Knesset Member Mansour Abbas, head of the Ra’am faction of the United Arab List. (Facebook)
Could the Right form a government with the support of a Hamas-supporting, anti-Zionist party?
By: Batya Jerenberg
Could a right-wing government be created based on the support of a rabidly anti-Zionist party?
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc gaining only 52 seats in the March elections, speculation is rife as to which parties may be tempted to join his consortium.
Many pundits assume that Naftali Bennett will ultimately come back into the fold, as his Yamina party is a natural fit ideologically and Bennett never joined the pre-election, anti-Netanyahu chorus. Yet that only brings seven more seats to the table, leaving the coalition two shy of a majority.
Attention has therefore turned to another faction whose leader coyly said he would join coalition talks with almost any party – Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am, which gained five mandates from its Arab constituents. Ra’am’s platform, however, seems out of sync with the beliefs of even the left-wing Jewish parties, let alone the right end of the political spectrum.
The party is the political wing of the Southern Islamic Movement, whose charter calls for the elimination of Israel as a Jewish country in two ways: By giving all Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right of return into Israel along with establishing a Palestinian state or by creating a single, binational state.
The Movement’s hostile attitude to the Jewish state is clearly stated.
“The State of Israel was born of the racist, occupying Zionist project; iniquitous Western and British imperialism; and the debasement and feebleness of the Arab and Islamic [nations]. We do not absolve ourselves, the Palestinian people, of our responsibility and our failure to confront this project,” the charter says.
Although it says its “most important goal” is to advance Palestinian Arab society by preserving its identity and enabling it to “achieve its rights in civil, national and religious spheres,” it admits that its participation in Israeli political life is also “an attempt… to aid our Palestinian cause, and to clash with the proposals and policies and programs of the Zionist project from within the heart of the state institutions.”
Abbas smartly focused his campaign on practical and social issues facing the Arab community in Israel, such as the need for expanded budgets to fight the rampant crime and violence plaguing the sector, instead of on the ideology that motivates the party.
He gave a very conciliatory-sounding speech carried live by every major television channel. He ignored the Palestinian cause completely while speaking of the need to “give us and our children the opportunity, the right, to understand one another.”
Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan University told Channel 20 Friday that Abbas’ address “was meant to lull the Jewish Israeli viewer to sleep and prepare the ground … [so that] the state will legitimize the [Islamic] Movement, which sees the state as an entity that has no right to exist,” he said.
A few days before Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Nissim Semu closed the circle and held his bar mitzvah ceremony in front of his children, grandchildren, and dozens of members of the senior center in the central Israeli city of Yehud. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS on 5 April, 2021
By: Eitan Elhadez-Barak
A few days before Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Nissim Semu closed the circle and held his bar mitzvah ceremony in front of his children, grandchildren, and dozens of members of the senior center in the central Israeli city of Yehud.
It was a bar mitzvah celebration for all intents and purposes: candies ready to toss, a Torah scroll and lots and lots of balloons. Only a small detail testified that this is not a standard celebration: bar mitzvah “boy”, Nissim Semu, is almost 75 years late. Now at the age of 87 he is celebrating.. “The best gift I have received is to be surrounded by my family and friends for the day,” said Semu.
Semu attributes the reasons for the celebration of the late bar mitzvah to the difficult circumstances he found himself in when, at the age of 13, he lived in Israel, which fought for its existence in the days before the establishment of the state and the war of liberation.
Semu immigrated to Israel as a war refugee four years earlier in unconventional living conditions as only that war could have created.
“My father, Moshe, peace be upon him, escaped from a labor camp in Bulgaria and joined the partisans who fought the Nazis,” Semu recounted. “My father, who spoke several languages and looked local, would sneak into local taverns, drink beer and impersonate a Nazi. He infiltrated a pro-Nazi group and managed to gather valuable pieces of information without being suspected.”
After acting on certain information gathered and saving the lives of local leaders, anti-Nazi Bulgarians offered him a senior position in the local government. But hat did not interest Semu’s father. “He was an ardent Zionist and asked to be allowed to immigrate to Israel”.
Moshe Semu took his wife and two children and managed to immigrate to Israel. In Israel they settled in Rishon Lezion and Nissim joined the army a few years later where he also met his wife.
In the mid-1950s he moved to the city of Yehud and opened his garage ‘Garage Oz’ a decade later. Semu ran the garage until the 1990s when he was forced to close when he became ill.
Yitzhak Rosenberg, chairman of the Association for Senior Citizen of Yehud, who is himself a Holocaust survivor, says that, following World War II, about a million Jewish children who survived the Holocaust could not celebrate their bar mitzvah.
During the ceremony organized by the Day Center for the Elderly in collaboration with Rabbi Shimon Wiener of Chabad Yehud, a letter was read from Semu’s granddaughter, Noa, who lives in New York.
“Grandpa, when I heard that you were going to celebrate a bar mitzvah, I was not surprised at all. I did not know you as a child or as a teenager but I have a feeling that, despite a few white hairs, you haven’t changed at all… I hope you stay ‘Peter Pan’ forever.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters the Jerusalem District Court, April 5, 2021. (Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL)
Prosecution alleges Netanyahu made improper use of the governmental power entrusted to him; first witness describes pressure to change news coverage.
By: Paul Shindman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in court Monday at the start of the evidentiary stage of his trial on charges of corruption but left the court room immediately at the end of the opening speech and did not stay to hear any testimony, Kann News reported.
The hearing opened with a speech by the prosecutor from the State Attorney’s Office, attorney Liat Ben-Ari, who told the court that “the awareness of the Prime Minister that things are given to him because of his public status is what allows us to define things as bribery.”
“Defendant 1 is the Prime Minister of Israel, who according to the indictment made improper use of the great governmental power entrusted to him, inter alia, to demand and derive improper benefits from the owners of major media outlets in Israel in order to advance his personal affairs for a long time. To be re-elected,” Ben-Ari told the court.
At the beginning of the trial in February, Netanyahu pleaded not guilty. For years, the prime minister has maintained that the allegations against him are a witch hunt by people seeking to force him from power because they could not defeat him at the ballot box.
Ben-Ari alleged that Netanyahu’s communications regarding news coverage by the Walla news network were not just ordinary conversation.
“The discussion is not objective communication or not – but an impact on content,” said Ben-Ari. The main witness phase of the trial is expected to last up to several weeks, centering on the issue of whether or not Netanyahu and co-defendant Shaul Elovitch conspired to alter news coverage of the prime minister.
Elovitch at the time was CEO of the Bezeq communications company that had the controlling interest of the news website Walla, with Bezeq allegedly receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits from legislation Netanyahu advanced as long as Walla gave him positive coverage.
The first witness was former Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, who testified that the biased coverage on the news site was done in exchange for regulatory benefits.
Yeshua said that Elovitch and his wife had told him on several occasions that if the prime minister’s wife Sara got angry, Netanyahu would get angry – and if he got angry, “we would be harmed,” as they put it.
Yeshua testified that senior staff members at the prime minister’s office constantly called him with articles ready to run on the website, and that the Elovitches pressured him to run articles critical of Netanyahu’s opponents.
As he delved into the details of how Shaul and Iris Elovitch had allegedly pressured him, Iris Elovitch at one point shouted towards the witness box, “How much can you lie?”
Yeshua’s testimony is expected to run through the end of the month, and the prosecution is expected to call at least 300 witnesses. Although only half of the witnesses are expected to be called to testify, the trial might continue for up to three years before a verdict is reached.
The defense is not obligated to announce at this point which witnesses it will bring. Netanyahu does not have to testify in court himself, but such a move may strengthen the suspicions against him, so he is likely to choose to testify at the relevant stage in the trial, Kann reported.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) era has been especially difficult for medium-sized businesses in the US that have been affected by the subsequent financial crisis, the evolving business scene, lockdowns and other new challenges.
In the past year, a number of Israeli startups targeting the US small business market have found that the technology they developed has changed the fates of businesses struggling to survive the economic crisis. These technologies were not developed specifically to contend with obstacles created by the pandemic but their market presence during this period has changed the course for the better of many small business operators.
One of the companies operating in the field is Tailor Brands, which provides small businesses with services that a regular branding company offers, but through a digital interface online, automatically, and in the first stage, also for free.
The technology is also available to street businesses that had to move online or enhance an existing digital presence, and for those who set up a completely new business during this period.
“We have thousands of customers who used the platform to make a living during the Corona,” said Yahli Saar, CEO and founder of Tailor Brands.
