Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Rare Silver Coin From First Jewish Revolt Against Roman Empire Discovered
A rare ancient coin dated to the time of the First Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire has been discovered in the Judean Desert.
Researchers found the silver "half-shekel" coin, which is around 2,000 years old, during a survey carried out in the desert by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The desert, which lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea, covers parts of the West Bank and Israel.
The coin was found in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, which is located in Israel on the western shore of the Dead Sea—during the Judean Desert Survey Project, the IAA said in a statement.
The project, which began about six years ago, aims to retrieve archaeological treasures in the region before they are found by antiquity looters.
During recent work, IAA inspectors came across the coin on the ground outside the entrance of a cave in the Ein Gedi area. The coin was minted in Jerusalem and is dated to A.D. 66/67, around the time of the First Jewish Revolt.
The project, which began about six years ago, aims to retrieve archaeological treasures in the region before they are found by antiquity looters.
During recent work, IAA inspectors came across the coin on the ground outside the entrance of a cave in the Ein Gedi area. The coin was minted in Jerusalem and is dated to A.D. 66/67, around the time of the First Jewish Revolt.
One potential explanation behind the latest discovery is that the coin fell from the pocket of a rebel who escaped to the desert during the revolt, according to the IAA.
On one side of the coin, the phrase "The Holy Jerusalem" appears in ancient Hebrew script, alongside a depiction of three pomegranates.
On the other side of the coin, a chalice is depicted, above which lies the letter "Aleph"—marking the first year of the revolt's outbreak and the value of the half-shekel. Such coins were minted in denominations of half-shekel and shekel—a currency used in ancient Israel.
During the revolt, rebels minted their own silver and bronze coins depicting Jewish symbols without the image of the ruling Roman emperor. This was an act of defiance and an attempt to create a form of internal economy among the Jewish rebels.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Hasidic groups order: Young boys should wear flat caps only
Several hasidic sects in Israel have instructed parents to buy young teenagers flat caps instead of fedoras.
In a letter sent to parents of students in 15 haredi schools, the institutions' management instructed that beginning at the start of the next school year, young teens must come to school wearing flat caps only.
Among the hasidic sects to make the change are Bobov, Lelov, Sanz, Nadvorna, Erlau, Shomrei Emunim, Seret Vizhnitz, and others.
"Preserving the Jewish dress which has been accepted for generations was one of the foundations of the ways of behavior in hasidic communities for generations," the official letter to the parents read. "As part of this, it was customary among hasidim in previous generations that the young married men and the boys would wear a wide hat on their heads, or a small hat called a 'kasket' (flat cap - ed.)."
"The common denominator between these two types of hats is that they showed that the wearer was one of the hasidic community and one who fears G-d. It is true that since the Second World War, since this has become more common, the custom is to wear a wide hat, and the number of those who wear the flat cap has diminished."
"As those who merit to stand at the head of the educational systems, we have learned from experience that while older teens know how to take care of their hats for several years, the boys who are still in their bar mitzvah year, within the walls of the school, have a hard time taking proper care of their hats. And so in many cases, just a few months after the bar mitzvah, the hat is no longer usable, and the parents are forced to buy a new hat for a high sum of money."
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Monday, July 24, 2023
Breslav Hasidim were violently removed from a monastery
Clashes are taking place again in the area of the Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa, while at the same time another unusual event took place in a church in the city. About 30 Hasidim from Rabbi Eliezer Berland's court at the Shuvu Achim Yeshiva came to pray at the Stella Maris Monastery on Mount Carmel in Haifa, claiming that the Prophet Elisha is buried there.
Upon entering, they were violently pushed out into the street by the Catholic Christians, and the physical confrontation continued outside the monastery as well. At the same time, an unknown person with a dog entered the church in the city's Wadi Nisnas neighborhood during prayer services, and was removed.
Forces from the Haifa police were called to Stella Maris, separated the sides and ordered the Hasidm - mostly minors - to the bus they came on. The police said that they handled the incident in this way out of "fear of violating public order and harming religious feelings."
The Haifa police began investigating the circumstances of the bus' arrival in an organized manner, and announced that a police team would remain at the scene at this stage to maintain public order.
