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$600K Spent to Protect Orthodox Jewish Speaker at UC Berkeley 

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Record security at UC campus to protect conservative pundit Ben Shapiro amid threats from Antifa. 5 arrested for violence and weapons.

Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro spoke at the University of California at Berkeley Thursday night amid threats of violence from the radical Antifa group.

Berkeley spent approximately $600,000 to protect Shapiro and students who wished to hear him speak. Leftist activists slammed Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, as a “neo-Nazi” and a “white supremacist.”

The campus was placed on virtual lockdown as metal detectors, concrete barriers and police barricades were set up to keep the peace.

Shapiro slammed Antifa for making the expensive measures necessary. “Free speech isn’t free. It costs over $600,000 thanks to Antifa.”

Free speech isn’t free. It costs over $600,000 thanks to Antifa.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 14, 2017

“Conservatives here have done something amazing. They’ve achieved something incredible,” Shapiro said during his speech. “If you look outside, there’s K-bar everywhere. They’ve built basically these structures to keep Antifa from invading the premises.

“So that means Berkeley has achieved building a wall before Donald Trump did,” he added.

Local police were permitted to use pepper spray on individual protesters if the expected violence got out of hand. The extensive security measures scared off the majority of the protesters, and the event was held without the feared violence. Three protesters were arrested for possessing weapons prior to the event.

“No violence, no nothing. And now we are spending well into six figures so that I can say many of the same things. It’s utterly absurd,” Shapiro said in his speech.

Several protesters shouted outside the auditorium: “Speech is violent, we will not be silent!”

“Thanks to Antifa and the supposed anti-fascist brigade for exposing what the radical left truly is,” Shapiro told the large audience. “All of America is watching because you guys are so stupid. It’s horrifying, I am grateful, and you can all go to hell, you pathetic, lying, stupid jackasses.”

Shapiro praised the police for preventing violence at the event.

“These are the folks that stand between civilization and lawlessness,” adding that “the only people who are standing between those ATMs and the Antifa are the police, and all they get from the left is a bunch of crap.”

Several scuffles occurred following the speech, when protesters clashed with police and counter-protesters. Two more people were arrested.

By: Gary Willig
(INN)

Atlanta Jewish Community &  OU Assist Irma’s Florida Evacuees

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Hurricane Irma slams into Florida

Facing predictions of a direct hit from Hurricane Irma, the largest storm the Atlantic had ever seen, the OU’s Southeast Regional Director, Naftali Herrmann told his daughters’ nanny that they planned to evacuate from their home in Boca Raton to Atlanta. When he invited her to join them, she asked “Who do you know in Atlanta?” “We don’t know anyone,” was his response “But the Jewish community is one family.”

Packing up their belongings, he took a last look at his house before driving away and felt emotional as he wondered what their house would look like upon their return. “Our house is our home”, he said, “It’s terrifying to think that our home which is supposed to be where we are safe can no longer afford that safety.”

Naftali and his family were one family among an estimated 350 Jewish families who evacuated from southern Florida, to be embraced by the warmth of the Atlanta Jewish community; for most of them, they had never met their hosts before.

Looking at the laughing camaraderie as the Florida visitors mingled with their Atlanta hosts at Kiddush, you would never imagine the worry they felt at what might happen to their homes- or the memories of the 20 hours spent in traffic, fearful that they would run out of gas, and with a fear unique to observant Jews, that they would be stuck on the road for Shabbat.

In the jubilant dancing at Kabbalat Shabbat, the festive communal meals at both of Atlanta’s largest shuls, the community-wide kumsitz on Saturday night and concert on Sunday morning, all of which had hundreds of attendees, one could sense the Florida families had found an oasis from the week-long stress and fear they had experienced as they prepared for the hurricane’s arrival.

The Atlanta Jewish community, known for its warmth and hospitality has opened its doors to hurricane victims before, in 2005 to evacuees from Hurricane Wilma and in 2016, to Savannah and Charleston evacuees from Hurricane Matthew. Once again, as soon as calls went out that hosts were needed, community members eagerly signed up, offering their homes to Florida evacuees for as long as needed, with one family hosting 75 people for Shabbat dinner and others willing to not only house families, but even families with dogs, cats and a snake! But with the two largest Orthodox synagogues, Beth Jacob and Young Israel of Toco Hills at around 500 and 215 families respectively, to feed another 1500 people was as Rabbi Adam Starr of Young Israel of Toco Hills explained, “like bringing in another congregation”. Finding so much food to feed so many people was a challenge.

The Orthodox Union was quick to step in and help out. With a $50,000 donation from the organization and donations from Jewish communities across the world, Yehuda Friedman, Associate Director of Synagogue Services at the OU helped to provide truckloads of food for Shabbat and the week, including 300 pounds of schnitzel, 3,000 hot dogs, 2,500 hamburgers, 1,200 challah rolls and 25 cases of pre-made lasagna. They also provided 50 dozen boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and 75 pies of pizza which were served at the Kumsitz.

By: JV Staff

Are There More Neo-Nazis  in America than Jews?

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Former grand wizard of Ku Klux Klan, David Duke

Survey suggests neo-Nazis outnumber Jews by roughly 2-to-1 in the US – not including other white supremacists

How many Americans identify with white supremacist or neo-Nazi ideologies? According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, the number is surprisingly high.

The survey, conducted in conjunction with the University of Virginia Center for Politics and published last week, surveyed 5,360 American adults for their views on radical movements in the US, including Antifa, neo-Nazism, Black Lives Matter, white nationalism, and the “Alt-Right”.

While each movement or ideology was only supported by a minority of American adults according to the poll, with a large majority opposing them, this minority sometimes translates into millions numerically.

The Antifa movement – a violent far-left group which has instigated riots targeting addresses by conservative speakers like Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter, and Milo Yiannopoulos – has the backing of only eight percent of American adults. But out of a total US population of some 324 million, that’s equivalent to between 20 to 21 million adults.

White nationalists make up a similar proportion of the population, with 8% of respondents saying they backed white nationalism, compared to 65% who said they opposed it.

Even neo-Nazism appears to enjoy a surprisingly large following, with only four percent of American adults translating to more than 10 million people identifying with neo-Nazi ideology.

If the survey is accurate, self-identified neo-Nazis outnumber Jews by roughly two-to-one in the US, with some six million Americans identifying as Jewish, or about 1.9% of the total population (including children).

While membership in neo-Nazi organizations is low, with groups like the National Socialist Movement (NSM) boasting only a few hundreds of registered members, many of whom are inactive, other recent polling data tends to corroborate the Reuters/Ipsos survey’s findings.

In August, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 9% of Americans find neo-Nazism and white supremacist views acceptable, compared to 83% who said such ideologies were unacceptable. 

By: David Rosenberg
(INN)

Argentine Investigators to Say Jewish Prosecutor was Murdered

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It has been revealed that Nisman had drafted arrest warrants for then President Cristina Kirchner (pictured above) and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman before he was found dead.

Report: Forensic analysts have determined that Alberto Nisman was murdered and did not commit suicide

A team of forensic analysts has determined that Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor who claimed that the former President of Argentina covered up Iran’s role in the deadly bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, was murdered and did not commit suicide, JTA reported Thursday, citing local media.

