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Riveting New Documentary Revisits the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill Controversy

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

Justice Thomas tells his own remarkable story

By: Mark Tapson

Before there was Brett Kavanaugh, there was Clarence Thomas. Many who watched or participated in the grotesque circus that was the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings no doubt were unaware of, or had forgotten, the ugly spectacle that was Thomas’ confirmation hearings in 1991. As a black conservative, Thomas drew (and continues to draw) the vicious wrath of racist Democrats who reserve a special enmity for minorities that dare stray from the leftist plantation. Then as now, the Democrats waged their politics of personal destruction, and then as now a good man with impeccable legal credentials was demonized by an uncorroborated allegation of sexual harassment shored up by the full force of the leftist smear machine.

A riveting new documentary revisits the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill controversy as part of a look at the Supreme Court Justice’s amazing life journey. Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, produced by Michael Pack of Manifold Productions, aired earlier this week on PBS, of all places, and is still available for free through June 2. Don’t miss it. The producers interviewed Thomas and his wife Virginia for over 30 hours about his life, the law, and his legacy. As the movie’s website states, the documentary proceeds chronologically, combining Justice Thomas’ first person account with a rich array of historical archive material, period and original music, personal photos, and evocative recreations. Unscripted and without narration, the documentary takes the viewer through this complex and often painful life, dealing with race, faith, power, jurisprudence, and personal resilience.

In his rich, sonorous voice, Thomas, the second black American to serve on the Court and, at 28 years, the longest-serving Justice, tells his life story beginning with his birth in tiny Pin Point, Georgia in 1948. Descended from West African slaves and born into rock-bottom poverty, Thomas later was raised by his grandparents in Savannah. His stern grandfather, “the greatest man I have ever known,” believed firmly in hard work and even more firmly in the education he never had, the lack of which he blamed for his inability to rise above his station in life. He impressed upon his grandchildren the importance of committing themselves to school. He told Thomas and his brother that they would attend class every day, even when sick, and even if they were dead he would take their bodies to school for three more days “to make sure we weren’t faking.”

Educated by supportive Catholic nuns and feeling a calling to the priesthood, Thomas entered the seminary and excelled academically but ultimately dropped out after a fellow seminarian’s hateful response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. confirmed for Thomas that the church was not doing enough to combat racism. Abandoning the seminary was unacceptable to his grandfather, who told Thomas in no uncertain terms that he was on his own now. Thomas goes on in the documentary to describe how the subsequent assassination of Robert Kennedy, combined with the blows from MLK’s murder and his grandfather’s rejection, pushed him into an angry downward spiral that led to his involvement with black radical activists (interestingly, Thomas’ brother, who had served in the Vietnam War, felt that Thomas and his fellow radicals should leave the country if they hated it so much).

The rest of Clarence’s story is just as compelling: his rejection of radicalism, his graduation from Yale Law School, his ultimate drift toward support for Ronald Reagan (thus becoming a target for Democrats and their “Uncle Tom” smears), his grandfather’s death, his appointment as a Circuit Court judge under President GWH Bush, and then, of course, his nomination as a Supreme Court Justice and the relentless attacks that followed – even before Anita Hill’s allegation of sexual harassment ignited a firestorm. By refusing to conform to Democrat expectations, he was the wrong kind of black man and therefore had to be destroyed, as Thomas says in the documentary.

The film devotes a short, amusing segment to footage of Thomas’ questioning at the hands of a young (but just as incomprehensible as today) Joe Biden, who grills Thomas about natural law in a way that only Biden seems to understand (and it’s not clear that even Biden did). “One of the things you have to do in hearings,” Thomas tells his interviewer drily in the film, “is sit there looking attentively at people you know have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Through the nomination process over five days in September, 1991, Thomas increasingly and painfully grew to understand that “the real impediment” to rising above racism in America was “the modern-day liberal, because they have the power to caricature you.” Just when it seemed he was in the clear, then came the Kafka-esque experience of having to address Hill’s accusations. “It felt like the demons were loose,” Thomas’ wife Virginia says in the film, something anyone who witnessed the demonic behavior of protesters at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings would understand. “They were coming to destroy my husband, not just discredit him or disagree with his point of view.” She singles out for special condemnation Sen. Ted Kennedy “and the things I knew he had done in his life” for having the gall to sit in judgment over her beloved husband.

Finally given a chance to respond, Thomas forcefully denied Hill’s allegations before the Senate and the public, denouncing the degrading proceedings, in which then-Sen. Biden is shown to have an especially lascivious interest:

This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I’m concerned it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.

“I would have preferred an assassin’s bullet to this kind of living hell,” Thomas concluded emotionally at the hearing. Of course, he survived the confirmation process but the vicious media attacks, in which he has been demonized as everything from a “lawn jockey for the right” to a not-so-closeted Klansman – “stereotypes draped in sanctimony,” as he calls them – have not ended to this day. But Thomas still clings to his grandfather’s words of wisdom: “You may give out, but never give up.”

If you have not read Thomas’ 2007 must-read autobiography My Grandfather’s Son (selections from which Thomas reads in the documentary) – or even if you have – don’t miss Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. At nearly two hours, it still leaves you wanting more. It is a powerful look at the life and times and thought of, not just a conservative icon, but an American hero.

  (Front Page Mag)

Mark Tapson is the Shillman Fellow on Popular Culture for the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

A Man in Full – Dan Crenshaw’s Inspiring Story

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Dan Crenshaw’s new book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage. Photo Credit: Pinterest

By: Bruce Bawer

I guess I became aware of Dan Crenshaw, the freshman congressman from Texas, when most other Americans did. Three days before the 2018 election, Saturday Night Live aired a “Weekend Update” segment on which cast member Pete Davidson mocked a few House candidates. Among them was Crenshaw, whom Davidson described as looking “like a hitman in a porno” – the purported joke being that Crenshaw wears an eyepatch. Davidson tagged his jest by saying: “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in a war…or whatever.”

Indeed, Crenshaw was a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, where, on June 15, 2012, a Taliban bomb severely damaged both of his eyes. Although doctors expected him to be totally blind, surgeons at Walter Reed managed – miraculously – to save his left eye.

Davidson’s tin-eared dig at Crenshaw made headlines around the world – that’s why I heard about it (I haven’t watched SNL in years) – and sparked outrage. There were calls for him to be fired. But Crenshaw didn’t join in the pile-on. Instead, on the following Saturday, after he’d won his election, Crenshaw appeared on SNL, graciously accepted an apology from Davidson, and read a few gags at Davidson’s expense.

That display of class and good humor was impressive. During the year and a half since, Crenshaw has become a familiar face on cable news, and he’s been consistently impressive there, too – articulate, unflappable, and very, very smart. Hence I expected Crenshaw’s new book, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage to be a worthwhile read.

It is. But it’s more than that. It’s a serious, intelligent meditation on a culture in which victimhood is so highly prized that we’ve made an art out of taking offense –  discovering racism and sexism everywhere, waging campaigns of personal destruction on the slightest of pretexts, and perpetrating ridiculous hoaxes à la Jussie Smollett. In such a climate, it was only to be expected that after Pete Davidson told that dumb joke, there would be calls for his head.

Not that Davidson was ever in any real danger of losing his job. After all, Crenshaw’s a Republican. Generally, you can get away with insulting, and even libeling, somebody on the right. But offend the left and your career may be over. Indeed, as Crenshaw points out, not long after his cozy SNL appearance, a newly hired SNL cast member turned out to have used supposedly offensive terms about Asians and gays on a comedy podcast, and NBC kicked him promptly and unceremoniously to the curb.

In any event, one thing’s clear: for many leftists, easily triggered outrage is a virtue. Crenshaw recalls seeing a group of protesters outside of the Capitol with signs reading “Stay Outraged.” About what? Anything and everything, apparently. Another time, inside the same building, three of his House colleagues “held aloft a T-shirt that said, IF YOU’RE NOT OUTRAGED THEN YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION.”

Crenshaw doesn’t like any of this. In his view, when millions of Americans are capable of being devastated (or are willing to pretend to be devastated) by some offhand remark, and are, moreover, prepared to go nuclear on those who’ve offended them, that’s not good for any of the parties involved, and it’s not good for America, either. Crenshaw approvingly quotes Thomas Sowell’s observation that “we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”

And almost none of that complaining makes sense, anyway, given that, as Crenshaw points out, we live in “the best time to be alive, period.” Of course, even more absurd is that the people who have it best of all tend to be the touchiest. Crenshaw reminds us that “students at Oxford University voted to replace clapping with ‘jazz hands’ because clapping could, in their words, trigger anxiety.’”

How can this be? Crenshaw’s answer: “today’s society…is swelling with the wrong role models.” Not a new observation, needless to say, but Crenshaw’s approach to the topic – and to the question of whom young Americans should look up to – is fresh, smart, and incisive. Citing sources that range from Dostoevsky, Seneca, Jung, Aristotle, and Marcus Aurelius to the movie Patton, the cable series Game of Thrones, and not least (well, yes, actually least) the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell, Crenshaw makes an argument, as Tom Wolfe did in his novel A Man in Full, for the inestimable civilizational value of Stoicism, the third-century B.C. philosophical school that exalts reason, self-control, and fatalism. “Our culture,” Crenshaw writes, “has begun to confuse passion with substance, reward the loudest and angriest voices, and thus incentivize behavior wholly at odds with Stoic wisdom.”

