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Seven Lessons of the Holocaust

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By: Irwin Cotler

Lesson 1: The Importance of Holocaust Remembrance – The Responsibility of Memory

The first lesson is the importance of Zachor, of the duty of remembrance itself. For as we remember the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah — defamed, demonized and dehumanized, as prologue or justification for genocide — we have to understand that the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of non-Jews is not a matter of abstract statistics.

For unto each person there is a name — unto each person, there is an identity. Each person is a universe. As our sages tell us: “whoever saves a single life, it is as if he or she has saved an entire universe.” Just as whoever has killed a single person, it is as if they have killed an entire universe. And so the abiding imperative — that we are each, wherever we are, the guarantors of each other’s destiny.

Lesson 2: The Danger of State-Sanctioned Incitement to Hatred and Genocide — The Responsibility to Prevent

  • The enduring lesson of the Holocaust is that the genocide of European Jewry succeeded not only because of the industry of death and the technology of terror, but because of the state-sanctioned ideology of hate. This teaching of contempt, this demonizing of the other, this is where it all began. As the Canadian courts affirmed in upholding the constitutionality of anti-hate legislation, “the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers — it began with words”. These, as the Courts put it, are the chilling facts of history. These are the catastrophic effects of racism.
  • As the UN marks the commemoration of the Holocaust, we are witnessing yet again, a state-sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide, whose epicenter is Iran. Let there be no mistake about it. Iran has already committed the crime of incitement to genocide prohibited under the Genocide Convention. Yet not one state party to the Genocide Convention has undertaken its mandated legal obligation to hold Ahmadinejad’s Iran to account.

Lesson 3: The Danger of Silence, The Consequences of Indifference — The Responsibility to Protect

  • The genocide of European Jewry succeeded not only because of the state-sanctioned culture of hate and industry of death, but because of crimes of indifference, because of conspiracies of silence.
  • We have already witnessed an appalling indifference and inaction in our own day which took us down the road to the unspeakable — the genocide in Rwanda — unspeakable because this genocide was preventable. No one can say that we did not know. We knew, but we did not act, just as we knew and did not act to stop the genocide by attrition in Darfur.
  • Indifference and inaction always mean coming down on the side of the victimizer, never on the side of the victim. Indifference in the face of evil is acquiescence with evil itself.

Lesson 4: Combating Mass Atrocity and the Culture of Impunity — The Responsibility to Bring War Criminals to Justice

  • If the 20th Century — symbolized by the Holocaust — was the age of atrocity, it was also the age of impunity. Few of the perpetrators were brought to justice; and so, just as there must be no sanctuary for hate, no refuge for bigotry, there must be no base or sanctuary for these enemies of humankind. Yet those indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity – such as President Al-Bashir of Sudan – continue to be welcomed in international fora.

Lesson 5: The Trahison des Clercs — The Responsibility to Talk Truth to Power

The Holocaust was made possible, not only because of the “bureaucratization of genocide”, as Robert Lifton put it, but because of the trahison des clercs — the complicity of the elites — physicians, church leaders, judges, lawyers, engineers, architects, educators, and the like. Indeed, one only has to read Gerhard Muller’s book on “Hitler’s Justice” to appreciate the complicity and criminality of judges and lawyers; or to read Robert-Jan van Pelt’s book on the architecture of Auschwitz, to be appalled by the minute involvement of engineers and architects in the design of death camps, and so on. Holocaust crimes, then, were also the crimes of the Nuremberg elites. As Elie Wiesel put it, “Cold-blooded murder and culture did not exclude each other. If the Holocaust proved anything, it is that a person can both love poems and kill children”.

Lesson 6: Holocaust Remembrance — The Responsibility to Educate

  • In acting upon the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, states should commit themselves to implementing the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, which concluded: “We share a commitment to encourage the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions… a commitment to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honor those who stood against it… a commitment to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust… a commitment to plant the seeds of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past… a commitment… to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.”

Lesson 7: The Vulnerability of the Powerless — The Protection of the Vulnerable as the Test of a Just Society

The genocide of European Jewry occurred not only because of the vulnerability of the powerless, but also because of the powerlessness of the vulnerable. It is not surprising that the triage of Nazi racial hygiene — the Sterilization Laws, the Nuremberg Race Laws, the Euthanasia Program — targeted those “whose lives were not worth living”; and it is not unrevealing, as Professor Henry Friedlander points out in his work on “The Origins of Genocide”, that the first group targeted for killing were the Jewish disabled — the whole anchored in the science of death, the medicalization of ethnic cleansing, the sanitizing even of the vocabulary of destruction.

And so it is our responsibility as citoyens du monde to give voice to the voiceless, as we seek to empower the powerless — be they the disabled, the poor, the refugee, the elderly, the women victims of violence, the vulnerable child — the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.

We remember – and we trust – that never again will we be silent or indifferent in the face of evil. May this International Day of Holocaust Remembrance be not only an act of remembrance, but a remembrance to act.

             (Aish.com)

Irwin Cotler is a member of Parliament and the former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. He is Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, and has written extensively on the Holocaust, genocide and international humanitarian law.

After Monsey Attack, Jabotinsky’s Heirs Offer Free Security Guidebook to US Synagogues

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Herut North America, a leading Zionist activist organization, is offering a new, cutting-edge guide to help congregations better organize their security efforts to protect synagogue attendees. The "SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©" is being offered free of charge to all members of the Jewish community interested in improving security as well as synagogue leaders.

By: Moshe Phillips & Joshua Goldstein

In the wake of repeated violent physical attacks on synagogues and Jews in New York and elsewhere, Herut North America, a leading Zionist activist organization, is offering a new, cutting-edge guide to help congregations better organize their security efforts to protect synagogue attendees. The “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©” is being offered free of charge to all members of the Jewish community interested in improving security as well as synagogue leaders.

We have developed this ebook guide as a hands-on tool to aid synagogues with both evaluating their security needs as well as organizing their own security teams. This information packed booklet is specifically designed to give Jews the information they need to feel empowered around security related needs and issues. Included are checklists, assessment worksheets, planning guides, practical advice, and more.

The Herut team responsible for this booklet includes IDF veterans, individuals trained in counter-terrorism, longtime community security volunteers, and legal professionals. Users of the guidebook will find practical, actionable ideas whether their synagogue has a security plan currently in place or is now considering forming a volunteer security team and needs an action plan.

In light of the recent spate of attacks against Jews across multiple states we are offering the “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©; A Hands-on Guide to Preventive Safety for Your Congregation” ebook. This free reference to protecting your community will help you develop a security plan that you can implement in your synagogue, kollel, yeshiva, camp, or day school. Our goal is to have this booklet utilized by synagogues in all 50 states so that further anti-Jewish violence and bloodshed can be prevented. Please, help us reach our goal of preparing synagogues all across America to be more secure by ensuring the leaders of your synagogue see this booklet as soon as possible.

The “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©” also specifically addresses the fact that Orthodox Jews have been heavily and specifically targeted in recent attacks by including a section titled “Self-Defense Tips While Walking To / From Synagogue” in the booklet.

Action is required now. Please help us reach our goal in making the streets safer for Jews across America. Download and use this free resource yourself and also please share on social media the news that this ebook is now available so Jews everywhere will have access to this potentially life-saving material.”

Please email [email protected] today to request your free copy of the “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©”

The founding fathers of Zionism had a few relevant thoughts on the subject of combating violent Jew-hatred.

Ze’ev Jabotinsky told a British audience in 1937: “It is not the anti-Semitism of men; it is, above all, the anti-Semitism of things, the inherent xenophobia of the body social or the body economic under which we suffer.”

In other words, no matter what we do, anti-Semitism in the Diaspora is inevitable. We can issue angry press releases, we can lobby the government to “throw the book” at anti-Semitic assailants, but in the end, there are overwhelming social, economic, and other factors that inevitably combine to bring about situations in which anti-Semitism erupts.

Again and again. Throughout history. In every country. Under pharaohs. Under czars. Under fuhrers. And sometimes even under presidents or prime ministers of democracies.