A new toxicology report on Nisman’s body found traces of the drug ketamine, an anesthetic used on animals, and posited that at least one other person forcefully held him down around the time of his death, the Infobae digital news outlet and the TN cable news network said.

The team of investigators plans to present the report next week to Eduardo Taiano, the lead prosecutor looking into the circumstances of Nisman’s death. Taiano will then decide how to present the evidence to the Justice Department, according to JTA.

Nisman, who was Jewish, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment in January 2015, the day before he was supposed to present a report on the 1992 AMIA Jewish center bombing to Argentine lawmakers.

It has been revealed that Nisman had drafted arrest warrants for then President Cristina Kirchner and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman before he was found dead.

Those warrants charged that Kirchner orchestrated a secret deal to cover up Iranian officials’ alleged role in the attack. She denies the allegations.

Previous scientific tests showed that Nisman likely did not shoot himself, but the case languished until last year, when it was moved to a federal court that handles political murder cases.

After Nisman’s death was initially labeled a suicide, his family – who insists he was murdered – commissioned its own independent forensic investigation. 

By: A7 Staff
(INN)

UK Eases Threat Level After  Police Arrest Second Suspect

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Britain eased its terrorist threat level Sunday from “critical” to “severe” after police arrested a second suspect in the bombing of a subway train in London.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the second arrest was an indication that “good progress” was being made in to the investigation of Friday’s attack that injured 30 people, all but one of whom have now been released from hospitals.

The “severe” threat level indicates British authorities now believe another attack is highly likely, while the “critical” designation meant an attack was seen as imminent.

Police said in they arrested a 21-year-old man in the west London suburb of Hounslow, which is home to London’s Heathrow Airport, just before midnight Saturday. He was arrested under Britain’s Terrorism Act.

Authorities searched a home in the London suburb of Stanwell, also neighboring Heathrow Airport, that was linked to the second suspect, who was not identified.

Earlier Saturday, an 18-year-old man was arrested in the port area of Dover, a major ferry terminal for travel between Britain and France.

“He was arrested on the suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,” Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Neil Basu said at a Saturday news conference.

Basu said the first arrest was “significant.” Following that arrest, police evacuated the Dover port and a suburban London neighborhood as they searched a nearby house.

Residents of the neighborhood say the house that was searched is occupied by an elderly couple — Penelope and Ronald Jones — who have taken care of foster children for decades. Queen Elizabeth honored them for their efforts in 2010.

Basu said a “number of items” were recovered from the Dover terminal, without giving further details.

Basu also said investigators were keeping an “open mind” as to whether more than one person was involved in the attack.

“We are still pursuing numerous lines of inquiry, and at a great pace,” Basu said. “Our priorities… are to identify and locate any other suspects,” he added.

Islamic State jihadists claimed responsibility for the attack, but Home Secretary Rudd discounted it.

“It is inevitable that so-called Islamic State or Daesh will try to claim responsibility, but we have no evidence to suggest that yet,” she told the BBC. Rudd said authorities will try to determine how the suspects may have been radicalized.

Earlier, she had dismissed as “pure speculation”  President Donald Trump’s claim, made Friday on Twitter, that a “loser terrorist” behind the attack was known to Scotland Yard.

British Prime Minister Theresa May had already rebuked the U.S. leader for the remark, saying, “I never think it’s helpful for anybody to speculate on what is an ongoing investigation.”

By; Walter Metuth

 Exclusive Jewish Voice Interview with WJC President Ronald S Lauder as We Enter the Jewish Year of 5778

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Lauder, the former US Ambassador to Austria and the youngest son of Estee Lauder, is among the most prominent philanthropists in the Jewish world.

What do you see as the greatest challenges facing the Jewish people today?

One of the most pressing challenges facing the Jewish world today is the question of how to keep the flame of Jewish life burning bright. Reinvigorating Jewish communities outside of Israel and instilling in Jews around the world a shared sense of Jewish pride and responsibility is a vital priority. Every Jew, no matter where they live, should know what it means to be Jewish.

What should we be celebrating in this Rosh Hashanah?

As I reflect on the state of our people, I am proud that just 72 years after the Shoah, the Jewish people are standing stronger than ever. Despite facing continued, existential threats and vexing internal challenges, the Jewish people have persevered. Our community has much to be proud of, from a renaissance of Jewish arts, learning, and culture, to our homeland, a vibrant, sovereign Israel that serves as a beacon of democracy and liberal values.

What can Jews around the world do in the face of the recent controversy surrounding the Kotel shared prayer space and disagreements about conversion legislation and the general subject of religious equality in Israel?

At a time when the size of the Jewish community is stagnant, except for the Orthodox, we must do more to encourage Jewish people to feel included, not excluded. The Kotel, Judaism’s holiest site, is a great example: it should be a place where all Jews feel welcome.

Israelis, for the most part, understand this and seek Jewish unity and deeper bonds with the Diaspora. They are likewise aware of the strategic implications and national security imperative of maintaining Jewish solidarity.

I firmly believe solutions acceptable to all sides are possible. The sheer complexities and political sensitivities that issues like the Kotel and conversion present should not deter stakeholders. Instead, what is required is more creativity, restored trust, and renewed commitment by all sides.

On the Palestinian front, what can be done to advance the peace process? Is a deal still attainable?

Yes, I believe deep in my bones that a two-state solution is still within reach. It remains a vital national interest, not just for Israel, but for the Jewish people more broadly. Given current demographic trends, inaction is simply not an option. With common economic and security interests binding all sides, and a palpable shift in the Arab world’s attitudes toward Israel, there has never been a better time to achieve a deal. I am confident President Trump will make significant progress in the months ahead.

As is usually the case, the High Holidays coincide with the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering in New York. What do you say to those who are skeptical that Israel and the Jewish people can ever be treated fairly at the UN?

Winston Churchill famously hoped that the United Nations would be a “true temple of peace.” But for much of its history, it has instead functioned as an anti-Israel political cabal. Thankfully, that seems to be slowly changing. The new secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, addressed the World Jewish Congress conference in May, and he assured us that he will do everything in his power to reverse the international organization’s history of anti-Israel bias. And the new US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, is a breath of fresh air. The UN’s culture of hostility toward Israel, cultivated over decades, will be tough to overcome, but I am hopeful that the UN will begin to treat Israel more fairly in the future.

You are quite active philanthropically in Israel. What recent projects are you most proud of?

My family’s love of Israel is central to our identity. Our recent philanthropy in Israel has focused on the intersection of education and economic opportunity. We funded a new, state-of-the-art dormitory at Technion, which opened a few months ago. When I first visited the campus, I was in awe of its dynamism—it’s very much the engine that powers the “Startup Nation.” At the opposite end of the country, in the Negev, I’m proud to have founded the Lauder Employment Center in Beersheba, which connects students at Ben-Gurion University with quality jobs and local civic life.

Any final words?

I want to wish all of your readers a happy, healthy, and fulfilling new year. Shanah Tovah U’metukah.