"It's been a stormy morning in churches in Haifa. During Sunday prayers at the Mar Elias Catholic Church in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, an unknown person with a dog burst into the church. The worshipers asked him to leave. At the same time, dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews arrived to pray at the Stella Maris Monastery. Dozens of young people arrived at the scene and prevented them from entering to pray there," said Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Center, which promotes the rights of Arab Israelis.
"The Arab public in the city suspects that the ultra-Orthodox will take over the church as they did at the al-Khader site, that was important to people of all religions and in recent years has been renovated and is mainly used for Jewish prayer. The provocations in the monastery and the church have been repeated in recent months," he said.
Last month, about 300 members of the Christian-Catholic community in Haifa, including Hadash chairman Ayman Odeh, participated in a rally protesting the arrival of Breslav Hasidim to pray at the Stella Maris Monastery. They called the police to prevent the worshipers from entering the site. "They are trying to create hatred and strife, if they come here we will expel them," they threatened.
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Thursday, July 20, 2023
Florida man suspected of harboring ancient Jewish lamps
Well, here's a premise for the next Indiana Jones movie — a flick that might allow for a cameo by Adam Sandler as Zohan.
What if two ancient ceramic lamps, loaned to the White House for a Chanukah celebration, had to be retrieved from the Florida resort of a former U.S. president who has long run afoul of the law?
According to a Haaretz report, the Israel Antiquities Authority loaned two ancient clay lamps to the White House in 2019 before a Chanukah party where a major donor to the Antiquities Authority, Saul Fox, was expected to be a guest.
In the end, the lamps did make it to Washington, but they did not show up at the party — political concerns about whether they'd been taken from the West Bank made it impolitic to show them.
But they never made it back to Israel — and the Antiquities Authority believes they are stashed at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump, according to Haaretz.
The Antiquities Authority has asked senior Israeli figures close to Trump, including former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman and former Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer, to intervene to help return the items. So far nothing's happened, Haaretz reported.
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Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Pleas for direct bus route connecting London’s big Jewish communities
Hopes for a direct bus link connecting the capital's big Jewish communities of Hendon and Golders Green with Stamford Hill still seemed to be resting with bosses at Transport for London this week.
The London Jewish Forum (LJF) is campaigning for a "reconsideration" to the extension of the 210-bus route – or viable alternatives – "so the strictly orthodox Jewish community can travel on one bus from Golders Green to Stamford Hill and not have to change in Finsbury Park".
The current bus journey takes an hour from Brent Cross to Finsbury Park, then at least 20 minutes for a further bus from Finsbury Park to Stamford Hill, excluding waiting time.
"Our community also feels vulnerable, being particularly identifiable, and potentially at risk in Finsbury Park," said the LJF.
Transport for London (TfL) has announced the Superloop, which is part of a £6 million investment by the Mayor for outer London transport, and is proposing a new express route between North Finchley and Walthamstow.
LJF said this "does not help to connect our key communities", adding that Stamford Hill was almost four miles (or 35 minutes) from Walthamstow, and that Golders Green was almost four miles (or 26 minutes) from North Finchley.
"This goes far from removing the connectivity issues the strictly Orthodox Jewish communities face," said the LJF.
"The strictly Orthodox Jewish community deserves direct transport and connectivity links. Lack of direct connectivity links acts as a barrier for families and communities. More cultural sensitivity is needed when planning these routes."
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Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Why Would Hasidic Parents Send Their Kids to "Failing" Schools?
The latest salvo in The New York Times' ongoing exposé of the yeshiva system in New York focused on a new report issued by the New York City Department of Education that found 18 religious schools failing to meet secular education standards set by the government. The article raised some troubling questions but ignored one of the most important: Why do Hasidic parents continue to send their children to "failing schools?"
I am a former Hasid who makes a living as a tour guide and YouTuber exploring Hasidic Williamsburg, where many of these implicated Hasidic schools are located. Since I am in the neighborhood often, I have come to know the rhythm of the schools that are at the center of the ongoing controversy. Every day I watch hundreds of happy boys spill into the streets during recess and pile into buses at the end of the afternoon. I see children who are deeply cared for. I see a neighborhood with one of the lowest median ages in the country, where life revolves around raising the young. Furthermore, I see parents who pay private school tuition to send their children to these schools. So why, if they are failing, do the schools continue to burst at the seams?
There are times when parents don't have a choice. When a couple splits, one of the parents can end up in a contractual obligation to enroll their children in specific Orthodox institutions. In other situations, there may be social pressures that leave parents with few real options. These things do happen, but I believe they represent a minority of cases.