To be sure, Crenshaw readily admits that he himself is capable of getting unreasonably worked up about minor irritations, such as bad Wi-Fi on airplanes. But when this happens, he says, he recalls his ancestor Sarah Howard, who at age sixteen crossed the frontier on foot with the goal of settling in Texas – a weeks-long ordeal during which “she had a run-in with Comanches that resulted in the death of her husband,” then experienced the deaths, “in similar circumstances,” of her second husband and infant child, and finally underwent an Indian captivity from which she “miraculously escaped.” Crenshaw adds: “And here I am, complaining about the Wi-Fi.”

It’s all, he says, about putting things into perspective: “A healthy sense of perspective is an antidote to outrage. It is an antidote to self-pity, despair, and weakness.”

Another woman who helped give Crenshaw a sense of perspective was his mother, who, after a painful five-year struggle with breast cancer, died when he was ten – a torment she faced throughout “with endurance, grace, and optimism.” In the difficult days after his bomb injury, he thought of his mother: “I wasn’t about to let some cheap-ass IED in the ancient killing fields of Afghanistan render me unworthy of her memory.”

For good measure, Crenshaw also holds up as role models the local interpreters whom he calls “the unsung heroes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They often suffer threats and ostracism for their willingness to endure the battlefield alongside us. Their motivation isn’t money; there isn’t enough money to make it worthwhile facing down insurgents who know where you and your family live. They are idealists. They work and risk death because they believe in our common cause of freedom.”

How did Crenshaw end up as a Navy SEAL? At thirteen he read Rogue Warrior (1992), the autobiography of Dick Marcinko, founder of SEAL Team SIX, and, just like that, decided to become a SEAL. He never wavered in his pursuit of that objective, although the road was hard. Along the way, he put together a pretty impressive résumé. Before joining the Navy, he studied international relations and physics (!) at Tufts University; after losing his eye – and thus his Navy career (he’s still palpably angry at the military brass for jettisoning him) – he earned a master’s at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

No, this is no ordinary politician – and no ordinary political autobiography, either. I confess that un-Stoic tears filled my eyes several times while reading it. Yes, I was moved by Crenshaw’s account of his mother’s fortitude and by his own grit in the face of his eye injury. But I was also moved by the idea that the United States Congress – a body crammed with fools and scoundrels – has at least one member who’s served his country as bravely and selflessly as Crenshaw has done and who possesses the hard-won wisdom and decency of character to write a book like this.

Many of us who consider Donald Trump a vitally necessary world-historical figure have wondered where to turn after his eight years are up. We’ve worried that it will be a case of après lui, le déluge. Could Crenshaw – whose career I find myself following with growing interest, respect, and admiration – fill Trump’s shoes? Increasingly, the idea seems appealing. So far I, for one, can see few other satisfactory candidates.

(Front Page Mag)

From Last to First: The Story of the Nesi’im

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
True success requires proactivity. And the virtue of proactivity stems from the middah of chesed, proactively seeking ways to do good, to help others, to improve the world around us.

Parshas Naso

By: Shmuel Reichman

When you wake up in the morning, how do you start your day? Many people immediately take out their phones, look at their messages, and are bombarded by a rush of incoming data. But in doing so, we begin our day in a reactive state, allowing external stimuli to become the foundation of our day. With that starting point, it is all too easy for the entire day to become one long reactive experience. Highly successful people do not immediately look at their phones upon waking. Rather, they engage in mindful, productive tasks upon waking, creating proactive momentum to their morning. This allows them to choose what to think about and what to focus on, enabling them to accomplish their goals throughout the day. Instead of allowing external stimuli guide their first waking thoughts, they replace that with mindful, guided, and goal-oriented thinking. Davening in the morning accomplishes this exact goal, providing us with a structured way to begin our day with mindfulness and directed thought.

The Nesi’im

Parshas Naso features the Chanukas Ha’Mishkan, the inauguration of the Tabernacle. At this ceremony, the Nesi’im (princes) of each shevet contributed spectacular gifts towards the Mishkan. Chazal explain that these donations were intended to be a tikkun (rectification) of their previous sin. Earlier, in Parshas Vayakhel, the Nesi’im are criticized for their inappropriate calculation regarding their donations for the building of the Mishkan (Rashi- Vayakel: 35:27). They delayed in donating gifts for the Mishkan, and in the interim the Jewish People donated everything needed for the Mishkan, leaving the Nesi’im with nothing to give.

However, it is important to note that their intentions were pure. They planned to wait and see what was still needed in the Mishkan after the rest of Klal Yisrael finished donating, and they intended to donate whatever was still needed. The Nesi’im assumed that if everybody donated simultaneously, there would be many overlapping gifts, while other essential things might be left out completely. The Nesi’im wanted to then fill in the gaps, ensuring that the donation process was properly completed.

However, when the giving stopped and the dust settled, there was nothing left to give. Klal Yisrael had surpassed all expectations, donating every single required item and even exceeding the required quotas. The Nesi’im, due to their delay, lost out on their chance to contribute towards the Mishkan.

The Nesi’im are criticized for their lack of alacrity in donating to the Mishkan, and it is apparent that they realized their mistake, as they tried to rectify it by contributing elaborate gifts during the Chanukas Ha’Mishkan. However, we must ask what the Nesi’im did that was so improper. After all, their calculation seems sound, if not ideal. Why donate something that has already been given? Isn’t it worthwhile to ensure that your gift will be useful? Why then do we view their actions, or lack thereof, in such a negative light? Furthermore, how do the Nesi’im’s gifts in Parshas Naso rectify their mistake? In order to understand this episode, we must first understand the nature and meaning of chesed, loosely translated as kindness and giving.

Chesed

The spiritual concept of chesed is the ability to expand beyond one’s limited self and contribute towards others. As the pasuk in Tehillim says, “Olam chesed yibaneh” (Tehillim 89:3), the world was built through chesed. Hashem created this world as an act of pure kindness, with the goal of giving to each and every one of us, and we are sustained by His continuous giving. When we give to others, we thus emulate Hashem.

Two Forms of Chesed

The Maharal explains that there are two distinctive forms of giving. The first is responsive, when a person gives only that which is needed. This means giving only when a person sees a need, or when someone asks for help. The drawback of this form of giving is that it is only done because it is compelled, it is caused by an external need; the input results in the output. If this individual had not seen another in need, he would not have helped. While giving in this situation can still be done with pure intentions, there is a possibility that the giving was motivated by guilt, or to avoid feeling the emotional pain of another person’s lack. If you see a person in dire need of help, looking much less fortunate than you, you tend to feel bad for them. You want to help them, but you also want to make yourself feel better, to assuage your own feelings of guilt.

The second form of chesed is proactive, when you give purely for the sake of giving. This reflects a compelling desire to give and help others. In this case, nothing external causes your desire to give, rather it stems from a deep internal desire to expand outwards and help others. Instead of waiting reactively for people to come to you, you proactively seek out opportunities to help. In a deep sense, this form of chesed does not stem from someone else’s need to receive, but from your internal desire to give. You will therefore happily give to someone, even if they aren’t in need, even if they already have what you wish to give them.

Avraham: Ish Chesed

This is why Avraham is the ultimate paradigm and exemplar of a ba’al chesed. The four walls of his tent were always open, informing travelers that they were always welcome. On the third day after his bris milah, the most painful time period of the healing process, he sat outside in the blazing sun, waiting and hoping for travelers whom he could help. Rashi (Bereishis 18:1) explains that Hashem actually made that day unusually hot with the specific intent to discourage people from traveling; this way, Avraham could have a day off to rest, free from travelers. However, it was more painful for Avraham to not to do chesed than to help guests while in this physical state. Hashem therefore sent hm the three angels as guests. Avraham had a constant, overwhelming desire to perform chesed. Consequently, when Sedom was destroyed and travelers stopped coming his way, Avraham moved his tent so that he could continue hosting guests and perform chesed.

There is an interesting question that arises from the story of Avraham and the three malachim (angels). The most famous example of chesed in the Torah is this story of Avraham serving these three malachim food. However, according to many opinions, these angels were not human, even when encountering Avraham, and therefore could not eat the food that Avraham served them. And even if they did eat the food, it was simply out of courtesy- as angels, they had no need for food. Why, then, is this the ultimate paradigm of chesed?

Based on what we have said, the answer is clear. The ultimate act of chesed is one that is spontaneous, proactive, and stems from an inner desire to give, as opposed to originating in someone else’s desire and need to receive. In this case, not only did the desire stem from within Avraham to give, but Hashem gave him a case where he could give so purely that the recipients didn’t even need what he gave them.

In a similar sense, Hashem created this world in a completely proactive way. There was no external recipient when Hashem created the world, there was no “need”, and there was no external force pressuring Hashem to “give” the world existence. As the Rambam, the Ramchal, and others explain, Hashem’s decision to create the world was spontaneous and proactive, stemming only from His desire to give.

Understanding the Nesi’im

We can now understand the mistake, and the subsequent rectification, of the Nesi’im. When it came to the building of the Mishkan, the Nesi’im were reactive. Their calculation may have been rational and sound, but that itself was the problem. When you truly love someone, you give for the sake of giving, spontaneously, as an expression of overwhelming love. If you love Hashem, you eagerly give to the Mishkan, for the sake of giving, even if there may be overlap between the gifts. The practical concern of specific inventory can be dealt with at a later stage. By waiting until the end and giving their gifts last, the Nesi’im displayed a slight lack in their love for Hashem.

Their Tikkun

The Nesi’im rectified their mistake at the Chanukas Ha’Mishkan when they gave their gifts spontaneously and proactively. Whereas they gave last when it came to the building of the Mishkan, they gave first at its inauguration.

