Police Shooting of Ethiopian Man in Israel Sparks Violent Riots

By

-

07/03/2019

Israel - Police Shooting article — An incident in which an Israeli-Ethiopian was shot to death by police on Sunday night in the northern city of Kiryat Haim is under investigation after his family claims he was wrongfully shot and the shooting officer says he was acting in self-defense. Photo by Yogev Shitrit/TPS on 1 July, 2019

An incident in which an Israeli-Ethiopian was shot to death by police on Sunday night in the northern city of Kiryat Haim is under investigation after his family claims he was wrongfully shot and the shooting officer says he was acting in self-defense.

A police officer who was not on duty was on an outing with his family on Sunday night and at some point became entangled with a group of youth. A scuffle ensued, during which the officer drew his weapon and shot dead one of the youth, an Israel of Ethiopian descent.

An initial investigation by the police found that that off-duty officer was in a playground area with his wife and his three children when he saw a fight nearby. He approached the group that was involved in the fight and after making identifying himself as a policeman, they started rocks at him.

The policeman said that he felt he was in a life-threatening situation and fired.

“The reasons are being looked into,” the police stated.

The injured youth, later identified as Salomon Taka, 19 as was taken to the nearby Rambam hospital where he died shortly after of his injuries.

The policeman was injured in the upper part of the body and taken to a hospital for medical treatment. He was later arrested and detained for questioning.

“The investigation into the incident is continuing by the ministry of justice, the department that investigates police conduct,” the police further stated.

The police’s shooting of an Israeli-Ethiopian has again stirred public controversy with claims of the police’s excessive use of force and racism.

Taka’s family described him as a peaceful person who was brutally shot dead because of the officer’s racism.

Hundreds of members of the Ethiopian community, including Taka’s parents, demonstrated in front of the Kiryat Haim police station on Monday and demanded justice.

Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan called for a quick probe into the incident.

The relations between the police and the Israeli-Ethiopian community have been tense in recent years following several incidents in which the Israeli-Ethiopian community claimed that the police was acting out of racism.

(TPS)

Liberman: Israel’s Military Academies are Religious ‘Militias’

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Israel - Liberman's Israel article — Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. Photo Credit: FrontPage Mag

Some religious pre-military students “said clearly that they would act according to the rabbi’s directive” over a military command, said the former defense minister.

MK Avigdor Liberman, a former defense minister whose resignation last November resulted in the April Knesset election and whose refusal to sign an agreement to join a new government after that vote has led to another parliamentary election scheduled for September 17, is now attacking religious students who serve in the military in addition to those who do not.

Liberman said that he did not agree to join a new governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the April election because it would have promoted religious coercion, including the ability of Haredi religious yeshiva students to evade military service.

However, in an interview on Tuesday at a conference sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Liberman referred to religious pre-military academies as “militias,” complaining about the attitude of some of the students who he said were giving priority to interpretations of Jewish religious law over military commands.

“The religious pre-military academies have produced some of the courageous fighters,” acknowledged Liberman, adding that he hoped that these institutes would continue to operate.

“But what is happening today,” he told the conference, “is that the pre-military academies have turned into militias,” explaining that when he asked students which directive would they honor if they received an order from their commander but their rabbi said the opposite, “I was shocked that most of them took 35, 40 seconds to think about it.”

“Many of them said that ‘of course I would respect the military order,’ but some of them said clearly that they would act according to the rabbi’s directive,” the former defense minister added.

Liberman attacked Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing him of bearing responsibility for a “Greek tragedy” that has befallen the Religious Zionist movement. He previously condemned Smotrich for a statement that the Jewish State should be run by Torah law.

When the Knesset decided to hold another election in September after Liberman refused to join forces with Netanyahu, the prime minister accused Liberman of being a leftist by preventing the formation of a right-wing government. However, Liberman, who lives in Judea, countered that he wanted a right-wing government that respects Jewish tradition but is not run according to the dictates of the Jewish religion.

(World Israel News)

The Painful, Prickling, Presidential Debates

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

If you thought that the Democrat Presidential debates of June 26th and 27th were difficult to sit through, consider the painful reality that there are 11 more planned, at last count, coming at you through April, 2020. We thought that the candidates, all 20 of them, some of whom may be totally unknown to most of us, would go for Trump’s jugular by lambasting his accomplishments over these nearly 2 1/2 years and informing the public just how they would change them for the better. For instance, how would any of the candidates reduce the current rate of national unemployment which now stands at an all-time low of 3.9% and specifically for blacks, it hit an all-time low of 6.6% in April? Or how to improve on the nation’s annual GDP growth rate of 3.20? There were no instances where the candidates attacked the performance of President Trump. Evidently, they couldn’t and for that reason, the NBC News moderators, who are, for all intents and purposes, a major media outlet for the Democrat Party, steered clear of asking any questions dealing with Trump’s accomplishments.

Rather, the candidates focused on climate change and eliminating all fossil fuels. You could imagine the image of 29-year old AOC looming over the group. They bemoaned the inhumanity of the immigration laws that were passed years ago by a bi-partisan Congress. They now all call for free health care for any including all illegal aliens who criminally cross our border and plop themselves down in our communities. College loans must now be largely forgiven and higher education tuition will, under their administrations, be free. And when Mayor deBlasio declared that taxes must be raised sky-high because, as he said, money is “just in the wrong hands,” you knew that the others kicked themselves because they did not come up with these words of genius, first. So, look for this demand in the next round, thanks to Big Bill.

We were not so surprised that the topic of Israel and the Two State Solution was not brought up either night to be discussed with these left leaning groups of presidential wannabees. Not one of them went on record to condemn or refute Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib as Jew haters when these two Muslim women shamelessly and without hesitation uttered words of hate directed toward Jews and Israel. No repudiation at all from any Democrat, by the way. Rather, their silence made it very clear that they stood solidly behind them. An indication of a major move on the part of the Democrat Party to distance themselves from whatever support they ever evidenced for Jews and Israel. We must consider that they have now moved to embrace the radical Muslims in their party, which includes, as well, Keith Ellison, the current Attorney General of Minnesota and Deputy Director of the Democrat National Committee (DNC).

These debates were disappointing and frightening. The debaters each appeared to be scrambling over one another to prove to be further to the left than his or her platform neighbor. It was painful and excruciating to watch. An indication perhaps, that this party is getting unhinged. Watch for further signs of anti-Israel sentiment emerging from these groups. But keep open the possibility that the American public will come to the conclusion that change is not needed at this point. We Americans are not to be underestimated.

Is Trump’s Visit to N. Korea a Sign for Iran?

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

This past weekend, President Trump was the first American leader to step into North Korea. This landmark moment, initiated by a Trump tweet set in motion a 24 hour lunacy like scramble to complete all the preparations necessary for such a meeting. As is his want, Trump caught the world by surprise. We might even go so far as to describe his actions as those only a born, bred and raised New Yorker could even conceive of, and to top it all off, succeed. Kudos to him for keeping open a line of communications, no matter how shallow, with the brutal, untrustworthy dictator of that despotic state, Kim Jong Un. In addition, Trump’s unpredictable, abrupt, spur of the moment actions, decisions and tweets tend to keep his adversaries nervous, on edge and guessing. An advantage when you’re doing business, either commercial or political. He’s always in charge.

During this trip, Mr. Trump also met with another adversary, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Their discussions regarding trade between our two nations achieved some positive progress. Evidently, they agreed on a trade truce and will, in the near future, resume negotiations toward reaching a larger deal. This raising of the white flag brings to a halt, for the moment, the rising tensions between China and us that has threatened our own farmers and cattle industry with a loss of China as a major buyer of their produce and meat products. Trump has wielded the threat of tariffs on Chinese goods entering our markets and he is working towards one of his special deals that will benefit our people. That’s much better than his predecessors of both parties, who have always caved in to the demands of our Asian trading partners. It’s about time that an American leader stood up to those who have stolen our technology and decimated our economy by wooing away our major industries leading to a loss of jobs for our workers.

After painfully viewing the recent Democrat presidential debates (the other Editorial) we tried replacing President Trump in his trip to meet with the leaders of North Korea and China with any of those twenty (or more) candidates who stood on the stage being pampered by the MSNBC moderators. Just how well would Robert Francis O’Rourke, Bill deBlasio, Kamala Harris or Bernie Sanders handle these despots who have their fingers on nuclear weapons? What credibility would Pete Buttigieg have as he introduced his husband to the wives of the leaders of the Asian world? Would author and candidate, Marianne Williamson reach out to these brutal dictators with her words of “love, conquers all?” We’re quite content with President Trump carrying the ball into the territory of our enemies and spiking it in their end zone. He’s all for scoring points wherever and with whomever he meets.