Jabotinsky was an outspoken advocate of Jewish self-defense, both in the Diaspora and in the Land of Israel. He was one of the organizers of Jewish self-defense against pogroms in Czarist Russia and he founded the Haganah in Eretz Yisrael. Because when Jews are physically threatened, they must protect their lives and property.

Certainly Jabotinsky would be all in favor of Jews in Monsey, Jersey City, and in every Jewish community taking classes in self-defense and conducting weapons training. One of his most famous sayings was “Jewish youth, learn to shoot!” But he was even more famous for another of his sayings: “Liquidate the Exile before it liquidates you.”

Because no matter how many condemnations we can wring out of political leaders, and no matter how many breathless press releases we churn out, anti-Semitism keeps coming back.

Yet despite this sad reality, most American Zionist leaders refuse to discuss the traditional Zionist response to anti-Semitism: Aliyah. In fact, few of them can even bring themselves to utter the “a-word.”

So as Zionist leaders we say, if you are not ready for aliyah at this time, then the only answer to such lone wolf attackers as the Pittsburgh, Poway and Monsey attackers is a dual program of stronger security and stronger Jewish Unity. Herut North America – The Jabotinsky Movement, urges all Jews to remain vigilant and keep security top of mind and please use the SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT© to start the conversation about security in your congregation, as soon as possible.

Joshua Goldstein is the chairman of Herut North America and a board member of the American Zionist Movement on behalf of Herut. Joshua was a delegate at the 36th and 37th World Zionist Congress. Moshe Phillips is national director of Herut North America’s US section. Both authors are candidates on the Herut slate in the 2020 World Zionist Congress’s US elections. Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education and is dedicated to the ideals of pre-World War Two Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Herut’s website is https://herutna.org/

PBS Presents “Secrets of the Dead: Bombing Auschwitz”

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Actor David Moorst as Rudolf Vrba & Actor Michael Fox as Alfred Wetzler in their hiding place . Photo Credit: Oxford Films

Premieres Tuesday, January 21 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/secrets and the PBS Video app to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Synopsis

Actor Jonathan Tafler as Chaim Weitzman, Actor Simon Mattacks as Moshe Shertok & Actor Oliver Senton as Anthony Eden meeting in the Foreign Office, London. Photo Credit: Oxford Films

In April 1944, Jewish prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler miraculously escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp and fled through Nazi-occupied Poland to find refuge in Žilina, Slovakia, where they connected with the Jewish Underground. Once safe, they recounted what they left behind. Their harrowing testimony revealed the true horror of the Holocaust to the outside world, describing in forensic detail the gas chambers and the full extent of the Nazi extermination program.

While millions of troops fought on both fronts and battled for supremacy in the air during World War II, Nazi forces continued to deport Jews to the concentration camp. As Vrba and Wetzler’s account made its way to Allies, the idea of bombing the camp was discussed at the highest levels of government. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Allied Air Commanders, the American War Refugee Board and the Jewish Agency were presented with one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century: Should we bomb Auschwitz and risk killing Jewish prisoners in the camp to stop future atrocities?

Secrets of the Dead: Bombing Auschwitz explores this dilemma through dramatic recreations of arguments that took place on both sides of the Atlantic and first-hand testimony from historians, survivors and expert voices. January 27, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

 

Short Listing

Actor Simon Haines as Bezalel Sherman at meeting in Washington. Photo Credit:Tim Dunn/Oxford Films

Consider the ultimate dilemma. Would an Allied attack on Auschwitz have stopped future atrocities?

Long Listing

Join historians, survivors and experts as they consider one of the great moral dilemmas of the 20th century. Should the Allies have risked killing Auschwitz prisoners and bombed the camp to stop future atrocities?

Running Time: 60 minutes

 

Film Interviewees

  • Michael Berenbaum – co-editor, “The Bombing of Auschwitz”
  • John Bew – author, “RealPolitik: A History”
  • Hedy Bohm – Auschwitz survivor
  • Judy Cohen – Auschwitz survivor
  • Tami Davis Biddle – author, “Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare”
  • Max Eisen – Auschwitz survivor
  • Rebecca Erbelding – author, “Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe”
  • Zdenka Fantlova – Auschwitz survivor
  • Deborah Lipstadt – author, “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust”
  • William D. Rubinstein – author, “The Myth of Rescue”
  • Zigi Shipper – Auschwitz survivor
  • Gerta Vrbová – first wife of Auschwitz escapee Rudolf Vrba
  • Nikolaus Wachsmann – author, “KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps”
  • Lenka Weksberg – Auschwitz survivor

 

Actor Daniel Caltagirone as John Pehle & Actor Ashley Cook as Leon Kubowitski at a meeting in Washington. Photo Credit:Tim Dunn/Oxford Films

Timeline

  • April 1944: The harrowing testimony of Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, Jewish prisoners who escaped the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, was turned into a detailed report known as The Auschwitz Protocol.
  • May 1944: The Auschwitz Protocol reached Rabbi Michael Weissmandl, who secretly worked for the Jewish Underground in Slovakia. Weissmandl sent the protocol to Roswell McClelland at the War Refugee Board in neutral Switzerland with a plea for help and a demand for Allied air forces to bomb Auschwitz. Later, McClelland sent a cable containing a summary of the protocol and the plea to bomb the camp to the headquarters of the War Refugee Board in Washington, D.C.
  • June 29, 1944: War Refugee Board director John Pehle passed the recommendations to bomb Auschwitz to John McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, who was not inclined to divert resources from the war to stop the mass murder happening at the camp.
  • July 6, 1941: Jewish Agency representatives Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Shertok met with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in London, where he was presented with The Auschwitz Protocol and a memo from U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill urging the bombing of Auschwitz. Eden then summoned Head of Air Ministry Sir Archibald Sinclair to discuss the feasibility of a raid.
  • September 13, 1944: Allied forces accidentally bombed Auschwitz, killing 40 prisoners and 15 SS troops, while attempting to bomb a nearby IG Farben factory.
  • Actor Michael Fox as Alfred Wetzler being interviewed. Photo Credit: Oxford Films

    Early November 1944: John Pehle received the complete The Auschwitz Protocol and shared the report with John McCloy who informed him that bombing Auschwitz was not “feasible from a military standpoint.” Failing to get the War Department involved, Pehle leaked The Auschwitz Protocol to newspapers.

  • November 1944: With the tide of the war turning, the Nazis began dismantling the gas chambers at Auschwitz in an effort to destroy evidence of their crimes – and accelerated their efforts with the new media attention.
  • December 3, 1944: The Washington Post published an editorial on the atrocities titled “Genocide,” marking the first time the word appeared in a national newspaper.
  • January 27, 1945: Nine months after Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler gave their testimony to the Jewish Underground, Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army.

Series Overview

Deborah Lipstadt – author, “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust” will be joining a group of historians, survivors and experts as they consider one of the great moral dilemmas of the 20th century. Should the Allies have risked killing Auschwitz prisoners and bombed the camp to stop future atrocities? Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Now in its 18th season, Secrets of the Dead continues to captivate PBS viewers on air, online and beyond, using the latest scientific discoveries to challenge prevailing ideas and throw fresh light on historical events. Secrets of the Dead is available for streaming simultaneously on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, which is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast. PBS station members can view episodes via Passport (contact your local PBS station for details).

Websites: http://www.pbs.org/secretshttp://www.facebook.com/SecretsoftheDead, @secretspbs #SecretsDeadPBS

Production Credits

Secrets of the Dead: Bombing Auschwitz is an Oxford Films production for BBC, in association with Ventana-Film GmbH and THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET. Produced and directed by Tim Dunn. Written by Mark Hayhurst. Narrated by Jay O. Sanders. Susan Jones and Nicolas Kent are executive producers for Oxford Films. Stephanie Carter is executive producer for Secrets of the Dead.