Police to Investigate Haredi Riot; Erdan: Cops Apparently ‘Lost Control’

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Police “may have lost control” of a protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem Sunday, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday, but added that demonstrators also attacked police officers.

Speaking to the Israel Broadcast Corporation (Kan), Erdan noted that nine officers were injured in the melee, which took place. But he said that video footage of officers kicking, beating and pushing non-violent protesters were “appalling” and that the police internal investigation department unit would investigate the incident.

“At least from the footage, it appears that the officers lost control and used unreasonable force,” Erdan said.

Nine officers were wounded and the same number of haredim arrested as hundreds of people descended on the outskirts of the capital’s haredi Geula neighborhood to protest plans to apply the IDF military draft to ultra-Orthodox youth, blocking roads and throwing rocks at police.

One of the detainees was the grandson of Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Kohn, leader of the Toldot Avraham Yitzchak sect in the Meah Shearim neighborhood a short distance from the protest

Haredi protests in northern Jerusalem have become frequent in recent years as the army has cracked down against draft-dodgers – individuals who opt out of military service in order to study in religious seminaries (yeshivot) but who do not actually attend classes. In addition, haredim have frequently protested against IDF programs to create frameworks in the army that are consistent with haredi mores and values, and ultra-Orthodox soldiers are regularly subjected to verbal abuse and physically attacked in haredi communities around the country.

Left-wing politicians were quick to condemn the violence.

“Yet another instance of police violence,” said Meretz Party Chairwoman Zahava Gal-on. “We’ve seen incidents like this in the past, but they passed as if nothing happened.

“I call on the police to bring the officer to justice.”

Former Defense Minister Amir Peretz added that while he supports efforts to apply the draft to the haredim, it is no less important to ensure citizens’ right to protest.

“Police and border police units are responsible for the most fractious, explosive points in Israeli society,” Peretz said in a media statement. “Despite the complicated [nature of these issues] we must not allow ourselves to get to a situation in which we lose control.” 

By: TPS

Israeli, Foreign Leaders Pay Tribute to Peres on 1st Anniversary of Death

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair praised the late President Shimon Peres last Thursday, saying Peres “drew upon the best of the Jewish character” in order to build a country that would be a gift to the world”

Blair cited Peres’ connection to Jewish history – “sustained through pogroms, persecution and holocaust, often battered but never subdued” – and said the former president, prime minister and defense minister was animated by a vision of creating a better world.

“He never gave up on peace with the Palestinians or on his belief that peace was best secured by an independent State of Palestine alongside a recognized State of Israel,” Blair said. “One of our last conversations was on how to change the plight of the people of Gaza.”

He grasped completely the extraordinary potential there would be if Israel and the region were working together, not simply on security, but on economic advance, technological breakthrough and cultural reconciliation,” Blair added.

Other speakers at the official state memorial for Peres at Mount Herzl included President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and members of the Peres Family.

President Rivlin, who as a member of the right-wing Likud Party was a long-term political rival of Peres, who was a member of the Labor faction, praised his predecessor as an inspiration to the current generation of Israelis.

“You have left us much more to do, but the path you paved, the dream you spoke of, and most of all, your determination and faith, will be with this people for generations to come, and you will continue to be an advocate of all of us.”

Peres’ son Chemi, who serves as chairman of the board of the Peres Center, added that his father struggled “all of his life with his tremendous love for the State of Israel,” but bemoaned the fact that the elder Peres never saw his dream of peace realized.

“While he fought to build the nuclear bomb in Dimona, he also fought against mountains and demons to make the impossible possible. It took courage to dream, and even more courage to achieve the dream and to see it become reality…I ask, in the spirit of my father, that you don’t stop dreaming and daring, because it’s the best thing that could happen to our beloved country,” Peres said.

By: TPS

Independence for the Kurds!!

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Kurdish developments in the Middle East

Involved in the turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East is the question of independence for the Kurdish people of that region. Not many of us are familiar with the history of this ethnic group, the Kurds. They live in a mountainous area where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet. For most of their history Kurds have been a part of the Persian and Ottoman empires. Persia eventually became Iran and the Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey. Throw into this pot of craziness is that Kurds exist as well in Syria and yearn for their own state against the wishes of not only the above named nations but the United States as well. Enough said then, about them being in a bubble of chaos.

After dreaming for independence for years, the Kurds in Iraq have a non-binding referendum set for September 25th. The vote to endorse a separate, self governing state might lead to increased military conflict with the war against ISIS now ongoing. But we think that independence should be the next step for the five million Iraqi Kurds, who after the 1991 Gulf War claimed their own semi-autonomous region at that time. However, to add to the problems of independence is the fact that many Kurds desire to merge the whole community, 30 million of their people across Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran into a single entity. This scares the you know what out of the nations in which the Kurds now live.

The present Kurdistan regional government today is by no means perfect. Its politics are still dominated by separate familial factions that go back many years. But as compared to its neighbors, the Kurdistan regional government is not terrorist supporting, they have fought bravely and valiantly alongside the U.S. against ISIS, they do not burn the American flag and they are not part of the Muslim fanaticism that has terrorized the rest of the world. In fact, Israel supports the establishment of a Kurdish state. Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds for nearly 50 years.

Israel considers them a buffer against shared Arab adversaries. And Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu recently stated, “Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state.” His endorsement carries clout in Washington where many of our own leaders are fearful of upsetting the present already toppled over apple cart. We at the New York Jewish Voice agree with Bibi that this people, a peaceful group shunned and abused by their more radical Muslim neighbors deserve the right to govern and rule themselves. And they are doing it not with suicide bombers or threats of terrorism. They are utilizing the votes of its people in an open, fair election. How novel in that region. We wish them well. And we pray that their methodology of democracy will catch on in that crazy quilt region of messed up nations.

CUNY Prof’s Tweet About “Dead Cops”

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Michael Isaacsonu2019s Tweet on 8/23: "Some of ya'll might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it's a privilege to teach future dead cops."

Michael Isaacson, a screwball, overtly Communist professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice is way more than that. He’s obviously Jewish and because of his outrageous statements and feelings about cops, Trump and our nation is a danger to all of us. Obviously a self-loathing Jew, he dangerously feeds the anti-Semitism of those with whom he associates. He is a traitor among us.

His tweet on August 23rd: “Some of ya’ll might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.” His words can be incendiary to any of his Antifa gang and places the lives of our police officers in danger. He has been placed on administrative leave by John Jay College’s president, Karol Mason. Part of her statement to the press reads as follows: “Out of concern for the safety of our students, faculty and staff, we are immediately placing the adjunct on administrative leave as we continue to review this matter.” But this means he’s still on payroll until those who originally hired him decide what to do. And why did they hire him in the first place?

Didn’t they scrutinize his background before permitting him to lecture to their students indoctrinating and perhaps discouraging them to continue their studies in law enforcement by his hatred of all things democratic and American? Do African-American Studies courses have KKK members lecturing to students? Could you imagine a black-hating professor merely being placed on administrative leave for calling on blacks to be lynched? And what about the time line between his tweet and his being “punished?” Why did it take three weeks for the university to wake up to this nutcake urging his students to violently take to the streets to support Communism?