Letters to the Editor

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

55 Years of Gov’t Support for Public Transportation

Dear Editor:

July, 2019 marks the 55th Anniversary of federal government support for public transportation.

The success of public transportation can be traced back to one of the late President Lyndon Johnson’s greatest accomplishments which continues benefiting many Americans today. On July 9th, 1964 he signed the “Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964” into law. Subsequently this has resulted in the investment over time of several hundred billion dollars into public transportation.

Millions of Americans today on a daily basis utilize various public transportation alternatives. They include local and express bus, ferry, jitney, light rail, subway and commuter rail services. All of these systems use less fuel and move far more people than conventional single occupancy vehicles. Most of these systems are funded with your tax dollars thanks to President Johnson.

Depending upon where you live, consider the public transportation alternative. Try riding a local or express bus, commuter van, ferry, light rail, commuter rail or subway.

Fortunately we have the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its various operating agencies, including NYC Transit subway and bus, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road, Staten Island Rapid Transit Authority and MTA Bus.

There is also New Jersey Transit, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PATH), NYC Departments of Transportation Staten Island Ferry and Economic Development Corporation private ferries.

Using MTA Metro Cards provides free transfers between the subway and bus. This has eliminated the old two fare zones making public transportation an even better bargain. Purchasing a monthly LIRR or MTA subway/bus pass reduces the cost per ride and provides virtually unlimited trips.

Elected officials and government employees can turn in their taxpayers funded vehicles and join the rest of us by using public transportation to get around town. In many cases, employers can offer transit checks which help subsidizes a portion of the costs. Utilize this and reap the benefits. It supports a cleaner environment.

Many employers now allow employees to telecommute and work from home. Others use alternative work schedules which afford staff the ability to avoid rush hour gridlock. This saves travel time and can improve mileage per gallon. Join a car or van pool to share the costs of commuting.

The ability to travel from home to workplace, school, shopping, entertainment, medical, library etc. is a factor when moving to a new neighborhood. Economically successful communities are not 100% dependent on automobiles as the sole means of mobility. Seniors, students, low and middle income people need these transportation alternatives. Investment in public transportation today contributes to economic growth, employment and a stronger economy. Dollar for dollar, it is one of the best investments we can make.

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

(Larry Penner is a transportation historian, writer and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road MTA Bus, NYC Department of Transportation, Nassau County NICE Bus along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ).

Remembering Fallen Jewish PO Leon Fox

Dear Editor:

On Monday, July 15th, at 5pm, I will be hosting a street co-naming ceremony in honor of fallen Jewish Police Officer Leon Fox. In 1941, Officer Fox was a patrolman assigned to the NYPD’s 60th Precinct. While escorting a theater manager to deposit his earnings of the day, Officer Fox was shot and killed in the line of duty.

More than 78 years later, another Jewish police officer who was at the time assigned to the 60th Precinct–Albert Mammon–told me Officer Fox’s story and urged me to preserve his memory and his sacrifice for the Southern Brooklyn community.

As a community that stands with the NYPD, and particularly at a time when there is a trend of NYPD suicides, it is important that we stand in support of our Finest. I encourage you to join me, along with Police Commissioner O’Neill and the 85-year-old son of Officer Fox, at a ceremony honoring his service to New Yorkers.

The event will take place on Monday, July 15th at 5pm at the intersection of Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, the location where Officer Fox was gunned down in February of 1941.

Sincerely

Councilman Chaim Deutsch

Avoiding Summer Tragedies

Dear Editor:

Just a word of caution before we begin our summer vacations. Tragically, every year at this time, we begin to witness the kind of tragedies that are beyond heartbreaking. Young people in the Catskills; at camps or bungalow colonies becoming seriously injured or even killed in accidents that could have been avoided. Each year we hear of many fatal car accidents with entire families being affected. Every year we hear of fires, drownings, kidnappings and other horrible events taking place. We all want to have a joyful, fun and very relaxing vacation, but we must also be quite vigilant about our surroundings. And let us raise our voices to Hashem and we beseeched Him for protection at this time and always!!

Sincerely

Dovid Yeshoshua Lefkowitz

Trump’s Bold Gamble Pays Off in Historic DMZ Meeting with N. Korea’s Kim Jong-Un

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Op-Ed - Trump's Bold article-min — President Trump took an historic step on Sunday by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to cross into North Korea, after shaking hands with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un across the border at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Photo Credit: Fox News

President Trump took an historic step on Sunday by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to cross into North Korea, after shaking hands with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un across the border at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Kim hailed the president’s move as a “courageous and determined act” that “means that we want to bring an end to the unpleasant past.” President Trump said, “Stepping across that line was a great honor. I think it’s historic, it’s a great day for the world.” After Kim crossed the demarcation line to enter South Korea, President Trump said that he would invite Kim at some point to visit the White House. The two leaders held a 50-minute meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, resulting in their decision to designate teams for the resumption of nuclear negotiations that have stalled since the failed summit meeting in Vietnam earlier this year. President Trump noted, following the meeting, that “speed is not the object.” He added, “We’re looking to get it right.”

All of this came about because of President Trump’s willingness to break the mold of formal diplomacy. “The United States, under the Trump administration, has disrupted the longstanding, but failing, US policies of past administrations by seeking to build trust from the top down,” said Barry Pavel, senior vice president and director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. About a day prior to President Trump’s face-to-face talk with Kim, while the president was still at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, the president took a bold gamble. He tweeted the suggestion that he and Kim meet at the Korean Demilitarized Zone for a quick hello and handshake. Much to the president’s relief, he avoided the embarrassment of a no-show when his North Korean counterpart accepted the invitation. “It is good to see you again,” Kim said to the president through an interpreter. “I never expected to meet you in this place.” The hello and handshake turned into a nearly hour-long substantive meeting.

The historic event was marred somewhat by overzealous North Korean security forces who jostled U.S. journalists and injured Stephanie Grisham, the new White House press secretary, as she tried to intervene on the journalists’ behalf. Nevertheless, the unplanned encounter between Kim and President Trump was by far a net positive. Democrat presidential candidates who criticized the president’s move forward are whiners with no idea how to operate successfully on the world stage.

A spokesman for former Vice President Joe Biden shamelessly told CNN that “President Trump’s coddling of dictators at the expense of American national security and interests is one of the most dangerous ways he’s diminishing us on the world stage and subverting our values as a nation.” The Obama-Biden administration’s foreign policy was defined by its coddling of dictators, most notably the thugs running the Iranian regime. The Trump administration has thankfully sought to undo such dangerous Obama-Biden coddling.

So long as President Trump and Kim Jong-un remain willing to talk with each other directly, even against the advice of their underlings, we can expect a continuation of North Korea’s suspension of nuclear tests and its launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles. That is a good thing in itself, and an accomplishment that eluded the Obama-Biden administration as it pursued in vain what it called “strategic patience.” President Trump has managed so far to maintain maximum economic pressure on the North Korean regime through multilateral and unilateral sanctions, while keeping the door open to diplomacy that has dramatically reduced the likelihood that tensions in the region could spin out of control.

That said, major pitfalls lie ahead. North Korea has continued to produce enough fuel to perhaps make a half dozen or more nuclear bombs. Last May, the regime launched short-range missiles. We’re not even sure who will be the leading negotiators for North Korea, after rumors surfaced that North Korean negotiators involved in the failed Vietnam summit were either purged or have been sidelined.

It is also becoming abundantly clear that Kim Jong-un will not agree at this time to implement complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization as the Trump administration has demanded as a precondition to lifting any of the current economic sanctions. The Vietnam summit collapsed after President Trump refused Kim’s demand for removal of the most significant sanctions in exchange for North Korea’s dismantling of only its Yongbyon nuclear facility. After since meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, presumably to secure their support in future negotiations with the U.S. and to pry them away from fully cooperating in enforcing the current sanctions, Kim no doubt felt he held a stronger hand the next time he met with President Trump. He may have tried to play that hand on Sunday. If so, it didn’t work. President Trump made no concessions on the sanctions to get the talks back on track.