“For example, a single mother in South Carolina who was fired from her job during the Corona period used the platform to turn a hobby she started with her daughter into a pet boarding house that today is the main source of income for the home,” he shared.
“Most small businesses are still dying at the concept stage because the idea just does not materialize. The Corona era has transformed the ability to move from the concept stage to the application stage quickly from something that is nice to something that is necessary, “Saar added.
Tailor Brands allows people to create logos for free, build business branding, build a social media presence and their website. The system offers branded products like business cards, pens, shirts, bags. Everything is done in an easy, automatic process that takes a few minutes.
Saar said the company has almost 30 million registered businesses in the system. Tailor Brands sampled about 7 million of the businesses that were started recently around the Corona outbreak and during the pandemic.
“From the information analysis we saw a general increase in the number of small businesses starting as a result of rising unemployment in the past year. These are people who have decided to leverage their skills for business building. We have seen an increase in small jewelry and fashion manufacturers, manufacturers of art items. People were looking for a way to make things by themselves in their homes and turn their skills into a business, to produce a new source of income,” he explained.
Data supporting the trend presented by Saar can be seen at the site for opening small businesses in the US. During 2010, 2.46 million applications were submitted for opening small businesses, after a steady upward trend that lasted about a decade. The number of applications increased in 2019 to 3.47 million, and during the Corona year alone in 2020, a leap was made to 4.41 million applications for opening small businesses in the US.
Another company that operates in the field of small business services in the US is Tel-Aviv-based Melio, which provides a platform for transferring digital payments between small businesses in the US. The company was established to help small businesses manage incoming and outgoing payments remotely and improve their cash flow. This is a business efficiency that is required in ordinary times and even more so in a time when the world is facing the pandemic, which creates new difficulties when it comes to synchronizing expenses and income and also running the business remotely due to social distancing requirements.
Ziv Paz, a co-founder of Melio, noted that “what is unique about the technology we offer to small businesses is its suitability for people with no technological or financial background. We saw family businesses in the US that started using our solution and have never incorporated technological tools into the business before. For them, however, Corona disruptions brought them to an end and pushed them into digitization.”
Transferring payments for goods and services between US businesses is still largely done manually and involves inefficient processes, such as using paper invoices and checks, and they produce long payment times. Over 40% of US business transactions are still made through paper checks, which in 2019 reached a financial volume of $25 trillion.
“The founders of Melio decided to set up an accounting company in the US as a means of understanding the world of payments between businesses, feeling the pains of the field, understanding the nuances within the workflow. This helped to produce an accurate solution. Most of the money transfers through our systems are free, and the revenue is, for example, helping some customers advance or defer payments,” Paz said.
“During the Corona era, we also saw changes in the design and branding of small businesses,” adds Yahli Saar of Taylor Brands. “From vivid colors and playful styles of curvy lines and brush strokes to brands created primarily to instill confidence: strong and straight lines in shades of black and gray. These are trends that try to convey safety and stability, important elements in the world we are caught in which every product poses a potential risk.”
A group of 11 Israeli Zionist and right-wing organizations issued a call on Sunday to the leaders of the right-wing parties to put their personal differences aside and join together to form a stable government that is not reliant on anti-Zionist parties. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS on 19 December, 2019
By: Aryeh Savir
A group of 11 Israeli Zionist and right-wing organizations issued a call on Sunday to the leaders of the right-wing parties to put their personal differences aside and join together to form a stable government that is not reliant on anti-Zionist parties.
Naftali Bennett, head of the Yemina party, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. Gideon Sa’ar, who heads the right-wing New Hope party, has vowed to not sit in another Netanyahu government.
Bennett, Netanyahu and Sa’ar, who have previously worked together and who mostly share the same views, are now rivals do to personal animosity.
With a few short of the required 61 Members of Knesset to from a majority coalition, Netanyahu has suggested his government rely on the Islamist Ra’am party, which expressed interest in doing so in return for meeting a list of civilian demands.
These 11 groups oppose a collaboration with Ra’am, which has expressed support for Hamas and individual terrorists.
“We, organizations from the nationalist camp, call on the leaders of the Zionist parties from the Right and Left to reject the possibility of forming a government supported from within or without by parties that don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish People,” the organizations stated.
“Any party whose members support terrorism must be rejected outright, whether it’s the Ra’am party of the Islamic Movement or the Joint List,” they said.
“All parties should reconcile with their political rivals because at the end of the day, the only thing that’s important is the Jewish state and Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” they concluded.
The organizations that signed the letter include Im Tirtzu, Regavim, Professors for a Strong Israel, Cafe Shapira Forum, the Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families, My Israel, Headquarters for the South Tel-Aviv Struggle, Wounded IDF Veterans Forum, Lach Yerushalayim, Lavi, and Yozma Ezrachit.
Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirtzu which initiated the move, said that the letter was a wake-up call to the heads of the Zionist parties.
“Our elected officials need to wake up and understand that they are leading the country down a path of selling out its Zionist values for no justifiable reason. The nationalist camp has a clear majority to form a stable government. We are calling on Benjamin Netanyahu, Gideon Sa’ar and Naftali Bennett to take responsibility. The good of the country needs to come first, not personal emotions and mutual hatred.”
Professor Asher Yahalom, head of the Professors for a Strong Israel organization, said that the leaders of the nationalist camp need to “put the interests of the Jewish People first.”
My Israel head Sara Haetzni-Cohen said that “the challenges abroad and at home require the establishment of a nationalist government.”
The State of Israel will mark the beginning of Yom HaShoah, its national Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, on Wednesday night with an official ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Photo by Hillel Maeir/TPS on 11 April, 2018
By: TPS
The State of Israel will mark the beginning of Yom HaShoah, its national Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, on Wednesday night with an official ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
Yad Vashem, the country’s official Holocaust memorial, announced that the somber day’s theme will be 80 years since Nazi Germany commenced its methodical program to annihilate world Jewry.
80 years ago, in June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a surprise attack on the USSR.
The objective of the operation was to precipitate the collapse of the “fortress of Bolshevism” before the onset of winter, and the invading army seized thousands of kilometers of territory.
Operation Barbarossa was a milestone in World War II, and a turning point in the fate of the Jews.
Nazi Germany, which had already instituted a policy of expelling, isolating and persecuting the Jews in Germany, Poland and Western Europe, carried out a broad policy of mass murder for the first time in the USSR, which soon became systematic.
The Einsatzgruppen, four mobile killing units of the SS, were tasked with the war on “ideological threats”—Communists, partisans and Jews. Army units, police and other forces committed murder alongside them.
Men were the first to be shot in the first weeks after the invasion. Starting early in August 1941, the circle of murder expanded to encompass all of the Jews in the occupied areas, men, women and children, except for a small number who were assigned to perform forced labor.
Yad Vashem explained that the acts of murder followed a particular template: through threats and various forms of deception, the Jews were required to report to locations, where they were gathered together. They were taken to a location nearby— a ravine, forest, castle or vacation spot—and murdered. Sometimes the Germans forced the victims to dig the killing pits themselves. The Jews were ordered to undress and hand over their valuables at some distance from the mass graves, and then they were taken to the pits and shot. Many were buried alive.
Jewish life that had existed for centuries in Eastern Europe was practically obliterated. Approximately one million Jews were murdered within the Soviet Union’s prewar borders, and some 1.5 million Jews were massacred in the territories annexed by the USSR between 1939 and 1940.
In the last months of 1941, based on the accumulating experience in mass murder, and particularly due to the ideological radicalization that considered the war to be an “all-or- nothing” moment, the idea of murdering the Jews en masse crystalized into a comprehensive plan, beginning by destroying all the Jews of Europe: extermination camps were established and run, improved technologies for mass murder were implemented, and deportations by train “to the east” from the rest of Europe began.
The murder of the Jews of the USSR and the annexed territories was the beginning of the consolidation of the “Final Solution”—the systematic annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany. By the end of the war, some six million Jews had been murdered.
If you’re strolling the down any Big Apple street or merely taking the “D” train to your mother-in-law, you may be bumping into the next Mayor of NYC. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
If you’re strolling the down any Big Apple street or merely taking the “D” train to your mother-in-law, you may be bumping into the next Mayor of NYC. The reason…..there are now nearly as many candidates jammed into the Democrat Primary race as there are members of a football team. The six foot social distancing rule would have them lining up for over a city block. And since the country is immersed in “racial identity,’ it’s only fair to identify what appears to be only two candidates among them who appear to be White. Others are Black, Hispanic, Asian and who knows what else? One of them will surely be elected since the winner of any NYC Democrat primary is guaranteed to fill the seat in question.