But there is another unique feature of these gifts. The commentaries note that all twelve of the Nesi’im gave the same exact gift at the Chanukas Ha’Mishkan. Yet, the Torah enumerates every single gift individually, repeating the same exact description over and over again. This seems repetitive and unnecessary- why give the same exact thing as eleven of your fellow Nesi’im? But this, in fact, was their ultimate rectification. Their sin lay in being reactive; their tikkun came through proactivity. Their sin lay in over-calculating and worrying about overlapping their gifts; their tikkun came specifically through giving the same exact gift, an explicit expression of repetition, and a true expression of giving for the sake of giving.

Same Gifts?

There is an additional layer to this as well. While it appears that each of the Nesi’im gave the same gift, that is true only on the surface level. The midrash explains that while each Nasi gave an identical gift, each gift reflected the unique spiritual essence of the Navi’s shevet. The external may have been the same, but the internal was fundamentally different. This idea is essential to our own lives as well. We say the same words of shemonah esrei three times a day, but each and every tefilah should be unique. We say the same physical words, but each time we have the opportunity for a new and elevated internal experience of connection and meaning. The thoughts and feelings that infuse the words of this prayer will never be the same as those which shape another prayer.

Living Proactively

This brings us full circle. When you wake up in the morning, how do you start your day? Are you reactive to that which comes your way, or do you proactively pave your path? Success does not come by accident, it comes from mindful planning, intense commitment, and consistent execution. If we live a reactive life, we will wake up one day and wonder why we are so far from our desired destination. True success requires proactivity. And the virtue of proactivity stems from the middah of chesed, proactively seeking ways to do good, to help others, to improve the world around us. May we be inspired to become so full of love that we proactively seek out ways to contribute to those around us.

Shmuel Reichman is an inspirational speaker, author, and coach who has lectured internationally at shuls, conferences, and Jewish communities on topics of Jewish Thought and Jewish Medical Ethics. He is the founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy (ShmuelReichman.com), the transformative online course that is revolutionizing how we engage in self-development. He is also the founder of “Think. Feel. Grow.”, a platform from which he shares inspirational Torah videos that have reached over one hundred thousand people. You can find more inspirational lectures, videos, and articles from Shmuel on his website: Shmuelreichman.com

Parsha Naso – Changing Ones Fate

By
Sholom Schreirber
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One of the best-known paragraphs in the week’s portion of Nasso and perhaps in the entire Torah, is that of Birkat Kohanim – the Blessing of the Kohanim. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

By: Rabbi David Bibi

One of the best-known paragraphs in the week’s portion of Nasso and perhaps in the entire Torah, is that of Birkat Kohanim – the Blessing of the Kohanim where the Torah states:  Hashem spoke to Moses saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying: This is how you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them: “May Hashem bless you and watch over you. May Hashem cause His countenance to shine upon you and favor you. May Hashem raise His countenanParshace toward you and grant you peace.” They shall bestow My Name upon the children of Israel, so that I will bless them.

Rabbi Abittan z’sl would often tell us that the moment we are blessed by Hashem through the Kohanim is an auspicious time. While people travel the world in search of blessings from great talmidey Chamamim – Torah scholars and while others travel to graves of the righteous, they fail to realize that this blessing of Birkat Kohanim is directly from Hashem and surly outshines any other blessing we might hope for.  In fact, this blessing has the ability to change our fate.

While there may be chatter, although forbidden, during the repetition of the amidah, when the hazan reaches birkat kohanim, people generally quiet down and focus. In recent years we have adopted, what for us is a new yet beautiful custom where children run to their fathers to find temporary shelter under their fathers tallit and the weight of the father’s hands. Every father, at this moment, while facing the kohanim with their heads covered and their hands lifted upward and outward yet hidden, and with his children’s heads below his own hands, undoubtedly concentrates intensely begging Hashem that He should bestow fully this blessing upon his own children and family.

Rashi comments on the words, Amor Lahem, Say to them, that Amor is in the infinitive tense, meaning it is constant using the example of Shamor – watch and Zachor – remember the Shabbat as stated in the two versions of the Ten Commandments. In a sense this blessing of the Kohanim is constant and never ending. I can sometimes hear in my mind, my grandfather David Gindi, a’h, giving the blessing or imagine the blessing coming from my mother’s uncle Haham Moshe Gindi, z’sl, who my mother speaks of very fondly. I imagine hearing the blessing spoken by my great grandfathers, Yaakov Gindi or Hayim Cohen in Aleppo a century ago. I doubt they could have imagined the world of their grandchildren and generations to come when they bid farewell to their own departing children from the piers of Beirut and a world which is for the most part forgotten and destroyed.

We are commanded to say the blessing aloud in a strong voice. I wonder how far the sound waves of those blessings of our ancestors travel. Certainly in a spiritual sense, we are the beneficiaries even a century or millennia later.

Rabbi Abittan would explain the words of his teacher, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, z’tl who noted that the commandment of Birkat Kohanim entails two separate aspects: the transmission of a direct blessing from Hashem and hashra’at ha-Shechinah (the manifestation of Hashem’s presence). The Rabbi would explain that Birkat Kohanim is a direct meeting with the Shechinah that presents us with an intimate encounter in which we come [so to speak] face to face with Hashem. Rabbi Abittan certainly felt this and our custom in our synagogue while I was there together with the rabbi and while I was hazan, was for the rabbi to come up to the bimah during the repetition. When I arrived at the blessing of the Kohanim, I would pause and lower my head. The rabbi would place his hand on my head and he would call out each word of the blessings for the Kohanim to repeat. The weight of his hand and with it the feeling of a resting shechina or Divine Presence, can still be felt.

There is still a question which needs to be asked. What is the true nature of blessings and more specifically, Birkat Kohanim? Are we not blessed or rewarded based on our actions? If we merit, are we not rewarded and if we sin, are we not punished? Do blessing really override a sense of justice? Does the presence of the shechina change things?

Rabbi Eli Mansour suggested an insight he saw in a sefer given to him by the Bobov community, Lev Aryeh. The Talmud states: Rava said: The length of one’s life, the amount of his children, and his sustenance are not dependent on merit, but rather on mazal (fate). (Rava’s statement is meant to explain that while both Rav Chisda and Rabah were on the tremendously high level that they could bring rain to the world, Rav Chisdah lived 92 years while Rabah died at 40. Obviously, Rava feels that merit has little to do with their life span and the length of their days was dictated by their mazal, their fate, or as we have explained before, the script each of us writes before we are born.)

Thus these three items, length of life, number and type of children and our blessing are subject to our fate. And we have seen this time and again through history. One can ask why someone with obvious merit is lacking while someone who apparently has no merit has everything. This is one possible explanation.

The Lev Aryeh continues that keeping the Torah and Misvot can assist on everything else, but with regard to these three how can we change them? He suggests that Birkat Kohanim is the answer to children, life and wealth.

How? May Hashem bless you and watch over you … Yevarechehca VeYishmerech with children with boys and girls.

Yaer Hashem Panav elecha VeYichnecha: May Hashem cause His countenance to shine upon you and favor you. As we state in the daily amidah prayer – Ki Beor Panecha Natata Lanu Hashem Elokeynu Torah VeChayim. Through the light of your countenance you gave us Torah and life.

And finally Yisah Hashem Panav Elecha VeYasem Lecha Shalom – May Hashem raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace. The Talmud teaches when there is sustenance then there is peace. And we know that when finances are tight people more often than not tend to fight. We read that when the barrel of barley is empty, there are loud noises in the house – machloket – dispute is banging on the door. On the other hand, we read Hasam Gevulech Shalom Chelev Chitim Yasbiyaych – Hashem shall put peace at your borders, and satiate you with the fullness of the wheat. We are more often at peace when we are not lacking. We find this at home and we find this in business among partners. When the money is coming in, people don’t complain and don’t fight, but when the money stops, the accusations begin.

While Tosefot explains that to overcome fate takes a super human effort of merit, the Lev Aryeh is telling us that Birkat Kohanim is such an amazing blessing because it has the ability to overcome fate. What a tremendous chizuk – strength we are being given! What an incredible gift Hashem has given us through the Kohanim! We now have something amazing to focus on as we hear each of the words each day of the year. We are blessed with the Shechina resting over us and making the impossible, possible.

If you want a blessing, before you search the world, come to synagogue! Hear the blessing of the Kohanim. Feel the presence of Hashem. Hear our ancestor’s words; whether a grandfather, great grandfather or Aharon the High Priest himself. Realize that this is a direct blessing from Hashem, Himself! And know that the impossible becomes possible during these precious moments.

May Hashem bless each of us, with children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who will bring us pride and joy all of our days. May we be blessed with long and healthy lives. And may we be blessed with peace and sustenance to better serve our Creator in Heaven.

Parshas Naso – A Powerful Lesson in True Humility

By
Sholom Schreirber
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The Sotah ritual, Jan Luyken, 1703 – 1762 Rijksmuseum.nl

By: Rabbi Label Lam

The Kohen shall bring her near and have her stand before HASHEM. The Kohen shall take sacred water in an earthenware vessel, and the Kohen shall take from the (APHAR) dust that is on the floor of the Tabernacle and put it in the water… (Bamidbar 5:16-17)

The Midrash is puzzled why APHAR- dust is invited as part of the Sotah solution. The answer that is given is that in the merit of Avraham Avinu when he was praying on behalf of Sodom he referred to himself as “APHAR v AIFER – DUST and ASHES”!

OK but how is that an answer? What’s the connection between his declaration and the requirement of this unfaithful woman to be offered to drink water with dust from the floor of the Temple?