Isaacson is a co-founder of the Antifa organization, “Smash Racism, D.C.” which promotes political violence. In an interview with The Hill recently, he was quoted as follows: “The justification of the use of violence is that Nazi ideology at its very core is founded on violence and on wielding power by any means. I don’t think anyone should think that someone who is intent on politically organizing for the sake of creating a state sponsored genocide-I don’t think is something that we should protect.”

Violent actions against the police and conservatives are therefore justifiable as acts of political resistance. He refers to “anti-Communism” as “code for fascism.” So anyone who is an anti-communist is a fascist and deserves to be beaten up. And this guy stood in front of students indoctrinating them into believing that Communism is good and Capitalism is bad? And it’s OK to go after Capitalists and cops with chains, Molotov cocktails, flame throwers and rocks thrown to maim?

We’re concerned that Isaacson is not alone as a professor who intimidates and indoctrinates students to hate. Professors should teach facts and accepted theory and not spout their own views on subjects such as religion, politics and in his case, the use of physical violence against “unbelievers.” We call on our higher educational institutions to remind their faculty of their responsibilities to teach students to explore all sides to each and every situation and to refrain from using force to change the opinions of others. That’s what schools should be for.

Letters to the Editor

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Critiquing the VAAD of Lakewood

Dear Editor:

The VAAD of Lakewood has promoted rapid unsustainable growth, favoritism, and a general disdain for simple law and order when it is convenient for themselves. Along with their leadership the anti-Semitic rhetoric in our area has grown. —-

Ultimately it is the VAAD’s actions with the help of certain township committee members and members of zoning and planning that do their bidding that have caused so much hatred towards the Lakewood Jews. How dare they make any demands about anti-Semitic rhetoric from anyone when they are stoking the fires of anti-Semitism themselves. They have used all resources for themselves. They have allowed others to take advantage of taxpayers as long as they can get what they want. They have caused everyone to hate us, and they refuse to stop what is causing us to be hated more every day.

For many years people have been ranting at me that the VAAD and some people in our government are stealing our money. I used to say I highly doubt anyone is actually stealing from us. Now I realize they have done so much worse. They ruined our image in Lakewood and have caused a chillul Hashem that resonates throughout the world. No public relations firm. No paying off reporters from the Asbury Park press will change any of that. If they are truly concerned about anti-Semitism, they know what needs to be done to stop giving fodder to those that hate us. But money for the chosen few is obviously more important.

Sincerely

Herschel Hershkowitz


Between War and Peace

Dear Editor:

Perhaps not since Josephus Flavius, two millennia ago, has there been as gripping an account of the fall of Jerusalem — a third time — as is now available for the first time in English.

The account comes in the form of a diary extract in a newly translated book describing the fall of Jerusalem in 1948, neighborhood by neighborhood, synagogue by synagogue, yeshiva by yeshiva, as recorded in real time by Shear Yashuv Cohen, then a frum soldier, before and during his capture by the Arab Legion and his appointment by the Jordanians and by the Israelis — long distance — as chaplain of his fellow prisoners.

He was later elected deputy mayor of Jerusalem encompassing the period at the time of its reunification in the 6-Day War in June of 1967, and he was subsequently selected to deliver the benediction at the signing of the Peace Treaty of Israel with Jordan October 26, 1994; in the interim, he was elected Chief Rabbi and Av Bes Din of Haifa, and head of the prestigious Machon Harry Fischel, among many other leadership roles.

The book is entitled Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen — Between War and Peace, by Professor Yechiel Frish and Rabbi Yedidya HaCohen (Urim, 2017).

There is still time to arrange for Rabbi Aaron Reichel, Esq., who co-edited and supplemented the English translation, to find a spot on his ongoing book tour to address your synagogue, hotel, bungalow colony, or camp about the book on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av or even during Tisha B’Av itself. In the alternative, he will still be available, at [email protected], at later times, especially during this 50th jubilee year since the recapture of the Har HaBayis

Sincerely

Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel


The Media War on Trump

Dear Editor:

The head honchos in the hardened bunkered war rooms of MSNBC, CBS, CNN, ABC NPR, PBS, the NYT, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and on and on, are not uniformed nor do they wear military eagles or stars on their jackets, yet they are the planners of the battle plan and the campaigners to defeat and bring down the administration of President Trump. Sadly, these members of the media, the Fourth Estate, those who are still guaranteed their freedom of speech, to write their opinions without fear of being shut down by the government, are committing suicide by joining together, as one, with the likes of the street mobs clamoring to destroy the Constitution. Apparently unbeknownst to them, they are supporting the demagogues such as George Soros and Barack Obama who are now invisibly leading the forces of chaos and revolt throughout the land. If this revolution is successful, their voices will be silenced. It happened in Germany, Cuba, Venezuela and is clearly taking shape and form within our borders.

What makes these media giants deaf, dumb and blind to the threats to their Constitutional freedoms once the rioters, the thugs wielding homemade flame throwers, those who tear down public statues and burn down cities with the police standing idly by have destroyed our liberties? Once the Black Lives Matter, Occupy Movement, the Islamists and the Constitution bashing Marxists take over do they think they’ll be permitted to speak out with the freedoms they have now? Will anyone be able to express his or her opinions around the card table or on the golf course without being beaten, chained and hauled off to an American styled Siberia or Auschwitz for speaking out as a racist, gay basher, Islamophobe or woman hater?

Juan Williams, the Fox News pundit was tossed out of his job by NPR for speaking honestly about Muslims. Yet he is in the forefront of shutting down free speech for others by referring to Republicans as “Fascists.” Is he aware that the Democrat Party in which he proudly claims membership was the “Hate Black” party that still enslaves them with food stamps, abortions and hand outs? His Leftist buddies, were they in control of the nation (as he wants) would toss him out the window in a white-hooded moment if he ever uttered a non PC word.

We are now headed down the slippery slope to totalitarianism, fascism and one party rule and those who would suffer the most are sadly in the lead. Recall where those who initially supported Nazism and the Soviet Revolution ended up. Something about paying the penalty for not studying and learning about the past pops up in my head.

Sincerely

Alan Bulwarky


Alt-Left = Alt-Right

Dear Editor

Last night I posted my support for Trump on a site that I did not realize was extremely to the left or liberal. A few lessons learned: The liberals on the site will never accept Mr. Trump no matter what he says. This morning, listening to the TV news, all I heard was criticism of the president.

As you know, I am a product of the Holocaust, having lost most of my family including two siblings to the Nazi murderers. Those on this vicious liberal site were told this by me, yet they called me horrible names including Nazi and Hitler lover and said that Hitler should have murdered me too. They said with Mr. Trump in office all the Jews will be sent to gas chambers. In the eighties Rabbi Kahane, ztk’l and I appeared on numerous TV shows debating and denouncing the KKK, skinheads, neo-Nazis and other anti-Semites.

Today it is not easy to distinguish the alt-left from the alt-right. The left also contains many who are anti-Semitic but camouflage it in their liberal rhetoric. I would like the opportunity as I did in the eighties and nineties to debate both sides and let the truth come out. I need your help. Please reach out to the media requesting that I be invited to speak.

