Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Elderly Jewish man spat on in New York by antisemitic vandal
An elderly Jewish man was subjected to an antisemitic attack in New York City on Sunday.
The incident, which was captured on video and posted to social media by the StopAntisemitism movement, involved a vandal tearing down posters of hostages held by Hamas while shouting "Free Palestine."
The 74-year-old victim confronted the aggressor, telling him to "get the hell away from me."
A bystander quickly intervened, extending his arm to shield the elderly man. Despite the intervention, the aggressor spat at the victim, prompting immediate condemnation from other bystanders who demanded he leave the scene.
One bystander threatened to call the police.
Amid the confrontation, the aggressor retreated while continuing to shout "Free Palestine." Another bystander challenged him, asking, "How do you free Palestine right now? All you're doing is harassing people."
The presence and actions of multiple bystanders who defended the elderly man ultimately led the aggressor to leave the area.
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Monday, June 17, 2024
Probe finds two universities failed to protect Jewish students
The federal Education Department said Monday that two universities failed to adequately protect both Jewish and Muslim students in the heated days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and during the war in Gaza that followed.
Both the University of Michigan and the City University of New York (CUNY) and several of its affiliated colleges agreed to reexamine some past cases and to conduct training, among other actions, to resolve federal investigations into student complaints amid the Middle East conflict. Jewish and Palestinian students have described harassment and other incidents of discrimination, with reports of hostile language, disrupted classes, vandalism and more.
"Hate has no place on our college campuses — ever," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. He called the resolutions a positive step forward but said, "Sadly, we have witnessed a series of deeply concerning incidents in recent months."
The cases are the first since Oct. 7 to be resolved by the Education Department. Some department investigations related to antisemitism and Islamophobia were pending before the war, but the number has spiked as campuses across the country have become engulfed by pro-Palestinian protests. An additional 106 cases are pending at the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, involving both universities and K-12 school districts, a spokeswoman said.
CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said the university was grateful to the Office for Civil Rights for collaborating on a holistic plan to ensure that all students are safe on its campuses. "CUNY is committed to providing an environment that is free from discrimination and hate, and these new steps will ensure that there is consistency and transparency in how complaints are investigated and resolved," he said.
University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono said in a statement that the university condemns "all forms of discrimination, racism and bias." He added: "Since October 7, we have been deeply troubled by the statements and actions of some members of our community." The university is required to uphold free speech principles, including reprehensible speech, but it works to ensure that "debate does not tip over into targeted harassment or bullying," Ono said.
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Monday, June 10, 2024
Orthodox Jews in Bed Stuy say anti-Israel lefty polls trying to force them out of neighborhood with landmarking designation
A religious war is erupting in Brownstone Brooklyn.
An historic enclave in Bedford-Stuyvesant is being considered for landmarking — and some Orthodox Jews living there say it's part of a hateful scheme led by antisemites and Councilman Chi Osse to push them out.
On May 21, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add two blocks, Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street between Nostrand and Marcy avenues, to the calendar for consideration as a new historic district.
Landmark status severely limits owners' abilities to renovate or expand their homes.
Large Orthodox families often need to expand their houses, Jewish homeowners explained, so limiting their ability to alter them will essentially force them to move or be unable to sell to other Orthodox families.
"We need big houses," Rabbi Shaya Saks, who owns a house on Hart Street, said recently while surrounded by a group of observant Jews on Willoughby Avenue. "We don't have one or two children."
"We feel that this is antisemitism because they are trying to stop us from moving in here," said Hart Street homeowner Herman Bodek, an Orthodox Jew. "This will have us moving out."
The roughly 50 Jewish owners on the leafy brownstone-lined blocks are speaking out after the commission's decision to potentially create the so-called Willoughby-Hart Historic District.
The 100-plus homes in the enclave were built around 150 years ago and the area is unique for "the quality of its architecture, strong historic character and sense of place of its streetscapes," as well as "its community history," the commission said.
The commission said it received a letter of support for the designation from Osse, a far-left politician whose district includes Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, as well as pro-Israel Democrat state Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman (D-Brooklyn) and state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a member of Democratic Socialists of America. Osse is a former member of DSA.
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Thursday, June 06, 2024
Chabad Kotlarsky Funeral
Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jews wait for the coffin to arrive during the funeral of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—and Director of the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries at Montefiore Cemetery, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in the Queens borough of New York. Kotlarsky passed away on Tuesday. He would have been 75 in four days.
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Wednesday, June 05, 2024
Columbia settles suit with Jewish student over encampments, promising additional security
Columbia University has settled a lawsuit brought against it by a Jewish student alleging a hostile environment as a result of the pro-Palestinian encampment movement.
The settlement is a major development in Jewish groups' efforts to hold universities accountable in light of a reported increase in campus antisemitism since Oct. 7.
As part of the settlement, Columbia has promised to provide walking escorts and safe campus entrances at all hours of the day, as well as accommodations for students who were unable to complete exams owing to campus disruption.
"We are pleased we've been able to come to a resolution and remain committed to our number one priority: the safety of our campus so that all of our students can successfully pursue their education and meet their academic goals," a Columbia spokesperson said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The suit was brought by an anonymous Jewish student in late April who alleged that the encampments had disrupted their education. The school faced significant disruption as a result of the encampments, with clashes between students and police, hundreds of arrests, a move to hybrid classes, extended campus closures and the eventual cancellation of commencement.