Underwriters

Funding for Secrets of the Dead is provided by public television viewers. Additional funding for Secrets of the Dead: Bombing

Nikolaus Wachsmann – author, “KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps” Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Auschwitz is provided by the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Anti-Semitism.

About WNET

WNET is America’s flagship PBS station: parent company of New York’s THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL ARTS multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable services (THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to more than five million viewers each month. WNET produces and presents a wide range of acclaimed PBS series, including Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, PBS NewsHour Weekend, and the nightly interview program Amanpour and Company. In addition, WNET produces numerous documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform initiatives addressing poverty and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport, station members can stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS programming anytime, anywhere.

A mausoleum to misery: Auschwitz concentration camp, 2015 Photo Credit: Getty Images
May/June 1944, “Selection” of Hungarian Jews, chosen either for work or the gas chamber. Photograph from the Auschwitz Album. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Upper West Side Bookstore Shuts Door; Stands Accused of Fraud

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The nearly six-year-old Book Culture shop, with a branch located at Columbus Avenue and West 81st Street, closed for business earlier this month.

By: Marcus Tetrovsky

Perhaps the authorities will end up throwing the book at someone.

An Upper West Side bookstore has shut its doors because it stands accused of fraud. There is also a disagreement having to do with rent.

The nearly six-year-old Book Culture shop, with a branch located at Columbus Avenue and West 81st Street, closed for business earlier this month

The store reportedly notched annual sales of about $4 million two years ago. according to a report in the New York Daily News, that represented roughly a million dollars more than owner Chris Doeblin said was needed in order to remain in business. But around the middle of 2019, business reportedly began to tail off.

“The store was plagued by debt because of the increasing minimum wage and higher health insurance costs, according to Doeblin. The store shut down on Jan. 7, and he said in a letter to customers that it was $140,000 behind in rent,” therealdeal.com reported. “Minority owner John MacArthur blamed Doeblin for Book Culture’s problems, accusing him in a lawsuit of taking money from the Columbus Avenue store and giving it to three other Book Culture stores in Morningside Heights and Long Island City that were losing money.”

Another part of the lawsuit suggests that Doeblin started up a so-called community lending program that Doeblin says has raised $600,000 to keep the four Book Culture stores open. “MacArthur’s lawyers say the program does not follow regulations for crowdfunding, is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and does not clarify that the Columbus Avenue Book Culture is owned separately from the other Book Culture stores,” realdeal.com added.

Book Culture was founded as Labyrinth Books in 1997 by current owner Chris Doeblin and his partner at the time Cliff Simms, the company explains on its web site. “In the summer of 2007, Book Culture became a completely independent company when Doeblin bought out his partners. Chris began his career in the early 1980s with a brief stint selling books for Papyrus book store at 114th and Broadway, and then as the receiving clerk in the basement of the old Book Forum which was located across from the main gate of Columbia on Broadway. In those days you could eat Chinese at Moon Palace or get egg creams and comic books at the Mill Luncheonette, people did not want to walk over to Columbus Ave. and nobody wanted to park on Riverside Drive.”

Do Food & Politics Mix??– DeBlasio’s Love of Toasted Bagels

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Egg-Everything Bagels. Image Courtesy of David's Bagels & Healthy Eatery in New City, NY.

By: Jared Evan

Prof. Stacy Cordery, a historian from Iowa State University, recently penned an interesting article about political figures and the way they use food to connect with voters, published on the conversation.com recently, and Bill de Blasio’s “bagel gaffe” front and center.

Prof. Cordery wrote: “His Jan. 15 tweet praising a toasted bagel on National Bagel Day instantly set off hardline bagel devotees-cum-voters. De Blasio quickly amended his tweet to delete the word “toasted.” But the damage was already done. Purists scorned the very idea of toasting a bagel, calling into question his bona fides as a New Yorker”

Obviously, a veteran New York bagel eater, gets them hot right after they were baked from a local shop that makes fresh bagels.

She than covers several food blunders including Gerald Ford: “During the 1976 presidential campaign, incumbent president Gerald Ford, before the eyes of bewildered Texans, peeled back the aluminum foil – but not the corn husk – and took a giant bite out of a tamale. Ford never lived it down.”

The article continued by mentioning failed Democrat presidential nominee in 2005 John Kerry and the time he asked for swiss cheese on a Philly cheese steak instead of cheese whiz, and Republican Mitt Romney asked for a “sub” in Pennsylvania, where, as locals will tell you, they call them hoagies.

The candidate eating some local food is a standard technique used by politicians to connect with the “regular folks”. It often comes across as forced and phony to most “regular people”. I can’t even see the benefit to these photo ops, they are almost always humiliating. Remember de Blasio and the “pizzagate” incident when he ate pizza with a fork?

De Blasio was mocked relentlessly for months over the pizza incident. “Bagel gate” while humorous is far from de Blasio’s biggest issues.

The mayor has lost confidence with even the most strident liberals in New York City. In a recent poll from Sienna, just 33% of New York City voters say they have a favorable rating of de Blasio. His unfavorable rating has climbed to 58%. This makes for a net favorability rating of -25.

After his failed presidential campaign where he averaged 0% for several months before dropping out, New York City has essentially given up on the mayor mocked as “big bird” by conservative opponents.

The mayor is watching New York City explode with anti- Semitic attacks perpetrated by almost exclusively African Americans, his response a few speeches and more blaming “Trump and conservatives”, prompting even Democrat colleagues to scratch their heads.

The bail reform program started by the Governor Cuomo, where criminals are being freed without bail for every conceivable kind of crime was made more absurd by de Blasio offering Mets tickets and metro cards to encourage suspects to show up to court.

Literally de Blasio has become the laughingstock of New York City.

The man who has never had a regular job in the private sector sees his pay checks and power soon ending and “big bird” is making one last stand.

According to PIX 11: Mayor Bill de Blasio and current Borough President Eric Adams met around Christmas to discuss an endorsement quid pro quo. If Adams runs for mayor in 2021, de Blasio will endorse him. And if First Lady Chirlane McCray runs for borough president, Adams will back her.

Desperate de Blasio only knows how to be a politician and since his dream of being the “progressive president” went up in smoke, his wife is his last hope. McCray still has not been investigated in relation to the nearly $1 million unaccounted for, while she ran a failed mental health program Thrive NYC.

It’s amazing what you can get away with in New York City. With this kind of record, does it really matter if he toasts his bagels?

Corey Johnson to Penalize Landlords who Cut Corners; Falling Debris Kills 2nd NYer

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After a second victim tragically died from falling debris from a building, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is vowing to "come down" on building owners whose properties drop deadly debris onto the streets, Crain’s reported. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

By: R. Kotkin

After a second victim tragically died from falling debris from a building, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is vowing to “come down” on building owners whose properties drop deadly debris onto the streets, Crain’s reported.

“There are certain building owners and developers who are greedy and who are trying to cut corners, and they don’t put safety protocols in place to protect their workers,” Johnson said in a radio appearance Friday. “Now we’re seeing that affecting the public.”

Johnson noted that both properties which resulted in the deaths had outstanding violations.

“The city should have come down on them harder,” the speaker, said. “We need to make sure these sites are safe not only for the workers on the site, but also for people who are walking by.”

A 67-year-old woman died last Thursday when walking up the street in Flushing. Xiang Ji was walking down Main St. near 41st Road in Flushing when she was struck by the thin 3-foot by 2-foot piece of aluminum-covered wood about 9:45 a.m., witnesses told police, The N.Y Daily News reported.

The wood was blown off a violation-plagued grocery in the process of being remodeled, The Daily News explained.

An architect and philanthropist was killed back on December 17, when part of a Times Square office building fell on her as she walked down the street, TJV previously reported.

Erica Tishman was killed instantly around 10:45 am on Tuesday on 49th Street near Seventh Avenue, about 500 feet north of Times Square. She was declared dead at the scene. According to police, the incident occurred outside of a 104-year-old building at 729 Seventh Avenue, a 17-story building constructed in 1915, TJV previously reported.

