJP involvement is a cause for concern.  The anti-Semitic group, founded by Hatem Bazian, who raised money for a Hamas front and headed the UC Berkeley Muslim Student Association, an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, is described by NGO Monitor as “the organization most directly responsible for creating a hostile campus environment saturated with anti-Israel events, BDS initiatives, and speakers.” 

SJP routinely smears Israel by falsely characterizing it as an “apartheid state,” denounces Israel’s self-defense measures against Arab-Palestinian terrorism and supports the Hamas-inspired Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Jewish state.

“I’m going to physically fight Zionists on campus,” Daoud posted online in July, adding, “After I abolish your ass I’ll go ahead every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state.” 

The posts were nothing new for Daoud who had a pattern of anti-Semitism posts, as established by Pennsylvania attorney Jerome Marcus. Acting on behalf of an unnamed Jewish undergraduate, Marcus retrieved earlier posts by Daoud, including one that said, “F*** your liberal zionist ass.  F*** you Jewish state.”

Surprisingly, instead of firing the student, Stanford allowed him to resign from his RA appointment. The university issued a statement that they had “engaged with the student” who made the decision to step down from his RA position and apologized in a letter to the Jewish community. From their “extensive case assessment,” they concluded that Daoud did not pose a physical threat to other members of the community.

The university administration went so far as to portray the student as a victim and exhibited concern for alleged death threats against him, called for policies against intolerance, which already exist in the university’s Fundamental Standards, and suggested “thoughtful engagement” within the Stanford community.

Further, Stanford vilified the Stanford College Republicans for their “vehement statements,” “barrage of petitions,” “paid advertisements” and even a legal threat to the University should Daoud retain his RA position. The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, taking its cue from the University, declined to investigate further and press charges.

This contrasts dramatically to college disciplinary actions taken after haters targeted other groups. In three cases this past school year, college students were disciplined for racist comments, albeit non-violent ones, against blacks. At the University of Alabama, Harley Barber ranted about her hatred for black people in a video and was promptly expelled. Natalia Martinez, a student at Georgia State University was suspended from the soccer team and decided to withdraw from the university after using a racial epithet on Finsta. Spencer Brown, an Appalachian State University freshman, was suspended from the tennis team for a racist tweet.

In a 2010 case of alleged “anti-homosexual” bigotry, Eastern Michigan University student, devout Christian Julea Ward, was removed from a graduate program in school counseling over her belief that homosexuality is morally wrong.  Even at Stanford, in a 2014 precedent action, the Graduate Student Council retracted funding for the Stanford Anscombe Society, a student group that promotes traditional values of marriage, family and sexuality.  In this case, no threats of violence existed, but LGBT groups successfully lobbied against the group and made the case to a politically correct, university administration that taking a position against homosexuality is a form of discrimination.

In Daoud’s case, the Pennsylvania attorney, Marcus, cited the Anscombe Society incident in a letter to Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Marcus proclaimed that inaction by Stanford after full knowledge of Daoud’s statements would constitute discrimination against Zionist students and violates federal law, as well as the university’s established policies.  Marcus demanded the firing of the student and the reactivation of his social media accounts for further university investigation and public review.

Meanwhile, responses by Jewish organizations were mixed. Only two organizations demanded concrete action. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), which “works to protect Jewish college and high school students from intimidation, harassment and discrimination, and in fighting anti-Semitism in general,” called for his immediate expulsion from school and censured Stanford for failing to condemn Daoud’s conduct, inadequately punishing him and allowing him to decide whether or not to step down as RA.  They pointed to other social media posts issued by the student and the fact that Stanford had suspended the housing privileges of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for “creating a hostile environment for female students.”

ZOA pointed out that the university was violating its own rules in the Daoud case as enshrined in the “Fundamental Standard” requiring students “to respect and uphold the rights and dignity of others regardless of race, color, national origin or ethnic origin” as well as the tenets of free speech available to all students. They reminded Stanford of its moral and legal obligations to protect all students and to ensure a non-hostile learning environment for Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The Israel Group (TIG), a non-profit whose primary mission is “to cripple the BDS movement,” sought legal action by writing to the Santa Clara District Attorney requesting an investigation of Daoud’s threat and hate crime against Jewish students. The TIG pointed out that Stanford violated two California laws, California Threat Law P.C. 422 (a) and California Hate Crimes Law P.C. 42255.  Further, TIG explained that the threats were specific and immediate and a cause for pro-Israel students to fear violence. The organization called for the DA to take steps to prosecute Mr. Daoud for violation of these statutes.

Meanwhile, other Jewish organizations provided mere expressions of outrage. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international NGO that claims it “fights anti-Semitism and all kinds of bigotry,” conveyed “deep concern” about the student’s statements directed toward the campus Jewish community. The ADL recognized the Facebook posts as a violation of the University’s Fundamental Standard, the standard of conduct for Stanford students that includes making threats as an act of misconduct.