Sincerely

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg

What Happened to the ADL?

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ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt is a former adviser to President Barack Obama
Isi Leibler — a prominent Australian Israeli columnist blasted Jonathan Greenblatt for turning the 100-year-old organization, whose mission is to monitor and expose anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, into a platform that
Jonathan Greenblatt replaced long-time ADL director Abraham L. Foxman (pictured above) after the latter’s retirement in July 2015
In the aftermath of the August 12, 2017

In the months leading up to the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, a former director of the World Jewish Congress decried the direction in which the new head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was taking the international human rights group. In a series of columns, Isi Leibler — a prominent Australian Israeli — blasted ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, for turning the 100-year-old organization, whose mission is to monitor and expose anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, into a platform that “represents an echo chamber of left-wing Democratic politics.”

Leibler first took issue with Greenblatt’s April 2016 address to the far-Left Jewish organization J Street, backed by anti-Israel billionaire George Soros.

Leibler wrote that Greenblatt “incorporated [in his speech] criticisms of Israel that were thoroughly inappropriate…[and] indirectly gave a seal of approval for the Obama administration to impose solutions on future borders that could dramatically compromise Israel’s security.”

Ironically, Greenblatt’s rebuttal, in the form of a letter to the editor of The Jerusalem Post, illustrated Leibler’s point. He not only defended J Street, referring to the people in the audience as “a group of deeply thoughtful college students whose commitment to Israel is genuine and whose passion on the issues is impressive;” he claimed that he had not been morally equating Israel and the Palestinians.

In a subsequent piece, Leibler called Greenblatt to task for having “lost the plot, behaving as though he remained employed by the Obama administration.” Leibler cited the ADL’s July 13, 2016 statement “welcoming the Republican Party platform on Israel,” but expressing “disappoint[ment] that the platform draft departs from longstanding support of a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict… the only viable way to secure Israel as both a Jewish and democratic state.”

Leibler wrote:

“One can disagree about a two-state policy, but for an American Jewish organization which must remain bipartisan and should be concentrating on anti-Semitism to issue such a statement breaches all conventions. It is totally beyond the ADL’s mandate to involve itself in such partisan political issues.”

Yet this is just what Greenblatt did. In a September 13, 2016 article in the journal Foreign Policy, he contested a video clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointing to the Palestinian Authority’s outright refusal to have even a single Jew reside within the boundaries of a future Palestinian state. In the piece, titled “Sorry, Bibi, the Palestinians are not ‘ethnic cleansing’ Jewish settlers,” Greenblatt wrote that Netanyahu “chose to raise an inappropriate straw man regarding Palestinian policy toward Israeli settlements.”

Far more questionable, however, has been the ADL’s support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement — a group established in 2013 to counter police brutality against African Americans, but that quickly mushroomed into a full-fledged “intersectional” anti-American, anti-white, anti-Israel, pro-radical Palestinian organization.

About this, too, Greenblatt made what critics claim is a convoluted statement — saying that the ADL has no “official relationship with the body of activists who claim membership in this effort,” and attributing its “anti-Israel — and at times anti-Semitic — positions” to a “small minority of leaders within the Black Lives Matter movement.”

In November 2016, during his opening remarks at the ADL’s “Never Is Now” conference in New York City, Greenblatt responded to a Fox News interview with a pro-Trump PAC spokesman citing World War II-era Japanese internment camps — when discussing possible ways to keep tabs on terrorists in the U.S. — by announcing:

“I pledge to you that because I am committed to the fight against anti-Semitism that if one day Muslim Americans are forced to register their identities, that is the day that this proud Jew will register as Muslim.”

After U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the ADL “unambiguously condemned” his proposed executive order on immigration and refugees. Greenblatt stated:

“History will look back on this order as a sad moment in American History – the time when the president turned his back on people fleeing for their lives. This will effectively shut America’s doors to the most vulnerable people in the world who seek refuge from unspeakable pain and suffering… [such as] the Sunni family whose son languishes in prison in Iran… [and] LGBT youth in Yemen terrorized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity…Yes, we need strict screening but our current system is sufficient in keeping America safe… More than most, our community knows what happens when the doors to freedom are shut. That is why ADL relentlessly will fight this policy in the weeks and months to come. Our history and heritage compel us to take a stand.”

In other words, Trump had barely entered the White House before Greenblatt “took a stand” against him — one that had nothing to do with anti-Semitism, to boot. This was not surprising. A month earlier, in an address to the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) in Jerusalem, he said he was worried about what the future would hold with Trump at the helm of his country:

“[P]erhaps more so than any moment in modern memory, we truly do not know what the president-elect will do when he becomes the 45th person to occupy the Oval Office. I would be remiss if I did not share with you the very deep sense of concern shared by many in the American Jewish community in this moment of uncertainty. And there is legitimate cause for concern.”

Greenblatt went on to lodge a not-so-veiled accusation against Trump for the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States, comparing it to 1930s Germany and going so far as to say that “one of the main cheerleaders of [the Alt-Right] movement will be sitting in the West Wing, literally down the hall from the Oval Office.” Without naming names, Greenblatt was apparently referring to Steve Bannon.

Greenblatt’s openness about his political views was to be expected. When it was announced in November 2014 that he would be replacing long-time ADL director Abraham L. Foxman after his retirement in July 2015, Jews on all sides of the political spectrum called the move a “dramatic shift.” This was not merely due to the difference in age and stage between the two men — Foxman was the child of Holocaust survivors and Greenblatt a second-generation, tech-savvy social activist — but because Foxman, although himself a liberal, was a staunch defender of Israel against Palestinian anti-Semitism, while Greenblatt’s support for the Jewish state has been more conditional on the policies of the Netanyahu government.

In the aftermath of the August 12, 2017 “Unite the Right” demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia — during which a white supremacist murdered a young woman and wounded many other people in a car-ramming attack — the ADL joined all other Jewish organizations in condemning the anti-Semitism on display. Although the event was held to protest the imminent removal of a statue of Civil War Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, it quickly escalated into an altercation between Ku Klux Klan members shouting anti-Semitic slogans and left-wing radicals from the Antifa (“anti-fascist”) movement.

When Trump responded by condemning “all sides,” rather than denouncing the far-right anti-Semites, the ADL was not alone in criticizing him for it. Greenblatt’s attack, however, was not simply harsh; it was also a defense of Antifa.

“President Trump went beyond the pale today in equating racist white supremacists in Charlottesville with counter protesters who were there to stand up against hate,” he said. Yet Antifa is a radical organization that employs violence as a tactic, and also contains a strong anti-Zionist component.

Trump’s mentioning of “all sides,” then, may have been an error of judgment, given the explosive political and cultural climate, but — as has become evident with the emerging of more details about Charlottesville and subsequent demonstrations — it was tragically true.

Furthermore, even after Trump issued a clear condemnation two days later of “criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups,” Greenblatt was not satisfied.

“Let’s be clear: I think we should expect a leader in the highest office in the land to step above the lowest possible bar,” he said. “We need to move from words to real action.” Then, as he had done during his Knesset address, he proceeded to imply that certain White House staff members were on the side of the white supremacists. “Individuals who are associated with, for example, the alt-right found their way into positions of authority in the West Wing.”