Tishman “was well known in the New York real estate world, having been a founder of DeWitt Tishman Architects, which designed Jersey City’s Trump Plaza, and an associate at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners,” noted rew-online.com. “A licensed architect since 1983, Mrs Tishman was born and raised in New York, attending Riverdale Country School before Princeton University where she met the love of her life, Steven, TJV reported

Crain’s reported: “The Department of Buildings said it has issued the Queens property owner an additional violation and ordered the installation of a protective sidewalk shed. It noted, however, that none of the pre-existing citations had to do with problems related to the façade”

Corey Johnson, who hopes to become the next mayor called on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to “redouble” its efforts to enforce the city’s building codes.

High Profile Politicos Mysteriously Skip NY Real Estate Board Banquet

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REBNY's Annual Banquet is New York City's largest real estate networking event, providing a unique and invaluable opportunity to share space with top owners, developers, brokers and major city officials in one room. Photo Credit: rebny.com

By: Jared Evan

Many powerful politicians in New York State did not attend the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual banquet last week and many speculate it is because they are scared of upsetting Working Families Party members and socialist former bartender Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

REBNY’s Annual Banquet is New York City’s largest real estate networking event, providing a unique and invaluable opportunity to share space with top owners, developers, brokers and major city officials in one room.

The event brings together over 2000 people and this year Daniel Tishman, Diane Ramirez, Carol Kellermann, Helena Durst, Bernard Warren, Ira Fishman, and Alex Bernstein were honored for their contributions to New York real estate.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, state Attorney General Letitia James, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and city Comptroller Scott Stringer all have attended in the past but were absent this year, according to the N.Y Post.

The N.Y Post reported: “amid continuing pressure from the left wing — including the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens-Bronx) — to not accept campaign cash tied to the real-estate industry and other wealthy interests, the pols have all recently been no-shows” sources said.

In other words, high level political figures in New York City, were more concerned with the far left, radical fringe in New York City than New York real estate, which has been slumping since the new rent regulations and other strict requirements on buildings .

The Heritage foundation recently concluded in an article that : “The city’s recently amended rent-stabilization laws strip many property owners of all meaningful property rights and give them nothing in exchange—all to advance what Mayor Bill de Blasio calls the “socialistic impulse” to have the city government “determine every single plot of land [and] how development would proceed… In short, New York has turned private property into government-run subsidized housing without footing the bill, or in any other way compensating owners for using their private property as a public subsidy”

“Some politicians are treating the real-estate industry like a toxic chemical,’’ said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “It’s because of pressure from the Left. It’s left-wing populism”, the N.Y Post reported Sheinkopf saying .

Another source who attended the event said the no-show pols “don’t want to be seen as close to real estate.”

Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the high-profile Democrats who did attend.

“It is my goal to be the first New Yorker ever to be the majority leader in the Senate of the United States. And if I get that office, I’m going to tell you two things: We will get Gateway [the Amtrak Hudson River tunnel project] built, and we are going to restore the full deduction of state and local taxes,” Schumer said to thunderous applause, the Post reported.

New Yorkers Pessimistic on Race Relations, Poll Discovers

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2017: Mandela Washington Fellows program, hosted by the Institute for Strategic Leadership at the LeBow College of Business and Drexel’s Office of International Programs. Program members meet with Rabbi Eli Cohen. Photo Credit: lebow.drexel.edu

By: Rusty Brooks

The New York Post reported on a Siena College poll that was released Monday, revealing the majority of New Yorkers think race relations are worse in New York.

According to the poll only 33% of New Yorkers have a positive view of race relations in their state.

The poll was released on Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday.

Only 5 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by the college described race relations as excellent, while 28 described them as good.

Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers — 64 percent — said that race relations in the state have grown tougher: 44 percent rate them fair, while 22 percent describe them as poor, the Post explained.

In 2010 Siena College released the same poll and at the time 51% of New Yorkers had a positive view of race relations in their state.

The most negative numbers come from New York City, where 29 percent of residents think race relations are poor, compared to 20 percent of suburbanites and 15 percent of upstaters, the Post pointed out.

“At least 60 percent of whites, blacks, Latinos, upstaters and downstaters, liberals, moderates and conservatives all view race relations negatively”, Siena pollster Steve Greenberg told the N.Y Post.

Essentially all groups, ethnically, geographically and politically share similar views.

Another interesting result of the poll indicated that a large majority of 78 percent, think religious minorities — including Jews and Muslims — experience discrimination based on their religious affiliations.

“New Yorkers’ views on race relations today are nearly as negative as they have ever been over the last dozen years. Since 2008, only 2015 saw New Yorkers more negative about race relations in the state,” said Siena pollster Steve Greenberg to the Post.

“This is not really a surprise, obviously you have the rash of violent anti-Semitic attacks taking place all over New York City, almost all perpetrated by African Americans against Jews, so you can see where the pessimism comes from. Who would have thought in a progressive utopia captained by enlightened people like Governor Cuomo, de Blasio and the rest, we would see such disharmony, I thought only those evil red states see such racism, CNN told me so” political analyst sarcastically told TJV.

“On top of what they are seeing in their state, the corporate media essentially pushes race issues, endlessly on news outlets like NBC, CNN and MSNBC. From the second Trump became president, every single person who voted for Trump has been portrayed as a Nazi, white supremacist or simply the R word, racist. In Virginia a pro 2nd amendment rally, just the other day, the media portrayed as a neo-Nazi, white supremacist event, even though not a single Nazi showed, instead people of all races came out in favor of the right to bear arms, but the corporate media don’t tell you the reality, after their grave predictions of race driven chaos failed to materialize, so you can see why people are so pessimistic”, Jared Evan concluded.

New Bail Reform & Sanctuary City Laws Continue to Unnerve NYers

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The latest examples of how New York state and NYC’s lax laws on criminals and “undocumented” people are making NY more dangerous by the minute. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

By: Wayne Numanstein

A bank robber who was arrested in connection to four robberies on January 9th, was let go without bail and was free to rob two more banks, before turning himself in.

A 21-year-old illegal immigrant who was released from prison late last year after attacking his father went on to brutally rape and murder a 92-year-old woman in Queens after being released from prison because of de Blasio’s “sanctuary city” policies.

These are 2 of the latest examples of how New York state and NYC’s lax laws on criminals and “undocumented” people are making NY more dangerous by the minute.

The N.Y Post reported: “Under the new bail reforms, which took hold Jan. 1, Gerod Woodberry, 42, is considered a non-violent defendant because he allegedly used notes to demand dough from banks in Brooklyn and Manhattan. State law forbids judges from setting any bail for him under the new law”

After the suspect turned himself in to the Manhattan Criminal Court building last Friday, federal prosecutors had to take over the case, in order to prevent him from being released from jail once more without bail.

“No sound, rational and fair criminal justice system requires the pre-trial release of criminal defendants who demonstrate such determination to continuously commit serious crimes,” Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donoghue said in announcing the criminal complaint against him and calling the spree “unprecedented”, the N.Y Post reported.

The suspect himself was amazed that he was initially released from prison. “I can’t believe they let me out,” sources told the Post, after he was released from jail in early January after the first slew or bank robberies.

The combination of the new bail reform laws and de Blasio’s “sanctuary city” policies have made New York City a very crime friendly city and the entire state powerless to stop crime in general.

Reeaz Khan was previously arrested for assaulting his father in November of 2019 but was released almost instantly because of his “undocumented” citizenship status.

Khan then went on to violently rape a 92-year-old woman on the streets of Queens, resulting in her death.

In a statement issued by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement last Tuesday, officials said Mr. Khan was “an unlawfully present Guyanese national” who had been released “due to New York City’s sanctuary policies”, the N.Y Times reported.

ICE officials said they had issued what is known as a detainer in November requesting that law enforcement turn over Mr. Khan for possible deportation after he was arrested and charged with attacking his father with a broken coffee cup.

The New York City Police Department disputed the claim on Tuesday, saying that it “did not receive an ICE detainer in regard to this individual” after he had been arrested on Nov. 27, said Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell, a department spokeswoman.