Nevertheless, following Sunday’s impromptu meeting, President Trump left the door open to possibly removing some sanctions while negotiations proceed. “At some point during the negotiation, things can happen,” President Trump said. This puts the Trump administration on the horns of a dilemma. North Korea wants to follow a step by step approach to reciprocal concessions with no concrete agreed upon definition of the end-state of complete denuclearization or a detailed road map of how to get there. We have been down that road before, always frontloading major economic concessions that are difficult to reverse in return for illusory promises and easily reversible minor concessions from North Korea.

If the president agrees to remove the most biting sanctions to keep the talks going and obtains what amounts to symbolic concessions from Kim that leave the bulk of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs intact, he would be falling for the same stalling for time tactics and charm offensives that have bedeviled prior administrations. If, for example, the Trump administration goes along with Chinese and Russian proposals to ease some of the toughest UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, such as caps on its imports of oil, as a reward for proceeding with negotiations and offering a few more insubstantial concessions, it will be unlikely to get the sanctions reinstated, whatever North Korea does after that. Kim may also up the ante as the 2020 presidential election approaches, when President Trump wants to feature his peace-making with North Korea.

An all-or-nothing approach is not the only option, however. Even if the parties cannot agree on a formula for complete denuclearization in the near term, there are intermediate milestones that may be more feasible but would still be significant. For example, the Trump administration could press North Korea to irreversibly dismantle all nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and at its first covert uranium enrichment facility, known as the Kangson enrichment site, under unfettered IAEA monitoring and verification.

This could be coupled with the complete and irreversible dismantling of North Korea’s primary manufacturer of ballistic missiles, the Tae-sung Machine Factory. The administration could define the achievement of these milestones as enough of a down payment to warrant the removal of some (but not all) of the UN Security Council’s most stringent sanctions that North Korea objects to, as talks proceed and the moratoriums on long-range missile launches and nuclear tests remain in effect. The administration could also consider steps towards more normalization of relations with North Korea. This way, the Trump administration is not giving up on the U.S.’s ultimate goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Yet it would at least secure, as an intermediate step, the most meaningful concessions from North Korea so far in sharply reducing its nuclear and missile production facilities since the regime began its nuclear program in earnest three decades ago.

(Front Page Mag)

Will Iran’s Attacks on the US and Allies Escalate?

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Op-Ed - Will Iran's Attacks article-min — As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed out, "This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication." Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Criticism continues to fly at the Trump administration in response to the White House’s attempts to deter Iran’s threats. Despite increasing acts of violence, and aggressive behavior towards the US, President Trump is criticized by some people for his determination to hold the Iranian government accountable.

By using its military to attack the US and its allies, the Islamic Republic has been unabashedly resorting to hard power tactics. Iran’s actions are clear; there has been virtually no attempt on its part to disguise hostile intentions. Why is there no international outrage? The mainstream media continue to fail to report adequately Iran’s attacks. There has been no focus placed on the increase over the past two months of these attacks.

The Iranian government’s policy appears to be two-pronged. The first facet seems linked to instructing its proxies across the region to attack and wreak havoc on entities linked to the United States, European countries, and Gulf states.

Last week, a U.S.-linked location in Iraq was attacked. Reportedly, 40 workers employed by the energy giant Exxon Mobil were forced to evacuate in southern Iraq after coming under rocket fire.

The Houthi attack on a Saudi oil installation and the rocket that landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad have also been tied to the Iranian regime and its proxies. Each of these assaults has in some way caused harm to US interests.

It was recently leaked that the head of the Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, instructed a conglomerate of more than 40 militia groups, which operate under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), to “prepare for proxy war.”

The second prong of Iran’s policy of violence appears to consist of direct military assaults. In the last two months, six oil tankers have been attacked. First, four tankers were targeted in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. A month later, a pair of tankers crossing the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Iran were sabotaged with explosives; one of the tankers went up in flames and both were left adrift.

The Strait of Hormuz, situated between the borders of Iran and Oman, one of the world’s most crucial waterways, used to transport roughly 33% of total global seaborne traded oil. These attacks cause global fear and impact businesses worldwide.

Iran’s fingerprints are all over these aggressions. It is believed that the attacks on the tankers were directly carried out by the Iranian regime because of the high level of sophistication. The incident was not isolated; it was apparently premeditated and organized, implying that there may well be more such attacks in the works.

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed out, “This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.”

Iran’s overt attacks included shooting down a United States military drone. The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, threatened that shooting down the drone was a warning to the U.S. He added that, “the only way for our enemies to be safe is to respect our sovereignty, national security, and the national interests of the great Iranian nation”.

On several occasions, the Trump administration invited Iran to the negotiating table in an attempt to deescalate tensions. It is Iran that rejects the talks and continues to act aggressively, all while openly threatening the U.S. and its allies.

In a tweet mentioning Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei wrote:

“You said Mr. @abeshinzo, that Trump has said negotiations with the U.S. would lead to Iran’s progress. By the Grace of God, without negotiations & despite sanctions, we will progress.”

In a meeting with Abe, Khamenei also pointed out that, “I do not consider Trump, as a person, deserving to exchange messages with. We will not negotiate with the United States.”

Why, therefore, are the critics of the Trump administration so extremely quick to condemn the president, while they are comfortable disregarding Iran’s attacks? Do they expect the U.S. to sit idly by, watching while the Islamic Republic carries out flurries of offenses across the region? Do they expect the U.S. to turn a blind eye as Tehran attempts to further destabilize the region in order to impose insecurity and fear worldwide, and advance its revolutionary and parochial interests? How many people must be threatened, tortured, or slaughtered, before Trump’s response will be deemed warranted?

(Gatestone Institute)

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached [email protected]

New ‘Brave’ Approach to Combating Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Special Features - New Brave article-min — U.S. and Israeli veterans attend a social function as part of the "Brave" program that brings together vets to share stories, learn about the Jewish state and stand up against hatred and anti-Semitism on campus. Photo Credit: Courtesy.

A new project brings together veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. military with Jewish students to stand up against hatred

A new project called “Brave” is bringing together veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. military with Jewish students to share stories, learn about the Jewish state, stand up against hatred and combat anti-Semitism on campus.

The initiative, organized by Hillel at Baruch College in New York City and launched this past semester, is also organizing trips for America vets to visit Israel, as well as Shabbatons for Jews and non-Jews to interact with one another—all with the goal of battling anti-Semitism by cultivating pro-Israel activists, says Ilya Bratman, executive director of the Baruch Hillel and a U.S. Army veteran.

“We hope to engage hundreds of non-Jewish veterans and student leaders in this project, so they go out in their community and become advocates for truth,” Bratman, 41, explained. “They tell the real story of Israel. This program is part of this bigger effort to showcase what Israel is about and what the Jewish community is about.”

He added, “Now dozens of non-Jewish U.S. veterans can go home and say, ‘I know Jews, they’re my friends. They’re my brothers. They’re my brothers in arms.’ The hope is not just to build a community on campus, but to create advocacy much greater, much bigger. They can really dispel rumors and become advocates for the Jewish community and the State of Israel.”

Hillel organizes the events and panel discussions—engaging hundreds of students on the quad at Baruch College—in order to build relationships with students from all around the world, including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, China and Korea, who have now become advocates for Israel after spending time with Jewish students and the Jewish community.

“Brave” recently held its third subsidized trip to Israel for U.S. veterans and non-Jewish student leaders. Of more than 300 applications a year, they accept less than 10 percent.

‘The most powerful moment in my life’

Among them is retired Army Staff Sgt. Trent Coyle, 36, a Baruch alum who says he used to be an atheist, but whose participation in Hillel and travel to Israel inspired him to convert to Judaism. Coyle met Bratman through Baruch College’s Student Veterans Association, when Coyle was serving as vice president. He went to Israel for the first time ever in the winter of 2017 on a student leadership trip led by Bratman.

Coyle later studied abroad in Beersheva and participated in another trip to Israel with the Zionist Organization of America. He is now in middle of the conversion process, saying he decided to convert to Judaism “almost immediately” after visiting the Western Wall for the first time. He called the experience “without question the most powerful moment in my life.”

“Ilya has been of great help on my own journey, whether it’s helping me with my Hebrew homework, handling questions of faith or introducing me to rabbis in my desire to convert to Judaism,” he told JNS. “Both of us have worked hard to help the Jewish community within Baruch create lasting relationships within the veteran community; I think that’s what has proven to be most impressive.”

Coyle had very little, if any, exposure to Jewish life or individuals before becoming active in Hillel and the “Brave” program. He said the Jewish community at Baruch always welcomed him “with open arms,” and he has also seen other U.S. veterans become close to Jewish students and IDF veterans with Hillel’s help.