Jay Edelson, an attorney for the plaintiff and head of the law firm Edelson PC, told reporters that the settlement represented "a return to basic, shared principles of safety on campus for all Columbia students." Edelson's firm, which did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the settlement, has taken an active role in advocating for Jewish students amid the current campus climate. It announced in December that it would no longer recruit Harvard Law students following controversial congressional testimony on antisemitism by then-Harvard President Claudine Gay.
The Columbia settlement is the first significant legal resolution for Jewish students who have sought campus protections from antisemitism via the court system since Oct. 7. Several other Jewish-led lawsuits against elite universities remain pending, as do more than 100 federal Title VI discrimination investigations at the U.S. Department of Education, which has become a popular mechanism for Jews seeking to hold universities and school districts accountable. Pro-Palestinian groups have also filed both lawsuits and complaints alleging discrimination.
These methods are increasingly overlapping and, in some cases, canceling each other out. While the department's Office of Civil Rights has yet to resolve any of the Title VI cases filed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a spokesperson confirmed to JTA that it has dismissed at least five investigations after lawsuits were filed over the same incidents.
The office promises to open every Title VI complaint it receives for investigation regardless of source or merit, yet also moves to close any active investigation that overlaps with a lawsuit, saying that the same complaint should not be resolved through two different avenues.
The dismissed investigations — at Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Cooper Union — were all at universities that have been the sites of high-profile antisemitism allegations. Columbia and other schools still have other active complaints filed on other grounds.
The Columbia settlement suggests that lawsuits may result in agreements more quickly than civil rights investigations.
Last week, the civil rights office announced a resolution in an antisemitism-related investigation based on a complaint filed by a Jewish civil rights group last August. The Community School of Davidson, a charter school in North Carolina, agreed to review its anti-discrimination procedures and implement new staff training after students reportedly harassed a non-Jewish student who wore an Israeli Olympic jersey to school.
The complaint was filed prior to Oct. 7 by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a law firm that frequently files civil rights challenges on behalf of Jewish or pro-Israel clients, and was notable for resting on "perceived," rather than actual, Jewish ancestry.
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Tuesday, June 04, 2024
Berkshire Jewish community reeling from 'antisemitic' incident at Great Barrington coffee shop
Town officials and the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires are condemning a new incident of antisemitism in town.
The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires this week issued a statement decrying the "blatantly antisemitic targeting" of Fuel Coffee Shop and its Jewish owners by "anti-Israel protesters" on Saturday.
The Federation said it was "disturbed and saddened" by the incident, and that it appeared to have been "instigated by a disgruntled employee" who had been fired for "sharing his political opinions with patrons during working hours." The employee, the statement said, had been "let go after multiple requests by management to refrain" from doing this.
"The protesters disrupted sidewalk traffic in front of the business holding signs and chanting that Fuel Coffee supports genocide," the statement said. "One sign specifically targeted the owners by name."
Owner Elan Merkel — who owns Fuel with his wife Lydia Merkel and Carol Keuma-Hipwell — declined comment and said none of the owners would speak to the press right now. Keuma-Hipwell could not immediately be reached.
At its Monday night meeting, Great Barrington Select Board Vice Chair Leigh Davis said Saturday's events — which she had been informed about by others who were there — made for a "sad, sad, sad day for Great Barrington."
"For me, the protests outside a small business had nothing to do with alleviating suffering that was happening in Gaza," Davis said. "For me, it's blatant antisemitic behavior when you have a name of a business owner on a sign with the word 'genocide.'"
Board Chair Stephen Bannon said that "it's one thing to protest in front of the Town Hall, but it's another thing to go in front of Jewish-owned businesses because they're Jewish-owned businesses, and that is crossing a line."
The "Rage for Rafah" protest slated for 10 a.m. at Town Hall was organized by local political groups, Anti Imperialist Solidarity, Berkshires for Collective Liberation and the Berkshires chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, according to social media.
The rally appears to have moved from a permitted protest at Town Hall to the corner of Bridge and Main streets, according to social media announcements and other accounts of how it unfolded. From there, the group moved to the sidewalk outside Fuel. Police were called to keep order.
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Monday, June 03, 2024
NJ Mayor Apologizes for Hasidic Jews Comment, Claims ‘extortion’
City officials are embroiled in a legal battle, as a former Linden school administrator filed a whistleblower lawsuit for what he says were discriminatory hiring efforts to exclude Jewish school staff.
Former Assistant Superintendent Paul Oliveira filed his suit against the Linden Board of Education, Mayor Derek Armstead and others on May 23.
Armstead was accused of seeking to exclude Hasidic Jewish individuals from being hired by the school district, saying at one point: "That is what has to happen in order to keep our community from being taken over by guys with big hats and curls."
On Thursday, Armstead admitted to making such a reference.
"The Mayor apologizes for comments referencing Hasidic Jews as 'guys in big hats and curls,' and remains staunchly committed to diversity and inclusivity in the community," Armstead said in a statement on Thursday.
He said Oliveira had no evidence that any job applicants were ever turned down based on religious affiliation.
Armstead then accused the ex-assistant superintendent of trying to extort $950,000 from the district before filing his lawsuit.
On Friday, Oliveira's attorney, Armen McOmber, called Armstead's written response "ridiculous, inaccurate and defamatory" and said such efforts to intimidate and silence Oliveira would fail.
"The mayor is a bigot and has absolutely no business leading any city anywhere: controlling the hiring practices of the Board of Education in order to keep Jews from 'taking over the community,'"
"Instead of actual contrition and an attempt to understand and comply with anti-discrimination laws, the Mayor unfortunately attempts to deflect attention from his own misconduct by attacking Paul," McOmber said.
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