On Wednesday, ICE released a copy of the fax transmission form appended to the detainer, which was dated Nov. 27.

It would appear that local police are literally ignoring ICE detainers, due to the bleeding-heart leftist policies of Bill de Blasio.

Thomas Decker, field office director for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, said in the statement issued on Tuesday: “It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets”, the NY Times reported

He added: “New York City’s sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs.”

Private Colleges Are in Financial Straits; Induced by Their Own Progressive Policies

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National pride and patriotism are slated for destruction, corroborated by history classes that use Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” which focuses on the communist’s views of America’s historic injustice, with its dubious evidence and conclusions. Photo Credit: Audiobookstore.com

By: Tabitha Korol

Private colleges are in serious financial trouble. According to Bloomberg, they may have to merge with others or close their doors. The seeds planted by the “homeless, tempest-tossed” academics from Frankfurt, Germany, 84 years ago, are now bearing fruit.

The private colleges are yet another casualty of the plot against American values and exceptionalism initiated by those outcasts from the Frankfurt School of Social Theory who arrived in New York, in 1935. The theorists began their trek through the Institutions, including higher education, changing the system that was among the best in the world, and poisoning the wells as they advanced. Whether fools or rogues, they soon realized that the Judeo-Christian West’s superiority could only be destroyed from within, by having their operatives join the machinery of the old institutions, and by collaborating with Third World liberation movements and other dissident minority. It would take some generations, but the prize of the most envied capitalist country in the world – America and the Free West — was worth their patience.

The learned academics within the private colleges readily complied with the new Common Core curricula, textbooks, teaching films and scripts, recognizing the Frankfurt stamp of approval. They introduced identity politics, which now requires a six-figure professional to help the children cope with the resultant tribalism and victimhood – sorely needed funds down the drain.

They welcomed new professors who spew antisemitism and anti-Americanism and stood mutely by while guest speakers with opposing opinions were jeered out of the lecture halls. The students are emerging as leftists, socialists, communists, and Islamists, decidedly ignorant in every discipline, but eagerly engaged in social justice courses, community organizing, political protests, and deadly violence to destroy the spirit of freedom and the soul of our nation. Critical Theory has taught the younger generation to break down fences before they understand why they were erected.

These are the rebels with a thousand empty causes, the socialists who will not support their universities, but who will expect compassion. Unsurprisingly, this is affecting the coffers of Academe; the alarms have been sounded.

The business of destroying American education from within is gathering momentum. As Walter E. Williams explained in Fraud in Higher Education, only 37% of white college students test as college-ready, but 70% are admitted, and only 17% of black high school graduates test as college-ready, but 58% are admitted, with most unable to read, write, and do math at 12th grade level. Forty percent of college students require developmental math and English classes at an annual cost of $7 billion. Only 25 percent of students who took the ACT in 2012 met the readiness benchmarks in English, reading, math and science. Students are advanced by their race, not by achievement, showing no significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore year. Education Secretary Betsy deVos just confirmed, “The country is in a student achievement crisis.”

Ronald Reagan famously said, ”Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Every generation must uphold the legacy of freedom and to do so, it must understand the origins of democracy, our government structure, rights and responsibilities, and methods of public engagement. But the work of the so-called Progressives (ultra Regressives) has brought the knowledge of civics and government to an all-time low. Some young people are even learning tolerance and social justice from books supplied by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an FBI-recognized global and domestic terrorism-inspiring hate group, a perfect example of the bedfellows recommended by the Frankfurt outcasts.

National pride and patriotism are slated for destruction, corroborated by history classes that use Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” which focuses on the communist’s views of America’s historic injustice, with its dubious evidence and conclusions. America is shown as colonialist oppressor of the poor and disenfranchised, with no reference to our 13th amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery here. The students are intentionally dumbed down about America’s history, and taught to accept a whitewashed Islam and Communism. Their violence against the monuments is denial of our history and extends to disrespect and breakdown of our laws and law enforcement.

Progressives vilify our national pride and corrupt public trust so as to destroy our society and reconstruct it into another – hideous – image, with the morale or soul of the generation siphoned out. Therefore, the bulk of high-quality fiction, poetry, theater and other imaginative and inspiring texts are replaced by informational prose, newspaper and social media stories – dry topics of social studies designed to enervate the individual and discourage reading. Instead of topics that encourage and inspire, young teens read of emotional difficulties and social justice issues – topics such as teen angst, bullying and sexual harassment, underage drinking, sexual molestation, complex relationships in dysfunctional families, and suicide. These depressing social issues, irrespective of the students’ emotional maturity, may well have a direct correlation to their increased suicide rate, doubled for boys and tripled for girls. Our thirty million illiterate adults are a step toward the illiteracy of despotic regimes.

The intellectual depletion shows our 15-year-olds to be lagging behind in math at 39th of their peers in 69 other countries. These are not “cultural differences,” as math is the most concrete and easiest way to judge across cultures. Common Core math offers a “one size fits all” approach that holds the children back and thwarts autonomy. DeVos reported that eighth graders failed to meet the low standard of the ‘90s, sinking below their predecessors from two years before.

In an unexpected twist, Progressives have found some inspiration in Islam and the two are now cooperating to destroy and restructure the society that has nourished them. Common Core includes the study of LGBTQ history for a full year, with transgender organizations, activists, and websites abetting gender confusion, encouraging life-altering “treatments” that damage their bodies and mental health. This is sold as “inclusivity,” but is a step toward fully accepting and imitating the Islamic family unit of one man with four wives as young as age 7, and the approval of pedophilia. The Islamic family unit is a hotbed of dysfunction, complete with rivalry, tension, childhood rape, stealth homosexuality, blame, shame, and extreme violence.

The closer we come to emulating Islam, the further we fall from grace, from the morality of Judaism and Christianity, until we become no better than lower species. Quotes from Islam’s most famous spokesman, Ayatollah Kohomeini, provided only partially here, may be found on the Internet: Sex and Islam, http://www.truthbeknown.com/islamquotes.htm Pedophilia and Bestiality in Islam, by Jennifer King, stipulates that all Muslims are ordered to imitate Muhammad’s perfect example in thought, word and deed. The Prophet engaged in bestiality; it is not forbidden, but bathing instructions must be followed.

Secretary of Education Betsy deVos admitted, “The results are, frankly, devastating.” Literacy and civics must be made a national priority and it is time to denounce what socialism is doing to our children. This is America’s wake-up call.

Parshas Vaera–“Hopeless”

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Like the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Jews of ancient Egypt suffered from kotzer ruach. Photo Credit: Yad Vashem

By: Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

I remember the conversation very well. It was a discussion among a group of assorted friends, from a variety of backgrounds. One or two were true scholars. The others were not scholars by any stretch of the imagination but were familiar with those Jewish texts frequently read in the synagogue.

The discussion revolved around the question, “What is the saddest verse in the entire Bible?” The opening candidate for the saddest verse was the passage in the weekly portion of Vayetzei, which reads, “The Lord saw that Leah was unloved.” But that phrase was soon rejected in favor of the second half of that same verse, “but Rachel was barren.” No question about it. Both the lack of love and infertility are very sad human conditions.

Others quoted various verses from the curses in the weekly portions of Bechukotai and Ki Tavo. There is no paucity of horribly sad verses in those two parshiyot. Here are just a few: “I will set my face against you…your foes shall dominate you;” “I will heap your carcasses upon your lifeless fetishes;” “You shall eat your own issue, the flesh of your sons and daughters.” For these phrases, the adjectives “frightening” or “terrible” seem more appropriate than “sad.”

For most of the discussion, I remained silent. For, you see, I had long before concluded which Torah verse was the saddest for me. The verse appears in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Vaera (Exodus 6:2-9:35). It reads, “But they would not listen to Moses because of their crushed spirit and difficult toil.” (ibid. 6:9)

Let’s understand the context of this verse. In last week’s parsha, we read of the first time Moses delivered the message that the redemption was near. The “people were convinced.” They believed. They trusted Moses. They “bowed low in homage.” They had hope.