“The more students going with Hillel to Israel or the more events we were doing together, there became a real understanding that there were shared values, and there were just a lot of commonality between the Jewish students and veterans,” he said. “What I heard again and again [from the veterans] was that there was just a real sense of togetherness. Initially, it wasn’t just go to Hillel and talk about Israel. It was just hang out, and eventually, the conversation started coming organically.”

As U.S. veterans, he continued, “we understand what it means to serve—loyalty, duty, all these things—the same as the IDF veterans, and so we feel that there’s an honest and real connection between these two communities.”

Coyle said before his trip, he knew little about Israel beyond “some of the vague things that you read in the news, typically negative.”

That changed after his visit, where he recognized similar values cherished by Americans, such as the sense of community, importance of family and tremendous respect held for veterans from all countries.

“It completely was not what I thought it would be,” he said. “It was a wonderful experience. It really opened my eyes.”

‘Like a firsthand kind of baptism’

Steven D’Souza, 38, another alumnus of Baruch College and a veteran of the U.S. Marines, said he, too, had never interacted with Jews before getting involved in the project.

D’Souza, who is Christian, took part in the 2018 trip and subsequently became vice president of Baruch’s pro-Israel club, YOFI. He said being part of “Brave” resulted in him finding “a sense of kinship” with the Jewish community. He even wound up taking some Hebrew classes and studied a little Talmud.

And he recently returned from leading a trip to Israel for non-Jewish college students, including some veterans, organized by a program that Hillel partners with.

“There are a lot of misconceived notions or just an ignorance about the Jewish religion, community and faith,” he said. “By meeting people and getting to know their story instead of reading about it somewhere, it’s like a firsthand kind of baptism in getting to know Jewish people, and getting emerged in the Jewish culture and language.”

“One of my favorite moments about the Jewish community is Shabbat,” he said, noting that during dinner, “you get a chance to talk. I think spending a meal with one another and getting to know one another is the best way that people can learn about Israel and know about what’s going on there, and learn about Jewish faith and the similarities, and not just focus on the differences.”

“There can never be enough conversations” about Israel, he added.

Coyle insisted that “people need those facts about Israel. Engage with as many people as possible and understand that there’s more to Israel than just the army and other things. There are actual people behind all of this, and once people can relate to that, it becomes a great way of understanding.”

Bratman also reiterated the important of building personal relationships between non-Jewish college students and those within the Jewish community, especially while they are still on campus.

“This is the final frontier, where we can talk to students before they become adults, before they go out to the greater community. This is an opportunity … to tell people about the reality of the situation. We have literally dozens of veterans and non-student leaders who have become our family, and they will always stand with us, with the Jewish community and with the State of Israel.”

(JNS.org)

“Brave” is made possible with funding from the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, and support from the World Jewish Congress.

The ‘Big Subjects’ Brilliantly Pondered in David Horowitz’s New Book

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Book Review - The Big Subjects article - pic 1 — In fact, as Mortality and Faith repeatedly reminds us, it is the elderly who know things that the young don’t know – things that they can’t know, because the old know what it is to be young, whereas the young have no idea what it is to be old

Although I was delighted when David Horowitz’s savvy treatise on Donald Trump, Big Agenda, became a top bestseller during the first days of the Trump presidency, I vividly recall wishing at the time that as many readers were acquainted with the other, equally invaluable side of Horowitz – the side that has produced, among other things, a trio of short, remarkable autobiographical works, The End of Time (2005), A Point in Time (2011), and You’re Going to Be Dead One Day (2015). Reviewing the last of these books – using words that apply equally well to the other two – I described it as “a poignant, bittersweet, captivating” volume that “mesmerizes from beginning to end, capturing with rare artistry the day-to-day musings of a man who is at once an intellectual and a poet” and who is at once capable of conveying “profound thoughts in restrained, unadorned, and unpretentious language” and of communicating “intense emotions while utterly eluding sentimentality or mawkishness.”

In Mortality and Faith: Reflections on a Journey through Time, David Horowitz – an always fecund writer who, as he eases into his ninth decade, seems to be more prolific than ever. Bruce Bawer writes, “The result is a magnum opus that is nothing less than a masterpiece of autobiography, although a bookstore manager might be tempted to shelve it under “spiritual meditation” or “inspirational”. (Photo Credit: BookTV- CSPAN)

In Mortality and Faith: Reflections on a Journey through Time, Horowitz – an always fecund writer who, as he eases into his ninth decade, seems to be more prolific than ever – has brought together those three memoirs and capped them off with a fourth section, “Staying Alive,” that brings us up to (nearly) the present day. The result is a magnum opus that is nothing less than a masterpiece of autobiography, although a bookstore manager might be tempted to shelve it under “spiritual meditation” or “inspirational” – quite an accomplishment for a man who, while deeply respecting religion of the benign, non-jihadist sort (see his other recent book, Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America), calls himself an agnostic and, at one point in Mortality and Faith, sharply rejects the “saccharine bromides” offered by some popular rabbi’s vapid self-help tome.

Rest assured, there’s nothing saccharine or bromidic here – and, for that matter, to look at the whole thing from the other direction, nothing cynical or obscurantist, either. What there is, is an abundance of penetrating observations, expressed in a prose that is consistently pithy and poetic without ever becoming precious or purple. Horowitz’s late friend Christopher Hitchens spent his last years debating any and all comers about whether God exists; Horowitz, by contrast, doesn’t see mortality and faith as matters for debate but as subjects for private meditation and pensive tête-à-têtes. Mortality and Faith, which contains some of the wisest things I’ve ever read about either of the topics named in its title, is the product at once of a formidable mind that has never tired of the big questions and of a resilient heart that, despite decades of setbacks and brickbats, has, quite remarkably, never grown embittered.

Astutely and with exquisite delicacy, Horowitz weaves together insights from Pascal, Proust, Plato, and Paul, not to mention Shakespeare and Wallace Stevens. He returns more than once to Saul Bellow’s last novel, Ravelstein (which haunts him, as it does me, for its searing ruminations on mortality). He contemplates the quasi-religious appeal of Marx, Freud, Hitler, and Stalin, and ponders the lives and beliefs of his Communist parents as well as – rather surprisingly – those of the 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atta. On some pages, virtually every sentence reads like an apothegm, a cogent statement of hard-won wisdom about the human condition.

To be sure, it may be that this is a book primarily for readers who, like Horowitz, have reached a certain age and have done more than their share of musing about life and death. I would be curious, however, to know how a smart, thoughtful twentysomething would respond to it. After all, the young, with rare exceptions, don’t think about such matters, and aren’t equipped to. They’re wired to feel immortal; time moves slowly for them; youth can feel like a permanent status, indeed like some kind of accomplishment. To be young is to know that, barring an untimely demise, you’ll eventually grow old and die, but the prospect seems impossibly distant, and on some level, in any case, you don’t really believe it anyway. You may even look down on the elderly, as if you possess some secret they don’t.

In fact, as Mortality and Faith repeatedly reminds us, it is the elderly who know things that the young don’t know – things that they can’t know, because the old know what it is to be young, whereas the young have no idea what it is to be old. “In age,” writes Horowitz – underscoring one melancholy fact that becomes a daily reality for all of us as the years pass – “we accumulate goodbyes and become accustomed to their permanence.” To read this poignantly beautiful testament is to be reminded that a young person may have a stratospheric I.Q. and may have learned an enormous amount about a wide range of subjects, but if he’s never suffered real losses – the kind of losses that leave an everlasting hole in one’s heart – and has yet to hear time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near, he can’t really be said, in the final analysis, to know about life. For such a reader – who knows? – perusing a text as powerful as Horowitz’s may well mark a first step away from innocence. Or perhaps only time can do the job.

(Front Page Mag)

Hard-Hitting Film About ‘Barbarians in our Midst’ Shakes the Collective Conscience

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Arts & Culture - Hard Hitting Film article - pic 1 — A scene from the Romanian film “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” by director Radu Jude. Photo Credit: YouTube

My paternal grandmother, Perel, of blessed memory, was hacked to pieces by Cossacks in her tea shop in Lutsk. I am named after her. Perhaps a part of me remembers it all.

