Monday, September 16, 2024
Jewish reggae star Matisyahu reflects on tumultuous year, says anti-Israel protesters attracted to ‘darkness’ of Hamas
After being thrown out of festivals, dropped by his manager and railed against by anti-Israel mobs, reggae star Matisyahu says the backlash over his support for the Jewish state hasn't slowed him down at all.
In fact, the 45-year-old Jewish performer says he's "busier than ever."
"The Jewish community has been really appreciative and I've felt inspired by it," the pop star, whose birth name is Matthew Miller, told The Post on the deck of his rustic upstate New York home overlooking the Hudson River.
Matisyahu admitted it hasn't been all peaches and cream — he's had concerts in Arizona, New Mexico and Chicago canceled after anti-Israel demonstrators threatened to picket the venues.
He was also dropped by his manager after he refused to change the lyrics to his song "Ascent," which contains phrases about dancing on Hamas terrorists' graves.
"We're living in a time where I have to make decisions, like 'do I need to bring security'. … It's a dangerous place but luckily for me it's been a smooth run," he said.
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Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Jewish education thriving in Florida thanks to school choice law
Jewish K-12 education is booming in Florida, and researchers credit the growth to the state's universal school choice.
Teach Coalition, an advocate for Jewish education, and Step Up For Students, a Florida-based education group, have released a new report detailing the promising enrollment trends in Jewish schools.
It found Florida's Jewish schools increased their enrollment by 58% between 2007 and 2023. Roughly four new schools have opened every year on average for the past decade.
The massive influx is credited both to the COVID pandemic that inspired increased migration to Florida – particularly from New York – and the fact that Florida now offers generous school choice scholarships to all students.
According to the report, 60% of Jewish school students received a scholarship in the 2022-23 academic year.
The universal school choice program currently serves 136,000 students statewide.
Notably, Jewish enrollment grew most at yeshiva schools (175%), which are Orthodox and gender-segregated, as opposed to coeducational Orthodox (65%) and Non-Orthodox (21%) schools.
Although some have criticized the yeshiva school model for de-emphasizing secular topics, proponents defend their academic rigor, saying the benefits of such schools are "extraordinary."
However, private school growth also comes with challenges.
"With Florida's existing Jewish schools at or near full capacity, more effort is needed to source suitably sized school buildings," said Danny Aqua, special projects director for Teach Coalition. "Without legislative and regulatory action to reduce the hurdles to opening new schools, the lack of school building space may throttle growth in Florida's Jewish day schools."
Meanwhile, the growth isn't confined to the Sunshine State.
Recent surveys conducted by Prizmah, another Jewish education group, found Jewish schools across North America were increasing enrollment after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. More than 90% of the surveyed schools reported receiving new enrollment inquiries, with 80% bringing in new students mid-year.
Parents of students who transferred from a public school said they wanted their children to be in a Jewish environment (73%) and they feared antisemitism in their prior school or community (68%).
Parents from independent schools similarly valued the Jewish environment (80%) and weren't satisfied with their prior school's response to the war (50%).
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Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Moldova has not allowed Hasidim to travel to Ukraine via Moldovan territory
After several months of negotiations, the Moldovan authorities did not allow Israeli pilgrims to travel to Ukraine via Moldova to celebrate the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah.
This was reported to the publication "Interfax-Ukraine" by Levi Yitzhak Gvirtz from the organization "Ihud Breslev" in Uman.
According to him, Chisinau's refusal will affect approximately 15 thousand passengers on charter flights, about half of the 30 thousand pilgrims who would like to go to Uman this year.
At the same time, Israeli travel companies have already begun procedures for refunding tickets for those who planned to fly to Chisinau and then go to Uman. However, it is still possible to organize trips to Ukraine through the airports of Romania and Poland.
Journalists recalled that at the end of August, Israeli media reported that Israel was ready to pay Moldova 700 thousand shekels ($191,300) to compensate for the costs of additional security measures and enhanced security at the Chisinau airport in connection with the arrival of pilgrims in 2023 and to obtain Chisinau's consent for the passage of pilgrims through its territory this year. At the same time, Israel failed to pay Moldova these expenses on time.
Every year, tens of thousands of Jews who profess Hasidism make a pilgrimage to Uman, where the grave of the founder of Bratslav Hasidism, Tzadik Nachman, is located. The pilgrimage is timed to coincide with the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which this year is celebrated from October 2 to 4.
