Events such as the firebombing on January 11 of Temple Beth El in Rutherford, NJ, along with the home of its Rabbi; a similar attack on a synagogue in Paramus, NJ a week earlier on January 3; spray painted swastikas on synagogues in Maywood and Hackensack, NJ in December; cars burned with anti-Semitic graffiti such as swastikas and KKK markings on cars, sidewalks and benches in Midwood, Brooklyn on November 11 (the day after the commemoration of Kristalnacht); and other such incidents in Manhattan and Long Island are beyond disturbing.

And who are these Jew haters?  Well, the four men who were convicted of plotting to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx in 2009 were reportedly radicalized Muslims. No surprise there.  As for the Rutherford synagogue firebomb, not much is known about the 19 year old suspect, Anthony Graziano, of Lodi, NJ, aside from the fact that a classmate was quoted by CBS news as saying  “For the past two months he’s been talking about how much he hates Jews because they were going to take over the country. This kid is crazy. He’s insane.”  And regarding the suspect of several of the Brooklyn incidents, and this is the real kicker, he’s a 56 year old Jewish man named David Haddad.

So what are we to make of all this?  So much for all my preconceived notions of Jew haters, for they truly come in all shapes and sizes, and religions too.  I’m not going to get into the dynamics of why a Jew would do such things, but my father frequently went on about how some of the worst anti-Semites were Jews.  And while in my youth I may have looked at him like he had three heads, as an adult I’ve experienced his point more times than I can count.  Psychologists refer to this as ethnic self hatred, and maybe on some future date I’ll blog about it in more detail.

As for the broader question, I’m reminded of that old Tom Lehrer parody, National Brotherhood Week, listing the many prejudices between groups of people, and ending with the lyric, And everybody hates the Jews. Not so funny.

Now, back to where I began.  My synagogue in Great Neck, NY recently spent a lot of money putting steel barriers by the front entrance to prevent a car from driving into the building, and new security systems for all entrances and throughout the building.  My daughter’s high school, a Jewish school in Riverdale, is a fairly new building with no signs or markings on the outside to identify it as a Jewish school.  As I said, I now understand what Jews in some other countries have been experiencing for years.

So, is anti-Semitism worse or better than in the past?  If by “the past” one means Nazi Germany, than the answer is obvious – nothing can compare to that.  But things are pretty bad out there, and overt antipathy towards Jews is definitely on the rise.  Sometimes it’s dressed up as “anti-Zionism,” a subject of yet another future blog, and sometimes it’s not dressed up at all.  In any event, our vigilance must be constant, our voices must be heard, and our heads must never buried in the sand.

Andrew Kane is the author of the critically acclaimed and controversial novel Rabbi, Rabbi and the new book Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale. He holds a PhD in psychology from Yeshiva University and is a clinical psychologist in private practice. He lives in New York with his wife, Debbie, and their two children. To purchase a copy of his new book, please visit amazon.com.

One of the most notorious newspapers ever published in America was The Spotlight, founded in 1975 by white supremacist Willis Carto. For many years the country’s premier hate rag, it peaked at 330,000 subscribers in the early ’80s. Alongside support for South African apartheid and exposes of the Bilderberg group, the paper was a regular purveyor of Holocaust denial, with stories like “Jewish Groups Can’t Defend Position on ’6 Million’ Debate” and “Anne Frank Fable Losing Credibility; Establishment Continues to Push ‘Diary’ as ‘True Story.’”

The Spotlight, which thankfully ceased publication in 2001, wasn’t just concerned with falsifying history. When not questioning the existence of the gas chambers, it focused on the “Jewish lobby.” And its writers had two terms for describing U.S. Jews and their activism on behalf of the Jewish state: “dual loyalists” who were for “Israel first.”

When Zaid Jilani was recently informed that his use of the latter term had anti-Semitic implications, he professed ignorance. Jilani, a blogger at the Center for American Progress (CAP ), claimed to be “unaware of all the connotations it carried.” That a young blogger at a prominent liberal think tank would see nothing wrong with such language is understandable. It’s an indication of just how deep the rhetoric of the far right has seeped into the discourse of the mainstream left.

Jilani is one of several individuals who have come under fire for their commentary regarding Israel and Jews. The controversy started in early December, when Politico detailed how two “core institutions” of the Democratic Party – CAP, a farm team for the Obama administration, and Media Matters for America, a self-described “progressive research and information center” – “are challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel.”

Rather than addressing the substantive criticism raised, CAP tried desperately to change the subject, turning its guns on those airing concerns, particularly Josh Block, a lifelong Democrat and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee spokesman whose criticism of the groups was quoted in Politico. The episode approached the status of Washington “scandal” when liberal website Salon published a dossier Block had disseminated documenting a series of blog posts, articles, and Twitter messages in which CAP and Media Matters employees batted around rhetoric and accusations as if “it’s now just natural to talk about Jewish money in politics, about treasonous politicians.”