This week’s parsha, however, begins after the Jews knew bitter disappointment. Moses had intervened with Pharaoh, but his intervention backfired. Pharaoh reacted by increasing the burden he placed upon the Jews. He said, “Let heavier work be laid upon the men; let them not pay attention to deceitful promises.” After such disillusionment, the eloquent promises with which this week’s parsha begins evoked a very different reaction. Moses’ words were met with disbelief, with a despair that is the result of kotzer ruach, a crushed spirit, and avodah kashah, painfully difficult toil.

For me, hopelessness is the saddest of human emotions, especially when it follows upon the excitement of hopefulness. The moment when hopes are dashed and dreams abandoned is, for me, the saddest moment of all.

Ironically, this saddest of all verses gives us the opportunity to learn important lessons about hope and its opposite, despair. To learn these lessons we must scrutinize these two phrases, kotzer ruach and avodah kashah, which I have thus far translated as “crushed spirit” and “difficult toil”. Our great commentators give these phrases different “spins”.

For example, Rashi understands kotzer ruach to mean “shortness of breath”, the result of strenuous physical labor. Can a man who is gasping for air be expected to hope? Of course not. He is so panicked that hope for a better future is totally beyond his capacity.

Whereas Rashi translates ruach as “breath,” Rabbi Obadiah Sforno, the great Jewish commentator who lived in Italy during its Renaissance, prefers to translate it as “spirit.” For him, it is not “shortness of breath” that deprives a person of hope. Rather, it is the “shortness of spirit,” the absence of a “spirit of faith,” which makes hope so difficult. The Jews lost faith in Moses. He had let them down by failing to provide them with an instant solution to their plight. Thereby they lost their faith in the God of Moses. Without faith, argues Sforno, hope is impossible.

The eighteenth century mystic and ethicist, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, understands our verse differently. For him, Pharaoh was the expert par excellence about the processes of despair and discouragement. He knew how to squash hope. He knew why genuine hope is so rare. To keep man from hope, Pharaoh knew, you must keep him so busy with all sorts of tasks and chores that he is too distracted to take the few moments necessary to begin to think of hopeful possibilities.

This is how Luzzato puts it in his masterpiece, The Path of the Upright (Mesillat Yesharim):

“This is, in fact, one of the cunning artifices of the evil yetzer (inclination), who always imposes upon men such strenuous tasks that they have no time left to note whither they are drifting…This ingenuity is somewhat like that of Pharaoh, who commanded, ‘Let heavier work be laid upon the men…’ For Pharaoh’s purpose was not only to prevent the Israelites from having any leisure to make plans against him, but by subjecting them to unceasing toil, to deprive them also of the opportunity to reflect.”

Without this opportunity — with kotzer ruach¸ “shortness of time to reflect”— hopefulness is out of the question. One would be too busy to hope.

Another insight into the possible meaning of kotzer ruach is found in a most unusual source. There exists a collection of brief homilies, authored by Rabbi Kalonymos Kalman Shapira, the Chassidic Rebbe of Piacezna in pre-Holocaust Poland. He recorded these homilies, delivered in the early years of the Warsaw Ghetto, in a little notebook, which miraculously survived those fateful years.

He writes that under conditions of avodah kashah, of very difficult toil, one loses the “spirit of life.” Rabbi Shapira knew all too well the meaning of difficult toil, enslaved as he and his “congregation” were in that horrible ghetto. And he knew how he and they struggled to do God’s will despite their dire straits. He witnessed their attempts to help each other, to maintain faith in God, and to perform whatever ritual mitzvot they could. But furthermore, he observed that their tortured souls could not muster the “spirit of life” necessary for religious action. Kotzer ruach for him meant the absence of a “spirit of vitality.” For him, religious actions performed without enthusiasm were defective.

Like the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Jews of ancient Egypt suffered from kotzer ruach. They could not respond to Moses with a “spirit of vitality.” No vitality, no life, no hope.

These commentators lived centuries apart from each other and in very diverse circumstances. But they all teach us this: there are many factors in life that render hope impossible. Some of these factors are cruel and unusual, as exemplified by the slaveries of Egypt and Nazi Germany.

But some of these factors are common today. They relate to our busy lifestyles, to our work routines, even to the ways we play. We are consumed by “busyness.” There may be little that slaves can do to free themselves for the possibility of hope. But there is much that we can do to avoid our own “slavery,” to at least limit the avodah kashah that leads to kotzer ruach.

Reflect upon it. Where there is time for reflection, there are opportunities for hope.

Parshas Vaera – The Art of Comfort and Consolation

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By: Rabbi Osher Jungreis

To find the proper words on such occasions is never easy, but that was the challenge of Moshe Rabbenu as he addressed his brethren who were suffering in Egyptian bondage. At the beginning of the parsha, G-d charged Moshe with the mission of announcing to the Jewish people that the time of their liberation was at hand. HaShem used four different expressions in describing their redemption. “I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt; I shall rescue you from their service; I shall redeem you with great miracles; I shall take you to Me to be a people, and I will bring you to the promised land” (Exodus, 6).

Despite this awesome promise however, the Jewish people remained dispirited and incapable of absorbing the good news. The explanation for this reveals the nature of suffering and how one may best comfort those who are hurting. When someone is in pain, he does not have the patience or the ability to comprehend that which will occur in the future. His agony is so overwhelming that he is aware only of the here and now. In his pain he cannot contemplate the future. Therefore, the Almighty G-d instructs Moshe and Aaron once again and commands them to bring the children of Israel forth from Egypt (Exodus 6:13) teaching us that when someone is in distress, we have to extend immediate help. Thus, when encouraging those who have lost hope, let us not content ourselves with visions of the future. Rather, let us do something concrete to relieve their pain and infuse them with hope.

In this same passage, G-d also instructs Moshe to be gentle and patient with the people–a basic ingredient that is required of all leaders. The Midrash teaches that HaShem told Moshe and Aaron: “My children are often stubborn and recalcitrant. They are quick to anger and troublesome. It is under these conditions that you should undertake to accept leadership over them..” This teaching has bearing, not only for leaders, but for each and every one of us. In every family, there are situations in which one`s patience is sorely tried. At such times, we must exercise forbearance, remain calm and respond with strength and dignity.

This passage has yet a third interpretation. It is written in the Talmud that it was at this moment of crisis for the Jewish people that G-d told Moshe to command the nation regarding the emancipation of slaves that would take place once they entered the promised land. At first glance, this appears far-fetched. The nation is in bondage, so what possible relevance can such instructions have? But the Torah is teaching us that it is precisely when you are in the throes of suffering that you must make a commitment to banish suffering–to convert that pain into a healing experience. It is in this spirit that the Torah calls upon us to remember our bondage and exodus from Egypt (Zeicher l`Tziyas Mitzraim) and relate to the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and all those in need with compassion and love.

 (Hineni.org)

January 27th Marks the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

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Liberation by Soviet soldiers surviving prisoners of Auschwitz (Auschwitz). Above the gate of the camp is the famous sign-slogan "Arbeit macht frei» (Arbeit macht frei), which means - "Work makes you free". Concentration released January 27, 1945 part of the 100th Infantry Division of General Fyodor Krasavina. 1st Ukrainian Front.

By: Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg

What is evil, and how does one comprehend its place in our lives? In Judaism, the question of evil and suffering is expressed in the following statement: “Tzadik v’ra lo, rasha v’tov lo,” a righteous person, and bad comes to him, a wicked person and good comes to him. Why do righteous people suffer and experience hardship, while the “wicked” seemingly do not experience pain and suffering?

After the Shoah one would have expected Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Rav, to analyze and lecture on this unique tragedy and period of Jewish suffering. Although the Rav refers to the Shoah, he does not provide his students with a comprehensive explanation for this horrific period.

To explain the Rav’s understanding of the evil of the Holocaust one must read his views on evil and suffering throughout Jewish history and extrapolate from these writings lessons for the Holocaust. In his most extensive work on suffering, Kol Dodi Dofek — The Voice of my Beloved Knocks — the Rav says that we cannot comprehend the nature of evil, because we do not have the full understanding of the world. He unequivocally affirms that evil does exist, but any effort to romanticize evil is not intellectually honest.