The majority of Hasidic parents send their children to these schools because they succeed by some significant metrics. That doesn't offset the ways in which they fall short. But in a holistic accounting that considers not only their efficiency as preparatory institutions for future workers but also the social value they provide, these so-called failing schools accomplish a great deal. Perhaps much more than an ordinary public school.
First and foremost, these schools are Talmud Torahs—institutions dedicated to the study of Jewish texts. This is what the boys spend the bulk of their time in school doing, and it is a yeshiva's raison d'etre. According to Eli Spitzer, a Hasidic boys' school headmaster, the Torah study is not as rigorous as yeshiva defenders often portray it. "In elementary and middle school, many hours are spent singing songs, listening to stories, and repeating material that has already been learned. In high school, meanwhile, most of the day is devoted to unstructured learning. This, for many students, consists primarily of socializing while absorbing a tiny amount of material."
Beyond providing their formal curriculum, these schools socialize boys, helping them grow into Hasidic men. The boys spend their days cultivating a special piety, earnestness, and curiosity, as well as a strong sense of belonging. Girls, meanwhile, are socialized in modesty in schools of their own. This is not taught at a designated period during the school day but rather is the cumulative product of the culture in these yeshivas.
As a mother having once sent my son to a Satmar boys' school, I would argue that the most important function these schools provide is the help they offer to families. Hasidic boys' schools are in a league of their own in getting children out from under their mother's fartich—from under her feet. Mothers tell me that the boys are in school so many hours because "boys need to study the holy Torah," but I think there's more to it: Unlike the girls who help run the household, families—which often live in small apartments—need the boys and men to leave daily.
Among Williamsburg Hasidic sects, the boys start school from as young as two-and-a-half years old and remain in the system until marriage. They are in school six days a week, all year round. They are bused from the family's home and dropped back off at the door at the end of the day. They are kept busy all day without any screens. They get served multiple meals in school. They don't usually bring home homework or need to prepare for tests. Notably, they don't even go to school with backpacks. Everything they need is there at the school. The day gets longer as they get older: After Bar Mitzvah comes fartuks (study at dawn) and masmidim (study late in the evening). While in the secular world educators bristle at any insinuation that they are babysitters, Hasidic schools plainly take on the task of easing the burden for parents. They also seek to address students' emotional needs.
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Monday, July 17, 2023
How two series' are changing perceptions of Orthodox Jewish life
In the vibrant city of Antwerp, Belgium, two contrasting series, Rough Diamonds and Shalom All! (Shalom Allemaal! in Flemish), pull back the curtain on the city's Orthodox Jewish community, offering viewers an intimate view of their world. Despite sharing a common subject, the shows' approaches and execution greatly differ, a divergence grounded in their distinct genres; Rough Diamonds is a work of fiction while Shalom All! is a documentary series.
Antwerp, a bustling Belgian port city, is renowned not only for its diamond industry but also for its substantial Jewish community. It is home to approximately 20,000 Jews, making it one of the most significant Jewish populations in Europe. The Jewish community's roots in Antwerp trace back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with many seeking refuge here during the World Wars. Today, nearly 90% of the Jewish population in Antwerp identify as Orthodox, most of whom are Hasidic. This is unique since Orthodox Jews constitute a smaller fraction of the global Jewish population.
Netflix's latest series, Rough Diamonds, delves into the world of Belgium's diamond trade, shedding light on the challenges faced by one of the industry's most influential families. Set against a backdrop of sparkling diamonds and wealth, a more ominous narrative emerges – one marked by family discord, loss, and a struggle for survival.
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Friday, July 14, 2023
Man Harassed Philly-Area Jewish Businesses, Synagogues: Feds
Federal charges have been filed against a Mississippi man who authorities said harassed and threatened Philadelphia-area Jewish businesses and synagogues.
United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said Donavon Parish, 28, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was arrested and charged by indictment on charges of cyberstalking and communicating interstate threats.
The federal grand jury made a special finding that Parish targeted these businesses and places of worship based on their actual and perceived religion.
Authorities said that in April and May 2022, Parish used an internet service to make a series of phone calls to synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The district includes Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Berks, and Lehigh counties.
Some of the targeted establishments are in Philadelphia, while the exact locations of others were not released by federal authorities due to the case being in its indictment stage, according to officials with the district.