But the race factor disappears when these Democrat office seekers indicate what they will strive to achieve once they achieve office. They are all carbon copies of one another. All punched out of the same mold. They all vow to cut police funding, eliminate racism and deal with man made climate change. Scott Stringer, a White guy, called for the elimination of $1.1 billion in NYPD funding over the next four years, a move he said would “shift responsibilities away from cops and boost investment in communities impacted by police violence and racism.”
So, if you’re a victim of an ongoing crime, you simply ask the guy who’s stealing your cell phone to dial your community social worker for help. Good luck! Eric Adams, although climbing to the top as a Black former NYPD Captain and currently the Borough President of Brooklyn, claims that he will fight the racism that permeates the city. It didn’t seem to affect him. Strange, that he once accused politician Herman Badillo of betraying his Hispanic heritage by marrying a White, Jewish woman, who at that time was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Who is the cold hearted racist here?
Art Chang, of Korean descent reportedly is a director of JP Morgan Chase and records indicate he owns a Brooklyn 4,000+ square foot home now valued at about $4 million. He plans to prepare NYC for what he claims will be a 10 foot rise in the ocean level by the year 2100. Streets and bridges need to be raised and airports relocated. He will have the city rely on solar and wind turbine energy, doing away with carbon fuels entirely. He will see to it that every household stove in NYC be replaced with induction cooking efficiency. He will focus on teaching all New Yorkers to eat healthy.
He described to a reporter just what he had for breakfast that morning: “Gluten-free toast with pesto, smoked wild salmon bits and soft-boiled organic eggs. Plain organic Bulgarian yogurt over chopped clementine and organic pear, topped with wild honey. Organic Mexican coffee with almond milk and turbinado sugar.” We’re sure that school breakfasts and homeless shelters will replicate his menu. The other candidates spout more of the same nonsense. Not one tackles the city’s sorry state of education, transportation, taxes, soaring crime rates, business closings and the related job losses. The flight of moneyed residents to more welcoming areas are ignored. Sad.
In short, we’re sort of happy that DeBlasio will be gone for good. But his likely replacement might make us all a bit nostalgic for the likes of Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and even David Dinkins. Wish us luck!
The leaders of Major League Baseball (MLB) are sending out the wrong signals
The leaders of Major League Baseball (MLB) are sending out the wrong signals and making major errors in their overt, politically based decision to follow President Biden’s suggestion to punish the state of Georgia for their new voting rules by moving this year’s All Star game out of the state. Did our president once consider just who will be hurt by this act of foolishness? The sport is already reeling from last year’s, destroyed by Covid season, with most teams playing only 62 of the scheduled 162 games. And for years, fans have been losing interest over the boring slowness of the game.
We predict, this move will be the death knell of America’s favorite pastime. But whom does this decision really hurt? Not the falsely perceived “racists,” but those ordinary blue collar people employed in airports, hotels, restaurants, the cabbies, ushers, vendors and on and on. Atlanta stands to lose well over $100 million in tourism revenue from this poor call. The city, largely black, is trying to overcome a horror year that saw stymied growth and loss of needed revenue. They’re being trampled. They don’t have to suffer further.
But getting back to this voting rights thing. Stacy Abrams, the defeated, angry, black, female, candidate for governor of Georgia, chimed in after the president’s message by characterizing the law as an “atrocity” and a “voter suppression” bill. Biden brought out that water was not to be distributed to those waiting on line to vote in elections. “Come on, It’s cruel, man!” He neglected to say that water distributed by politicians and their honcho volunteer supporters was prohibited as should be the case. No one is prevented from bringing drinks with them, nor for cities to supply water to those on line.
The fiercely liberal Washington Post gave Biden four pinocchio’s for his comments attacking the bill. But the President is enthusiastic about the upcoming Olympics to be held in ….China, the land “of the free.” Of course, there are no voting lines at polling places to worry about in that Asian “democracy.” The party of Mr. Xi, its leader, rules with an iron hand. Candidates wishing to overthrow the dictator are harassed by police, jailed for made up offenses or locked up. There is no freedom as we know it in the People’s Republic of China, so why is our nation planning, with gusto, to hypocritically send our athletes to compete in a land that has no freedom for its own people? Why not protest to the world our concern for liberty and show it by boycotting the Olympics? Why, because the foolish move to punish our own state of Georgia for its supposedly banning voter access, that actually voted for him, that would hurt the little worker, is pure nonsense, having nothing to do with “voter suppression.” It’s merely a foolish, poorly thought out political move to keep that state in the Progressive camp. And it will backfire. Our people are not that dumb. Or are they?
Someone was missing at President Joe Biden’s first cabinet meeting held on Thursday April 1st. Remember his campaign promise that he would unite America again and appoint the most diverse cabinet and administration in history, representing the gorgeous American mosaic? Now into the fourth month of his administration, he has yet to appoint any Republicans. There are several thousand cabinet, sub cabinet, agency administrators and others who will be appointed by the White House to serve at the pleasure of the President. Republicans continue to represent a significant portion of America.
Why has he failed to appoint any to serve in his Cabinet and administration? Mr. Biden has failed in following up on this public commitment on this issue. Even former Democratic President Barack Obama appointed Ray LaHood–Republican Congressmember from Illinois as his Secretary of Transportation. Actions speak louder than words. His call for bringing America together appears to just be campaign rhetoric. Biden practices to the victor belongs the spoils. Quid pro quo is alive and well in the White House under his watch. It is business as usual at the expense of taxpayers..
Sincerely, Larry Penner
Who Will Pay for the Infrastructure Plan?
Dear Editor:
It is both notable and admirable that the Biden Administration supports fully paying for their infrastructure package. That is an important marker of fiscal responsibility – new initiatives, including temporary ones, should be fully offset. Considering the strong pace of vaccination, expectations of a robust economic recovery, and massive amounts of money still in the recovery pipeline, at this time there is no further justification for additional borrowing.
Congress should heed the President’s call to fully offset all new spending and tax cuts. If they do not like the specific proposals included in President Biden’s plan, they should offer alternative tax increases and/or spending cuts, or reduce the size of the package to what they are willing to pay for.
In light of a record high, growing, and unsustainable debt, this infrastructure spending package should be paid for over a shorter time period than the 15 years they propose. It is critical that new spending in the plan be credibly temporary, especially considering the unusually long window for offsets, and that dollars be spent effectively on true and worthwhile one-time investments.
Finally, the price tag on this plan is high. While the country is clearly in need of infrastructure investment, it is not at all clear that $2 trillion of spending is needed or justified. Congress should do the important work to build a package this is a reasonable cost, well targeted, economically justified, and free of political favoritism.
A well-designed and fully paid-for infrastructure package could help support strong economic growth. Policymakers must not turn this package into a political wish list, paid for by our grandchildren.
It is encouraging to see a policy proposal put forward along with a way to pay for it. If something is worth doing, it is worth paying for.
Sincerely Maya MacGuineas President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
The Israeli Election Debacle
Dear Editor:
After reading your coverage of the recently held elections in Israel, I must admit I am sitting here scratching my head in total dismay. This is now the fourth time in the last two years that Israeli have gone to the polls to choose their next ruling party and next prime minister, yet despite the rigorous campaigning it appears that there is no solid winner and that a coalition government may not have a chance of being formed.
To even entertain the absurd notion of a possible 5th election in the summer is really way too difficult for me to contemplate. I am not an Israeli but I do feel for them. Their political future is beyond murky and with Biden in the White House, we can only pray that he does not go down the same road as former President Obama did in his feckless attempts to achieve Middle East peace.
In my humble and perhaps entirely uneducated opinion, I think Israel needs Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm more than ever. A crafty politician, he has the ability to circumvent any kind of disastrous territorial compromise that would emanate from the US State Department and more to the point, I truly believe he would have the backing of those he represents in Israel.
I am cognizant of the fact that Netanyahu is the only prime minister in Israel’s history that has retained his position while on trial for corruption, but I will tell you this: If one thinks that Donald Trump was specifically targeted by his political opponents for impeachment and constant harassment, that pales in comparison to what Netanyahu is going through. The way I see it is that these so-called corruption charges are so flimsy that no real court that is dedicated to true justice could ever convict him.
After being forced by Covid-19 restrictions to celebrate Passover alone last year, like their Israeli brethren, American Jews were by and large able to celebrate the Passover seder with their friends and families this year.