Greenblatt’s partisanship seems to have paid off, and not only figuratively. Immediately after the events in Charlottesville and the outcry over Trump’s initial reaction to them, major companies began announcing massive donations to the ADL and another NGO, the left-wing, anti-Trump Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

As of the time of this writing, JP Morgan, Apple, and the George and Amal Clooney Foundation for Justice had pledged $1 million to the ADL and the SPLC each or together — and, rebuking Trump, 21st Century Fox said it, too, would be contributing $1 million to the ADL, while urging others to do the same. JP Morgan and Apple also initiated a two-for-one match for employee donations to those organizations.

Separately, the ADL reported a 1,000% increase in online donations since August 13, a day after the Charlottesville rally. It is interesting to note that just over two weeks later, Greenblatt announced the creation of a new position at the ADL and hired George Selim — an Arab-American former official at the Department of Homeland Security who worked under Presidents George W. Bush, Obama and Trump — to fill it. Selim, whose past meetings with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups is “raising concerns” about this role, will lead the organization’s education, law enforcement and community security programs, and oversee its Center on Extremism, according to Greenblatt.

It is certainly the right of individuals, foundations and private companies to contribute to causes they deem worthy. It is forbidden, however, for NGOs listed by Internal Revenue Service as 501(c)(3) organizations — charities — to engage in political activity on behalf of or against candidates for or in public office. According to the IRS Code, “Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.”

The ADL and the SPLC currently enjoy tax-exempt status. Unlike the SPLC, however, which has irked even many liberals for its exaggeration of hate-crime statistics to keep itself relevant and handsomely funded — and whose reputation was damaged over the recent discovery that it has been funneling millions of dollars to offshore accounts — the ADL is a widely respected, influential group in the Jewish world and among international human rights circles.

If, as Leibler suggested, the ADL has “lost the plot” under Greenblatt, it deserves to lose its tax-exempt status. Although this is not likely to happen, the ADL board nevertheless must step in to curb Greenblatt’s political activism and restore the organization’s reputation as a serious anti-Semitism watchdog. In the meantime, potential donors to the ADL need to ask themselves to what use their money will be put.

By: Ruthie Blum
 (Gatestone Institute)

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”

When Great Institutions Lie – Part II

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So long as institutions pay no price for the exploitation of their name by agenda-driven members, they will not rein in their members

(Continued from last week)

At the same time, they really don’t like Israel much at all. The survey’s Jewish students “struggle with Israel,” whose actions “generally often contradict their own political values.”

Here we begin to see the ideological purpose of the pseudo-academic Stanford study.

First things first. The uninvolved students who think that Israel’s actions “generally often contradict their own political values” told Kelman and his colleagues that they are offended by “the accusation that American Jews are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”

And this makes sense because that accusation is self-evidently a form of antisemitism. Like antisemites who accuse Jews of killing Jesus, antisemites on campuses is ascribe responsibility for the alleged “crimes” of the Jewish state to American Jewish students in California.

So by “chafing” at the allegation, the students his researchers deliberately selected acknowledged that they are offended by antisemitism.

But then, helpfully, they agreed with the researchers that antisemitism isn’t antisemitism.

The study went on to explain that its student correspondents have been intimidated into silence by the “tone of campus political activism in general, and around Israel and Palestine specifically.”

That tone, they said, is “severe, divisive and alienating,” and the students wish to avoid paying “the social costs” of involvement.

So a study involving a deliberately selected, non-representative sample of Jewish students who acknowledge that they don’t think much of Israel still found that the atmosphere of the debate about Israel is so wretched that Jews who might otherwise have wished to participate are too scared to speak their minds.

Somehow, the researchers managed to ignore this obvious finding. Instead of paying attention to the elephant in the room, Kelman and his team pretended the elephant was a dishwasher.

They concluded the problem isn’t the anti-Semites.

Kelman told Tablet that in addition to being “turned off” by people who blame them for Israel – that is, anti-Semites, “they’re similarly turned off by the assumptions of people in the Jewish community that all Jews will get behind the actions of the State of Israel.”

In other words, the antisemitism of the students who accuse them of responsibility for Israel’s policies because they are Jews is just as bad as the attempts by pro-Israel students to get them involved in defending Israel – a place Kelman’s deliberately unrepresentative sample doesn’t care for very much.

By conflating pro-Israel Jews and antisemitic Israel- bashers, the Stanford researchers give cover for continued antisemitism on campus.

As they explain things in the name of their unrepresentative Jewish students, attacking Jews as Jews is just part of a legitimate, if alienating, debate about Israel where Israel’s defenders are as bad as its opponents.

Students who call for Israel’s annihilation and demand that Jews not defend Israel’s right to exist, are not antisemites for wanting to kill more than 6 million Israeli Jews and attacking anyone who doesn’t share their genocidal view. They are just partisans in a legitimate debate.

BDS supporters who wish to wage economic and cultural war on Israel and Israeli Jews just because Israel exists aren’t antisemites. They are just advocates of a legitimate policy preference.

Anti-Israel activists who attack any American Jews who profess support for Zionism aren’t antisemites. They, like pro-Israel students, are just engaging in an unpleasant but entirely legitimate debate.

By publishing their findings under Stanford’s name, Kelman and his associates are using Stanford’s brand to give credence to their pseudo-academic research whose transparent and pernicious goal is to end public debate about antisemitism on college campuses while keeping Jewish students intimidated into silence.

Whereas the Holocaust Memorial Museum was rightly excoriated for its willingness to have its institution hijacked for narrow partisan ends that distort the historical record, media reports of the Stanford pseudo-study have been respectful. This is deeply troubling. So long as institutions pay no price for the exploitation of their name by agenda- driven members, they will not rein in their members. And over time, the American public’s faith in its national institutions will continue to diminish, to the detriment of the US as a whole.

This academically worthless finding, published under the Stanford University letterhead, would be bad enough. But the fact is that this finding is the least sinister aspect of the study.

The real purpose of the “study” was to use this deliberately selected group of students to shut down debate on the most prevalent and fastest growing form of antisemitism on campuses: anti-Zionism.

The survey found that their interlocutors “reject the conflation of Jewish and Israel.”

“They chafe at [the] assumption that they, as Jews, necessarily support Israeli policies. They object to the accusation that American Jews are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, and they express similar discomforts with the expectation that all Jews should be Zionists.”

By: Caroline Glick

Caroline Glick is the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Israel Security Project and the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. For more information on Ms. Glick’s work, visit carolineglick.com.

A Photo Op Will Not Find $29B for NY/NJ Gateway Tunnel Project

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Transportation historian Larry Penner writes: u201cThe proposed Gateway tunnel funding of $900 million in the next 2018 federal budget is really just a very small down payment for finding the balance of $29 billion down the road to fully fund the proposed Gateway Tunnel project.u201d
The Gateway Tunnel would provide additional tracks for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit connecting New Jersey to Penn Station. Two years ago, the estimated cost grew by $3.9 billion from $20 billion to $23.9 billion, Today, the new cost estimate has grown another $5.2 billion from $23.9 billion to $29.1 billion. This most recent increase is based on the estimated cost for both the new tunnel and rehabilitated old tunnel portions of the overall project which has grown from $8.7 billion to $12.9 billion.