Barbarians is a very “busy” film: In addition to the expected and gratuitous “art” film nudity, the film is simultaneously ironic, sarcastic, vulgar, highly literary and intellectual (the works of Babel, Arendt, Wiesel, Wittgenstein, Benjamin, are read aloud and critiqued), pretentious, irreverent, good natured, pessimistic, often confusing, sometimes boring, overly long—but it is also persuasive and devastating. Photo Credit: YouTube

When he was eight years old, after miraculously surviving pogroms and civil wars, my father, of blessed memory, was finally rescued and brought to America from Ukraine, in the province of Volhynia, in which Odessa is located. This was during or just after WWI and long before the Holocaust. Thus, in a sense, I am also a daughter of Lutsk, Ukraine, born of sheer luck.

This brings me to the story of the Romanian Holocaust-era massacre of Odessa’s Jews, the subject of a demanding and masterful film on the subject.

Are those capable of violent, genocidal massacres also capable of acknowledging and memorializing their evil deeds? Are their descendants able to do so? And, does it matter? Does unearthing the truth about large-scale human evil bring the tortured and the dead back to life? Does it redeem their descendants (if they have any)? Equally important, does it have the power to limit future racist genocides? If not, what is the point of remembering? Is it only to desecrate one’s great-grandparents? And is there really one “truth” about “complex” war-time realities or are there many?

Also: Why focus on small massacres, even genocides, when there are larger ones to contemplate? Why look at what happened to Jews in 1941 in Odessa or Jedwabne when millions more were industrially exterminated in German Nazi concentration camps? When the Soviets murdered more than a hundred million of their own people? When the Americans dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Why even focus on the past when there are so many contemporary massacres taking place? Consider the late 20th century and early 21st century in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria—not to mention the roving masters of terrorism such as Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram? Isn’t obsessively focusing on the distant past essentially diversionary? Shouldn’t we instead be attending to the many ongoing massacres in our times that we are obliged to stop?

These are some of the questions (there are many more) that animate the Romanian film “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” by director Radu Jude.

The film depicts a feisty, feminist female director, Mariana Marin, wonderfully played by Ioanna Jacob, who is directing the rehearsals for a public re-enactment of a Romanian Holocaust-era military battle between Nazi Germans, Soviet Russians, and Romanians. Her actors are not professionals.

Her city hall interlocutor, Movila, also artfully played by Alexandra Dabija, has funded the extravaganza and wants her to focus on Romanian heroism, or at least on Romania as a victim of aggression, not as a perpetrator. Movila does not want her to re-enact the gratuitous, Romanian massacre of more than 100,000–300,000 civilian Jews in Odessa/Ukraine in 1941, a genocide ordered by Marshal Ion Antonescu, and for which he was ultimately tried and executed.

Barbarians is a very “busy” film: In addition to the expected and gratuitous “art” film nudity, the film is simultaneously ironic, sarcastic, vulgar, highly literary and intellectual (the works of Babel, Arendt, Wiesel, Wittgenstein, Benjamin, are read aloud and critiqued), pretentious, irreverent, good natured, pessimistic, often confusing, sometimes boring, overly long—but it is also persuasive and devastating.

A priest rouses the people to murder: “The dirty Jews must be crushed… to not react against the Jews is to doom ourselves. If the Jews win we will be their slaves. If we kill them, we will be purified.”

Movila points out: “All of Europe was anti-Semitic. So we (Romanians) became Europeans.”

Jude’s fictional and contemporary Romanian audience, which views the public re-enactment of the military battle, cheers the Nazi soldiers, boos the Soviet soldiers, and applauds as the fictionalized Jews are being burnt alive.

The film answers all its questions. One is not meant to “like” the answers. Here they are.

No one wants to remember what, in this case, Romanians did to civilian Jews and gypsies.

Those Romanians who insist on remembering, are vulnerable to censorship (Mariana faces this), and punishment.

People want to remember their ancestors as noble or as victims, never as perpetrators.

Nothing has really changed. Despite all the righteous Gentiles, Eastern Europeans would again probably incinerate the Jews. In fact, in Ukraine today, the city has sold what is a mass grave of Jews murdered in Poltava to a real estate developer. Only last year, the existing monument for the Poltava victims was defaced with “Heil Hitler” and “Death to the Kikes.”

Barbarians is a film of agonized conscience. It reminded me of the film “Aftermath” which fictionalizes the 1941 pogrom of Jedwabne’s Jews at the hands of their Polish neighbors. Like Odessa, and like Ostroleka, Jedwabne’s Jews were herded by their neighbors into barns and buildings and set on fire. A contemporary Christ figure who tries to do the right thing is literally crucified by the Poles who do not want to be held accountable for their evil, greedy deeds.

Pasikowski’s powerful film “Aftermath” caused a huge controversy in Poland—it was banned in some Polish towns—as did Jan Gross’s painstaking documentation of this same atrocity. The Polish government threatened to strip Gross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and his impeccable research was hotly challenged. Something similar happened to Anna Bikont who also published The Crime and the Silence—another superb piece of research on this subject.

Phyllis Chesler writes: “Nothing has really changed. Despite all the righteous Gentiles, Eastern Europeans would again probably incinerate the Jews. In fact, in Ukraine today, the city has sold what is a mass grave of Jews murdered in Poltava to a real estate developer.” Photo Credit: Facebook

Nazi Germans industrialized ethnic cleansing. Catholic priests and nationalist leaders incited their populations to take up their proverbial pitchforks and torches and begin hacking away, burning Jews alive, possessing their tiny apartments and their pitiful crockery. Jedwabne and Ostroleka were both impoverished, agrarian communities, not large cities. The Jews did not have enviable crystal and chinaware.

See this hard-hitting film about the barbarians in our midst. It will be opening in New York City on July 19 at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles on July 26. (INN)

Professor Phyllis Chesler is a Ginsburg-Ingerman Fellow at the Middle East Forum and is the recipient of the 2013 National Jewish Book Award. She has authored 18 books, including Women and Madness and The New Anti-Semitism, and 4 studies about honor killing, Her latest books are An American Bride in Kabul, A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killing and A Politically Incorrect Feminist.

This article originally appeared on the Arutz Sheva web site, www.israelnationalnews.com

NYC’s 14th Street Y Announces Theater Schedule for 2019-2020 Season

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Arts & Culture - NYC's 14th Street article — The Theater at the 14th Street Y continues to honor the edgy, diverse, and rich history of innovative culture-making in the East Village with the 2019-20 Season from September 6, 2019 through June 2020. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Theater at the 14th Street Y continues to honor the edgy, diverse, and rich history of innovative culture-making in the East Village with the 2019-20 Season from September 6, 2019 through June 2020. All productions are chosen through a submission process and the curated season is co-presented by the Theater at the 14th Street Y. From a wide range of artists the season is a deliberate program of artistic discourse around the theme of Life and Death.

Highlights of the season include:

Playwrights for a Cause writer José Rivera presents a new piece, The Imperfect Love Song of Delilah and Venizio.
From The Horse’s Mouth celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Jewish Plays Project presents the National Winner of the 2019 Jewish Playwriting Contest.
Anna Lublina creates a meta conversation on the act of translation and historization in Russian in her piece Áàáóøêà | BAb(oo)shka.
LABA Second Stage production Scenes from Childhood, Ari Brand’s semi-autobiographical play about a family of performers.
Chad Williams’s WonderSpark Puppets February Puppet Takeover! There’s a different puppet show every weekend at the Theater at the 14th Street Y in February, about dragons, pigs, and dinosaurs.
The Olive Tree: A Comedy for the Hopeless Optimist. From award winning playwright Iris Bahr (DAI, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).
In Desi Moreno-Penson’s Ominous Men, the 1977 NYC Blackout hits the Bronx.
The Israel Arts Fest, presented by Israeli Artists Project.

“As we see in the 2019-2020 Season, different cultures honor and celebrate the life cycle in many ways. Our diverse artists wrestle with how we can learn from the traditions of previous generations and pay tribute through living life to its fullest. While reviewing the submissions, our panel had the refreshing discovery that many artists were drawn to tales of survival and remembrance to explore the theme of Life & Death. There is humor in the life cycle as well as joy and courage. We have productions about surviving cancer, recovering from drug addiction, a son learning about his father’s battle with AIDS, a darkly humored ghost story from the Bronx and a rich and lyrical play about love and loss from acclaimed playwright/director José Rivera. Join us as we explore these themes with innovative new works of theater, dance and opera. We’ll see you in the Theater at the 14th Street Y”, said David Stallings, Director of Arts + Culture.