By: Caroline Glick
After being forced by Covid-19 restrictions to celebrate Passover alone last year, like their Israeli brethren, American Jews were by and large able to celebrate the Passover seder with their friends and families this year. And as in Israel, American Jewish families reveled in their deliverance from loneliness on the Jewish festival of deliverance.
But even the joy of Passover couldn’t dispel the twin storm clouds rising around the largest Jewish diaspora.
The first threat is growing Jew-hatred. American Jewish groups are good at fighting white supremacism. Unfortunately, the most dangerous external threat to Jewish life in America doesn’t come from neo-Nazis. It comes from their home base.
Along with Hindus, Jewish Americans are the most highly educated religious group in America. American Jews have long assumed that the primary source of anti-Semitism in America is ignorance and that as education levels rise, levels of anti-Semitism would decrease. Given the prevalence of anti-Semitism on university campuses, researchers at the University of Arkansas decided to check this assumption.
Black activist Tamika Mallory, who referred to Farrakhan as “the GOAT” (i.e., the greatest of all time) gave a speech about racial justice. Photo Credit: AP
Publishing their findings this week in Tablet magazine, they demonstrated just how wrong this assumption has become. Contrary to what Jewish organizations have long claimed, it turns out that the more educated Americans are, the more anti-Semitic they are.
College graduates are five percent more likely to apply anti-Semitic double standards to Jews than Americans who haven’t gone to college. Holders of advanced degrees used double standards against Jews 15% more often than respondents without higher educations.
The implications are dire. Academia, American Jewry’s home turf for a century and the key to their entry into the American elite – is now hostile territory.
Then there is the media. In the mid-20th century, American Jews were pioneers of the US mass media, entertainment and music industries. Increasingly, however, today they are their punching bag.
Last month, Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment included a “news brief” on Israel’s Covid-19 vaccination effort. The punchline had Israel only vaccinating its Jewish citizens. This lie didn’t come from nowhere. It was born in the slander that the only liberal democracy in the Middle East is a racist state. SNL’s employment of the slur was an expression of its general acceptance in progressive circles today.
A few days later, NBC‘s drama series “Nurses” depicted Orthodox Jews as rabid racists. Resonating Nazi propaganda, a scene in the show depicted an Orthodox Jewish patient and his family rejecting his doctor’s recommendation that he receive an organ transplant because the organ may come from a “non-Jew.”
Obviously, the show’s writers, producers and directors wouldn’t have incorporated this rank anti-Semitism into their script if they didn’t believe it or feared they wouldn’t get away with it.
And so far, they have gotten away with it.
A week and a half ago, CNN host Don Lemon appeared on ABC‘s The View to discuss remedies for America’s supposed “structural racism.”
Lemon said a first step to purging Americans of racism was for them to replace their pictures of Jesus which portray him as “a hippy from Sweden or Norway” with new ones that show “what Jesus looked like.”
And what did Jesus really look like?
“Either a black Jesus or a brown Jesus because we know Jesus looked more like a Muslim,” Lemon declaimed, knowingly.
Like SNL’s anti-Semitic joke, and “Nurse’s” anti-Semitic drama, Lemon’s failure to mention that Jesus was a Jew from Bethlehem didn’t come from nowhere. It came from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Today the preacher who admires Hitler is viewed as an “authentic” woke religious leader by millions of woke revolutionaries. His celebrity arguably makes him the most powerful Jew-hater in American history. Lemon’s statement echoed Farrakhan’s assertion that Jews are “fake Jews,” and that the “real Jews” are blacks and Muslims.
The Grammy Awards ceremony last month made clear that woke anti-Semitism isn’t a bar for entry into the top echelons of American celebrity culture. It may even be an asset. Black activist Tamika Mallory, who referred to Farrakhan as “the GOAT” (i.e., the greatest of all time) gave a speech about racial justice. And singer Dua Lipa, who has attacked Israelis as “fake Jews” and claimed Hamas is an Israeli invention performed at the event.
Then there is the Democrat Party – the political home of 65-75% of American Jews. It isn’t simply that anti-Semitic politicians like Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum and Ilhan Omar are now ascendant, or that pro-Israel politicians like Elliot Engel and Dan Lipinski have been booted out of power.
It isn’t even simply that senior politicians like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill Deblasio use anti-Semitism to rally their supporters or that President Joe Biden has appointed open Israel haters and BDS activists to senior positions in his administration.
Last week Biden held a Passover seder at the White House which erased the Jews and God from the story of their deliverance from Egypt. The White House invited the progressive, anti-Israel rabbi Sharon Brous to officiate at the event that rewrote and de-Judaized every aspect of the Jewish festival of Jewish freedom.
Singer Dua Lipa has attacked Israelis as “fake Jews” and claimed Hamas is an Israeli invention. Photo Credit: YouTube
Disastrously, these assaults on all aspects of Jewish life and identity by the woke left are happening as many American Jews are abandoning their Judaism because they see little reason to remain actively Jewish. More than 70% of non-Orthodox Jews who get married, marry non-Jews. Even more startling, only half of non-Orthodox American Jews of marriage age (25-54) are married at all. Of those who are married, only 15% are raising children as Jews. Non-Orthodox Jewish women have the lowest fertility rates in the US.
Given the data, it makes sense that 65-75% of American Jews remain in a political and ideological home that is hostile to Jews. It’s a matter of priorities. It also explains why much of the communal response to both rising anti-Semitism and rising assimilation has been ineffective and even counterproductive.
Take the Anti-Defamation League, for instance. With an annual budget of around $100 million, the ADL is supposed to be the community’s first line of defense against anti-Semitism. But with leadership comprised of dedicated foot soldiers of the progressive revolution, rather than fight the TV networks proliferating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and libels, or the BDS brownshirts on campuses terrorizing Jewish students, the ADL has devoted its resources to fighting “white supremacy.” To be sure, as the Pittsburgh and San Diego synagogue shootings made clear, white supremacists are a threat. But unlike the progressive Jew-haters, white supremacists have no foothold in the mass media, in politics, in academia or in popular culture.
In January, a group of powerful leftist Jewish groups with strong ties to the Biden administration including J Street, Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund began lobbying the administration to cancel the Trump administration’s decision to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The IHRA definition asserts that rejecting Israel’s right to exist and applying a double standard when judging it are forms of anti-Semitism.
These determinations make IHRA a problem for progressive anti-Semites who routinely reject Israel’s right to exist and apply a double standard to delegitimize it.
Last month, a consortium of far-left Jewish activists produced a new definition of anti-Semitism that specifically argued that rejection of Israel’s right to exist is not a form of anti-Semitism. In other words, rather than fight progressive anti-Semitism, powerful progressive Jewish groups and key activists are actively enabling anti-Semitic assaults on their fellow Jews by their fellow progressives.
As for the crisis of assimilation, rather than give American Jews a reason to live full Jewish lives, powerful Jewish institutions are denying there is a problem. This week, researchers at Brandeis published a new survey of the American Jewish population which determined that the Jewish population in America is growing, not shrinking. According to the study, there are 7.6 million Jews in America. This number is a striking departure from demographer Sergio Della Pergola’s 2019 study which concluded the community has shrunk to 5.7 million.
The Brandeis researchers “discovered” an additional 1.9 million Jews by counting Americans who describe themselves as “Jews with no religion” and “partial” Jews. They also included 1.2 million children growing up in homes with at least one Jewish parent being “raised as a Jew in any way,” which as American Jewish writer Jonathan Tobin notes is a “requirement so loosely defined as to be meaningless.”
Tobin noted that by expanding the number of Jews to include those with only the most attenuated relationship with Judaism, the Brandeis study provides a rationale for Jewish organizations to devote a larger portion of the (rapidly shrinking) communal resources to people with little attachment or interest in Judaism, and to do so at the expense of American Jews committed to living Jewish lives.
A growing number of committed American Jews are already finding themselves on the outs with their communities. Over the past five years, stories have abounded of members of Reform and Conservative congregations who have been ostracized or forced to leave their communities due to their conservative political beliefs. The most frequently affected have been Jews who openly supported then-president Trump.
Fighting assimilation trends has also gotten many Jews into hot water. American Jewish historian Jack Wertheimer has reported that Reform and Conservative rabbis who refuse to perform intermarriages have been sanctioned and even fired from their pulpits. He noted as well that Reform rabbis who simply encouraged their synagogue members to date other Jews have faced negative repercussions from their congregants. Intermarried couples, he reported, increasingly expect their rabbis to perform services celebrating Jewish and Christian holidays to make their non-Jewish spouses feel welcome.