Obviously Avraham Avinu was adopting a posture of extreme humility when praying to HASHEM and interceding on behalf of Sodom. How else can one approach The Creator of the Universe?! It’s an exercise in ultimate humility, a finite creature standing before an Infinite Being! This portrait of Avraham’s self-effacement and absolute nullification remains etched for all time as the definitive portrait of humility.

I am afraid though that we may have a wrong impression of what true humility is if we view this scene too quickly and superficially. I saw a phrase that might illuminate the topic, “Humility is not thinking less of your-self. It’s thinking less about your-self.” Is that not the exact description of what Avraham Avinu was doing here?

This aligns with the famous statement from the Kotzker Rebbe. A person should have two pieces of paper. One is each of two pockets. On one piece of paper the words from the Mishne in Sanheidrin should be inscribed, “A person has an obligation to say, ‘The whole world was created for me!’”

On the other piece of paper the words of Avraham Avinu should be written, “I am dust and ashes!” The trick is to know when to take out which piece of paper!

Avraham Avinu was hoping to change the mind of The Almighty! He did not consider him-self completely unworthy. How else can one have the temerity to countermand G-d!? It seems he understood very well the import of his position in the world. Obviously Avraham, in all his humility, was not thinking too little about him-self!

It’s very clear that Avraham was not thinking about him-self. Just the opposite! All that he is depicted doing is for the sake of the people of Sodom. He was not asking for anything for him-self.

When he was called upon to deliver his beloved son Yitzchok as a Korbon he did not whisper a word of protest. For the people of Sodom, Avraham Avinu carried on as a defense attorney before a strict judge to protect a community he knew was guilty of many crimes. Avraham thought enough of him-self, to have the courage to face off with HASHEM, and at the same time he though not about him-self at all, but only about the welfare of others. That’s the real portrait of humility.

Now let us apply this same standard to the other side of the equation, the Sotah. The woman who allowed her-self to be lured by the seductive sirens of temptation and indulgence was either not considering or was underestimating the import and impact of her actions, which are serious and severe. She obviously thought too little of herself.

At the same time she was thinking only about herself! She engaged in an act of ultimate selfishness! Rather her behavior betrays qualities that demonstrate just the opposite of true humility. Perhaps that’s why, now she is forced to digest APHAR- dust, as a strong reminder of and a powerful lesson in true humility.

(Torah.org)

The Rabbi of Buchenwald

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Rabbi Herschel Schacter conducting services at the liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.

By: Dr. Rafael Medoff

On a sunny afternoon 75 years ago this spring, Chaplain Herschel Schacter was drinking coffee with several officers from his unit, the Eighth Corps of the Third US Army, on the outskirts of Weimar, Germany, when “a friendly Colonel, a nice man” approached. “You know, this may be of interest to you,” the colonel began. “We just got word that our troops penetrated a place called Buchenwald. It’s some kind of concentration camp, I think.”

The date was April 11, 1945, and what Rabbi Schacter was about to experience would change his life forever.

Schacter and his assistant, Private Hyman Schulman, drove five miles to the site. The German guards had fled as American forces arrived earlier that day. Trembling, Schacter stepped through the front gate. His eye “caught a glimpse of a tall chimney with billowing smoke still curling upward.” It was Buchenwald’s crematorium.

“I scarcely could believe my eyes,” he later recalled. “There I stood, face to face with piles of dead bodies strewn around, waiting to be shoveled into the furnace that was still hot. It was just an incredible, harrowing sight. I stood there for a while in utter confusion and disbelief. I then began to really feel what this horror was all about.”

A GI led the rabbi to a nearby prisoners’ barracks.

“A foul odor hit me as I entered. I saw a series of shelves, hard cold planks of wood from floor to ceiling. There were hundreds of men and a few boys lying on stinking straw sacks, looking out at me from dazed and bewildered eyes, skin and bones, more dead than alive.”

Schacter was “overwhelmed, stunned, terrified, not knowing what to say or do. Impulsively, instinctively, I shouted in Yiddish, ‘Sholom aleichem Yidden, ihr zeit frei – Greetings, Jews, you are free!’”

Raised in the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, Schacter earned his rabbinical ordination at Yeshiva University, and assumed his first pulpit in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1941. Then the United States entered the war and everything changed. Members of the clergy were exempt from military service.

“But after Pearl Harbor, I felt uncomfortable that all the other young men were enlisting, and I wasn’t,” he recalled. “I couldn’t stand it.”

After completing a training course at the Army Chaplain School on the campus of Harvard University in Boston, Schacter was first stationed in New Orleans, and then San Juan, Puerto Rico. He conducted religious services for Jewish GIs, counseled them on personal matters, and gave classes.

The Caribbean would have been a pleasant place to spend the remainder of the war but in the wake of the Allies’ D-Day land invasion of continental Europe, Schacter was anxious to join his comrades on the front lines. After repeated pleas to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains in Washington, he got his wish.

Soon Schacter found himself accompanying troops into newly liberated Holland. There he presided at the first bris by Dutch Jews since the war began. The guest of honor was a baby born a year earlier in attic in Maastricht, where a young Jewish couple had been hiding from the Nazis. In the weeks to follow, Schacter conducted Passover Seders for soldiers in units that were pushing through Germany.

“Just as the ancient Children of Israel had to cross the Red Sea to celebrate the first Passover, so have we crossed the Rhine to celebrate the first Passover in Nazi Germany since the rise of Hitler,” he wrote to his family. The Jewish soldiers “had tears of joy in their eyes when we tore down a swastika flag and put up a sign with a Magen David [Star of David] over the doorway” where the Seder took place.

Approximately 21,000 Jews remained alive in Buchenwald on its day of liberation. When Chaplain Schacter entered their barracks, prisoner Moshe Avital later recalled, “We were afraid [because] we always associated military uniforms with the SS.”

But then they heard the rabbi call out “Yidden, ihr zeit frei!” and saw the Jewish chaplain’s symbol of the Ten Commandments on Schacter’s lapel.

“We crowded around him and hugged and kissed him,” Avital wrote. “And some asked him, ‘Why did you take so long to come?’”

They followed him as he proceeded from barracks to barracks, announcing the news of their freedom. At one point, Schacter found himself “paralyzed in front of a mound of corpses.”

He noticed a small movement from among the bodies and stepped closer. The eyes of a young boy stared out at him. After extracting the child from the pile, Schacter asked him his age.

“I’m certainly older than you,” the boy replied cryptically. Schacter recalled: “‘Older than me?’ I asked, startled. ‘What makes you think so?’

‘Because you cry and laugh as a child, while I have forgotten how to laugh and I can’t even cry. So tell me, which of us is older?’”

The eight-year-old boy, known as Lulek, was Israel Meir Lau, who grew up to become the chief rabbi of Israel.

With the permission of his superiors, Schacter returned to Buchenwald every day for the next two-and-a-half months. Neglecting his army chaplain’s duties and ignoring the constant risk of communicable diseases, he devoted himself to nursing the survivors back to life. He conducted religious services, counseled the grieving and broken, and served as their liaison to the military authorities.

Schacter compiled long lists of the survivors’ personal information, and worked with the Red Cross and Jewish relief groups to reunite the prisoners with their families. He also convinced US Army officials to set aside a nearby tract of land for a group of young men and women who established “Kibbutz Buchenwald,” a site for agricultural training in preparation for immigrating to the future State of Israel.

When the Swiss government agreed to admit several hundred children, Schacter bent rules and forged documents to include many additional passengers on the train, even hiding mothers in the train cars’ bathrooms so they would not be separated from their children.

Schacter joined them on the long train ride to Switzerland, and emerged victorious from a tense standoff with border officials, who accused him of bringing more orphans than permitted.

The American Jewish military chaplains who were sent to Europe during World War II had no advance warning or training for dealing with survivors of death camps. Schacter rose to the challenges posed by extraordinary and unimaginable circumstances, and the survivors whom he impacted regarded him as having saved their lives.

Schacter’s months in Buchenwald deeply affected his own life as well. In the short run, he served as the voice of the survivors in a coast-to-coast speaking tour in 1946 that drew the American public’s attention to the plight of displaced persons, and the need for a Jewish homeland.

Rabbi Hershel Schacter’s personal connection to the Nazi genocide inspired him to devote his life to Jewish communal service; first as a major figure in the revitalization of American Orthodox Judaism in the 1950s and early 1960s, then as an early leader of the Soviet Jewry protest movement, and finally as the first Orthodox rabbi to chair the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Through his decades of community leadership, there pulsed a sense of commitment that had been nurtured in the crucible of Buchenwald, where Schacter had witnessed the ultimate, tragic toll of inhumanity.

This essay was adapted from the author’s forthcoming biography of Rabbi Herschel Schacter and originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

(Aish.com)

Rioting and Shul Vandalism

By
Sholom Schreirber
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The author writes: “The murder in Minnesota is horrific. It’s shocking to me that that level of police racism, abuse and brutality still exists. Unfortunately, the reaction is no way to right the wrong.”

By: Emuna Braverman

We’ve been in Los Angeles for 37 years so along with the recent rioting, we experienced the 1992 Rodney King riots. I thought then, as I think now – that the stories that sparked the riots are terrible, speaking of unbearable pain and injustice – but that I really don’t see a connection between racism/police brutality and looting Louis Vuitton stores or Target or the local mom and pop shops…I don’t understand how or why graffiti on synagogues is in any way an appropriate response.

Does anyone really believe this is the way to right the wrongs? Is any and all anger and violence justified in the face of racism?

And I thought then, as I think now – how unfortunate that the young go out and destroy that which it took their parents years to build. In 1992 many stores were burned and ransacked in the very neighborhoods where the rioters lived, enterprises that their parents had spent the previous 40 years building. There is energy among the young; there can be vision and idealism but so much lack of perspective.