The Rav writes: “Judaism, with its realistic approach to man and his place in the world, understood that evil could not be blurred or camouflaged, and that any attempt to downplay the extent of the contradiction, and fragmentation to be found in reality will neither endow man with tranquility, nor enable him to grasp the existential mystery” (p. 53).

People have an obligation to recognize that evil exists, but understanding its essence is beyond human intellectual capacity. How can one struggle with the question of suffering? The Rav elaborates further on the idea of evil in Fate and Destiny: From Holocaust to the State of Israel, in which he states that the distinction between the two is where the answer to suffering lies. Rabbi Dr. Walter S. Wurzberger, a prominent disciple of the Rav, writes, “The Rav … maintains that it is senseless to raise the metaphysical question of why there is evil in the world. The human mind is simply not equipped to tackle this problem.

To engage in theodicy is an exercise in futility. Instead of looking for an explanation of our fate — for example, why a particular evil has struck us — we should ask ourselves how we can respond to evil in a manner that will enable us to emerge from this experience as better moral and spiritual beings” (p. VII). Fate, the Rav says, is an existence of compulsion — “Against your will you will live out your life” (Pirkei Avot 4:29, p. 52, Kol Dodi Dofek, Theological and Halakhic Reflections on the Holocaust). The man (or woman) of fate has no free will, nor ability to choose his own life’s path.

Things happen to this person, without his involvement. The fated existence is passive, and arbitrary. Destiny, however, is the different.

The Rav characterizes it as “Against your will you are born and against your will you will die, but you live of your own free will” (p. 54, Kol Dodi Dofek). An existence of destiny is a life of choice, innovation, strength and action; one engages with his surroundings.

The Jewish approach, says the Rav, is to transition from a fated life, to a destined life (p. 54 Kol Dodi Dofek). In “fated lives,” evil happens to us. We suffer, and we have no control. In a life of destiny we do not focus on the tragedy that befalls us. “What must the sufferer do, so that he may live through his suffering?” is the Jewish legal question the man of destiny asks. “What obligation does suffering impose upon man? … We do not inquire about the hidden ways of the Almighty, but rather about the path wherein man shall talk when suffering strikes,” says the Rav.

This reaction to suffering and evil is extremely unique. It seems that the Rav is suggesting that people have an obligation, when bad things happen to them, to use their suffering in a productive manner. The Rav tells us that according to Halachah, “Afflictions come to elevate a person, to purify and sanctify his spirit … to refine his soul and to broaden his horizons. In a word, the function of suffering is to mend that which is flawed in an individual’s personality.

The Halachah teaches us that the sufferer commits a grave sin if he allows his troubles to go to waste and remain without meaning or purpose” (p. 56 Kol Dodi Dofek). The Rav therefore maintains that it is a uniquely lonely experience to be a man of religious faith. The individual who suffers and keeps his religious faith has the obligation to respond in a positive fashion to repair the world.

This is God’s response to Job, a righteous individual who has suffered tremendously. In the Biblical narrative, Job struggles to understand why terrible things happen to him. Eventually, God comes to Job and informs him how to productively use his suffering.

In the Rav’s Days of Deliverance: Essays on Purim and Hanukkah, he states, “Not too long ago we lost six million Jews, one third of our population. But, on the whole, we have emerged victorious. We still maintain our identity; we are still committed to the same goals to which our ancestors were committed millennia ago” (p. 188).

He references the Holocaust through the six million who perished. By commenting on the strength of Jewish identity and the fortitude of the Jewish nation, the Rav implies that the fate of the Jewish people and its destiny are linked to the lessons learned during the Holocaust. By emphasizing the revitalization of the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Rav focuses on the destiny aspect of life, rather than fate.

The Rav writes, “ During the terrible Holocaust when European Jewry was being systematically exterminated in the ovens and crematoria, the American Jewish community did not rise to the challenge, did not act as Jews possessing a properly developed consciousness of our shared fate and shared suffering as well as the obligation of shared action that follows therefrom, ought to have acted. We did not sufficiently empathize with the anguish of the people and did very little to save our afflicted brethren” (p. 97, Kol Dodi Dofek).

(Originally published at: israelbehindthenews.com)

Sonia Kaplan, 98, Stood Up to Stalinist Persecution & Raised a Chassidic Family

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From left: Sonia and Rabbi Moshe Binyomin Kaplan, with their children Rabbi Shmuel and Rochel Kaplan

She inspired her children and grandchildren to spread Judaism around the world

By: Menachem Posner

Sonia (Sarah Pesha) Kaplan, who stood up to Stalinist persecution and survived a Polish pogrom to raise a Chassidic family after emigrating to England and then America, passed away Monday. She was 98 years old.

She was born in rural southwestern Russia in 1921 as the fledgling Communist regime was tightening its iron grip on Russia’s Jews. Her father, Rabbi Nochem Pinson, was a devoted Chabad Chassid who lived and breathed Torah study and mitzvah observance. Her mother, Chera, was the daughter of Chaim Chaikel Schapiro, a wealthy Chassid in the town of Starodub.

Living near her maternal grandparents, young Sonia Pinson lacked nothing in those first years. Like her father, her brothers were students in the Chabad yeshivah system, which by then had gone underground since propagating religious belief among youth was illegal.

By the time she reached adolescence, however, her grandfather’s businesses had been confiscated, and the family was destitute.

Desperate, the family moved to a kolkhoz, a farming collective. However, Nochem’s staunch devotion to Shabbat meant that the family was not allowed to benefit from the farm’s produce, and they found themselves starving.

From there, they moved to Kharkov, which was then home to a thriving secret Chabad community. Sonia attended public school but was always careful never to break Shabbat. Naturally bright, she helped other students with their work in exchange for small favors that would help her cover her repeated absences and refusal to write on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

The Pinson home was often the site of spirited farbrengens, Chassidic gatherings where words of inspiration and soulful singing would transport participants to a better time when Jews need not hide their fealty to Judaism.

But disaster struck. In 1939, many of the leaders of the Chassidic underground, including Nochem Pinson, were arrested for their counterrevolutionary activities. Chief among Nochem’s crimes were the farbrengens that he hosted.

Recently translated documents from the copious files kept by the secret police reveal that throughout the months of his arrest and torture, Nochem Pinson remained tight-lipped, refusing to divulge information that would implicate anyone.

When Sonia, by then a 10th-grade student, was taken in for questioning, she too didn’t give any information away.

Even though she completed her schooling as a chemical engineer, she never received her diploma because she would not renounce her father and his “anti-social” ways.

Nochem was sentenced to five years of forced labor in Siberia from which he never returned. The family relocated to Samarkand, far from advancing Nazi troops and prying Communist eyes.

Making Their Way From Europe to America

In Samarkand, in 1944, Sonia was introduced to a young scholar by the name of Moshe Binyomin Kaplan. Like her, he was an orphan, as his father had also been taken by the Communists for the crime of upholding Judaism. The two married in 1945, determined to rebuild all that Stalin and his minions were determined to destroy.

After the war’s end, Moshe Binyomin obtained false identity papers, presenting the couple as Polish refugees who were allowed to leave Russia.

Sonia went into labor with her eldest son, Nochem, named for her father, while still in Russia. In the hospital, she could not remember her assumed name or date of birth, and pretended to be mute the entire time rather than risk revealing her true identity.

As they traveled from Lviv (then Russa) to Łódź, a doctor told her that her infant needed more air and was in danger if he were to remain in the cramped railroad car. She crossed the border to freedom between two careering train cars clutching her gasping baby, while her husband held onto her to prevent her from falling off the train.

Upon arriving in Poland, they spent the night in the remains of the Łódź ghetto, during which she and her sister-in-law clutched their infant boys, both named Nochem, while their husbands held shut the rickety door, which drunken Poles tried to force open. Even though the Germans had been defeated, the atrocities of the Holocaust had yet to subside.