Jewish organizations that seek to act on behalf of communal interests by fighting progressive anti-Semitism are also coming under attack. Perhaps the most prominent example is Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council decision to consider a petition by progressive groups to expel the conservative Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) from its ranks.
The progressive groups demanded ZOA’s expulsion because ZOA President Mort Klein spoke out publicly against Black Lives Matter’s vicious anti-Semitism. The progressives also objected to Klein’s support for Trump.
While the JCRC rightly recognized that “expulsion [of the ZOA] at this time would not serve the interests of the JCRC or of the broader Jewish community in Boston,” it didn’t question the legitimacy of the petition to expel the ZOA.
Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro recently attacked as “racists” and “bigots” Jews who voiced opposition to Biden’s appointment of Arab Americans with open records of hostility towards Israel and support for Palestinian terrorism. Shapiro argued that their Arab identity gives them a pass for advocating on behalf of Israel’s destruction.
The silver lining in the gloomy picture is that between 25% and 40% of American Jews remain deeply committed to their Judaism and to preserving, defending and passing on their identity to the next generation. This group includes both Orthodox Jews, Zionist Jews of varying levels of religious observance and politically conservative Jews. As the progressive Jewish American establishment focuses on reaching out to assimilated Jews and appeasing progressive Jew-haters, Israel can and must support this committed minority. Such assistance will no doubt increase their numbers and empower them to stand up for themselves and their rights as Jews.
Such assistance will ensure that that American Jews will continue to join their Israeli counterparts in singing “Next Year in Jerusalem” for generations to come – and many will do so in Jerusalem with their grandchildren.
All men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” declares the Declaration of Independence.
When they’re abandoned, evil eventually ensues.
By: Dennis Prager
Conservatives often speak of Judeo-Christian values and how the current civil war in the United States and the rest of the West is essentially a battle between those values and the left, which rejects Judeo-Christian values.
They are right.
But they rarely explain what Judeo-Christian values are. Yet, without an explanation, mentioning Judeo-Christian values is useless.
So, let me do that now.
First, a word about the term. Some Jews and Christians find the term confusing, if not objectionable, since Judaism and Christianity have different theologies. But no one speaks of Judeo-Christian heology, only of Judeo-Christian values.
Judeo-Christian values are essentially another term for biblical values. Judaism and Christianity are both based on the Old Testament — its God, its Ten Commandments, its admonition to love one’s neighbor as oneself, to love God, to lead a holy life, etc. Christians also believe in the New Testament, but only an opponent of Christianity would argue that the New Testament negates the values of the Old.
Here they are:
Objective moral standards come from God. As I have written and spoken about in a PragerU video and elsewhere, if there is no God who declares murder wrong, murder can be subjectively wrong but not objectively wrong. So, while there can certainly be nonbelievers who hold murder, stealing and other actions wrong, without God, those are opinions, not moral facts. Without the God of the Bible, there are no moral facts.
God judges our behavior, and we are therefore accountable to God for our behavior. Outside of a religious worldview, there is no higher being to whom we are morally accountable.
Just as morality derives from God, so do rights. All men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” declares the Declaration of Independence.
The human being is uniquely precious. While the Bible repeatedly forbids cruel behavior to animals (cutting or tearing off the limb of a living animal to eat it as a means of preserving the rest of the animal, not allowing an animal a day of rest, not allowing an animal to eat while working in the field), only human beings are created in God’s image.
The world is based on a divine order, meaning divinely ordained distinctions. Among these divine distinctions are: God and man, man and woman, human and animal, good and evil, and nature and God.
Human beings are not basically good. Therefore, the most important moral endeavor is making good people. Religious Jews and Christians understand that the greatest battle in life is with one’s nature. For the opponents of Judeo-Christian values, the greatest moral battle is not with one’s nature; it is with society (specifically, American society).
Precisely because we are not basically good, we must not trust our hearts to lead us to proper behavior. The road to hell is paved with good hearts. Feelings make us human, but they cannot direct our lives. This alone divides the Bible-based from those on the left.
All human beings are created in God’s image. Therefore, race is of no significance. We all emanate from Adam and Eve, whose race is never mentioned. That many religious people held racist views only testifies to the almost infinite ability of people to distort what is good.
Fear God, not man. Fear of God is a foundation of morality. In the Book of Exodus, Egyptian midwives were ordered by the Pharaoh to kill all newborn Hebrew boys. They disobeyed the divine king of Egypt. Why? Because “the midwives feared God.” In America today, more people fear the print, electronic and social media than fear God.
Human beings have free will. In the secular world, there is no free will because all human behavior is attributed to genes and environment. Only a religious worldview, which posits the existence of a divine soul — something independent of genes and environment — allows for free will.
Liberty. America was founded on the belief that God wants us to be free. On the Liberty Bell is inscribed just one thing (aside from the name of the company that manufactured the bell). It is a verse from the Bible: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.” The current assaults on personal liberty — unprecedented in American history — emanate from those who reject the Bible as their moral guide (including more than a few Jews and Christians who have joined the assault, having been indoctrinated with anti-religious views in high school and college).
When Judeo-Christian principles are abandoned, evil eventually ensues. One doesn’t have to be a believer to acknowledge this. Many secular conservatives recognize that the end of religion in the West leads to moral chaos — which is exactly what we are witnessing today and exactly what we witnessed in Europe last century. When Christianity died in Europe, we got communism, fascism and Nazism. What will we get in America if Christianity and Judeo-Christian values die?
The Biden administration on Wednesday released details of the first part of its latest enormous spending plan.
Although President Joe Biden is promoting the plan as a way to create jobs through infrastructure projects, its combination of tax hikes and central planning would leave the nation poorer and more dysfunctional.
Amazingly, this $2 trillion-plus in spending and $400 billion in tax subsidies covers only part of an increasingly radical wish list. The White House will announce details on the second part of the plan, focused on welfare programs, in a few weeks.
The government paid for the $6 trillion in combined COVID-19 relief, economic “stimulus,” and politically motivated bailouts over the past year by adding to the national debt.
In contrast, the new Biden plan uses tax hikes for businesses and investors to facilitate a big expansion of federal power.
Given that the economic recovery during the pandemic is still fragile, the last thing we need is tax increases that discourage private sector investments and make us less competitive in global markets.
The 2017 tax cuts provided enormous benefits to Americans across the income scale. Rather than continue the pro-growth success of tax reform, the Biden plan would gut it.
Instead, the plan recycles bad ideas from the Obama administration and scales them up. For instance, the plan uses 15 years of tax revenue to pay for just eight years of spending, similar to budget gimmicks that were part of Obamacare.
More importantly, the plan envisions that only a bigger federal government can solve the nation’s problems and create jobs. Yet former President Barack Obama’s 2009 “stimulus” package was a failure at creating jobs because federal infrastructure spending is slow and wasteful and serves to pull skilled workers away from private construction jobs.
Another recycled gimmick that the plan relies on is hiding opportunistic spending provisions behind a popular word.
Just a few weeks ago, Congress passed a $1.9 trillion package that lawmakers labeled “COVID-19 relief,” despite the fact that health spending accounted for less than 10%.
Now we see the word “infrastructure” deployed as a shield because most of us associate the concept with roads and bridges that we drive on every day. In reality, though, only about 5% of the Biden plan ($135 billion of the $2.25 trillion total) would go toward roads and bridges.
Instead, the plan would spend more on subsidies for electric vehicles (which benefits wealthier households), corporate welfare, and other things entirely unrelated to infrastructure such as health benefits and job training programs with a long history of failure.
On transportation, Biden’s plan follows the far-left Green New Deal by putting more of the spending increase into transportation modes such as mass transit and Amtrak than highways and bridges. This is despite the fact that transit and Amtrak already are heavily subsidized and account for a tiny share of overall travel.
Not only would this plan damage the economy and waste unimaginable amounts of taxpayer money, but it also would cause permanent damage to our democracy.
By enacting federal programs to micromanage state, local, and private sector responsibilities such as drinking water, internet, housing, school buildings, and the power grid, Washington would have too much control over too many things.
To do so at a time when the federal government is already too large for Congress to oversee, and growing faster than we can possibly afford, is a recipe for dysfunction and unaccountable governance.
Many goals of the Biden plan would be better accomplished by getting government out of the way rather than handing more power and money to Congress and federal bureaucrats.
For example, we could have better roads and bridges using existing spending by getting rid of federal red tape that makes construction projects take longer and cost more. Deregulation and further tax reforms can aid businesses and add permanent jobs throughout the country. Local reforms to boost residential development would improve housing affordability far more than hundreds of billions in federal spending.