“Trump Shows Support of NY/NJ Gateway Tunnel Project” (Ilana Syance — September 13) meeting between President Trump, Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo of New York along with Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and Corey Booker to discuss the $29 billion Gateway Tunnel project was a great photo op but little else.  The proposed Gateway tunnel funding of $900 million in the next 2018 federal budget is really just a very small down payment for finding the balance of $29 billion down the road to fully fund the proposed Gateway Tunnel project.  

Financing of this project with real money is the bigger issue which needs to be aired. Release of the Federal Rail Road Administration draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Gateway Tunnel earlier this summer confirmed continuing increases in total project cost.  The Gateway Tunnel would provide additional tracks for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit connecting New Jersey to Penn Station.  Two years ago, the estimated cost grew by $3.9 billion from $20 billion to $23.9 billion, Today, the new cost estimate has grown another $5.2 billion from $23.9 billion to $29.1 billion. This most recent increase is based on the estimated cost for both the new tunnel and rehabilitated old tunnel portions of the overall project which has grown from $8.7 billion to $12.9 billion. 

All the Department of Transportation provided to the Gateway Development Corporation in June 2016 was to grant permission to the Project Development Phase of the Federal Transit Administration New Starts Program. This is just the first step of a long multi-year process.

The proposed three way federal/ New Jersey/New York $29.1 billion funding package is primarily verbal commitments and wishful thinking.  Two years later it is still not real. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey allocation of $2.7 billion within the approved $32 billion 2017 – 2026 ten year capital plan to help finance the Gateway Tunnel is just initial seed money.  These dollars will be used toward debt service payments against a possible future federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan to the Gateway Development Corporation for this project. It has yet to be approved and will have to be paid back.  

Without real financial resources from not only Washington ($14.6 billion), but also New York ($7.3 billion) and New Jersey ($7.3 billion), how will the Gateway Tunnel be paid for?   A project can’t be financed by just borrowing alone.  Governors Cuomo and Christie believing that the Port Authority will provide most of their contributions is wishful thinking.  The Port Authority allocation of $2.7 billion within the approved $32 billion 2017 – 2026 ten year capital plan to help finance the Gateway Tunnel is just initial seed money.  These dollars will be used toward debt service payments against a possible future federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan to the Gateway Development Corporation for this project. It has yet to be approved and will have to be paid back.  

This same plan only provided $3 of the $10 billion needed for a new 42nd Street Bus Terminal and $0 toward the $10 billion 30 year old proposed Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel.  Both projects would be competing against the Gateway Tunnel project for funding in the next Port Authority 2027 – 2036 Capital Plan.  Just how many dollars do Cuomo & Christie believe the Port Authority should increase the existing $15 toll over coming years to come up with their respective $7.3 billion shares of the Gateway Tunnel project?

In less than two years, initial cost estimates for the Gateway Tunnel project still in the environmental review stage have already grown from $20 to $29 billion with a 2026 completion date.   It is reminiscent of the ongoing MTA Long Island Rail Road Eastside Access to Grand Central Terminal project.  In 2001. the initial estimated cost was $3.5 billion with a completion date of 2011. In 2017, sixteen years later (based upon the 2016 MTA Federal Transit Administration amended Full Funding Grant Agreement) currently at $10.8 billion, could grow up to $12 billion with completion in 2023.  Will Gateway do the same and become our New York version of the infamous Boston “Big Dig” end up costing $40, $50 or even $60 billion and completed by 2038?  

The Gateway Development Corporation reminds me of the character Wimpy who famously said “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”  Tuesday may never come for commuters and taxpayers who use NJT and Amtrak and need a new Hudson River Tunnel to be completed within their lifetime. 

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

(Larry Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office.)

New Book Examines the Rise of Fascism:  “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left” 

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Almost a century ago, President Woodrow Wilson watched approvingly as the title card appeared on the screen, “The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright.”

Birth of a Nation was the first movie to play inside the White House. Many credit the film, based on the novel The Clansman, with reviving the KKK and exporting it from New Jersey to Oregon. 

Woodrow Wilson was the first modern progressive Democrat in the White House. The road to the Democrats that we know today ran directly through the White House where Birth of a Nation played. And so did the rebirth of the KKK. When the Democrats complain about the Klan, Dinesh D’Souza reminds us in The Big Lie that they were behind the KKK and they revived it not once, but twice.

In the Democrat myth, their racism was a vestige of a geographical base that they abandoned as they became progressives. But in The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, Dinesh D’Souza dives deep into the sordid and forgotten history of the left and exposes its “proto-fascist” roots. These roots are not geographical, but intellectual. It wasn’t land that corrupted them, but power.

The Big Lie, D’Souza describes, is the idea that “the very people who champion the centralized state, have a long history of racism and racial terrorism, used the power of government against their political opponents… and continue to use cultural intimidation and street thuggery to enforce their ideology, insist that they are the ones who are anti-fascist.”

Instead, he argues that the elements of fascism have historically been associated with the left.

As D’Souza writes of Wilson, his was a “model of centralized power with him at the helm and all of society in supine obedience to progressive leftist dictates.” The model, he notes, derived from the same Hegelian and Prussian sources as that of the totalitarian nightmare that was still to come.

“Wilson ridiculed the American founders—he was the first American president to do so—calling their ideas about individual rights, decentralized power, and check and balances, simple-minded and outdated,” D’Souza writes. This would become the ideological model of the Democrats.

A political movement that had once stood against big government had become a big government party. Its elitist vision was innately hostile to rule by the people and to the traditions this country was founded on. The new plantation would be national with a big government as its master and all men as its slaves.

Another civil war had been fought and won. Not by the North or South, but by the fascist left.

Wilson would pave the way for FDR, the man whom D’Souza calls “America’s actual fuhrer.” He documents how the New Deal drew its inspiration from Mussolini’s fascism. The left admired fascism and Nazism for the same reason that it now looks to China. The left found a natural common cause with totalitarian movements that put their faith in a collective state run by the naturally superior elite.

Nothing has changed.

The left is an anti-democratic movement convinced that it alone holds the key to a better world. And The Big Lie invaluably documents how this anti-democratic cult dominated the Democrats.

Gleichschaltung. It was the term that the Nazis used to describe the consolidation of control over all aspects of society. “Gleichschaltung,” D’Souza writes, “is precisely what the left is attempting today, not merely with American universities but with all of American culture.”

D’Souza argues that it’s the basis for the left’s plan for America.  

He traces the campus wars back to the rise of Nazism. The treatment of Bret Weinstein at Evergreen State had its shameful roots in the persecution of Jewish academics in Weimar Germany.

The scene that D’Souza describes from almost a century ago is oddly familiar today. Campus Nazis formed a committee against him. “They encouraged students to boycott his lectures. Nazi youth then showed up and disrupted Lessing’s classes.” Lessing castigated the campus Nazis “who accept no individual responsibilities but pose as spokesman for a group or an impersonal ideal.”