In these calls, Parish referenced the genocide of approximately six million Jewish people during the Holocaust, stating, among other things, "Heil Hitler," "all Jews must die," "we will put you in work camps," "gas the Jews," and "Hitler should have finished the job."
The indictment alleges he called these establishments about 25 times and used the language referenced above.
If convicted, Parish faces a maximum possible sentence of 50 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, a $2.5 million fine, and a $1,000 special assessment.
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Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Meet the non-Jewish judge spearheading the fight against BDS in the US
Caroline's guest on the Caroline Glick Show this week has demonstrated that the most unlikely people can make a massive difference.
For two decades, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Alan Clemmons served as a lawmaker in the South Carolina state legislature. In 2011, angered by then President Barack Obama's call for Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines and by Obama's claim that the Jews were "occupiers" of the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, Clemmons drafted a resolution recognizing Israel's right to the Land of Israel.
Much to his amazement, his resolution passed unanimously through the South Carolina House of Representatives.
After the Associated Press reported the story, it became an international event.
This move propelled Clemmons on the most unlikely path. An evangelical Christian from South Carolina became the most effective actor in the fight against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign in the United States, and on behalf of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The latter stipulates that anti-Zionism is a contemporary form of Jew-hatred. Clemmons drafted and passed the first state law banning the South Carolina's state government from doing business with companies that participate in BDS campaigns against Israel.
Last week, New Hampshire became the 37th U.S. state to implement such a policy.
As Caroline's guest on the show this week, Clemmons explained how he became involved in BDS, what he achieved, and why he was successful in doing more to defeat it and to combat antisemitism than anyone else in the United States in the past generation.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Chief Rabbi receives his knighthood at Windsor Castle
The Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire is one of the UK's highest honours.
Mirvis was recognised by King Charles III in the New Year's Honours list for his services to the Jewish community and interfaith relations and education.
As reported by Jewish News in December of last year, he said: "I am enormously honoured and deeply humbled by this award. It will be particularly moving for me to receive this award from His Majesty the King, in his first year as our monarch."
The Chief Rabbi follows in the footsteps of his predecessor Lord Sacks in receiving a knighthood. He was one of the first US rabbis to host an imam in his community while still at Kinloss and recently became the first holder of his role to pay an official visit to an Arab state at the invitation of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace.
Reacting to news of the award at the end of last year, he noted that the accolade had been made against the background of a worrying rise in global antisemitism, and said it was important to continue to speak out and challenge high-profile figures who give voice to antisemitic ideas.
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Monday, July 10, 2023
Crown Heights Stabbers Asked If Victim Was Jewish Before Attack: Cops
Two Crown Heights attackers first asked their victim if he was Jewish before they punched him in the face and stabbed him in the arm, police said.
The assault is now being investigated as a hate crime.
Two strangers cornered the 22-year-old near Troy Avenue and Union Street about 2:05 a.m. Saturday, police said.
The men — believed to be about 20 years old — ran away, and the man was rushed to an area hospital with minor injuries, police said.
Police deemed the attack a hate crime but had not made any arrests Monday.
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Friday, July 07, 2023
Brandeis University apologizes for ad that offended Orthodox Jewish student group
The president of Brandeis University in Waltham has apologized to Orthodox Jewish students for a national advertising campaign celebrating its 75th anniversary that left them feeling offended.
The ad ran in The New York Times Magazine on June 25 and included the statement "Brandeis was founded by Jews. But, it's anything but Orthodox."
Though the university initially defended the advertising campaign, Ronald Liebowitz issued an apology to the Brandeis Orthodox Organization last week.
"I am especially sorry that members of Brandeis' Orthodox Jewish community, in particular, were hurt by the ad," Liebowitz wrote on June 30 in an e-mail to the students. "You play a key role in our ongoing success: You bring energy, intelligence, and creativity to our Jewish community, to student life more broadly, and to the rigor of the academic experience that Brandeis offers."
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Thursday, July 06, 2023
Construction workers uncover remains of Munich’s main synagogue, destroyed by Nazis
Remnants of Munich's main synagogue, which was demolished by the Nazis in June 1938, have resurfaced – much to the amazement of the city's Jewish community.
Construction workers in the southern German city made the discovery while working on the renovation of a weir on the Isar river.