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Monday, September 09, 2024
London launches bus line to reassure Orthodox Jews
Excited children ran to check the bus schedule. "It'll be here in 23 minutes," they told their mother in Yiddish. The family, part of the Hasidic Jewish community, eagerly awaited the new 310 bus. On September 1, Transport for London (TfL) introduced this line, fulfilling years of requests for a direct route between Stamford Hill and Golders Green.
Golders Green, along with Finchley and Hampstead, is home to a well-established, affluent Jewish community. In contrast, Stamford Hill, located in Hackney, is a poorer area known for its large Orthodox Hasidic population.
The 310 bus is not exclusive to the Jewish community, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan acknowledged that the line was created with them in mind. The mayor, of Pakistani Muslim origin, shared that he was deeply impacted by conversations with Jewish families who expressed fear over the surge in antisemitic incidents since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacks reignited tensions.
Antisemitic crimes in London skyrocketed following the October 7 massacres carried out by Hamas. Between October and December 2023, Scotland Yard reported 1,156 incidents, a staggering 1,000% increase compared to the same period in 2022. Though the number has since slowed, 998 incidents were recorded between January and August 2024, compared to 424 during the same months in 2023.
Further reading: Rabbis urge European leaders to halt new wave of antisemitism
Mayor Khan noted that some Jewish families shared their fear of verbal abuse while transferring between buses at Finsbury Park, an area with a large Muslim population. Finsbury Park, once associated with radical Islamist preaching, has since undergone significant reform, with authorities praising its efforts to engage with other local communities.
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Thursday, September 05, 2024
Jewish CUNY students berated by masked anti-Israel protesters who blocked entrance of kosher deli, hurled racist remarks at them
A group of Jewish students from CUNY's City College were berated and told to "go back to Brooklyn" by anti-Israel protesters outside a kosher deli in Midtown South.
Moti Zilber, the owner of the Mr. Broadway Deli on West 38th Street, said the Jewish students were enjoying their meal Tuesday morning when the protesters descended upon the restaurant, blocking the entrance and shouting vulgarities at them.
"It was very scary," Zilber told The Post. "It feels like we're in Germany over here."
Clips of the protest, uploaded by the Safe Campus Jewish advocacy group, show the masked demonstrators marching up and down in front of the restaurant as they chanted antisemitic slogans at the students.
"Back to Brooklyn, out the Middle East," the protesters could be heard yelling, stereotyping the students while referencing the war in Gaza.
Zilber said the protesters also shouted other antisemitic phrases at the students, including "From the river to the sea."
"They yelled all kinds of racist things at the students," Zilber said. "These were young, violent kids who you can't even talk to."
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Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Businessman loses a quarter billion Dollars at Rebbe's request
Last Friday the Satmar Hasidic sect celebrated 45 years since the passing of the Grand Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum.
As part of the anniversary ceremony held by the Satmar Rebbe, with the participation of thousands of Hasidim, the Rebbe spoke about the difficult problem of housing prices in the local community.
In recent years Kiryas Joel, home to many Hasidic in New York, has seen a drastic increase in apartment prices. The price per square meter jumped from $1,800 five years ago to $6,000 today – an increase of about 400 percent
In response, the Rebbe established a special committee in collaboration with the city mayors. About two months ago, a new municipal law was passed limiting apartment prices in new projects to $3,000 per square meter.
However, realizing that the implementation of the law would take time, the Rebbe contacted Hasidic businessman, Akiva Hersh Klein, who is building a new neighborhood of about 2,000 apartments in the city and asked Klein to initiate a process of lowering prices.
In a dramatic announcement, the Rebbe declared that Klein agreed to the request and put 1,000 apartments on the market at a price equal to half the normal market price.
According to estimates, this project may cause Klein a loss of about a quarter of a billion Dollars.
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Tuesday, September 03, 2024
NYC straphanger spews antisemitic rant at Jewish student
A man berated a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke on a New York City subway car, calling him a "rapist" and a "genocider" responsible for the deaths in Gaza, new video shows.
The harrowing encounter, uploaded by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) group on Tuesday, shows the bearded man wearing a black cap and orange long-sleeve shirt yelling across the subway car at the student during a trip on the 1 train near 96th Street.
"He likes to kill Palestinian semites. He probably likes to rape Palestinian semites as well," the man, who has yet to be identified, shouts.
"This is a genocider who loves to kill babies."
The man continues to call the student a "Zionist," a "fake f–king Jew" and the "United States' bully boy," all while a crowd of uninterested commuters watch.
The man could also be heard trying to get the crowd on his side by claiming that the US and Israel want an upheaval in the Gaza Strip, but the commuters ignore him.
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