The Talmud says, “If old men say ‘destroy’ and young men say ‘build up’, you should destroy and not build up because destruction by old men is considered construction and construction by boys is destruction.”

The Torah is frequently admonishing us to know our place. This means to recognize our unique strengths and weaknesses, to focus on the hand we are dealt and not the one we wish we were dealt or the hand that others were dealt. Certainly an aspect of this is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of our age. What wisdom and life experience am I lacking at 25? What physical strength and drive am I lacking at 60? It is only with those recognitions in mind that we can make wise decisions.

In the book of Kings, there is a story about Rechovoam, the son of King Solomon. When he took over the throne the coffers were depleted and he very much wanted to impose a heavy tax on the people. His older advisers suggested that he wait. He should take time to consolidate his power and build a relationship of trust with the people. His younger advisers were less patient. They reminded him of the heavy taxes his father imposed and suggested that he impose even heavier ones! Young himself (and eager for the income), Rechovoam listened to his younger, more “sympatico” advisers. This ultimately led to the deaths of the tax collectors and the splitting of the kingdom.

I don’t expect such dire consequences now. I am hopeful that, having survived riots in the past, the city of Los Angeles (and other cities across America) will survive them again. I think that with the good will of the majority of the American people, and with the Almighty’s help, we will survive and recover. But…

Of course the timing is terrible. Just as stores and malls were about to open up, they have been looted and destroyed. In their naive desire to punish “the rich” they end up hurting themselves. For all the landlords and store owners who are taking a hit, there are hundreds, probably thousands of lower income workers who are hurt by this destructive behavior. Without perspective, we end up damaging the very people we want to help.

The Mishnah in Ethics of Our Fathers teaches: “Who is the wise man? The one who foresees the consequences.” This is so powerful. We are all susceptible to our emotions. We all have the potential to react in negative ways out of anger, pain, frustration, jealousy – you name the bad character traits, we all have them! But a wise person doesn’t just stop himself because he doesn’t want to listen to his negative self (although that’s certainly an important component); a wise person stops himself because he sees the future consequences. Where will this lead? Will it accomplish my goals? Will it encourage others to join our mission or alienate them?

I’m not going to list all the possible questions; that’s not the point. The point is that they should be asked. The point is that a reaction should be rational and methodical. The point is that goals are accomplished through strategy and unity, that we as a country need to work together.

What happened in Minnesota was an appalling tragedy. There are no words to adequately convey how wrong and terrible and painful it was. It is shocking to me that that level of police racism, abuse and brutality still exists. And justice must be meted out.

Unfortunately the reaction was just as tragic. We haven’t learned from recent history and we haven’t learned our lessons from the Prophets either! Maybe, just maybe, we can learn them for the future.

(Aish.com)

Millions are Blaming Jews for Coronavirus

By
Sholom Schreirber
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One out of five English people believe Jews are behind the coronavirus pandemic.

By: Dr. Yvette Alt Miller

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep through the world causing death and anxiety, an increasing number of people falsely – and terrifyingly – believe they have found a simple explanation: The Jews are somehow orchestrating this entire crisis.

False conspiracy theories about the pandemic “have largely built on previous prejudices and (past) conspiracy theories – including the long-held slanders that Jews somehow seek world domination and also the falsehood that Jews seek to poison or harm others.” That’s the conclusion of Dr. Daniel Freeman, a professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford, and the lead researcher on a recent study that found that more one in five English people believe Jews are causing the pandemic.

Oxford researchers questioned thousands of English people about the coronavirus in May 2020. The study found that fully one in five English people concur with the false assertion that Jews are somehow behind the pandemic, saying that they agreed to varying extents with the statement “Jews have created the virus to collapse the economy for financial gain.” Only 80.8% of respondents said they did not agree with this statement at all. “In the wake of the epidemic, mistrust looks to have become mainstream,” explained Prof. Freeman.

Jews weren’t the only minority group respondents blamed for the novel coronavirus; some respondents also were keen to blame Muslims, China and even their own British politicians. Yet from the beginning of this pandemic, Jews have played an outsize role in some conspiracy theorists’ fevered imaginations and have emerged as targets of vitriol and hate. “They are blaming the Jews (for coronavirus), accusing us of trying to destroy the economy in order to make money. They also accuse Israel of causing the virus,” Natan Sharansky said two months ago, when the world was still trying to get to grips with the pandemic.

Groundless accusations that Jews somehow invented the novel coronavirus have sprung up around the world, from traditional sources of anti-Jewish hatred like Iran, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority, to supposedly more tolerant and enlightened western countries including Britain and the United States.

has openly accused “Zionist elements” of “develop(ing) a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran” and that the virus was “proof” that Israel was “waging biological warfare on a massive scale” by somehow inventing and spreading the virus. This bizarre and untrue allegation has been routinely aired on Iranian television and repeated on social media and in the press, creating a false impression through sheer repetition that somehow Israel and Jews are to blame for Covid-19.

Turkish politicians and newspapers have piled on accusations that Jews somehow invented the virus; observers note that it’s commonplace in much of the country to say that Jews are behind the pandemic. On March 6, 2020, Fatih Erbakan, the head of the Refah political party and the son of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, reportedly gave a speech in which he said that the pandemic was part of “Zionism’s goals of decreasing the number of people” worldwide. In a statement that illustrates the routine use of the word “Zionist” to mean Jew, Erbakan also called Zionism “a five-thousand-year-old bacteria that has caused the suffering of people”.

That description of Jews and Judaism as uniquely evil has long historical roots in Western Europe, dating back to Medieval blood libels in which Jews were accused of murdering Christian children and seeking to eat them or to drink their blood. It’s not hard to see echoes of the blood libel in today’s widespread slander of Jews as being behind the current pandemic.

Back in March 2020, when the coronavirus was first causing widespread shutdowns around the world, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) documented dozens of cases of Jews being blamed around the world. In France, a far-right politician blamed Jews for causing the coronavirus. In Spain, a far-left Basque political party did the same. The ADL documented a far-right commentator in Switzerland who blamed Jews, and two far-left writers in Venezuela who did the same thing. Neo-Nazis in the United States have been falsely claiming that coronavirus is a Jewish plot for months, and have even encouraged adherents to try and infect Jews deliberately with the virus to make them sick. Slandering Jews knows no political bounds and grows in the shadow of ignorance and hate no matter what one’s political opinions.

“Where people are feeling powerless, anxious or threatened, conspiracy theories can offer some relief,” explains Dr. Daniel Jollay, a social psychologist at Northumbria University in Britain who’s written about conspiracy theories during the current pandemic. He notes that the conspiracy theories that are most attractive are those that mirror preexisting prejudices. “The conspiracy theories people gravitate towards the most are often the ones that mirror their existing biases.” It seems that the current pandemic has uncovered a deep reservoir of anti-Semitism around the world, and is rapidly worsening people’s mistrust and dislike of Jews.

Coronavirus has exposed deep wells of anti-Jewish hatred. This is the world our grandparents and great grandparents often faced, when the Jewish community was blamed and feared. It’s up to all of us today to respond with the same bravery and commitment that our Jewish forbearers showed when they too were blamed for plagues and disease. When faced with anti-Semitism and hate, they redoubled their commitment to live full Jewish lives. It’s up to each of us to do the same today.

        (Aish.com)

The Spiritual Benefits of Social Distancing

By
Sholom Schreirber
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How our family is finding some clarity amidst chaos.

By: Jessica Brenner

There are many parallels between becoming an observant Jew and announcing that you’re studying to become a therapist.

Many people don’t realize that this is something that you can become – rather, you either emerge from the womb in tortoise-shell glasses with a look of empathic understanding, or you will hear the most carefully constructed versions of “Who are you to be telling other people how to live?” from friends and acquaintances. Even worse: “Were you in a lot of therapy to have become so inspired?”

Similarly, if you were not born keeping Shabbat, it may seem awfully presumptuous to other people that you should stop answering your text messages for 24 hours. For if you believe that this is the way Jews should practice their religion, it must be that you’re calling wrong those who practice differently.

Certainly, there are those who bring a certain zealousness to their journeys of observance. And there are others, like me, who have craved the opportunity for growth that is entirely their own.

We brush up against each other all the time, don’t we? A friend says that she doesn’t eat meat for ethical reasons, and you feel inherently compelled to justify your carnivorous dinner plate. A fellow parent states that she had a “natural birth,” and my gut twists as I suppress the desire to explain that all births are natural, except the one that goes according to plan. Unfortunately, this is where the psychic pressures that create conformity and fear of difference come in: from the fear that if I am not like you, or do not make decisions which mirror yours, then I must not like, respect, or be able to understand you.

My father, when the topic of Jewish observance comes up, always says something gruff like, “I make my own decisions; I don’t need a rabbi to tell me how to think.” My mother’s relationship to Judaism is innate, but never practical. She seems to have a headache every High Holiday when she is expected to turn up at synagogue, but if someone’s child is marrying a non-Jew, or there is an act of anti-Semitism she can condemn on Facebook, you would think that she founded the religion. But her daughter practicing Judaism on a daily basis, actually praying and keeping kosher? What mishugas.

My journey to Jewish observance has gone through several iterations. In this second wave, as I’ve come to call my growth into a more observant lifestyle, I am married and blessed with several children. There is both incredible relief in this experience (I no longer have to answer to my own parents, at least not directly) and many complications (ensuring consistency for our children while enduring my in-laws’ occasional eyebrow raises).