It was on June 28, while carrying out maintenance work on the weir, a small-scale dam, that the team came across columns from the former synagogue, together with a stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
Bernhard Purin, head of Munich's Jewish museum, told CNN that he was surprised to hear the news the following day.
"I never thought we would find anything from the old synagogue," he said. "I felt happy and sad at the same time about this extraordinary find."
On the one hand, the stones represent "happy times" for Germany's Jewish community, he said, "when it was possible to build such a big and great synagogue." He added: "But it also represents a monument to the destruction of the Jewish life starting in 1933."
In November 1938, five months after the synagogue was destroyed, the Nazis unleashed Kristallnacht, a rampage of state-sponsored violence against Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes across Germany and Austria.
Some of the recovered masonry is "artistically decorated," according to Purin, who explained that the tablet with the Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments would have been positioned above the Jewish holy book, the Torah.
After the synagogue was leveled on Hitler's orders, the demolition firm, Leonhard Moll, stored the rubble at a site in the west of the city. A department store now stands on the plot once occupied by the synagogue.
It has now come to light that Leonhard Moll used the rubble for work to the weir in 1956. About 150 tonnes of the debris, from the synagogue as well as other buildings wrecked in the war, were dumped in the river as part of the project, Purin told CNN.
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Wednesday, July 05, 2023
Jewish community launches seminar on how to teach about the Holocaust
Yvonne Lustgarten, a teacher at Galloway Ridge Intermediate in the South-Western City Schools district, didn't know her parents were Holocaust survivors until she was an adult.
"Those weren't the Oprah days or the Jerry Springer days when people aired out their dirty laundry," Lustgarten said of her parents, like so many other survivors, who chose to not talk about those traumatic experiences.
Dozens of teachers from school districts across central Ohio spent a day last month at Congregation Beth Tikvah in Worthington, a Jewish synagogue, where they received hands-on instruction so they could better educate the future generations of children about the Holocaust and the dangers of antisemitism.
During the workshop, Lustgarten, a sixth-grade language arts teacher, discovered a digital version of her mother's testimonial about her experiences during the Holocaust, which she had been searching for but had been unable to find.
"I've been teaching the Holocaust for over 30 years. Before the internet was a thing, I had to get my own resources,," said Lustgarten, 58, who attends Beth Tikvah. "For me, taking this workshop supplements even more to what I'm doing."
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Monday, July 03, 2023
Biden’s Antisemitism Czar Condemns Israel, Not Antisemites
In the early days of June, Deborah Lipstadt, Biden's antisemitism czar, flew to the United Arab Emirates and condemned Israel's government while claiming that she worries that the Netanyahu government's defense of Jews against Islamic terrorism might worsen antisemitism.
This was exactly the kind of excuse for antisemitism that the new White House strategy on antisemitism that she was touting was supposed to stop. Instead, the antisemitism czar promoting the antisemitism strategy was falling into the same kind of behavior.
Since the release of the Biden administration's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, Lipstadt appears to have condemned three foreign governments: Israel, Hungary and Russia.
Lipstadt blasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accusing him of "rhetoric that clearly evokes Nazi racial ideology", for criticizing Muslim migration into Europe.
Was Lipstadt functioning as the envoy to combat antisemitism or Islamophobia?
She also condemned Russian ruler Vladimir Putin for suggesting that Ukraine's Zelensky "is not Jewish, that he is a disgrace to the Jewish people."
Lipstadt condemned three countries. One of them was Israel. During this same period, the Palestinian Authority, which is funding the terrorists who have already killed 24 people in Israel this year, continues to praise the killers, describing them as "heroic martyrs".
"Why shouldn't we burn the ground under the Jews' feet?" a member of the Palestine Islamic Scholars Association had asked. "Our young men in Palestine and abroad crave to drink your blood. By Allah, we are thirsty for your blood."
Lipstadt apparently didn't think this sufficiently evoked Nazi ideology to bother condemning it.
The pattern here is fairly obvious to spot. The antisemitism envoy's condemnations have less to do with Jews than with defending some sort of leftist cause.
Lipstadt also complained that Elon Musk's attacks on George Soros were antisemitic.
It's not that Lipstadt is always wrong, it's that her condemnations tend to be selective politically motivated attacks pre-approved by leftists and in defense of leftist personalities or agendas.