2019-20 Season of Life + Death:

National Winner of the 2019 Jewish Playwriting Contest, Jewish Plays Project

September 6–8, 2019

Theater

7 cities, 1000 people, 1 Winner. Crowd-sourced and audience vetted, the Winner of the 2019 Jewish Playwriting Contest will be announced in June of 2019 and comes home to the 14th Street Y in September for the JPP’s featured workshop production. Come be a part of the movement for contemporary Jewish theater!

Recovery

Choreography by Johari Mayfield, Composed by Milica Paranosic

September 9–15, 2019

Dance

Blending movement and technology “Recovery” unpacks the container of addiction through the lens of a woman struggling with substance abuse. Where does she belong in a world where legalized drugs and alcohol are so readily accessible? Is she good or evil? The urge to explain and define the addict, society and recovery is cracked open and explored in this hybrid work of theater and dance.

…it’s time… Freemove Dance

September 19-22, 2019

Dance

Choreographed by Jenn Freeman, Original composition by Dani Markham

Following a sold-out run in 2018, Freemove Dance returns to present this gutsy and percussive dance piece. It is a call-to-arms for re-defining how and why the clock has a titan grip on our life experience.

Бабушка | BAb(oo)shka

By Anna Lublina

September 26–October 6, 2019

Theater

Áàáóøêà tells a true story about Jewish life in the USSR onstage- in Russian. Her story is live translated into klezmer music, gibberish, poetic text, and puppetry, creating a meta conversation on the act of translation and historization.

The Stray

Book, Music & Lyrics by Arif Silverman

Rebel Playhouse

September 28–October 6, 2019

Theater

The conflict between wolves and humans has existed for years, but can an unlikely friendship mend the rift between them? A new folk musical about love, loss, and the power of understanding, The Stray shows us growing pains lead to remarkable change.

The Pink Hulk: One Woman’s Journey to Find the Superhero Within

Written and Performed by Valerie David

October 8–13, 2019

Theater

A cancer diagnosis means only one thing: time to get laid! This award-winning solo show follows Valerie’s triumphant journey to become a three-time survivor & redefining what it means to reactivate her superhero within. An inspiring story that’s been touring the globe!

Ominous Men

By Desi Moreno-Penson

MultiStages New Works Winner

October 19–November 3, 2019

Theater

It’s the wrong night and the wrong place for these OMINOUS MEN to be playing a game of “Bones,” when the 1977 NYC Blackout hits the Bronx! Overtaken by their demons, they descend into a supernatural night of the soul.

Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center

From The Horse’s Mouth

November 6–10, 2019

Dance

The next edition of From The Horse’s Mouth is proud to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the country’s most prestigious repository of dance materials at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This production will be in collaboration with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Linda Murray, Curator.

Riyaaz/Practice

Courtyard Dancers, Dakshina Dance Company, Sakshi Productions, and Sattriya Dance Company

November 15–16, 2019

Dance

With bharatanatyam, kathak, odissi, and sattriya as foundational training, four east coast, contemporary dance companies collaborate to explore the rigor and sanctuary of a daily, physical and intentional practice.

#NastyWomen+–A Night of She and They Resistance Comedy

Laura Beatrix Newmark

November 18 and January 27, 2019; June 1, 2020

Comedy

#NastyWomen+ A Night of Resistance Comedy that will feature line-ups of women and underrepresented genders and empower those marginalized within the spectrum of she and they identity. Comedy Is the Resistance.

LABA 2nd Stage: State of the Jews

Composed by Alex Weiser, Libretto by Ben Kaplan

December 5–8, 2019

Opera

A semi-staged preview performance of “State of the Jews”, an opera by composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan which follows Theodor Herzl in the last year of his life, as his efforts to secure a Jewish homeland become increasingly desperate.

Straight Faced Lies

By Mark Jason Williams, Directed by Andrew Block

M-Squared Productions

December 9–22, 2019

Theater

Grab a plate for an unforgettable holiday with the Ryans, where family battles and deep secrets are more delicious things on the menu. “Passionate, biting and deeply funny, this play is equal parts fresh and familiar…”–The Villager

A Golem from Buenos Aires

Written, Directed and Choreographed by Carina Toker

December 9–29, 2019

Dance, Family, Theater

A Golem in Buenos Aires is a multidisciplinary theater play for the whole family, inspired by the Jewish legend of the Golem of Prague. In this original performance, an unexpected event unfolds a new hilarious, poetic, moving story.

LABA 2nd Stage: Scenes from Childhood

By Ari Brand, Directed by Eugenia Manwelyan

January 10–26, 2020

Theater

Set amidst the AIDS crisis in NYC, this semi-autobiographical play reveals a family of performers wrestling with ambition, tragedy, and the stories we tell about who we are. Ari Brand plays two roles, based on himself and his late father, Natan Brand.

WonderSpark Puppets February Puppet Takeover!

By Chad Williams

February 1–February 23, 2020

-February 1 and 2–The Three Little Pigs

-February 8 and 9–Princess Petunia & The Dragon (Tu B’Shevat)

-February 15 and 16–Mystery Max & The Missing Dinosaur

-February 22 and 23–Esther Saves the Day! (Purim)

Family Theater

There’s a different puppet show every weekend at the 14th Street Y Theater in February! Come see 4 family-friendly puppet shows about dinosaurs, big bad wolves, dragons, and princesses (and queens) saving the day. WonderSpark Puppets presents shows about Purim, Tu B’Shevat, a missing dinosaur, and the three little pigs. Each puppet show is 35-40 minutes long, highly interactive and best for ages 3+.

Planet Connections

The Imperfect Love Song of Delilah and Venizio

Written and Directed by Jose Rivera

Planet Connections Short Form Series, Planet Connections Festivity

February 7–23, 2020

Theater

Playwrights for a Cause writer Jose Rivera presents a new piece, The Imperfect Love Song of Delilah and Venizio. Death has been declared illegal by the U.S. government. Trees grow lights instead of leaves. Ghosts love the living. And in heaven you can taste the wind. Two impetuous lovers look for a love that lasts forever in this fantastical comedy about imperfect relationships, by the author of The Motorcycle Diaries and Marisol. This play will be running in rep with Planet Connections Short Form Series, curated by Glory Kadigan,at which Award Nominated Planet Connections writers present new short form playlets.

Women’s History Solo Series includes Places, Cheer from Chawton: A Jane Austen Family Theatrical, and First By Faith: The Life of Mary McLeod Bethune

Places

Written and Performed by Romy Nordlinger

Cabbages and Kings Theater

February 25–March 15, 2020

Theater

Places, a multimedia solo show, tells the story of the most famous star you’ve never heard of: trailblazing lesbian iconoclast, Alla Nazimova, a silver screen legend, Broadway sensation, and the first woman director and producer in Hollywood.

Cheer from Chawton: A Jane Austen Family Theatrical

By Karen Eterovich-Love

Arm’d Productions Theater

February 25–March 15, 2020

Theater

Join Jane Austen at her brother’s house in this easily accessible hour-long comedy by and about the famous author.

First By Faith: The Life Of Mary McLeod Bethune

By Richarda Abrams

February 25–March 15, 2020

Theater

2018 Winner of United Solo Theatre Festival’s Best Educational Show Award. Abrams uses storytelling/song, bends time/gender, explores Bethune’s journey from an uneducated child to a world renown educator; returning to earth to share one last lesson.

Jewish Plays Project: Abrahamic Americans

April 2–5, 2020

Theater

From the Travel Ban to Tree of Life, American Jews and American Muslims have been showing up for each other. At the same time, complex tensions–Linda Sarsour and the Women’s March, Rep. Ilan Omar and civic discourse–have risen. Four brand-new short plays from our hottest Jewish and Muslim playwrights and directors examine what’s changing, how it is positive and how to make it last.

The Olive Tree

By Iris Bahr

April 12–May 3, 2020

Theater

The olive tree: a comedy for the hopeless optimist. A wild, insightful and hilarious “play within a play” from award winning playwright Iris Bahr (DAI, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) it’s Noises Off meets Fauda, with a touch of Oslo for good measure.

Israel Arts Fest

Anat Gov

May 4–May 31, 2020

Family, Music, Theater

Israeli Artists Project will present the New York premiere of Sof Tov (Happy Ending) by Anat Gov, along with an art exhibit of New York-based Israeli artists, various cultural nights, jazz, comedy, film, dance, children’s theater, and more.