When I met my husband, I had taken a step backwards in my Jewish practice. I was tired of going at it alone. My husband, though from a nonobservant background, was incredibly open and interested in learning (“I hate that I don’t really know what the significant texts of my own religion actually talk about”). So we agreed to grow together. I loved revisiting the things that had drawn me to Judaism in the first place, through the eyes of the man I loved.

Even so, in the last several years, we’ve realized that Jewish growth can still be a bit messy. Clunky. It’s impossible not to bump up against our own resistance and that of other people the minute you decide to practice anything at all. And sometimes we felt like we were going at it alone, together. Whenever someone asks if we are “Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform” we’ve come to smile and say some version of “traditional.”

But in the last few months, something interesting has happened under our roof. Social distancing has meant no synagogue services, no gathering for holidays, no attending in-person classes at our local Chabad center, and yet, my husband and I feel more Jewishly inspired than ever before.

I believe that this is due to the opportunity to navigate ritual and routine within our own family unit. My husband and I learn together regularly when our children go to bed, and then we evaluate and set goals for our own growth. We are observing Shabbat more carefully than we were before, and our uncluttered calendar has allowed us to move at a steadier pace. “What’s our excuse this week?” I asked my husband with a smirk on the first Friday that we were officially sheltering in place.

Eleven weeks in, it already feels so much smoother and more natural. I can’t put into words what a relief it is to do this with an exaggerated sense of privacy.

Rabbi Manis Friedman shared an insight recently that struck me as absolutely beautiful: when addressing those who were about to make a Passover Seder alone, and completely overwhelmed with how to do so without the support of a rabbi or community, he indicated that it’s clear that God wants from us a more personal Judaism – our own, the kind that can only take place in our homes. Imperfect, perhaps, even a bit out of order, but from your being, in the way that no one else could offer.

Sometimes the most significant changes in life happen when one is alone, free of expectations, and especially noise. The equivalent of having your best ideas in the shower (the last place where humans are alone with their thoughts), or carving out a solitary space for meditation and prayer. It takes a measure of freedom from the grounding forces of everyday life to even hear our calling.

Judaism isn’t normally practiced in isolation. I know it’ll get messy and clunky again when life gets busy, when I am confronted with decisions that I have not had to face in the last several months. Which is why I can’t help but feel grateful for this time to fortify myself and my family, to do what feels right for us.

My hope is that we all come out of quarantine a bit more self-aware, and that that will extend to respect for the role and value of the Jewish family and the choices we each make within it. As far as others’ interest in how I practice Judaism (or therapy), I know that I can let my life and the way I choose to live speak for itself.

And there isn’t anything more authentic, in my mind, than that.

(Aish.com)

Corona or Not, Israel’s Aquarium Fish Still Need to be Fed

By
Sholom Schreirber
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A diver surrounded by fish works away in a tank at the Israel Aquarium. Photo by Yael Lorentci

A diver from the aquarium tells ISRAEL21c about plunging in with sharks, lionfish and sprucing up artificial corals in Jerusalem’s maritime hotspot.

By: Naama Barak

Jerusalem is blessed with many wonders – the Old City, a golden skyline, rolling hills and perfect summer weather. Unfortunately, it has not been blessed with a sea, meaning that diving aficionados in the area must go all the way down to Eilat to catch a glimpse of remarkable underwater life.

Some of the colorful inhabitants of the Israel Aquarium. Photo by Daniel Aloni

Unless, that is, they’re among select divers at the Israel Aquarium, situated in the otherwise arid Malcha neighborhood of the capital.

Meni Cohen oversees all the volunteer divers at the aquarium. He previously spent some 40 years working at the Israel Electric Corporation, where he tried to balance his work with his passion for diving.

He joined the aquarium not long after it opened in 2017 and has been spending almost every day there since, carrying out work and instructing new volunteers.

“I love this place. I adore it. This place was made to fit me,” he declares. “Now I can be underwater every day, for the whole day, right near home.”

An unusual experience

Entrance to the Israel Aquarium in Jerusalem. Photo by Daniel Aloni

Cohen commands a crew of some 60 volunteers who work alongside the small aquarium crew. They conduct around 20 dives a week using regular or scuba gear. Mostly they carry out tasks to maintain the tanks and feed the few fish that can’t have their food thrown to them from above.

The aquarium is comprised of 33 different-sized tanks holding hundreds of fish that represent Israel’s diverse maritime environment, focusing on the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

Each of these tanks must be cleaned – the algae that grows on their glass walls has to be removed, artificial corals and other props have to be spruced up and sludge has to be removed. The divers go into all of those, save for two housing seahorses and jellyfish, which are too small to enter.

A lionfish usually found in the Red Sea swims in the Jerusalem aquarium. Photo by Shai Ben Ami

“It really is an unusual experience,” Cohen says. “There are dives that can last up to two and a half hours, but an average dive takes around an hour and a half.”

Cohen notes that there are differences between outdoor diving and aquarium diving. In the open sea, for example, divers mostly use their legs while trying to remain horizontal. Inside the tanks, they mostly use their hands and need to be heavy to reach the ground.

The diverse tanks mean that the divers also get a diverse experience.

“There’s one tank with turtles,” Cohen says. “The turtles are right there with you. It’s really nice – it’s fun and interesting.”

Other tanks prove more demanding, for example the one housing sharks, including Cohen’s personal favorite, Bonito. Here, the divers dive as they would in the open sea, in pairs that secure one another.

Love bites

“There are what you could call challenging dives,” he adds. “There’s a very cramped tank where you dive with lionfish.”

Some dives verge on danger, he adds. “You have to be ready for incidents that could happen at any moment.”

While the lionfish, and all the other fish, do not usually attack the divers, occasional bites do happen. Cohen was bit on the hand by the venomous lionfish, an incident he recalls as being rather painful.

A starfish at the Israel Aquarium. Photo by Daniel Aloni

“There are bites from certain fish that really like the divers,” he explains. “It has to do with attention; they come and play with the divers. We try not to initiate contact with them but let them come to us, which is really nice for us. And if it isn’t, we gently turn them away.”

Not only do the divers need to be sensitive inside the water, but also while moving from one tank to another.

“The most important thing in the aquarium is to prevent infection,” Cohen says. “There’s a chance you could spread disease from one place to the next.”To prevent this from happening, the divers clean up and change gear between dives.

In regular times, the large pool of volunteer divers divides up the work, but the coronavirus crisis has meant that a much smaller number of them, divided into two separate groups, has been doing all the chores even until the aquarium reopens.

“The team there really is an amazing, very dedicated team,” Cohen says. “It’s a 24/7 job.”

(Israel 21C)

As Hard-Hit Areas of America Show Slowing in Coronavirus Cases, Other Regions See Spikes

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
While the spread of coronavirus has slowed in some of the hardest-hit areas of America, other parts of the country were seeing worrying spikes in cases by Friday.

By: Robin Foster & EJ Mundell

While the spread of coronavirus has slowed in some of the hardest-hit areas of America, other parts of the country were seeing worrying spikes in cases by Friday.

New York City, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, announced plans Thursday to ease restrictions after 10 weeks under lockdown, the Washington Post reported.

“Restarting won’t mean back to normal — we CAN’T rush back,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted Thursday. “We need to keep this virus in check.”

But even as the New York area began to emerge from strict social distancing measures, other states were seeing jumps in COVID-19 cases, the New York Times reported.

Wisconsin saw its highest single-day increase in both cases and deaths just two weeks after the state’s highest court overturned a stay-at-home order; Alabama, Arkansas, California and North Carolina are seeing some of their highest case numbers and death tallies yet; and metropolitan areas like Fayetteville, Ark.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Roanoke and Charlottesville, Va., may soon see new highs in cases and deaths.

As the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 1.7 million and the death toll reached 101,600 on Friday, there was more evidence of the collateral damage the virus has caused: New numbers released Thursday show the number of unemployed has now passed 40 million.

The death toll is “a striking reminder of how dangerous this virus can be,” Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, safety concerns over a malaria drug that President Donald Trump has touted as a coronavirus treatment prompted the World Health Organization to remove the medication from a global trial of potential COVID-19 therapies earlier this week.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the international health agency’s director-general, said Monday that the WHO decided to take a “pause” in testing hydroxychloroquine after a study published last week in The Lancet medical journal found people who took the drug were more likely to die, the Times reported. Several other studies have found the medication has no benefit and could possibly harm COVID-19 patients.

Regardless, Trump says he has just finished taking a two-week course of the malaria drug to guard against COVID-19 infection after two White House staffers tested positive for the coronavirus.

But Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie testified on Thursday before a House subcommittee that the agency has drastically cut the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat veterans with COVID-19, the Post reported.

“We have ratcheted down as we’ve brought more treatments online,” Wilkie, who wore a surgical mask, told the panel. “And I expect that to continue.”

Disappointing drug trials

Hopes for another drug being tested against coronavirus infection have dimmed, after a major, new study found the drug on its own won’t be enough to significantly curb cases and deaths.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that, “given high mortality [of patients] despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an antiviral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient.”

The remdesivir study involved 1,063 COVID-19 patients and was led by Dr. John Beigel and Dr. Clifford Lane at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The researchers found that the drug, delivered by infusion, did help ease the illness: Patients who got the antiviral recovered after an average of 11 days versus 15 days for those who hadn’t received it.

Patients who were so sick they required supplemental oxygen, but did not need a ventilator to breathe, appeared to benefit most from remdesivir.

But the difference in the overall death rate — 7.1% of patients on the drug vs. 11.9% of those who didn’t get it — did not reach statistical significance, the researchers added.

The study does suggest that early treatment works best. “Our findings highlight the need to identify COVID-19 cases and start antiviral treatment before the pulmonary disease progresses to require mechanical ventilation,” the researchers said.