To judge from Block’s collection, the worst perpetrator is Media Matters’ “senior foreign policy fellow” M.J. Rosenberg, whose “analysis” largely amounts to name-calling. Newsweek reporter Eli Lake is an “agent of influence.” Playwright David Mamet is an “Israel first Likudnik.” Indeed, any U.S. Jew to his right (including Democratic congressmen ) is an “Israel-firster.” When one journalist complained about Rosenberg’s calling her a “dual loyalist,” he responded by saying, “I say DUAL which is generous.” No wonder he best expresses himself in the Twitter medium of 140 characters.

Block took considerable professional risk in challenging these two influential liberal organizations. The Truman National Security Project, a once-promising initiative to promote a hawkish sensibility in the Democratic Party that has since become little more than another greasy pole for young D.C. opportunists, expelled Block from its fellowship program.

In the Forward, Sarah Wildman attacked Block, writing that “When we debase the term [anti-Semite] by using it as a rhetorical conceit against those with whom we disagree on policy matters, we have sullied our own promises to our grandparents.” But it is those who use the term “Israel-firster” who are debasing the debate by accusing anyone who disagrees with them of treasonous impulses. Wildman also argued that the offensive comments had been “taken out of context” – as if there were ever a context, other than that of, say, Jonathan Pollard, in which it would be appropriate to label an American Jew an “Israel-firster” or “dual loyalist.”

Ultimately, however, Block was vindicated. While CAP publicly denied that its employees were trafficking in anti-Semitism, an e-mail from the organization’s vice president, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, deemed “Israel-firster,” to be “terrible, anti-Semitic language.”

The left is constantly complaining that the debate about Israel is restricted, that one can’t criticize Israel without “risking” his career. Reality is in fact the opposite. Figures ranging from University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer to journalists Peter Beinart and Andrew Sullivan have all seen their careers blossom as a result of their harsh and unrelenting criticism of Israel. Indeed, obsessively attacking Israel is a bona-fide way to resuscitate one’s career, not destroy it. As a measure, consider the fact that employees at mainstream liberal institutions feel comfortable using the sort of language popularized by white supremacists and Holocaust-deniers.

It isn’t just figures on the medium and lower rungs of think tanks using such foul rhetoric: “Israel-firster” and “Likudnik” are favorites of Time’s Joe Klein, as well as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, one of America’s most popular liberal bloggers, who refers to “the many Israel-firsters in the U.S. Congress.”

Since the 1950s, liberals have routinely accused conservatives of “McCarthyism.” Now the tables have turned, and it is leftists questioning the loyalties of American Jews. Judging what’s in a country’s “interest” is highly subjective; it is the very reason why there exists such passionate and necessary debate about the purpose and tactics of American foreign policy. So-called “progressives” should stop mimicking the far right and engage in that debate without questioning the allegiance of their fellow Americans.

James Kirchick is a fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a contributing editor for The New Republic.

It’s like been an avalanche of silliness for Jews, Jew haters, Jewish Jew haters, and just plain morons of late. I’m not goig to label anyone, because that would be politically incorrect, but what am I supposed to do with all this nonsense?? For instance, the State Department released some archival documents from the Nixon administration which contained some bon mots by one Jew named Henry Kissinger:

A White House official, Leonard Garment, saying he was flooded with letters and phone calls with Jewish appeals, asked Kissinger for help and guidance. The late Alexander Haig, Nixon’s national security adviser, sent him Mrs. Meir’s letter and said “We will have to consider the best means by which to proceed.” … According to transcripts released by the State Department, Kissinger, who was Haig’s deputy, said to Garment: “Is there a more self-serving group of people than the Jewish community?” Kissinger is Jewish… Garment, also Jewish, replied: “None in the world.” … At this point, Kissinger was quoted as saying “What the hell do they think they are accomplishing?” … Kissinger went on: “You can’t even tell bastards anything in confidence because they’ll leak it.” … But Kissinger said he would take up the issue with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and also meet again with Jewish leaders. “They ought to remember what this administration has done,” he said.

First of all, “Leonard Garment?” Back in the Shtetl was his name Lieb Shmatta? As for Kissinger, was he simply internalizing his boss, President Nixon’s casual anti-Semitism? How else to explain the attitude of this Jew who achieved the power that he did thanks to inroads made by other “self-serving” Jews? Heh. Still no comment from Kissinger’s office.

But whatever, Kissinger is an old man now. We have to start thinking about things like what street in New York will we name after him? How about we rename Avenue J deep in the heart of Brooklyn “Henry Kissinger Way?” A sign on Avenue J was recently vandalized to read Avenue Jew. The proximity of Jews and stupid anti-Semites seems like an ideal place to remember Henry.