Despite the big promises surrounding this latest multitrillion-dollar spending package, Americans should recognize that the plan would do tremendous harm to the economy and our foundational system of divided government.
Congress should avoid blindly supporting the extreme agenda that the president’s plan represents.
This scholarly work offers a comprehensive study of Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh’s vision for modernity. Photo Credit: HeymanCenter.org
(Stanford University Press, 2020)
By: Clemence Boulouque
Reviewed by: Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
This scholarly work offers a comprehensive study of Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh’s vision for modernity. His platform calls for a Universalist reading of Judaism, but instead of the rationalist framework upon which other forms of Jewish Universalism are built, Benamozegh championed a more conservative basis for that view, drawing heavily on the traditions of Kabbalah to justify his claims. The author of this book explores what factors influenced Benamozegh’s controversial ideas, and how his thoughts have, in turn, influenced others.
In 1823, Benamozegh was born to a Moroccan family in Livorno (Leghorn), Italy. Although he received a traditional rabbinic training and even studied Kabbalah under his uncle, he was better known as an auto-didactic who was learned in several disciplines. By profession, Benamozegh was a publisher, and true to his dedication to the written word, he wrote prolifically in Hebrew, Italian, and French. With the backdrop of the Risorgimento movement that sought to unify the various Italian states as one socio-cultural polity, Benamozegh thought about the big picture and ambitiously sought to construct a theosophy that would unite all of mankind.
In the spirit of his times, Benamozegh engaged with “modernity,” which he saw as a continuation of tradition, not as a total break from tradition. More specifically, Benamozegh saw how Christianity and Islam broadcasted messages that were not only relevant to members of those faiths, but to humanity as a whole. Yet, he felt that the universalist aspects of those religions are actually borrowed from their parent religion: Judaism. In particular, he viewed Kabbalah (which literally means “tradition”) as the appropriate vehicle for leading the way to uniting all of humanity. Thus, Benamozegh dedicated himself to finding those aspects of Judaism that speak to all of mankind and highlighting their importance.
Clémence Boulouque is the Carl and Bernice Witten Assistant Professor in Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University. A published novelist and former book critic in her native France, she is the author of Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish
One core principle of Benamozegh’s thought is the centrality of the Seven Noahide Laws, which are “a core set of tenets binding on all of humanity and akin to natural laws.” These laws would serve as the focal point of Benamozegh’s imagined universal religion for modernity. To sum up Benamozegh’s philosophy/theosophy, Boulouque writes: “Israel could provide both old and new foundations for the universalist religion because it contains its seeds. Judaism, thanks to the Noahide Laws, had the potential to birth the religion of the future.”
Yet, any discussion of the Noahide Laws inevitably leads to a discussion of Jewish particularism — the polar opposite of universalism — that focuses on the Jewish People’s role as the “chosen nation.” According to Jewish Tradition, while all gentiles are subject to the Seven Noahide Laws, the Jews are subject to a different set of laws, namely the 613 commandments of the Torah. This reality complicates any effort to argue for the universalist relevance of Judaism, as it gives one nation precedence over all the others. As a result of these ostensibly contradictory notions, one can detect a sort of tension in many of Benamozegh’s writings, and Boulouque devotes much space in her book to expanding on Benamozegh’s ways of alleviating this profound difficulty.
Elijah Benamozegh, sometimes Elia or Eliyahu, (born 1822; died 6 February 1900) was an Italian rabbi and a noted Kabbalist, highly respected in his day as one of Italy’s most eminent Jewish scholars. He served for half a century as rabbi of the important Jewish community of Livorno, where the Piazza Benamozegh now commemorates his name and distinction. His major work is Israel and Humanity (1863), which was translated into English by Dr. Mordechai Luria in 1995.
In a nutshell, Benamozegh’s approach to reconciling Jewish universalism with Jewish particularism postulates that the world is comprised of a “family of nation,” and just as each member of a family has different roles and responsibilities, so do the various nations of the world have different roles and responsibilities within the global community. However, unlike the other nations of the world, the Jews in particular were given extra responsibilities by Divine Revelation that demanded of them to preserve and disseminate the Seven Noahide Laws and the basics of Universal Monotheism. Boulouque shows how this seemingly modern idea is reflected in the Biblical promise to make the Jews “a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6), which Rabbi Ovadia Sforno (a sixteenth century Italian commentator) explains as referring to the Jewish role in teaching monotheism to the nations.
Another major element of Benamozegh’s universalist writings is his focus on Adam, the first man. As the father of all of mankind, Adam was understood to represent a sort of genealogical reflection of the shared origins of all peoples. Even though Benamozegh recognizes that Jewish Tradition viewed Adam as a proto-Jew of sorts, he more broadly understood Adam as an archetypical follower of a more generic universal monotheism, of which Judaism is but one legitimate expression.
Indeed, the plurality of legitimate religious expressions is a mainstay of Benamozegh’s worldview that viewed the gods of the nations as incomplete parts of a greater truth. Through his Kabbalistic lens, those various foreign deities reflect perceived varying aspects of the One God himself, and thus contain parts of the truth, but not the whole truth. Thus, Benamozegh’s Judaism not only tolerates other religions, but even confers upon them ontological and meta-physical significance.
Benamozegh’s clearest and most complete treatment of these issues can be found in his work Israel and Humanity. Yet, a cloud of uncertainty casts its shadow over the provenance of that work, because this magnum opus remained a two-thousand page manuscript at the time of Benamozegh’s death in 1900. It was only edited and published in French fourteen years later by Benamozegh’s Christian disciple Aimé Pallèire. Some have claimed that Benamozegh’s more conciliatory and inclusive comments are actually subversive interpolations that Pallèire inserted into his mentor’s work, but that Benamozegh himself never meant to downplay the supremacy of the Jewish People and brandish a universalist world view.
However, Boulouque’s major contribution to this discussion is a close reading of Benamozegh’s original manuscript (housed in the archives of the Jewish community in Livorno) that reveals that indeed the edition published by Pallèire matches Benamozegh’s writings. This detective work clears Pallèire’s name of any impropriety and demonstrates that the posthumous Israel and Humanity truly reflects Benamozegh’s positions and teachings. [That work was also translated into Hebrew by Dr. Shimon Marcus of Mossad HaRav Kook as Yisrael VeHaEnushot].
Reuven Chaim Klein, a resident of Betar Illit in Israel is the author of several books and penned this salient review
As Boulouque adeptly demonstrates, Benamozegh’s writings were always in conversation with the other worldviews floating around in his time—whether explicitly or implicitly. These competing weltanschauung include Maimonidean-style philosophy (associated with such figures as Moses Mendelssohn and Baruch Spinoza), Christianity, Reform Judaism, and nationalism. Benamozegh engaged with the leading figures of those theosophies, sometimes strategically citing them to bolster his own arguments and sometimes rejecting their ideas when they clashed with his own. Boulouque further shows how Benamozegh’s own legacy continued to influence a wide spectrum of Jewish thinkers from the Religious-Zionist Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook on the far right to the Marxist-Kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag on the left, as well as Christian philo-Semites and American evangelists.
In short, Clémence Boulouque offers a wide-ranging reflection and analysis of one of the most important Jewish thinkers of his time. She solidly situates Benamozegh’s ideas and importance amongst the other thinkers of the last 200 years, all the while showing how the rabbi’s words themselves can be understood and appreciated in a plurality of different ways. This scholarly and nuanced investigation into the meaning of Benamozegh’s Jewish Universalism is truly a worthy contribution towards our understanding of Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh’s multifaceted and complex thought.
Eight Paths of Purpose teaches how obstacles and/or opposition can force us to work harder and dig deeper to accomplish great things. And in fact, that a life of comfort with very few challenges can be very pleasant, but potentially less fulfilling should an easy route always be there.
By: TJVNews.com
After becoming a Rabbi at the age of 25, Tuvia Teldon believed his purpose in life was already mapped out. But his perception of purpose was shattered after his first baby, Baruch, was born with a serious case of Cystic Fibrosis.
This caused Rabbi Teldon to question, “Why Baruch? Why this family? Why me?”
After Baruch passed away at the age of 13, these questions became a 28-year journey that led Tuvia to discover the truths about purpose, and to write the book Eight Paths of Purpose to help others understand it.
Although authored by a Rabbi, the messages in Eight Paths of Purpose are universal, and written for people of all backgrounds, religions (or lack thereof), and experiences.