WonderSpark Puppets: The Three Little Pigs

By Chad Williams

June 6 and 7, 2020

Family, Theater

WonderSpark Puppets returns with the classic fable told with fun puppets and humor that will delight our youngest Theater goers! This show is highly interactive and best for ages 3 & up.

14 Street Y PRIDE Fest

June 11–28, 2020

Dance, Drag, Music, Theater

The Theater at the 14th Street Y is proud to present the 14 Street Y Pride Fest 2020. Theater, dance, film, music, drag, and more will be celebrated in honor of the diversity of the LGBTQ community in the Lower East Side.

Full Season Tickets and detailed information on shows available at www.14streety.org/tickets.

$14@14Y Flex Pass

Subscribe to the 14th Street Y and save with Flex Pass. For $42, choose any three shows from the upcoming season at https://14streety.secure.force.com/ticket#details_a0S36000007O40PEAS

Met Council Fights For the Rights of Low Income New Yorkers Losing Benefits

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Special Features - Met Council article - picture 1-min — (from left to right) State Senator Simcha Felder, Met Council CEO David Greenfield and NYS Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein

Is it possible to be worse off because of an increase in the minimum wage? In some cases, the answer is yes. Shira* is a home health care aide. She’s a divorced mother with three children. Her wages went up from $13.65 an hour to $15 an hour this past January due to the increase in the minimum wage in New York City. That should have been good news. As a result of the minimum wage increase, she’s making $235 more per month. The problem is that while New York adjusted the minimum wage it did not adjust the maximum earnings. So Shira lost $505 in SNAP (food stamps) benefits – meaning that her overall income went down $270 per month. “The minimum wage was meant to help low-income New Yorkers. However, in some cases, it’s actually costing them money. That is the Benefits Cliff and Met Council, as the largest Jewish charity serving the poor, is committed to fighting on behalf of these low-income New Yorkers,” explained David G. Greenfield, CEO of Met Council on Jewish Poverty.

That’s exactly what David Greenfield and Met Council did. They organized, lobbied and spend the last six months fighting on behalf of low-income New Yorkers. This past Friday morning all of their efforts bore fruit when at 6:45 AM, in a historic move by the New York State Legislature, they passed a law to form a task force to find solutions to the Benefits Cliff. Many low-income New Yorkers who are at risk of losing their benefits will be greatly served by this legislation. When Met Council first learned of the Benefits Cliff problem from a number of their clients, they worked hand in hand with Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Joseph Lentol who introduced this Benefits Cliff bill in their respective houses. The bill will have a long-lasting impact on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of working poor in New York.

“This is something that only Met Council can do,” said David G. Greenfield, CEO, Met Council. “While serving over 225,000 New Yorkers in need each year we come across every conceivable issue. We literally help tens of thousands of people access benefits each year, that’s how we saw the Benefits Cliff first hand. It’s so demoralizing to learn that some New Yorkers are actually losing money because of the minimum wage. That’s why we set out to fix it.”

“I have heard anecdotal stories that the minimum wage has negatively impacted individuals ability to receive benefits. This is largely because their increased income may disqualify them from receiving their usual supplemental government benefits,” said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol. “This is an unintended consequence of the minimum wage increase. Make no mistake, these individuals still need help. It is our responsibility to ensure that the unintended consequences of legislation we pass are mitigated. I was happy to sponsor this bill to study how these impacts could happen and work to find a way to resolve this problem.”

“For many families, the abrupt drop-off in benefits as they reach a higher income bracket is both a trap and an obstacle to social mobility. As we work towards a fair system where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, we need to know how the benefits cliff affects New Yorkers’ ability to get out of poverty. Then we need to address the issue head-on. The passage of this legislation is an important step,” said Senator Andrew Gounardes.

Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein passed the first bill in New York that seeks to fix the Benefits Cliff on the issue of Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and championed the cause of low-income New Yorkers. In this case, tens of thousands of teenagers who were working in the summer through the SYEP program saw their families income go up and were inadvertently causing their families to lose benefits.

“The impact of the benefits cliff is real and affects thousands of low-income families,” said Assembly Member Simcha Eichenstein. “My legislation that passed both houses of the New York State Legislature last week excludes the Summer Youth Employment Program earned income from the household annual income as it relates to public assistance. This legislation will ensure that more young people can participate in these enriching summer experiences helping them get a head start on acquiring work skills without fear of affecting their household’s public assistance.”

“We must ensure that we evaluate the effects of the increase in the minimum wage has on our working poor. Too many New Yorkers today are struggling with poverty or trying to make ends meet, with many earning the minimum wage. It is not only necessary but just that we ensure all services, programs, and subsidies that go through New York State do not contradict the living wage,” said Senator Roxanne J. Persaud, Chair of the Social Services Committee, who co-sponsored the SYEP legislation.

Greenfield also took the time to thank Assembly Member Helene Weinstein, Chair of Ways & Means, for her leadership in passing this legislation and Assembly Members Marcos Crespo and Andrew Hevesi for their support, as well. “We literally had the backing of dozens of elected officials. I’m especially grateful to them and to our JCC heads, Met Council staff and young leadership cabinet – all of whom came up to Albany to lobby on behalf of this bill. We could not have done this without their support.”

Met Council is the largest Jewish charity serving the poor in New York. They have ten different departments that work together to fight poverty including America’s largest free kosher food network, crisis intervention services, family violence prevention programs and the largest network of affordable housing in the Jewish community located in 20 building owned and operate by Met Council across the five boroughs of New York City.

Seinfeld Experience Coming to NYC This Fall

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Celebrity News - Seinfeld Experience article — The Seinfeld Experience is no longer to be found only in 1990s television. It’s coming to Manhattan. An immersive “The Seinfeld Experience” will debut this fall. An as yet preliminary website promoting the debut was recently put in place. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The Seinfeld Experience is no longer to be found only in 1990s television. It’s coming to Manhattan.

An immersive “The Seinfeld Experience” will debut this fall. An as yet preliminary website promoting the debut was recently put in place.

The project is a collaboration between Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Superfly, a music festival and events company. Warner Bros. owns the rights to Seinfeld merchandising.

“The Seinfeld Experience will allow fans to immerse themselves in the world of SEINFELD through an exploration of classic show moments and beloved characters,” said the initial press release. “The ticketed experience will feature interactive exhibits designed to bring SEINFELD to life that include iconic costumes, memorabilia, set re-creations, and props from the show as well as never before seen content. In addition, the space will feature a retail store that offers limited edition and exclusive merchandise specific to the show and The Seinfeld Experience.”

Seinfeld, which premiered almost exactly 30 years ago (July 5, 1989), widely is recognized as one of the greatest shows, and the most popular sitcom, in television history, the company said. The show ran on NBC for nine seasons, winning numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and People’s Choice awards. It was named the greatest television show of all time in 2009 by TV Guide, was listed in the top five of the 100 greatest television shows of all time by Rolling Stone in 2016, and was identified as the best sitcom ever in a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll in 2012.

“We’re thrilled to bring The Seinfeld Experience to life in an innovative way, combining nostalgia with immersive entertainment, and getting fans closer than ever before to the show and its beloved characters,” said Jonathan Mayers, Co-founder of Superfly in the release. “A show as iconic as SEINFELD should be celebrated with an experience that truly matches its legacy and enduring influence.”

“As our fans celebrate the 30th anniversary of SEINFELD, we are thrilled to partner with Superfly to introduce an authentic experience that pays tribute to the sitcom’s most iconic scenes, catch phrases and characters,” added Peter van Roden, Senior Vice President of Global Themed Entertainment, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “Since it premiered back in 1989, SEINFELD has been a cultural touchstone for so many and we hope that through this experience fans will be able to relive their favorite moments.”

“Because I am Seinfeld, for a long time I was the only person to actually have the Seinfeld experience. Now, these crazy Superfly people are going to make it so lots of people can interact with our silly 90’s TV show,” said Jerry Seinfeld. “All I can say is, in the general context of the world we live in, this now seems completely normal.”

Convert to Judaism & Ex-Porn Star Jenna Jameson Defends Israel in Twitter Firestorm

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Celebrity News - Convert to Judaism article — “Israel was promised to the Jewish people [by] G-d,” Jenna Jameson wrote on Twitter. “Don’t Arabs have enough land? They target the one free-thinking democracy and want to turn it into a wasteland”…”Why does ‘Palestine’ want to drive all Jews into the sea? Why do they want to take over what the Jews have built and ethnically cleanse?” Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Can any insights about the prospects of Middle East peace be gained from an actress whose credits include films like Zombie Strippers, Dirt Merchant, Erotic Aftershock and Teenage Delinquents?