And after the ceremony, maybe we can go to Efraim’s Barber Shop on 2385 Nostrand Avenue just off of Avenue J(ew) and ask for a Hitler Haircut. Yes. I said Hitler Haircut. The New York Times Style section noted:

CLEAN-CUT young men have been going to F.S.C. Barber in the West Village and asking for the same haircut: buzzed on the sides, longer on top and slicked back with a dab of pomade. You could call it a modified McSqueeb, a J. Edgar Hoover or maybe a Jimmy Darmody, after the character in “Boardwalk Empire.” … But a lot of them just ask for a Hitler Youth, said Sam Buffa, a founding partner of the barbershop. “I was trying to not use that” term, he added.

See? People can be sensitive, and even well-meaning, but they can still raise the ire of the ADL. Like the otherwise fine and clever people at Wódka Vodka. These purveyors of quality discount vodka have used clever ads in past advertising campaigns ie “Hamptons Quality. Newark Pricing” and the more provocative “Escort Quality. Hooker Pricing.” For the upcoming holiday season I guess they decided to stick with provocative when they put up these billboards in a few locations in New York:

Yeah. “Christmas Quality. Hanukkah Pricing.” The Jews weren’t amused and now the billboards are down. Kissinger would probably say that this was yet another example of the Jews acting in a grossly self-serving manner, getting in the way of the Vodka dudes spreading vodka fueled holiday cheer at discount prices. Oy. But what do you want? People can’t leave us alone. Like, check out these dudes. They put out a clever video on YouTube showcasing their musical chops and mastery of Internet memes. 43 memes in 3:53 seconds – stuff like badgers, chocolate rain, Charlie bit my finger, rickroll etc. It’s funny and it’s catchy and here it is:

So yeah, guaranteed viral! Over 6.5 million views, nearly 200,000 likes and over 60,000 comments. Thing is that the members of the GAG Quartet are Israeli. As a result, a nice chunk of the comments referenced horrifically anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments. Why? I don’t know. It’s ridiculous. What does this video have to do with race or politics? I guess when it comes to Jew hating, people don’t really need a good reason to go off the handle. Maybe that explains why Jews are, you know, so self-interested sometimes?

Ah what do I know…

Coupable!

Former chief fashion designer at Christian Dior, John Galliano, was found guilty of making “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or authenticity after an incident where he spouted racist and anti-Semitic insults at drinkers in a bar. Galliano’s 6,000 euro fine was suspended in light of his apparent contrition, but he was ordered to pay court costs and lawyers fees amounting to 16,500 euros as well as symbolic damages of 1 euro to each of the five complainants.

Galliano unleashed a tirade of insults against Geraldine Bloch, telling her she had a “dirty Jewish face” and was a “fucking ugly Jewish bitch.” Prosecutors showed the court a video of Galliano, taken at the same bar last October, where he told two Italian women “People like you ought to be dead, your mothers, your forefathers would all be… gassed. I love Hitler.” Galliano claimed he had no recollection of either incident due to his addiction to alcohol, Valium and sleeping pills.

The judge in the case noted that “All insults aimed at a person’s origin or religion are of a singular gravity and as such harm the fundamental principles of respect and dignity between humans.” Singular gravity? As in a singular euro? Galliano, who is a multi-millionaire, is said to feel very contrite after the verdict.

Jedwabne is a tinderbox sparking all kinds of debate about Polish-Jewish relations. While anti-Semitic graffiti and racists vandalism incidents occur across America each week, they never make the papers. Jedwabne on the other hand, it always will.

No one questions whether the Jews were herded into the barn and burned in one of many such incidents during the WWII. The question Poles debated was who did it? The Nazis, Soviets, and Polish neighbors were all suspect.

The government wanted to settle the matter, and an excavation of the barn was ordered. Forensic anthropologists who had investigated mass graves in Balkans began a painstaking excavation.

In order to ensure that any human remains were treated according to Jewish law, I supervised the site several times on behalf of the Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland.

After the excavation and interviews with residents and witnesses, it was determined that the barn was burned by local residents who then tried to bury the victims in a hastily dug trench next to the burned barn. Eyeglasses, shoes, and thousands of bones remained interred next to the site of the barn.

The entire area was then entombed in concrete and covered and a large monument. I was on hand when, in an unprecedented moment in Polish-Jewish relations, the Polish President himself apologized to the Jewish community on behalf of Poles and unveiled the monument.

In addition to the vandalism in Jedwabne, Police are investigating neo-Nazi vandal attacks aimed at minority groups in the past few weeks in eastern and northeast Poland.

In Orla, anti-Semitic slogans and Nazi symbols were found on the former synagogue. In Bialystok, they broke into the Islamic Center and attempted to set the building on fire.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said “There is no room for such behavior in Polish society — even if it is the work of but a small group of extremists. We stand in solidarity with all those who feel personally affected by these despicable acts.”

I want to echo his words: there is no room for such behavior in any society.

I’m not sure any other cabinet-level minister of another European country would issue a condemnation so quickly over an anti-Semitic incident in a tiny town without Jews.

The victims of Jedwabne and other infamous murders never seem to get any rest.