Early evidence had suggested that remdesivir might help fight coronavirus illness, so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it “emergency use authorization.”

Already, combinations of remdesivir and other drugs are being tried, to see if dual-drug treatments might boost outcomes even more. For example, one federally funded clinical trial is combining remdesivir with a potent anti-inflammatory drug called baricitinib, while a trial from biotech firm CytoDyn is pairing it with an antiviral called leronlimab.

Vaccine efforts continue

Meanwhile, the search for an effective vaccine goes on. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Thursday it would provide up to $1.2 billion to the drug company AstraZeneca to develop a potential coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University, in England.

The fourth, and largest, vaccine research agreement funds a clinical trial of the potential vaccine in the United States this summer with about 30,000 volunteers, the Times reported.

The goal? To make at least 300 million doses that could be available as early as October, the HHS said in a statement.

However, many experts have said that the earliest an effective, mass-produced vaccine would be available won’t be until sometime next year, and billions of doses would be needed worldwide.

   (HealthDay News)

Not stopping’: Defiant NYC protesters march through curfew

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Police arrest protesters refusing to get off the streets during an imposed curfew while marching in a solidarity rally calling for justice regarding the death of George Floyd, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, in New York. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

By JAKE SEINER, BRIAN MAHONEY and DEEPTI HAJELA

An 8 p.m. curfew didn’t stop thousands of defiant demonstrators from marching through the streets of New York City throughout the night Tuesday, though some of the rampant destruction seen over the past few nights was quelled.

The citywide curfew, which is in place through Sunday and was moved earlier from the previous night, was instated to prevent the widespread damage and destruction that has filled the city’s streets over the last two nights after largely peaceful dayside protests.

Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down on a citywide curfew, but rejected urging from President Donald Trump and an offer from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard.

“Everyone, time to go home so we can keep people safe,” he said on WINS-AM radio shortly after the curfew took effect.

But demonstrators continued winding through the streets, mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, as part of ongoing nationwide protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd and other recent racially charged killings.

“I’m surprised,” said Risha Munoz, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where at points they were greeted with cheers and horns by onlookers in building windows. “I didn’t think they were gonna let us go on, but we just kept on moving and we’re not stopping.”

Something has to break, and it’s not going to be us,” said Evan Kutcher, one of hundreds of demonstrators who stood outside the Barclays Center chanting Floyd’s name Tuesday evening.

Police began making arrests around 9 p.m. and shut down parts of the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, blocking it off to huge crowds of protesters. The police department announced it would not allow vehicle traffic south of 96th Street in Manhattan after curfew, though residents, essential workers, buses and truck deliveries were exempt.

“We’re going to have a tough few days. We’re going to beat it back,” de Blasio, a Democrat, said.

Jane Rossi said she witnessed officers rip a man out of his car and arrest him in Chelsea around 10:45 p.m.

The car was behind a group of several hundred protesters that had roamed Manhattan peacefully since leaving Trump Tower at 8 p.m. Tensions had risen moments earlier when some in the group began trying to damage a bike rental station and banged on the windows of a JCPenny’s. The vast majority of the crowd moved to stop the them.

Officers surrounded the car and arrested the driver moments later.

“They were just driving behind the protesters making sure that we were safe,” Rossi said. “They were part of the protest.”

Just after midnight Wednesday, most of the city’s streets were cleared aside from police patrolling, especially in hot-spot areas for demonstrations in areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. There was a heavy police presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, where authorities say police fatally shot a man after responding to reports of shots fired. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the officer-involved shooting was not connected to the protests.

Protests continued in New York City and across the country Tuesday following the death of Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on Floyd’s neck even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.

While de Blasio insisted the city would put a stop to the violence and vandalism that have marred largely peaceful mass demonstrations surrounding Floyd’s death, both the Republican president and the Democratic governor laid into the city’s handling of the mayhem thus far.

“The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night,” Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany. “Look at the videos. It was a disgrace.”

He said the mayor was underestimating the problem and the nation’s largest police force wasn’t deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence.

Cuomo’s remarks infuriated Monahan, the New York Police Department’s highest-ranking uniformed member.. Officers are “giving their blood to keep this city safe,” he told the New York Post, adding that he’d been hit by a bike and bloodied himself while arresting suspects Monday night. Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi later said the governor “has respect and confidence in the NYPD” and felt the mayor should put more officers on the streets.

Unprompted, Cuomo brought up the possibility of using his power as governor to replace the mayor and deploy the National Guard over de Blasio’s objections, then immediately shot down the idea as legally impractical and unnecessary.

On Twitter, Trump urged a 7 p.m. curfew and National Guard deployment in his native city.

The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!” he wrote.

But de Blasio said the NYPD was “best equipped” to handle the lawbreaking, arguing that bringing in the National Guard risked fueling worse conflict in a city on edge.

“We will regret it if we bring outside armed forces,” he said. “When you bring in people not trained for the circumstance but still with loaded weapons and put under horrible stress, really bad things happen.”

The mayhem over the last four nights has challenged the 36,000-officer police force, which has a reputation as a muscular, well-resourced agency that has driven down crime and faced down terror threats in the nation’s biggest city.

On Monday night and early Tuesday, police again struggled to keep up with, let alone get ahead of, roving groups of people bashing their way into shops, including Macy’s flagship Manhattan store.

Nearly 700 people were arrested overnight, and several officers were injured. A sergeant was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the Bronx and was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, police said. Video also showed a group of people hitting a police officer with pieces of wreckage until he pulled his gun and they ran.

De Blasio said officials expected problems farther downtown, as had happened the night before, and “adjustments were made” once officials realized that the hot spots had shifted.

 

Iowa voters oust Rep. King, shunned for insensitive remarks

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
In this Aug. 23, 2019, file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, speaks during a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa. King is on the outs with a significant bloc of his long-reliable conservative base, but not for almost two decades of incendiary utterances about abortion, immigrants and Islam. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

By THOMAS BEAUMONT (AP)

Republicans in northwest Iowa ousted Rep. Steve King in Tuesday’s primary, deciding they’ve had enough of the conservative lightning rod known for making incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy throughout his nearly two decades in Congress.

The nine-term congressman, shunned by his party leadership in Washington and many of his longtime supporters at home, lost to well-funded state Sen. Randy Feenstra in a five-way GOP primary. The challengers argued that King’s loss of clout, even more than the continuous string of provocative and racially-charged statements over his career, was reason enough for turning on him.

Iowa Democrats also chose a challenger for Republican freshman Sen. Joni Ernst in a race earlier thought to heavily favor Ernst until her approval shrank over the past year. Des Moines businesswoman Theresa Greenfield, who raised the most money and garnered the widest cross-section of the Iowa Democratic coalition of elected officials and labor unions, won the nomination over three others.

But the focus was on the 4th District primary featuring King, the lone Republican in Iowa’s U.S. House delegation.

King was stripped of his committee assignments in 2018 for comments appearing to question the criticism of white nationalism in an era of increased sensitivity among Republicans nationally about the alt-right and white supremacists. The congressman also made controversial remarks through the years about immigrants, Islam and abortion.

“There is a little bit of concern that he’s become tone deaf to some of these issues,” longtime King supporter Ann Trimble Ray said, referring to voters’ concern that King has been marginalized in Congress, though she remains a believer of the congressman.

Establishment Republicans suggested King’s ouster would easily keep the seat in the party’s hands, warning a King primary victory would jeopardize that by setting up a rematch with the Democrat who came within 2 percentage points of beating him two years ago.

King was vastly outspent by Feenstra and conservative groups backing him, including onetime King backer National Right to Life, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group.

Several of King’s former supporters shrugged at the litany of comments that fueled the congressman’s love-hate relationship with national media. However, they drew the line not with the comments in a 2018 New York Times story that seemed to defend white nationalism but with the reaction by House GOP leadership.

King was tossed from the Judiciary Committee, which would have given him a high profile role defending President Donald Trump during the 2019 impeachment hearings. He also lost his seat on the agriculture panel, a blow to the representative whose district produced more agricultural products in raw dollars than any district but Nebraska’s massive 3rd District, according to the most recent federal data.

“I personally feel very let down about some of the things that have happened because we need someone who is strong in agriculture from this area,” said former King supporter, state Sen. Annette Sweeney, who backed Feenstra.

King said during the campaign he had been assured privately by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he’d support King’s reinstatement on the committees, a claim McCarthy dismissed publicly to reporters last month.

Democrats chose from four relative unknowns to take on Ernst in what has has shaped up to be a more competitive Senate race than expected.

Ernst’s job approval and overall favorable ratings have dropped in the past year as she has sought to balance support for President Donald Trump, who is popular with Republicans but far less so among others in the state.

Greenfield had the edge, in part because of her compelling story of being widowed as a young mother and owing her rebound to Democratic priorities, Social Security and union benefits.

Perhaps most notably, the 55-year-old Greenfield impressed with her fundraising, bringing in more than $7 million since entering the race last year. That’s at least $5 million more than any of her Democratic opponents and reflects the endorsement of the Democrats’ national Senate campaign arm.

While Ernst has lost some of her footing, it’s difficult to say how the Senate race proceeds in light of the continuing pandemic, the uncertain economy and now protests over over police treatment of African Americans, including in Iowa where Trump won by more than 9 percentage points in 2016.

One recent data point, lost on many except Iowa Democratic leaders amid the ongoing crises: Registered Democrats in Iowa edged registered Republicans in March for the first time in more than six years, and now also outnumber voters unaffiliated with either party.

“Anybody who can predict what the state of the economy will be, any sense of community people have, where the partisan tendencies go between now and November, it’s just really hard to say,” said senior Ernst adviser David Kochel.