The impersonal ideal detached from personal responsibility is the essence of utopian tyranny. Its idealized perfection displaces any personal ethics, morals and principles.

The street riots tearing apart America had their echo in Weimar Germany. The passionate defenses of Planned Parenthood had their origins in eugenics. Even the constant historical revisionism, the Big Lie, was born out of a conviction in a cultural power so total that it could not only transform the future, but reach backward in time to change the past and redefine meaning across all of human civilization.

This power could transform the fascists of yesterday into the anti-fascists of today. Yesterday’s racists become today’s anti-racists even while championing a racial politics with echoes of the Third Reich.

“Our fascist left,” D’Souza writes, “purports to be anti-fascist.”

The left has created an American fascism built on opposition to the very thing that it is. The left claims to stand for tolerance and civil rights even as it intolerantly destroys every last vestige of individual freedom. A century of fascism has left us a divided nation teetering on the edge of tyranny. And the leftists who claim to be saving us from it are actually the ones doing their vest best to implement it.

That is the Big Lie at the heart of the book and the political conflict that D’Souza lays out between big government and individual liberty in which, “the real fascists pretend to be anti-fascist while accusing the real anti-fascists of being fascists.”

And when Republicans go on the defensive against accusations of fascism and racism, they miss the real threat from the real fascists and racists of the left

Republicans, are “taking a very big risk if they seek to appease the fascism of the political Left,” D’Souza warns. He describes the left’s efforts to oust President Trump as a “fascist coup” that cannot be dismissed as the ordinary state of politics. To do would be as grave an error as treating Hitler and Mussolini as ordinary politicians guilty only of the occasional expression of overheated rhetoric.

The Big Lie’s fundamental message is that, “We, who are accused of being fascists, must understand that we are the true anti-fascists.”

Conservative politics is liberal in the classical sense. It is ever at odds with the illiberal politics of totalitarian movements, whether it’s Nazis or Communism. The society that conservatives are fighting for is tolerant of individual aspirations, but intolerant of political repression, that measures character not racial identity, and that believes in individuals in a relationship with God, not with government.

The left, having “taken over the culture”, has set its sights on “taking over the country.” In The Big Lie, D’Souza calls on his readers to uproot the fascism of the left before we go the way of Germany. He calls on conservatives to rise to oppose the left’s fascist culture war by building opposing cultural institutions in the academic and entertainment spheres utilizing the disruptive power of the internet.

The Big Lie warns us that the left is not just a political movement. Its escalating extremism carries with it a cold breath from the darkest portion of the twentieth century. Complacency in the face of fascism can be fatal. Even when it doesn’t kill people, it kills republics and buries freedom.

To resist the Big Lie, we must fight for truth. Words matter. Meanings count. Principles define us. We are not the fascists. They are. We are the real anti-fascists. And we are fighting for our freedom.

By: Daniel Greenfield
 (Front Page Mag)

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.

3D Pop Artist Charles Fazzino Creates 

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Charles Fazzino — one of the most popular artists in the world — is most well-known for his unique, detailed, and vibrant three-dimensional style. His work is exhibited in hundreds of fine art galleries and museums in twenty different countries

“Heroes of the Holocaust” Exhibit for LI Tolerance Center

The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC) will showcase a special exhibition by 3D pop artist Charles Fazzino entitled “The Heroes of the Holocaust,” in its museum from October 22 through December 8, 2017. HMTC is located on Welwyn Preserve, 100 Crescent Beach Road, Glen Cove, NY. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 12 noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and holidays.

The exhibition will feature several new works, including “After the Darkness,” a limited edition release created exclusively for HMTC. In addition, four plexiglass sculptures, each celebrating a Holocaust Hero (Raoul Wallenberg, Irena Sendler, Oskar Schindler, and Alicia Appleman-Jurman), and an original painting celebrating more than thirty individuals who risked their lives to save countless Jews during World War II, will be on display. The exhibition will also include an exclusively curated selection of Charles Fazzino’s Judaic-themed artwork from the last twenty-five years.

“After the Darkness” will be unveiled on October 18th by Fazzino and the Consul General of Israel, Ambassador Dani Dayan, at HMTC’s 25th Annual Tribute Dinner, at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, 21 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, NY. All proceeds from the Tribute Dinner support HMTC’s Holocaust, anti-bias, tolerance and anti-bullying programming. Tickets may be purchased by contacting Deborah Lom at 516-571-8040 or [email protected].

“Heroes of the Holocaust” will be opened formally at a cocktail reception at HMTC on Sunday, October 22nd at 6pm. Charles Fazzino will be present and a special collection of poster prints, limited edition artwork, and originals will be made available for sale to benefit HMTC. The reception is free and open to the public but RSVP in advance is required. To RSVP contact Deborah Lom at (516) 571-8040 or [email protected].

“I am honored and humbled to have been asked by HMTC to put together this very special and important collection of artwork,” said Charles Fazzino. “Tackling a project of this magnitude and intensity was very difficult for me because of all the sadness associated with this horrific time period. My artwork tends to be bright, colorful, and uplifting. People say it makes them happy. But then I discovered all of these incredible people…everyday people who sacrificed their own lives and the lives of their family members to save others. Their stories are inspiring. I really felt that given the current political climate in our country, it’s even more important for people to remember what happened. And my mission is to document not only the thousands of heroic acts that took place, but also the hope and the resilience of the Jewish people. This exhibit celebrates the ability of the people of our world to survive a horror like the Holocaust and in the end, become even stronger and more full of hope and love than they were before.”

HMTC’s Chairman Steven Markowitz said, “We are honored to have an exhibition of Charles Fazzino’s magnificent creations with new work created exclusively for HMTC. His vision as an artist reveals stories of survival during the Holocaust as well as hope for a better future. We must apply the lessons we learn from this history, as reflected in his work, to continue our mission of educating children, adults, police officers, nurses, teachers and the entire community of what hate and intolerance can lead to.”

About Charles Fazzino:

Charles Fazzino — one of the most popular artists in the world — is most well-known for his unique, detailed, and vibrant three-dimensional style. His work is exhibited in hundreds of fine art galleries and museums in twenty different countries. He is an officially licensed artist of the National Football League and the Super Bowl (2000-present), Major League Baseball and the MLB All-Star Game (2003-present), and the US Olympic Team (2000 to present) .

He has also recently created official artwork for high profile events, including: the 2011 Centennial Celebration for the City of Fort Lauderdale, the President’s Challenge for President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, NASCAR Sprint Cup series, NHL All-Star Game, Belmont Stakes, Daytona 500, Indy 500, Andy Roddick Charity Gala, U.S. Tennis Foundation, CMA Awards, Grammy Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, NBC’s “Today” Summer Concert Series, Rosie O’Donnell’s For All Kids Foundation and the President William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, among many others. You can view more of Fazzino’s work at www.fazzino.com.

About the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County:

For over 25 years, HMTC has used the lessons of the Holocaust to teach about the dangers of antisemitism and intolerance if allowed to go unchallenged through education and community outreach. Each year HMTC provides tolerance, anti-bullying and Holocaust education to thousands of students, law enforcement officers, educators and the general public through educational workshops and a world-class museum.