Just when we think that the wound has healed, someone comes along and rips it open to remind us that our work in riding the world of racism has a long way to go.

The Jewish Forward in their editorial wrote:

‘Jewish homes were being attacked, windows broken. Jewish residents were cowering in the safest rooms of their homes. Sympathetic gentiles in the area were sneaking word to some of their Jewish neighbors to keep their lights turned off. Marauding bands of outside agitators were roaming around, blaming Jews. This was taking place not in, say, prewar Poland or the Pale of Settlement back in an even earlier time. This was taking place in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.”

One cannot help but think that the mainstream press, and even the Jewish community, preferred to refer to the events as “racial strife.” Was it because the victims were predominantly chassidic Jews? Were the Jews actually instigating violence?

Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, a friend who I often fiercely disagree with, got it right. He describes the Crown Heights Riots, a America’s Pogrom. Looking back, it is hard to disagree with him and his article is worth reading. He writes:

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg wrote afterwards in the Jerusalem Report that the Jewish leadership did not react since “Chassidic blood was flowing.” Imagine for a moment if mobs of angry blacks were attacking Jews in the upper west side. Would the ADL, AJC sit stoic, politely asking for the violence on both sides to stop and a commission be established to look into Black civil rights. Would they, as Jerome Chanes , a former leader of the JCRC in New York, just last week, two decades later, still describe the pogrom as a “riot” clinging to the argument it was not driven primarily by anti-Semitism.

The Forward continues:

On this anniversary of the violence, [Ari Goldman] penned a courageous account of what it was like to be a legman amid an anti-Jewish riot for the newspaper that boasted of issuing “All the News That’s Fit To Print.” He called in the facts, and they got rewritten into a story of a racial clash between blacks and whites or between blacks and Jews, when, in reality, no Jews had attacked anybody. The riot was an attack on Jews.

For more on pogroms, read my article about The Kielce Pogrom of 1946.

Having been lately not only at that conference, but also, all too briefly, at the extremely cool and inspiring ROI Summit, I have compiled the following top ten list, my best shot at Imitatio dei. (Stop whining. What is Google for, if not to decipher the pretentious Latin phrasings of bloggers?)

Without further ado:

Top Ten Things I Already Love About Tomorrow(s)
(This is going to be a little long. Get coffee.)

1. Generation Z (comes after Y, rhymes with “me”) lives not only in a post-fax, post-VHS world, but also in a post-denominational one. Despite being highly individualistic (President Peres noted that today’s youth advocated not for Freedom of Expression but Freedom of Self Expression), I join those who believe that some type of united, ideological, identified, even passionate Jewish Peoplehood is truly possible via “doing Jewish” – with an emphasis on ethical behavior, social activism, Israel engagement, and the like. Lots and lots of Jewish orgs mandated with saving the Jewish tomorrow are betting the kibbutz on it, so I hope we are right.

2. It is possible to grow old and still be relevant. Nay – highly relevant. The Prez is the best (and oldest) example; he alluded to his fountain of youth strategy when long-way-around-answering a question on economics in a blogger’s session at the conference. Instead of eating three times a day, he said, read three times a day. Focus on the mind, and your mind will be vibrant. Another example: Yossi Vardi. Israel’s Godfather of hi-tech is also a funnier, more effective interviewer and moderator than Leno, Letterman, and Conan put together. At 68, he is probably just as, if not more, relevant than the insanely wealthy fetus called Zuckerberg (….Yes, I just aged myself crankily.) Stanley Fischer correctly called him our national treasure. More on the panel Vardi moderated further down this list.

3. I’m still not done talking about the brain. Well…Peres isn’t. And as a psychology major, philosophy buff, and skeptical fan of spiritual evolution, I am happy to keep talking about it. Want to know what’s in store for tomorrow’s scientists? Inner Space. Figure out why we do what we do, and then – only then – can we convert negative impulses into constructive ones. We are influenced by a bundle of cells miraculously organized to drive us to hate, love, act noble, and rot in front of the damn TV. Holding up a mirror to our minds will advance humanity beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, because most of us essentially want to do good.

4. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales echoed this sentiment: the internet is a kinder, gentler, more generous place now than it was in the 90’s not because we have grown more benevolent, but because our platforms have gotten better at more accurately creating a natural social environment, so that we can behave the way we do IRL. Wales is irritated with divisive media outlets when he knows how helpful people actually are and how diverse groups can work together. Wales is a totally great guy – humble and on the level.

5. More on virtual relationships and back to cool old people: I need to tell you that Dr. Ruth had us rolling in the aisles. No, not like that! I mean with laughter. She has a lot to say about erections (I think that is truly her favorite word) but also much wisdom on human relationships. She thinks cyber romance is a human catastrophe, hand holding and friendship the foundations of the world. Tomorrow: Go back to primarily human relationships, says Dr. Ruth. Can we all say Amen? Can you at least tweet Amen?