Actually, yes.

One-time porn goddess Jenna Jameson, a recent convert to Judaism, is weighing in on such weighty matters in the wake of a firestorm of Twitter messages she has been receiving.

“The antisemitic comments don’t hurt me whatsoever; all they do is educate my followers and the public about how antisemitism runs rampant on social media,” said Jameson, who converted in 2016, in an interview published by The Algemeiner. “So by attacking my faith, you prove my plight. I welcome the hateful debates, because I am informed on the Torah due to my recent Orthodox conversion. I’ve been a warrior all my life. Now I am applying my strength to defending the Jewish people and Israel.”

Jameson, who is pregnant with her third child, has been outspoken in social media about her support for Israel and her condemnation of Palestinians – which she correctly points out does not actually exist.

“Israel was promised to the Jewish people [by] G-d,” she wrote on Twitter. “Don’t Arabs have enough land? They target the one free-thinking democracy and want to turn it into a wasteland”…”Why does ‘Palestine’ want to drive all Jews into the sea? Why do they want to take over what the Jews have built and ethnically cleanse?”

Married to an Israeli, Jameson has also spoken out strongly in favor of the Israel Defense Force. When a Twitter contact complained of Israeli soldiers killing so-called “innocent” Palestinians, the former X-rated actress wrote, “I don’t believe in Hamas launching rockets daily at Israel. They made their bed, now they can lie in it…Innocence is relative.”

She was eager to set the record straight on living conditions in the Jewish State, tweeting, “What’s ironic is the sheer number of Arabs thriving in Israel and how that is overlooked.”

She was also quick to make clear that she bears no hatred toward Muslims and Arabs. “I’m cool with [them]. I disagree with Islam. The Quran teaches to wage war on non-believers. And don’t get me started on what it says about Jews.”

“The harsh exchanges between Jameson and her critics began on Tuesday, when she posted a series of comments against the “tyranny” of Islam,” The Algemeiner reported. “After being called a “whore” and compared by a Palestinian to the late Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and Zionists “who rape, kill and commit all the crimes,” she shot back: “I’m sorry you follow an ideology that promotes child rape, female genital mutilation, butchering non-believers and polygamy. The Torah does not teach hostile violent takeover of the world. It does not teach to kill men, rape their wives and enslave their children.”

Richard Dreyfuss Criticizes Zionism: ‘I am Less Jewish Than I Have Been’

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Celebrity News - Richard Dreyfuss article — Asked by The Hollywood Reporter about “the rise of anti-Semitism around the world, and the parallel rise of anti-Zionism,” Dreyfuss acknowledged that “anti-Semitism is on the rise, yes, but we should be more afraid of Jews not behaving like Jews.” Photo Credit: Shutterstock

“I think the Jews are a great moral template… I’m very proud of being a cultural Jew,” Richard Dreyfuss told The Hollywood Reporter.

Actor Richard Dreyfuss says that he once asked his father: “Why don’t we practice Judaism?”

His father, says the actor, replied: “I don’t have to practice, I’m very good at it.”

Dreyfuss told of the exchange with his father in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in response to a question of whether he has become more spiritual in older age or was always deeply rooted in Judaism.

The interview with the Hollywood magazine coincided with the upcoming release of Dreyfuss’ newest movie, “Astronaut,” but the actor also talked about politics and religion.

“I am more spiritual and less Jewish than I have been,” Dreyfuss replied. “Because I’m not a temple Jew,” he added.

“I think the Jews are a great moral template. So I’m very proud of being Jewish and I’m very proud of being a cultural Jew,” the actor told the magazine. “But most Jews are willing to celebrate their own history of being oppressed, and then they’ll get up and oppress other people. So, I don’t want Jews to do that,” he said.

Asked by The Hollywood Reporter about “the rise of anti-Semitism around the world, and the parallel rise of anti-Zionism,” Dreyfuss acknowledged that “anti-Semitism is on the rise, yes, but we should be more afraid of Jews not behaving like Jews.”

In a reference to the relationship between Jews and the State of Israel, the actor continued with his critical tone of the Jewish State, arguing that “we’ll sound very much like our own worst enemies in trying to protect Zionism and protect our own reputations. We really do need to explore what it means to be Jewish and not let it go away.”

Asked whether it is true that he is a distant relative of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish artillery officer whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason, before his ultimate complete exoneration, was said to have inspired journalist Theodor Herzl to become a leader of the modern Zionism movement, actor Richard Dreyfuss told The Hollywood Reporter: “Yes. And even if it wasn’t true, it would be true and I would claim it because it’s such a great story.”

(World Israel News)

US Women’s World Cup Soccer Team Heads to Semifinals in France

By

Sholom Schreirber

-

07/03/2019

0

Celebrity News - US Women's article copy — The United States women's national team is close to another historic victory. The team is moving toward capturing the 2019 Women's World Cup today as it goes up against an England team in the semifinals in Lyon, France. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The United States women’s national team is close to another historic victory.

The team is moving toward capturing the 2019 Women’s World Cup today as it goes up against an England team in the semifinals in Lyon, France.

The winner will play in this Sunday’s championship game against the Netherlands or Sweden. The loser will play in the third-place game on Saturday.

Enthusiasts point out that no team has ever reached the Women’s World Cup final three straight times. “After losing the 2011 final in penalty kicks and winning the 2015 final (both games against Japan), the United States can become the first team to reach that mark with a win over the Lionesses on Tuesday,” noted CBS Sports.

Casting a shadow over the team’s accomplishments have been the antics of 33-year-old player Megan Rapinoe. She has knelt to protest what she claims is social inequality in the US, squawked incessantly about her life in the LGBTQ community, and even been a part of the lawsuit against the US soccer federation for equal pay.

“I’ll probably never put my hand over my heart,” the openly lesbian Rapinoe told Yahoo Sports. “I’ll probably never sing the national anthem again.”

“Colin Kaepernick very much inspired me, and inspired an entire nation, and still does, to actually think about these things,” she said to Yahoo Sports. “The way he spoke about them so clearly, so matter-of-fact, wasn’t trying to convince anyone. Just, ‘This is what is happening, this is what I’m willing to do about it.’ I found that extremely inspiring and convicting. Like, how can you not support?”

Tweeted radio talk show host Neal Boortz, “So that Megan Rapinoe lady wants to pull a Colin Kaepernik? That’s it for Team USA in the World Cup for me. No time for that BS.”

Indeed, the entire squad has at times failed to comport itself with class or dignity. As kansascity.com reported it in June, “Clare Rustad called it disgraceful. Kaylyn Kyle said it was disrespectful. Diana Matheson said U.S. coach Jill Ellis should be embarrassed. All three of those women are former Canadian soccer players now working for The Sports Network, and each was not happy with the reaction of the U.S. women’s soccer team during its 13-0 win over Thailand in the World Cup in France. They thought the goal celebrations were over the top during the blowout victory and shared their criticism of the U.S. team during a broadcast following Tuesday’s game.”

The Jewish Voice

The Jewish Voice

The Jewish Voice

The Jewish Voice

Police Shooting of Ethiopian Man in Israel Sparks Violent Riots

Liberman: Israel’s Military Academies are Religious ‘Militias’

The Painful, Prickling, Presidential Debates

Is Trump’s Visit to N. Korea a Sign for Iran?

Letters to the Editor

Trump’s Bold Gamble Pays Off in Historic DMZ Meeting with N. Korea’s Kim Jong-Un

Will Iran’s Attacks on the US and Allies Escalate?

New ‘Brave’ Approach to Combating Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

The ‘Big Subjects’ Brilliantly Pondered in David Horowitz’s New Book

Hard-Hitting Film About ‘Barbarians in our Midst’ Shakes the Collective Conscience

NYC’s 14th Street Y Announces Theater Schedule for 2019-2020 Season

Met Council Fights For the Rights of Low Income New Yorkers Losing Benefits

Seinfeld Experience Coming to NYC This Fall

Convert to Judaism & Ex-Porn Star Jenna Jameson Defends Israel in Twitter Firestorm

Richard Dreyfuss Criticizes Zionism: ‘I am Less Jewish Than I Have Been’

US Women’s World Cup Soccer Team Heads to Semifinals in France

About Us

Popular Category

Editor Picks

Turkey’s Global Spying Program Targeting Critical Journalists Exposed

3 Israeli soldiers killed in booby-trapped Rafah building