Rabbi Teldon says: “We all have imperfections in our life. They can be external in the form of pandemics, financial difficulties, health problems or relationship challenges. They can be internal in the form of trauma, depression, addiction, personal loss, or any of a myriad of issues which life presents us with when we least expect them. But every one of us has a unique collection of problems. Nobody in the world has the same list, and nobody looks at them the same way we do. For each of us the list is totally unique.”
In writing the book, Rabbi Teldon realized that most people don’t know how to relate to purpose, to trust it or pursue it. As he explains, “I had to translate this in a way that you would feel in your gut, that you don’t need someone to convince you but you see it as part of who you are, and what’s going on inside of you, to make the world a better place, to take resources and transform them.”
He also shares that “fulfilling our purpose should not be a means to an end of being happy.” Eight Paths of Purpose teaches that purpose is not immune to struggle and sadness; and that it will look different in everyone’s life. But what remains the same, he found, is that everyone’s purpose is somehow embedded in these eight paths:
Making the world a better place
Making the circumstances of our life better, in all their details
Procreating
Surviving
Treating the varied obstacles, conflicts and test in life as being part of our unique purpose
Improving our inner selves to be better people, with purpose-based attitudes
Seeing many of the events of our daily lives as opportunities to bring about positive change
Connecting to our higher power and/or religion to elevate ourselves and the world around us.
In writing the book, Rabbi Teldon realized that most people don’t know how to relate to purpose, to trust it or pursue it. As he explains, “I had to translate this in a way that you would feel in your gut, that you don’t need someone to convince you but you see it as part of who you are, and what’s going on inside of you, to make the world a better place, to take resources and transform them. There’s this human drive. It’s a wiring that no one else in the universe has. Humans are born without knowledge of purpose, but it whispers to us to help us do a good deed, to help our children and our grandchildren. It’s a drive that we all as human beings have and it is expressed in many different ways.”
Lessons in the book prove that we have the power to feel purpose in any situation, if we accept that they are meant to happen. “We don’t always define our purpose, but rather life defines our purpose for us.” Meaning, there will be moments where we define our purpose, but also moments where life defines it.
“For me,” Rabbi Teldon shares, “the birth and death of my son wrote a script I would have never asked for. I would gladly rewrite the script without his illness and death. However, once I knew that this is part of my custom-made list, I have to rise to the occasion and deal with it as best I can so it makes me and all around me better human beings as a result. We all have a choice – to be a victim of circumstances or a person who is able to flow with life’s curve balls and infuse purpose into the good, the bad, and even the ugly. The latter is much harder, but the sense of purpose and fulfillment one can attain, even after great pain, leads to a happiness which shines from within.”
Eight Paths of Purpose teaches how obstacles and/or opposition can force us to work harder and dig deeper to accomplish great things. And in fact, that a life of comfort with very few challenges can be very pleasant, but potentially less fulfilling should an easy route always be there.
Rabbi Tuvia Teldon and his family “Eight Paths to Purpose” Follows the Journey of Discovery for Rabbi Who Lost his Son
“We don’t know how our biography will look at the end of our life, but we do know that the way we deal with challenges will help define our accomplishments,” he explains.
While it took Teldon years to come back to reality after losing his son, he believes that his book will help all of humanity understand and benefit from and accept this purpose in their lives. “I hope it is presented in a way in which everyone can relate.”
He adds that writing the book and its acceptance has been a humbling experience, especially knowing that it has helped many people, especially during this time.
As I read the book carefully I kept reminding myself that these are not pious platitudes or sermonic hyperbole. The recipe for finding life’s meaning is the work of someone who was able to overcome horrific tragedy. Surely all of us, in the depths of our souls, feel the overpowering truth of Teldon’s recognition that “I decided if I wanted to be happy in a real way, I would have to develop it from the inside out. I had to differentiate between fun, which I enjoyed, and happiness, which takes real work. What kind of happiness fits that description? Inner happiness is a natural byproduct of a life lived with purpose. This comes from a sense of fulfillment we potentially feel whenever our life reality and/or attitude are aligned in some way with our life purpose.
Yes, as the Rabbi reminds us, Helen Keller taught us this very truth: “True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Our mission in life? To discover our purpose and to recognize why God placed each one of us on this earth with OUR reason for being. This book will assuredly bring you nearer to finding the answer to the uniqueness of your mission.
A still from “Only Men Go to the Grave,” a film directed by Abdullah Al-Kaabi, who will be speaking during the webinar series. Photo Credit: Supplied
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Culture has a unique way of bridging cultures and nations. This is why in an effort to foster cultural exchange between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Image Nation Abu Dhabi has teamed up with the Israel Film Fund (IFF) on a series of webinars that aim to support filmmakers in both countries.
Titled “Film Exchange: Abu Dhabi–Israel,” the new series will explore critical areas within production, talent development and filming in both Abu Dhabi and Israel to encourage collaboration between Image Nation and IFF.
The first webinar will debut on March 24. It will feature industry experts spanning from the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, Israel Film Fund, the Israel Film and TV Academy as well as renowned film directors.
Those tuning in to the webinars can expect to learn about an array of different topics relating to feature film funding, such as tax rebates, film funds and opportunities for filmmakers in the two countries, among others aspects.
Speakers include Emirati filmmaker Abdullah Al-Kaabi, “City of Life” director Ali F. Mostafa and the Israeli filmmaker who gave us “The Syrian Bride,” Eran Riklis, to name a few.
“This series of webinars is a key cultural and business initiative held in partnership with the IFF,” said Michael Garin, CEO of Image Nation, in a released statement.
“We are ultimately promoting and informing audiences on the many production and investment opportunities that have resulted from the partnership between the UAE and Israel. Through collaboration on content creation, we will deepen the ties between the two countries to the benefit of the media industry in the entire region.”
Echoing on Garin’s statement, Lisa Shiloach-Uzrad, Executive Director of the Israel Film Fund, added: “We are excited to begin what we hope will be a long and fruitful relationship between Israeli and UAE filmmakers. We believe there is much that unites our two nations and are proud and happy to be the stepping stone for cultural collaboration that will bring us closer together while creating innovative and fascinating films, which is what we’re all about.”
Arab News’ Hams Saleh also reported that the 14th edition of Art Dubai — recognized as the Middle East’s leading art fair for showcasing local, regional, and international artists — is attracting art lovers in the UAE with an in-person fair set to wrap up on Saturday.
The IFF was established in 1979 in order to assist Israeli filmmakers realize their vision and talent and produce their full length feature film.
Meanwhile, Image Nation Abu Dhabi creates films, TV series, documentaries and entertainment for consumers throughout the world. It is also the first UAE company to have multiple productions stream globally on streaming giant Netflix.
Arab News’ Hams Saleh also reported that the 14th edition of Art Dubai — recognized as the Middle East’s leading art fair for showcasing local, regional, and international artists — is attracting art lovers in the UAE with an in-person fair set to wrap up on Saturday.
Among the participating galleries is Addis Fine Art gallery, which has set up a booth at the event for the fourth year.
The art hub, which is based in London and Addis Ababa, is exhibiting a group show of four artists from across Ethiopia — Tadesse Mesfin, Addis Gezehagn, Tsedaye Makonnen and Tizta Berhanu.
Each of the artists is showcasing new works that explore and document humanity’s adaptability and resilient responses to moments of upheaval.
Gallery co-founder Rakeb Sile said that Art Dubai is one of her favorites.
“It’s the only fair where we get to see galleries from pretty much the global south. It’s a really diverse encounter. Other fairs that we do are not necessarily that diverse,” she told Arab News.
She believes that putting Ethiopian artists in “that conversation is also important, because it teaches us things that we wouldn’t have necessarily found out just by doing a Western fair.”
Sile launched Addis Fine Art gallery with Mesai Haileleul as a “passion project.”
“It was like, ‘we know this is amazing; why doesn’t the rest of the world know about any of these artists?’” she said.
Haileleul elaborated on his partner’s words, saying that the art scene in Addis Ababa has “incredible talent.”
Tadesse Mesfin, Pillars of Life (2021) Oil on canvas, 165 x 170 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Addis Fine Art. (Supplied)
“Obviously a lot of people might not be familiar with it. We do not have a lot of galleries there that function and work like Addis Fine Art gallery because it is very difficult,” he said.
“For that reason, artists do not get the representation they badly need. But it’s not for lack of talent. We are there to change that; we are there to help with that.”
Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel in “News of The World.”
And Some Movies You May Want to Avoid
By: Howard Barbanel
Although many movie theaters reopened and while there is a palpable yearning for that greasy popcorn, nachos and supersized diet coke experience, most of us are still catching our first run flicks at home. Streaming services dominate and even when fully vaccinated, many of us are not entirely comfortable venturing forth to the multiplex just yet.