6. Let us talk about another tomorrow-y subject: cloning. Because I would like to clone (UK Chief Rabbi) Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, asap. To my mind, there is no better advocate for a human, committed, dignified, unapologetic, cosmopolitan Judaism. LR Sacks had an interesting take on the new anti-Semitism – comparing it to a virus that lives on by continuously adapting its strain, which is does by latching onto the prevailing philosophy in every generation. During the middle ages, it took a religious guise; when science was king, in the early 20th century, anti-Semitism grew scientific with Nazi racial science. Today, in our humanitarian age, it takes the form of a twisted kind of human rights advocacy. You heard it folks – unequivocally: anti-Zionism IS today’s anti-Semitism, expressed in a language modified to appease the modern ear…and must be combatted as such. I can go on. But this is getting long and we’re only 60% through.

7. Neither Lord Rabbi Sacks, nor Natan Sharansky, could answer my question: How do you explain, in our enlightened, egalitarian times, the Jewish trilogy – Nation, Land, Torah (Religion) – to ourselves, and to others? How can we accept that we are both a nation and a place? Both a people and a religion? Isn’t this too weird, too particular, too MUCH? Sharansky told us that he has written several books developing the essential element in this linkage between Nation and Land, but agrees that it is a hard thing to try to sell to those who don’t feel it in their gut. Rabbi Sacks told us, simply, when I asked about selling it to other Jews: The impossible will take a little longer.

8. Back to Vardi’s panel: It was on fathers and sons. One pair: Molecular biologist Howard Cedar and his son Joseph, recently awarded Best Screenplay at Cannes for the truly excellent Footnote. One interesting…um…footnote… from this enormously entertaining and enlightening session, in which the dialogue between science and art, and empathy vs. methodological response, were explored – - something the younger Cedar said: Progress requires rebellion. No matter how valuable and desired continuity, offspring will always, to a certain extent, buck the parameters of the parent generation in order to evolve, in order to create its own contribution. With the caveat that it is actually evolution and not simply rebellion for its own sake, I think this view of tomorrow(s) is actually a positive one, improving on the design of the human spirit with each successive tweak, while still rooted in the same spiritual DNA. Wow. I’m getting tired.

9. Israeli men are Adonises. This is the view of one Sarah Silverman, who referred to American Jewish men as “human sneezes.” The Adonis line drew huge crowd response, and I hope got her a hookup with a swarthy, cut-abbed Jewish boy who will rid her of the notion that being Jewish is completely individual, without any communal or generational significance. Sometimes you just need to sleep on that idea.

10. How do you make Jewish identity sexy? Matisyahu: You just need to BE sexy… you’re Jewish. I think that kind of confidence would do much for the human sneezes and sneezettes. It may be the thing Silverman identifies as Olympian in Sabras – the unapologetic knowledge of who you are. Peres said that the greatest thing the Jews gave to the world is dissatisfaction (love that!!!) but I think it has become, rather than dissatisfaction with a problem in need of solving, dissatisfaction with the self. Introspection is good; constant apology for existing feeds those who wish you didn’t. Silverman says we need better PR out of Israel . I say we need better self esteem in the Diaspora.

Good night. My clock says tomorrow is almost here.

Over the past few weeks, Yale has been criticized for its decision. Some said it was retribution for YIISA’s conference that hosted speakers critical of Islamic anti-Semitism. A Washington Post Op-Ed by GWU Professor Walter Reich questioned the decision and asked a DC university to snap up the research center. Others said that Yale was correct in closing YIISA, since it had strayed from its mission and was not as academic as it could have been. Some insiders said that the issue was not simple, and that YIISA leaders had been warned and counseled to improve. Was Yiisa involved in too much advocacy instead of research? Others mentioned that perhaps it was a case of “Not Invented Here.”

But guess what? Yale’s Provost, Peter Salovey, announced on Monday that the university would launch a new program for the study of anti-Semitism. The Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism (YPSA). It will be led by Yale faculty members, and it will be sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center.

So… byebye Yiisa…
and hellooooo Ypsa.

“But of course we must also combat anti-Semitism beyond our borders, an evolving, global phenomenon. And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.

“Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.

“We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is. Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism — healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack — is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the three D’s, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them.

“And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of ‘honest broker.’ There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. And friends, I say this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well if we listen to it, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.

“Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom. It is freedom that makes us human. Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

“As the spectre of anti-Semitism spreads, our responsibility becomes increasingly clear. We are citizens of free countries. We have the right, and therefore the obligation, to speak out and to act. We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples. We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human rights, human dignity, at home and abroad. None of us really knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous. But we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted. Thus, we must use our freedom now, and confront them and their anti-Semitism at every turn.

Typical right? Except for one thing. Ian Baron is Jewish. In 2008 he went on a Birthright Israel trip. He had a Bar Mitzva, he went to Jewish day school, he attended synagogue services regularly. So what happened?? The Washington Jewish Week profiles Baron, a young man, of Latino birth, who was adopted by a Jewish couple, converted to Judaism and was raised fully Jewish.