Incredibly, the American Jewish Committee, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations with 33 offices worldwide that claims to “counter anti-Semitism in all its guises,” voiced appreciation for Daoud’s “grace” in recognizing that his posts would make it untenable for him to serve as RA.
In a letter to Stanford’s president calling for “meaningful action,” the ADL alluded to past events at the school where intolerance for Jews and Israel was in evidence, including an insinuation of bias against a Jewish senate candidate, the drawing of swastika graffiti and an assertion by Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Senator Gabriel Knight that it was not anti-Semitic to claim that Jews control the media, business and the government. The ADL called for the administration to address the issue of anti-Semitism on campus, offered their resources in the form of printed guides and workshops and requested a meeting but stopped short of definitive action.

Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world represented at more than 550 colleges and universities, responded through its Stanford chapter by stating how disturbed they were by the incident. They explained that they had been working with the university to make sure that established protocols were followed and had called for an assessment of the impact of the posts disparaging pro-Israel, Jewish students. In her statement, Hillel Rabbi Jessica Kirschner remarked that she appreciated that the student in question had later modified his remarks by calling for an “intellectual fight” and had ultimately reached out to Jewish students. 

Incredibly, the American Jewish Committee, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations with 33 offices worldwide that claims to “counter anti-Semitism in all its guises,” voiced appreciation for Daoud’s “grace” in recognizing that his posts would make it untenable for him to serve as RA.  AJC’s Rabbi Serena Eisenberg further minimized the threat by stating, “This incident was not about the Middle East, Israelis or Palestinians, but about the way ideas are debated on Stanford’s campus and the world beyond.”

StandWithUs, which defines its goal as “fighting hate and the new anti-Semitism while protecting, educating and inspiring the next generation of pro-Israel voices on-campus and beyond” also indicated their concern about the threat of violence and criticized the university for taking too long to respond.  However, they stopped well short of demanding any action and stated that “further threats by this student” should “result in expulsion.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a human rights organization that “confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism,” “stands with Israel” and “defends the safety of Jews worldwide,” expressed outrage over the threats of violence and called for the student to be removed from his duties as RA. SWC Rabbi Abraham Cooper demanded that the university administration denounce Daoud’s “verbal thuggery” and warn other members of SFP that further threats made against Jewish students will lead to expulsion and removal from campus.  He emphasized the fact that Jewish students have been subject to “intimidation, harassment, and virulent campaigns demonizing the Jewish state on many of America’s finest campuses.”

It is remarkable that only two organizations that purport to support Jews and Israel demanded serious action in response to threats of violence. In the end, Daoud was given only a tiny slap on the hand with no real disciplinary action taken.

In effect, the university’s failure to act leaves organizations such as SJP free to spout their anti-Israel rhetoric and engender anti-Semitism and threaten Jewish students on campus. Jew hatred continues its precipitous rise and Jewish students increasingly report how unsafe they feel.  Surely this kind of complacency ensures that the problem will not be appropriately addressed in the future and the situation for Jewish students on campus will only worsen.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22710
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A French court on Monday handed a five-year jail sentence for attempted extortion to Nacer Bendrer, the alleged accomplice in a 2014 terror attack at a Jewish museum in Belgium.

Frenchman Bendrer, 30, appearing in court in the southern city of Marseille denied the accusation, made by the brother of a local drug dealer, that he and another man — one of them brandishing a Kalashnikov — had demanded weapons and 100,000 euros.

“It’s false, completely false,” said Bendrer, who had been under house arrest at the time of the 2017 extortion attempt.

The presiding judge said that the motive remained uncertain but could be linked to a dispute over a snack bar.

Bendrer has been accused in Belgium of being an accomplice to fellow Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who will stand trial in Brussels for the killing of four people at a Jewish museum four years ago in a jihadist terror attack.

Their trial is expected to take place later this year or early next year.

On May 24, 2014 a gunman armed with an assault rifle opened fire in the entrance hall of the museum in the centre of the Belgian capital, killing two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian museum receptionist.

Six days later Nemmouche was arrested in the southern French port city of Marseille getting off a bus from Brussels.

Nemmouche had returned from Syria where he had been fighting with Islamist extremists.

Nacer Bendrer was formally charged as an accomplice in the attack in February 2015 in Brussels, two months after his arrest near Marseille in possession of various weapons.

These included a Kalashnikov assault rifle like the one used at the Jewish museum.

Nemmouche has been linked to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the November 13, 2015 Paris gun and bombing attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others.

Abaaoud died in a police shootout near the French capital days after the massacre.

The Paris attacks were allegedly plotted in Brussels by the same cell that carried out the suicide bombings in the Belgian capital’s airport and a metro train station on March 22, 2016, killing 32 people.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks and the Brussels 2016 attacks.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/alleged-brussels-jewish-museum-attack-accomplice-jailed-for-extortion-in-france/
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