Living in the Poking DP camp in Germany and then among fellow refugees in France, the Kaplans welcomed their next son, Leibel, named for his paternal grandfather, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan. In the DP camp, the families lived in large halls, with sheets providing a modicum of privacy. They bunked “next door” to Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, mother of the Rebbe, who shared parenting advice, and developed a lifelong friendship with Sonia and her children.

During this time, Moshe Binyomin completed his rabbinic ordination and soon attracted the attention of Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky, chief of the London Rabbinical Court. Impressed by the young Chassidic scholar, Abramsky invited the couple to settle in England, where Moshe Binyomin engaged in shechitah, teaching and the rabbinate.

In the mid-1950s, the Kaplans and their family, which by then included another son, Shmuel, and a daughter, Cherry, made their way to New York, settling in Brooklyn.

Well-educated and technically inclined, Sonia was involved in her husband’s sweater factory. Aristocratic by nature, she maintained her European good taste and comportment.

She watched with pride as her children and grandchildren fanned out across the globe to serve as Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries, carrying on the work for which their grandfathers had given their lives.

Predeceased by her son Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan in 1998, and her husband in 2005, she is survived by Rabbi Nochem Kaplan (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan (Baltimore); and Cherry Ulman (Hashmonaim, Israel); as well as grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

         (Chabad.org)

Ancient Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt Rededicated

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An ancient synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt has been reopened by the government.

By: Howard M. Riell

An ancient synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt has been reopened by the government.

Renovation work on the Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, built in 1881, started in 2017, a year after the two-story building suffered a partial collapse

The process actually began years ago. Sadly, there are no longer very many Jews there to enjoy it. Most of Egypt’s Jews took it on the lamb over six decades ago during times of friction between Egypt and Israel.

In the twentieth century, Jews in Egypt faced pogroms, looting, murders and eventually expulsion, with many in the community finding refuge in the Jewish state, according to a World Israel News report.

Renovation work on the Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, built in 1881, started in 2017, a year after the two-story building suffered a partial collapse. The location was the home to a previous synagogue that historians say was erected in 1354 CE.

The synagogue is distinctive architecturally, as well, known for its ruby columns and marble floors. The recent rededication of the building took time, and is the result of three years of construction work and several million dollars.

The Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue is said to be the last active Jewish house of worship in the coastal city of Alexandria, a sprawling metropolis that at one time was home to as many as 40,000 Jews. Today “there are a handful of Jews living in Alexandria and estimates put the number of Jews living in all of Egypt at fewer than 20,” reported JTA.

The synagogue is distinctive architecturally, as well, known for its ruby columns and marble floors

WIN reported that according to Israel’s Museum of the Jewish people, “Following the United Nations decision [to] partition [the land of] Israel (November 1947), the Jews of Egypt became hostages of the authorities, their property was confiscated and many were arrested. About half of the 80,000 Jews emigrated to Israel and in 1956 only about 40,000 people remained. Following the Sinai campaign (1956) many more escaped to Israel. In 1967, only about 2,500 Jews remained in Egypt. When the Six Day War broke out, all Jewish men were arrested. They were released and expelled from the country in 1970. In 1996, only some 100 Jews were living in Egypt, in two communities, Cairo and Alexandria.”

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel.

The location was the home to a previous synagogue that historians say was erected in 1354 CE.

The damage to the synagogue has been going on for some time. “Rainwater began leaking through the roof into the women’s section of the synagogue about eight years ago,” the French news agency AFP reported. “The synagogue was forced to close about three years ago after a staircase and part of the roof collapsed.”

Last month, the Antiquities Ministry said in a statement that the renovations included the structural reinforcement of the synagogue, the restoration of its main facade, decorative walls, and brass and wooden objects, and the development of its security and lighting systems.

Magda Haroun, the leader of Cairo’s shrinking Jewish community – only three Jews showed up for the festivities — noted during the ceremony that she was “very proud of what my country has done, and it symbolizes living together, today there is no difference between Egyptian Muslim, Christian and Egyptian Jew. It is recognition that we have always been here and that we have contributed to a lot of things just like any other Egyptian.”

“With tears in her eyes, she said that she had been struggling for years to preserve Jewish heritage in Egypt and she never thought that the Egyptian government would spend the money to rebuild the landmark Sephardi house of prayer,” The Jerusalem Post reported. The Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, “with green and violet stained-glass windows and towering marble columns, is one of two remaining Jewish houses of worship in Alexandria.”

The damage to the synagogue has been going on for some time. “Rainwater began leaking through the roof into the women’s section of the synagogue about eight years ago”
Last month, the Antiquities Ministry said in a statement that the renovations included the structural reinforcement of the synagogue, the restoration of its main facade, decorative walls, and brass and wooden objects, and the development of its security and lighting systems.

‘We’ve Made Contact With Chabad,’ Raises a Cheer on Diverted El Al Flight

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Passengers stranded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, sit down for a festive meal before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath. (Photo: Eran Aloni)

Passenger pens note of gratitude after unexpected Shabbat in Halifax

By: Chabad.org Staff

(The following letter was written to Rabbi Mendel and Bassie Feldman, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Maritimes, when they assisted passengers on a diverted El Al flight)

Dear Rabbi:

On behalf of my family and everyone else onboard El Al Flight #26, I would like to thank you and the Rebbetzin for your incredibly gracious, generous and heartfelt hospitality in Halifax. I know I speak for all of us when I say we literally could not have made it through Shabbat without you.

When we were told by the pilot that our Newark to Tel Aviv nonstop would be making an actual stop due to mechanical difficulties, we were certainly taken aback. For many of us, Shabbat was the first worry, as we landed in Halifax late Thursday night. We imagined davening [praying] in a hotel conference room at best and an airport lounge at worst.

But once El Al told us that they had made contact with Chabad, a cheer rose up from the plane.

Only later did we learn that in addition to preparing a large amount of food to accommodate the many passengers, and being instrumental in coordinating the generous shipment of meals (from very caring askanim [communal activists] in Montreal) delivered by wonderful yeshivah bochurim [students] Yossi and Dovid, you even helped organize the buses and hotels, and many other details.

Friday night was emotional, to say the least. With campus students gone for vacation, we had a beautiful minyan [prayer quorum], and the davening [prayers] and zmirot [songs] were quite literally overwhelming. As we sat down to eat a sumptuous meal, you and others gave beautiful divrei Torah [Torah insights] that touched us all.

When the El Al staff arrived to give us updates and their first concern did we eat enough, we knew that we were dealing with a Jewish airline. And when they said we were in good hands with Chabad, they were right.

My wife Allison and my daughter Dora agreed as we walked back that this was the definition of turning lemons into lemonade.

Saturday morning was a more intimate affair as some of our group walked to the local Orthodox shul to help augment their minyan, and the rest of us joined you. Then we all came together from both minyanim to eat another great meal.

Singing. Dancing. Divrei Torah. New friends. Stories. Young people schmoozing. Older folks schmoozing.

We had Mincha and then we took our leave back to the wonderful Lord Nelson Hotel, whose staff could not have been better.

After a couple of hours of sightseeing, we davened Maariv at the hotel, did an impromptu Havdalah and boarded our buses back to the airport.

I write to you as we are over the Adriatic Sea, according to the screen keeping me awake above my head. G‑d willing, Allison and I will be seeing Eretz Yisrael for the first time as we visit our twins Max and Eden, who are learning at Lev HaTorah and Machon Maayan, respectively. Dora is back after her year at MM [Machon Maayan] as well.

We will be seeing family and friends, G‑d willing, all over the country. Of course, the irony of another Mr. Magoo moment for me does not escape those who know that the twins were born on Sept. 11, 2001, which is why I was not at the World Trade Center that day.

Regards and we hope to see you, as we hope to see all our new friends in good times, in Canada, the U.S. or Israel, perhaps with the coming of Moshiach! Amen!

Sincerely

Barry Schechter–New Jersey

                                                (Chabad.org)