Ian had his fair share of problems however. His parents moved when he was 13 and he had a learning disability. Most horribly of all however, he was teased and bullied in Middle School by his new Jewish classmates who would :

…regularly harass Ian, who has dark skin and Hispanic features, according to his parents. They would call him “kike” or “spic,” but would also shout, “You can’t be Jewish” because of his physical appearance,Marla and Steven recalled… This type of treatment “was a real shock for him,” Marla added, explaining that Ian would return home from school “distraught” over the name-calling… “He didn’t always fit in, and doesn’t look like your typical middle class, Jewish Olney kid,” said Rabbi Reuben Landman, HTAA’s spiritual leader, who counseled Ian when he was distressed. “He was lost and couldn’t find himself. His own Jewish identity was under question.” … Feeling estranged from the Jewish community because of his looks — and from the Hispanic community because of his faith — Ian became isolated, explained Rabbi Daniel Sikowitz, who’s been visiting him regularly at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds… “He felt like he didn’t belong, that they [the Jewish and Hispanic communities] either hated him or rejected him out right,” said Sikowitz, spiritual leader of Reform congregation Kol Ami in Frederick.

He did enjoy his Birthright Israel trip, but after his return from Israel the situation deteriorated and he became an alcoholic. He moved out of his parents home, lived on the streets, hung out with the wrong crowd and eventually got into the situation that he is in today.

How does something like this happen? I’m no expert of course, but to whatever extent the teasing and the bullying about his appearance that he suffered at the hands of his Jewish classmates contributed to the situation, I would like to apologize to Ian, on behalf of decent Jews everywhere. As anyone who is steeped in Jewish religious law knows, it is a sin to embarrass anyone publicly. It is also especially wrong to question the Judaism of a Jewish convert. Furthermore, Judaism is not a race. There isn’t an official Jewish look or skin color or hair texture or nose size. The only people that believe that are ignorant racists, and the kids at Ian’s Jewish Middle School in Onley.

This should serve as a wake up call to every Jewish community. You better teach your children what it means to be a Jew, and what the ramifications of bullying are. In the meantime, I am glad that some members of the community have lent support to Ian. I am glad that Ian is attending Alcoholics Anonymous, I am glad that Ian is reconnecting with his Judaism while in prison and I hope that the judge shows him some leniency so that he can get the help and support that he needs.

Again, sorry Ian. I am horrified.

“I hope to be home soon,” he wrote in one letter the Barons shared with WJW. “I pray every night that Hashem will return me to my family where I belong.”

I’m praying with you too man. Shabbat shalom.

Protesters in Libya deface a billboard with Gadhafi on it (AP)

I worry about the masses who question the the idea that they live under tyranny yet fail to question the ideas of the tyrants. Once and for all people; Zionism and Nazism are NOT morally equivalent. The Swastika and the Star of David do NOT belong side by side. This is not my opinion. This is a fact.

Please, people of Libya and Egypt and Bahrain and Yemen and Saudi Arabia, throw off the chains of your servitude and exert your rights to be free to recognize how your leaders have used Israel as the foil to the dictatorial exploitation of their own citizens. Please, as you exert your rights and gain the freedom you deserve, throw out the baby with the bathwater!

Blame it all on the Jews!

Helen Thomas struck a defiant pose when she spoke recently at a workshop on anti Arab bias before a crowd of 300 people in Dearborn, Michigan. Despite her apology, she stated that she absolutely stands by her controversial comments about Israel. Not only that but she went even further, making comments that seem to have been taken straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas talked about “the whole question of money involved in politics.” … “We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.”

I don’t begrudge Helen Thomas her right to freely express her opinion, hateful and stupid as it might be. It’s also kind of ironic that these comments were made in Dearborn, Michigan, home of Henry Ford’s 1920s anti-Semitic rag, The Dearborn Independent. But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander and I have no problem stating clearly and unequivocally that Helen Thomas should promptly go fuck herself.

I might also add that the recent unveiling of a bust of Thomas at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn is not going to advance the cause of warm Jewish / Muslim relations in the US. I mean, we go to bat for you on the ground zero mosque and y’all honor a rabid anti-Jew? Not nice American Muslims. Not nice. Also, Thomas is scheduled to speak at a high school in Dearborn today. You should really keep that hateful, poisonous troll away from your children…

Hat tip: Yid With Lid

Context by Yigal Carmon of MEMRI who presented this material to the UN Human Rights Council, a body that focuses on Israel to a degree unmatched by their efforts regarding all the other countries in the world – on September 28, 2010.

We all know that lots of Jew hatred is out there. We know it ends up on Facebook and other social media sites.
How long does it take to get a page removed? If you can – head over to FB and flag the page, and then let us know on the comment below!