Lipstadt is not really there to fight antisemitism, but to enlist the fight against antisemitism in the larger leftist rolodex of causes and then maybe occasionally she will be allowed to condemn an episode of leftist antisemitism, like that of Roger Waters, without drawing too much of a backlash.
What has Lipstadt accomplished in the fight against antisemitism?
The ADL announced that the Associated Press had agreed to change the spelling of 'anti-semitism' to 'antisemitism' thus solving the problem once and for all.
"When you fight prejudice & hatred, you don't win many battles. But we won this one. Bravo AP," Lipstadt tweeted.
Lipstadt is really here to sell the Jewish community on the idea that the Biden administration is dedicated to fighting antisemitism. She has been hard at work conducting briefings for assorted establishment Jewish groups like the JCRC of Boston and the National Council of Jewish Women, which had previously announced that it would keep working with the Women's March despite its antisemitism.
But the administration has more than one mouth on antisemitism. And it talks out of both of them.
While Lipstadt was selling Jews on the administration's antisemitism strategy, Douglas Emhoff,
Kamala's husband joined an army of academics, think tankers, activists, politicians, writers and billionaires flying into Colorado.
This year the Aspen Festival wanted to talk about antisemitism and Emhoff, the 'First Gentleman', appeared on a panel titled, 'The Resurgence of the "Oldest Hatred": The Effort to Combat Anti-Semitism' moderated by antisemitism expert Katie Couric.
Emhoff had previously dismissed any discussion about antisemitism and Israel, claiming, "I'm just focused on antisemitism" and that students want to "feel a part of a broader coalition in dealing with hate". Israel, implicitly, would just get in the way of uniting Jews and leftists against antisemitism.
Lipstadt wasn't at Aspen, instead, the other White House representative was Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, an Obama administration vet.
Also present was Erik Ward of Race Forward. Ward, a black activist who had worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center, had defended Black Lives Matter against accusations of antisemitism and his previous discussions of antisemitism had liberally quoted leftist anti-Israel activists and utilized the Nexus definition of antisemitism concocted by anti-Israel activists which had received equal billing in the White House's antisemitism strategy.
Neither Emhoff nor Sherwood-Randall mentioned Israel. And no one at the White House was willing to even go on the record on where it sees the line between antisemitism and anti-zionism: the key break between the traditional International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and the Nexus one.
An anonymous White House official refused to go on the record and referred a Jewish Insider reporter to the 'text' of the strategy.
"It addresses this exactly the way that we want to do so," the anonymous official claimed. "We are sticking with the approach that we've had on this matter, and we're moving forward with all the agency actions to try to make a real difference in people's lives."
The circular statements and the refusal to go in-depth are not the marks of a policy the administration wants to promote, but one that it is seeking to hide. The strategy was the result of an uncomfortable compromise between advocates for the Jewish community and the Left.
It was this compromise that led to only indirect mentions of an Islamic attack on a synagogue in Texas or other forms of antisemitism beyond white supremacy. It was also this compromise that led the antisemitism strategy to give the Nexus definition of antisemitism second billing after the IHRA one. And while compromise is part of politics, Lipstadt, the antisemitism czar, and other apologists have repeatedly misled the Jewish community about what's actually in it.
"The strategy says the United States government embraces the IHRA definition," Lipstadt claimed. But the strategy also says that it "welcomes and appreciates the Nexus Document" by anti-Israel activists. And, louder than words, has been the silence of Emhoff and White House officials on the question of antisemitism and Israel.
While the Biden administration uses Lipstadt to sell the Jewish community on the antisemitism strategy, it sends off Emhoff to talk to liberal elites about antisemitism without mentioning Israel.
Can you have an antisemitism strategy that is half not antisemitic and half that is?
The inclusion of CAIR, an Islamist antisemitic group and of the Nexus definition embrace the antisemitic side of the antisemitism strategy, but the real kicker has been the lack of substance on the side that is supposed to actually be fighting antisemitism.
The anti-Israel Left succeeded in getting a seat at the table when defining antisemitism, while the Jewish community has been sold more self-serving delusions from a communal establishment that specializes in pretending to be insiders while accomplishing nothing.
Lipstadt has been content to act as an administration attack dog rather than to follow antisemitism wherever it leads. Worse still, she has misled Jews into thinking that the Biden administration is ready to do the same thing and to fight antisemitism from Islamists and leftists.
It's not.
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