Minneapolis PD Faces Civil Rights Charges Over Floyd Killing

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

By Tauren Dyson (NEWSMAX)

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights will investigate the Minneapolis Police Department after filing civil rights charges associated with the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody last week.

Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who announced the filing Tuesday, said the investigation will look into the “policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years will determine if the MPD has engaged in systemic discriminatory practices towards people of color and ensure any such practices are stopped.”

“Silence is complicity: Minnesotans can expect our administration to use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state,” Walz said at a press conference Tuesday.

The filing comes a week after the Hennepin County Attorney filed third-degree murder charges against Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck before he died.

Walz tweeted:

“Our Minnesota Department of Human Rights today filed a civil rights charge against the MPD. @mnhumanrights will investigate the department’s policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years to determine if they engaged in systemic discriminatory practices.”

The U.S. Department of Justice also announced last week it is investigating if Chauvin and the three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest violated civil rights laws.

“I think the thing I’m hearing from the protesters is: ‘We’re not watching, and we don’t care what you say. We care what you do,'” Walz said.

Close to 100 at Isabella Home in NY Died of COVID-19 as New Report Emerges

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
In New York City, a shocking report in May revealed that the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights had close to 100 residents who died of COVID-19 since the outbreak hit the United States in March. Photo Credit: MJHS.org

TJV News

Nearly 26,000 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19, the government reported Monday, as federal officials demanded states carry out more inspections and vowed higher fines for facilities with poor infection control, as was reported by the AP.

The partial numbers released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are certain to go higher, as only about 80% of nursing homes have reported. Also, the federal data does not include assisted living facilities, which some states count in their coronavirus totals, according to the AP report.

Monday’s report will add to the national soul-searching about the disproportionately high toll of the virus in nursing homes. It’s also likely to set off finger-pointing among federal agencies, state authorities and the industry over who is responsible for making things better. More than 60,000 people in nursing homes got sick as the coronavirus spread rapidly among frail residents.

AP reported that Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma told reporters that hand-washing continues to be a challenge in some nursing homes and that many states — who are charged with determining compliance with federal standards— must double down on inspections. “There is no substitute for boots on the ground,” Verma said.

In New York City, a shocking report in May revealed that the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights had close to 100 residents who died of COVID-19 since the outbreak hit the United States in March.

According to a report in the Manhattan Times, local elected officials are seeking a full investigation after reports surfaced of the large number of residents who died there in the last few months.

The Manhattan Times indicated that a NY1 report on April 30 revealed that 98 residents at the 705-bed nursing home had passed away since the start of the pandemic. The deceased — which account for almost 14 percent of residents — either tested positive for COVID-19 or were suspected to have the virus.

On May 1, elected officials gathered outside the facility, which is run by nonprofit health system MJHS, to address the fatalities.

“We have said since the beginning of this pandemic that the city and the state need to work together to ensure that all nursing home centers have the resources and the supplies they need to prevent the spread of the virus,”  City Councilmember Ydanis Rodríguez told the Manhattan Times.  “The Isabella nursing home has been pleading for more protective equipment, increase in staffing, and access to testing for their seniors.”

Officials also questioned why the suspected death toll at Isabella is much higher than had been reported to the state, according to the Manhattan Times report.

According to the state Department of Health’s website, 13 coronarvirus deaths had occurred at Isabella as of May 1.

State Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa called Isabella “a beloved center in our community for decades” and said her office assisted the center with its needs for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“We have all been shocked to learn via media reports that the numbers and situation being reported to us is inaccurate,” said De La Rosa. “While we will continue to assist Isabella through this pandemic for the safety of our neighbors, today we call for a full investigation as to what has occurred here.”

The Manhattan Times reported that in a statement to the media, Isabella acknowledged that 98 deaths had occurred either onsite or at the hospital, but refuted that it had reported inaccurate data to the state.

“From the beginning of this pandemic, Isabella has reported truthful and accurate data requested by the Department of Health. We have shared daily the number of confirmed and presumed positive cases at both the residence and hospital, including deaths,” the statement read.

Antisemitism Finds its Insidious Way into Every Mass Protest

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Anna Roblin is arrested during an Occupy Wall Street march, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in New York. A handful of Occupy Wall Street protestors were arrested during a march toward the New York Stock Exchange on the anniversary of the grass-roots movement. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The demonstrations may have no relation to Israel or Jews, but there’s always an inventive way to blame and attack them

By: Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld

Antisemitism has been an integral part of Western culture for more than 1000 years and that is still the case today. One of the many ways this can be seen is that antisemitism often infiltrates in mass demonstrations, which have no relation to Israel or Jews.
Corona
This is also the case in the current “hygiene demonstrations” against the Corona lockdown in Germany in a variety of cities. Thousands of people participate in these protests. In Berlin, many participants chanted “Freedom Resistance Traitor and We Are All the People.” Some threw bottles at the police who responded with pepper spray and arrests. Among the demonstrators were conspiracy theorists and right-wing populists.
At several demonstrations yellow stars were worn on protestors armbands or chests falsely equating the lockdown measures to the Nazi persecution of Jews and the current government with that of Hitler. On these stars is written “not vaccinated” or “Covid 19.” Subsequently the city of Munich has prohibited the wearing of a yellow star at these gatherings. Occasionally demonstrators wore concentration camp inmate clothing with the sign “mask makes free”, Demonstrations in a number of German cities promoted by the right wing AfD party have also featured Nazi symbols and references to the Holocaust.
Gideon Botsch, head of the antisemitism research department of the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam, said that while the participants in these demonstrations are very diverse, “the ever present though latent antisemitism behind conspiracy theorism is now becoming apparent.”
Saba-Nur-Cheema of the Anne Frank Educational Center said that antisemitism in the protests plays an important if not always open role. Footage of some demonstrators openly said that Jews are behind the Corona pandemic. That is, however, not common.
She added that the antisemitism is usually indirect. For instance, George Soros or Israel are accused of having initiated the virus. Nur-Cheema remarked that right-wing extremists wait for such a crisis situation to promote their ideology and attract additional members of the population.
Occupy Wall Street
The way that antisemitism infiltrates the current demonstrations is reminiscent of more or less similar occurrences at the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests. The protestors were not for the most part antisemites, yet antisemitism tainted those protests. The Emergency Committee for Israel was headed by William Kristol, the Jewish editor of the Weekly Standard. The committee prepared a video of the Occupy demonstrations in New York. One could see Jews being attacked and blamed for the financial crisis and financial assistance to Israel. The signs included “Gaza Supports the Occupation of Wall Street,” and “Hitler’s Bankers.”
An African American protestor was seen accusing the Jews of “taking over America.” He said: “The smallest group in America controls the money, media and all other things. The fingerprints belong to the Jewish bankers. I am against Jews who rob America. They are one percent who control America. President Obama is a Jewish puppet. The entire economy is Jewish. Every federal judge in the East Coast is Jewish.”
“Yellow vest” demonstrations in France
In 2019 the “yellow vests” manifestations took place on Saturdays in France. These protests began in November of 2018. They took their name from the highway safety jackets the demonstrators wore. The events were in protest for more economic justice. Initially, a major target was rising fuel prices and the high cost of living. The protest drew supporters from across the political spectrum. Part of them were very close to the radical left. Others were nearer to the positions of the far right.
These were not antisemitic demonstrations and had nothing to do with Jews or Israel.
Yet almost every Saturday there were verbal attacks against the Jewish community. Jean Yves Camus of the Jean Jaurès Foundation said that there was no system of order and anybody could join these demonstrations. He remarked that there were small groups participating who, if they did not show themselves at the protests, would remain totally unknown.
Antisemitism among the yellow vests received much publicity when on February 17, 2019 Jewish philosopher, Alan Finkielkraut – a member of the French Academy– passed the demonstration. A few demonstrators approached him and shouted, “Dirty s***, France belongs to us, dirty race, you racist, you hater, you are a hater. You are going to die. You are going to hell. The people are going to punish you. The Creator is going to punish you…you Zionist.” To the police one protestor said: “I have nothing against you. It is against this s***.” A policeman later recognized one of those who harassed Finkielkraut. He was brought before a court, which condemned him to a suspended prison sentence of two months.
The French “Day of Anger”
In January 2014, a mass rally in Paris took place. This “Day of Anger” was not related to any specific Jewish topic. Part of the protest was against French President François Hollande’s economic plans. However, various groups of participants started to shout antisemitic slogans. They included, “Jews, France doesn’t belong to you” and (the Holocaust denier) “Faurisson is right,” as well as “the Holocaust was a hoax.”
French journalist and public intellectual, Michel Gurfinkiel, wrote that it was shocking that nobody had acted to remove the antisemitic protesters. The police did nothing even though the shouts were in violation of French hate-speech laws. Gurfinkiel questioned whether French democracy was capable of holding antisemitism in check.
Black Lives Matter
If one deviates a bit toward some movements, which have a target not related to Jews or Israel, one may find similar phenomena. One of the clearest examples is the American Black Lives Matter movement. This organization aims to rectify the wrongs perpetrated against African American citizens in the past and present. Its 40,000 word manifesto accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide against Palestinians, labels Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and joined with the BDS movement in calling for the total academic, cultural and economic boycott of the country. No such demands were made for any other state.
What more does one need to see how antisemitism is entrenched in Western societies?

(INN)
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld is the emeritus Chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He has been a strategic advisor for more than thirty years to some of the Western world’s leading corporations. Among the honors he received was the 2019 International Lion of Juda Award of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research paying tribute to him as the recognized leading international authority on contemporary antisemitism.

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