There are some great movies that have been released online in the past few months with mega stars like Tom Hanks, Glenn Close, Gary Oldman and Eddie Murphy to name a few. Here is a quick guide to some of the new offerings and whether they’re worth your time, and in some cases, the extra money.
News of The World (★★★★★)
In “News of The World” Tom Hanks delivers the kind of star performance you’d expect from one of America’s most versatile and beloved actors. Have you ever seen a bad Tom Hanks movie?
Westerns are not the most popular genre of film these days. Making them so they’re not cartoonish, patronizing or condescending is no small feat. Director Paul Greengrass delivers a period piece that is true to its time and place while also packed with pathos, action and wit. “News” is probably one of the five best Westerns of all time. It’s in the same league as Clint Eastwood’s The Unforgiven (★★★★★, 1992) and the power couple of John Ford directing John Wayne in The Searchers (★★★★½, 1956). “News” shares some themes with “The Searchers,” most notably the kidnapping of a white girl by Native Americans along with the deep darkness imbuing the souls of both Wayne and Hanks’ characters as a consequence of the Civil War.
“News” is set in 1870s Texas where Hanks ekes out a living as an itinerant news reader – he buys newspapers along his travels – expensive and scarce items in the Old West – and he curates and delivers the news in public readings to paying audiences in towns small and large across the prairie. Hanks is running away from heartache, his past and battle-related PTSD. Redemption comes in the character of Johanna Leonberger who was kidnapped by Kiowa Indians as a young child and needs to be returned to her next of kin clear across Texas. Hanks’ character, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, is reluctantly impressed into the service of escorting Johanna to her family and therein lies the drama and adventure of the film as they traverse the Wild West. Johanna is played by 12-year-old Helena Zengel in a tour de force performance where she holds her weight alongside Hanks in most of the movie.
If you can see this in a theater by all means do – but – it’s equally worth watching on your home 42, 55 or 60-inch TV as well. Streaming on Prime.
Hillbilly Elegy (★★★★)
Many Americans comfortably ensconced in their affluent bubbles have no idea of the struggles, poverty, desperation and addiction which besets many to this day in “Flyover Country” and most particularly in Appalachia. This region stretching from Pennsylvania to Georgia has borne the brunt of the Opioid Crisis but even before that alcoholism and other substance abuse was rife.
Glenn Close and Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy
“Elegy” is the autobiographical drama about a young J.D. Vance, growing up with a seriously defective mother in a death spiral of privation and addiction. Our hero manages to overcome extreme poverty and a plethora of disadvantages to become a Yale-trained lawyer who wrote a bestselling book from which this movie is based. Vance’s salvation was made possible through the intervention of his maternal grandmother, played powerfully by Glenn Close in the role of “Mamaw,” who rescues him from the depredations of his addict mother (played very unglamorously and convincingly by Amy Adams).
Most of the action takes place in Rust Belt Ohio and Kentucky with lots of flashbacks to our hero’s childhood and adolescence. To say that Glenn Close embodies the role of a grizzled character is an understatement. This is not the beautiful Glenn Close we saw in Fatal Attraction (★★★★, 1987) or The Natural (★★★★★, 1984). You totally believe in her as a struggling grandmother. No end of common-sense grit and self-sacrifice. This is no light movie but it is highly inspiring and there is also a happy ending. This film may also remind you of the Tobias Wolff biopic This Boy’s Life (★★★★, 1993) starring Robert DeNiro, Ellen Barkin and a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Streaming on Netflix.
Coming 2 America (★★)
They say some wines get better with age and some after too many years become vinegar and undrinkable. So is the case with the 33-year delay from Eddie Murphy’s hysterical Coming to America (★★★★, 1988) and this cringe-worthy sequel. No matter the return of the original cast plus great additional cameos. No matter Murphy and his sidekick Arsenio Hall playing a dozen different characters. No matter the lavish sets and costumes. The story is flimsy and completely non-credible even for a comedy farce. The writing is dismal, so much so that you’d be hard pressed to find more than two really good jokes in the whole film. A comedy that’s not very funny. Really? Really. How a comedic talent like Murphy didn’t see the lack of humor in this film is astonishing.
Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes in “Coming 2 America.”
The only saving grace and bright spot here is Wesley Snipes as General Izzi, warlord of neighboring African nation Nexdoria (as in “next door”). As Izzi, Snipes dominates the screen and brings 90 percent of the charisma. Izzi is an exaggerated hip-hopped-up Idi Amin-like tinhorn dictator full of outrageous bellicosity accompanied by a praetorian guard of exceptional street dancers who intimidate merely by virtue of their excellent choreography. The movie gets two stars thanks in great measure to Snipes.
The black stereotypes in “Coming 2 America” if they’d been produced by and starring whites would be viewed as highly offensive. In fact, if I were black, I would be very put-off by some of the visuals which in many cases cross a line to tastelessness. Streaming on Prime.
Mank ★★★★
Herman J. Mankiewicz (or as his friends called him, “Mank”) was a brilliant Hollywood screenwriter during the studio heyday of the 1930s. He was also intemperate, constantly inebriated and often impertinent. A real character. So why a movie about him? Because he was the unsung and real literary genius behind one of the best movies ever made, Citizen Kane (★★★★★, 1941) directed by and starring the then 24-year-old wunderkind Orson Welles.
Gary Oldman as “Mank.”
Welles hired the fading Mankiewicz (portrayed masterfully by Gary Oldman, who is 62 and playing someone three decades younger) to ghost-write the screenplay for his first big Hollywood outing. The drama here is the torturous road from concept to actual script; the efforts made by William Randolph Hearst and his media empire to have the film shelved or not made at all and the tension between Mank and Welles when Mankiewicz realizes it’s the best thing he’s ever written and wants screen credit for it. In between are flashbacks to Mank’s life in New York and California and his relationships with Hearst, his then wife Marion Davies (played by an increasingly impressive Amanda Seyfried), studio honcho L.B. Mayer (MGM) and other Hollywood swells. In the middle of the bio sandwich is the relationship with his own long-suffering wife.
Laid-up in bed due to a car accident, an ailing Mank is shuttled to the California desert with a nurse, secretary and prodding producer and told to write the script via dictation which we saw Oldman do frequently while playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (★★★★½, 2017). With the help of this entourage and an unhealthy supply of smuggled booze, Mank turns out one of the best screenplays of all time. In the process he makes enemies of and alienates almost everyone in his life. This is a very grown-up movie that will leave you contemplating the nature and scope of power, ambition, talent and waste (as in much of Mank’s life). Streaming on Netflix.
Wonder Woman 1984 ★★★
In 2017 director Patty Jenkins surprised us all with a superhero movie that was original, fantastic yet believable, well-acted, well-cast, well-written and that had heart and humor. That movie is Wonder Woman (★★★★, 2017). Gal Gadot was a delight as the fierce but incredibly naïve Amazon warrior and Chris Pine was adorable as Steve Trevor. The supporting cast was endlessly interesting and funny and the setting, World War I, was rendered with verisimilitude so that you bought into that reality.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman
For a second act, instead of perhaps setting the film during World War II, Jenkins opted to make a giant leap forward in years to 1984 (a big jump from 1918) where we’re supposed to believe that Diana a/k/a Wonder Woman has for decades been living a life of quiet desperation and solitude pining away for the late Steve Trevor while occasionally doing some rote super hero stuff like rounding up criminals. In “WW84,” the fate of the world hinges on defeating a deranged megalomanic businessman who steals an ancient artifact with magic powers to grant wishes (I’m over simplifying) which ultimately creates world wide chaos. Somehow Steve Trevor is brought back from the dead because Diana wished for him (as did the producers so the two can recreate their prior on-screen chemistry).
The world of 1984 is not reproduced as convincingly as was 1918 or as well as the 1950s were in Back to The Future (★★★★½, 1985) and the premise or nemeses of loneliness, unrequited love and success don’t carry as much weight as defeating the Germans and the god Aries on the Western Front. “WW84” is so much of a sequel that one really must watch the 2017 original in order to know much of the back story which limits the audience. Another drawback is the length of the film which at two hours and 30 minutes really is a half hour to 40 minutes too long. Many of the scenes of Diana as a child on Paradise Island could have been edited out to make the movie tauter. The film is worth seeing and you will be entertained, but better to see it with your own pause button at home than to invest 150 minutes in a theater. Streaming on Prime and other services.