“When the Jew’s Blood Reds my Knife, then my Life is Free from Strife”

Singing / Asadullah Alshishani — Lyrics / Asadullah Alshishani

When the Jew’s blood reds my knife

Then my life is free from strife

Hiding behind rocks and trees

I’ll find them with greatest ease

Make them get down on their knees

Slaughter them despite their pleas

Throw them in the ovens hot

Soap and lampshades sold and bought

Made of the Jews that we shot

Mercy’s something I have not

With the bomb and machinegun

Blast at them and watch them run

We will have a lot of fun

Shoot and kill Jews one by one

Rise up, O Salahuddin

Great and brave Mujahideen

Like the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

For the Love of Filistine

At Al Aqsa we shall meet

After Israel’s defeat

Their dead bodies at our feet

Taste of victory is sweet

Jerusalem is calling me

Asadullah Alshishani

Jihad’s where you’re meant to be

Come and set the captives free

Come on, tell me that didn’t bring you to tears as a wave of peace and harmony swept over you.

Irritating enough, apparently – like the too-talented and bossy fame-hog Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) on Fox’s Glee – in our discovery of the written word, monotheism, modern physics, psychology, vaccinations, and the film industry, that every country that has ever “hosted” us has found it necessary to tell us to get the hell out, like Thomas did. (Ironically, the aforementioned Jewish character Rachel, in a particularly annoying moment in one episode, was told by classmates to move to Israel. I doubt the writers coordinated this telling joke – Jews do equal Israel in the eyes of the world, sorry J Street - with the State Department.)

Anywho. Helen, you know why we were in Germany and much of Eastern Europe in the first place? (And by the way, if I follow your advice, do you think the nice old ladies who got my grandmothers’ large houses and farms from the Nazis in what was once Czechoslovakia will kick the property back two generations? That would be cool because I’d love a vineyard and an agricultural estate.)

…We were in Germany and Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Russia (where we were regularly just plain killed by Cossacks), and also, for many centuries, Poland (ditto), cuz we were told to get the hell out of England, France, and Spain. (Or, you know, just plain killed by handsome and heroic fairytale knights.)

And you know why we were in Western Europe to begin with? Cuz we were told by the Greeks and the Romans – wait for it – to get the hell out of “Palestine,” where we had been living since the beginning of recorded history.

We also ended up in Babylonia (Iraq) and other Middle Eastern and North African countries, where we stayed as second class citizens for hundreds and hundreds of years, till the Arab world finally caught up with the pagans and the Christians in their hatred of the Jews. Amazing how the student has now far surpassed the teacher. But I digress.

(By the way, I am aware that the Arab narrative has us Ashkenazi Jews as descendants of the Khazars, but the actual facts have it different. See this new DNA study linking European Jews with their Middle Eastern counterparts, all stemming from one original population of Holy Land Jews predating Roman times. Never mind our own texts that say the same thing; I know they are inadmissible in the international courts of the mind.)

 In any event, there is no way around it: Jews being asked (usually not by old ladies on the White House lawn) to get the hell out of anywhere and everywhere is just the way it goes.

So it came to pass that about 200 years BCE the Macabees got sick of it and established a Jewish state in Palestine, within the Roman Empire, which lasted till about the time of Jesus (another Pesky Jew) and the destruction of the Second Temple.

And it also came to pass that Jewish settlers began arriving in Ottoman Palestine in the late 1800′s, after the Russians and the Poles made it clear that Jews were persona non grata in Eastern Europe. Palestine was as good a place as any to escape to, since it was the last place, about 2000 years before, that the Jews had a sovereign state (see above). Never mind Jewish liturgy and texts pining for Jerusalem, since I know these, too, are inadmissible in the international courts of the mind.

Anyway, nowhere else wanted European Jews any more than Russia did, not even America really, where there were very strict quotas, although the Americans, again politely, refrained from all the messy European killing, which was apparently in vogue until after Hitler. Besides, those Ottoman Turks, as now, were known around the world for their amazing human rights activism and the Jews were excited to see it first hand. (No, not really. But anyway…they were better than the Polish peasants. Unless you were Armenian.)

It is true that there were people in Palestine before the Jews arrived en masse (for there was always a handful of Jews that remained here….), not *A People*, but rather a group of assorted regional Arabs (think Native American tribes in North America…who by the way were treated much worse by the Colonialists…) who had settled the area with not much agricultural success and had endured various rulers over the millennia.

But when the *Jews* came back, it was suddenly necessary, once again, to tell them to get the hell out. There was no living side by side, even though that was an express Jewish desire right up until 1947/8, when the Partition Plan was summarily rejected by the Arab League, who started the war that Israel won. If keeping land you win in a war others provoke (when you wanted to make peace) is called occupation, Helen, the world’s axis of furious justice has a lot bigger fish to fry than shitty little Israel.

The Arab desire to kick the Jews the hell out of Palestine did not begin in 1967, and not in 1948. It began the moment the initial groups of Jews arrived and started to make the land flower and produce crops. That’s when the attacks on Jews began, and when the Arab world decided a new Jewish presence in the land would not do, back when there were about half a million Arabs and just under 100,000 Jews in the Holy Land, in the early 1900′s. 20% was too much, apparently, to bear. (The Hebron Massacre of 1929, where marauding Arabs killed nearly 70 Jews and wounded countless others, took place long before a single house was built over the Green Line.)  I can only imagine how awful it was – probably for both the Arabs and the British – when it became clear we were here to stay and grow to much further percentages. We are that annoying, what with trying to get rid of malaria and tuberculosis and everything.

At any rate, it seems that every time a Jewish minority starts to make a society too successful – so annoying!!!! – the indigenous people start to feel very uncomfortable, and tells them one way or another to get the hell out.

But now, alas, there is nowhere left for us to go, except the eternal place Ahmadinejad wants us to go, and Haniyeh and Nasralla, and Hitler before them, and Chemilniki before him, and Haman before him, and so on. And, I suspect, in her heart of hearts, perhaps Thomas and the likes of her, who, the pesky Jew Freud may have observed, seriously let her slip show.

Let me make it clear: I know that Israel has made mistakes over its 62 years, some clumsy and inept (was there no intelligence regarding the terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara?!?), and some borderline immoral. But none worse than every other democracy on earth has also done, and most much better than the large majority of the UN rogue nations which condemn Israel daily have done…daily. There is MUCH to improve in the way we govern, I will be the first to say it. I will also be the first to say that various Jews of the Bernie Madoff and Greed-is-Good-Goldman-Sachs ilk make me want to crawl under a rock. I know that the world is only waiting for these guys to emerge in order to pin their crimes on all of us, even though everything they do is in direct contradiction of actual Jewish values.

But let’s be honest: the international community’s human rights crusades on behalf of the Palestinians are just the latest Crusades, and the ones who REALLY suffer are not the Jews or the Israelis but the poor occupants of the Third World who are ignored while the enlightened First World castigates the Jews… and yes, of course, the Palestinians, who are kept in misery *by their own leadership* in order to provide the polite Jew haters with a media club to beat them with.

So here’s the thing: We are not going anywhere this time, Helen. We totally get it: Ya’ll pretty much hate us. It’s just the way it is, like a natural law. Nothing we can do – not giving away pieces of Palestine / Israel (witness our evacuation of Gaza in 2005, and handing over the keys to army bases and greenhouses- a new economy! Food for the children! – which were summarily torched as property of the infidels); not donating billions annually to global charity,  nor discovering a cure for Polio or the Theory of Relativity, or writing revered legal and religious texts, or co-founding Google, or manufacturing the microprocessor in the majority of laptops that spew Jew hatred to the Internet, or founding Christianity itself, or championing women’s rights and gay rights in the US and helping to bring about a *human rights revolution* in America in the 60′s, …None of those things will absolve us of our real sin: Existing and overcoming.

I’m really sorry they told you to get the hell out of the White House, Helen. It really wasn’t your fault that you thought you could say what you said. It’s not like it’s a secret: That’s what people think.

But this time, seriously. Getting the hell out is not in the cards. We’re just sick of moving all the time.

I know. Irritating.

Editorial Note: Despite the expulsion of the Jews after the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, there was never a time when Jews did not live in Israel. Also, prior to the Zionist influenced immigrations, there were a number of smaller religiously motivated waves of immigration to Israel.

You’ll note he doesn’t bother with the word “Zionist” at the end when he calls the Jews in the audience the “New Nazis.”

Let’s make no mistake, it is not unusual for the terms of the debate in many of these on-campus activities to shift from anti-Israel to anti-Jew. Usually, the manner in which this happens is that the speaker, student or the material that is being distributed will slip up and instead of qualifying a statement by prefacing the word “Jew” with “Zionist,” will omit the adjective.

Of course, another way to consider this, one which many Jewish students and faculty on campuses across North America (no, I am not referring to the small minority that sides with the Muslim and extreme-Left students) have been well aware for years is that qualifying all statements with the term “Zionist” is sleight of hand. The speakers and organizers mean Jews.

As I was going through some recent news about what is happening at some UC schools, I came across two parallel stories that provide an interesting and telling indication of the obvious, in plain sight, devolution of campus life for many Jewish members and particularly on those campuses where the administrators have permitted the anti-Israel forces to push their agenda: bathroom graffiti.

Here’s Berkeley’s (do read the comments following that article):

John Efron, Koret professor of Jewish history, said the drawing of swastikas on campus is a common problem that has only recently been addressed because of the Clark Kerr incident.

“All anyone has to do is go into one of the bathrooms in Berkeley,” he said. “There are swastikas everywhere. People don’t know about it because, until this demonstration, Jewish students have been reluctant to file complaints and let the administration know what anti-Semitism means for them and how it creates a hostile environment.”

Here’s UC San Diego:

I regularly spend days in the library, mostly either in S&E or upstairs on the 7th and 8th floors. Since I started here in fall 2000, I have grown accustomed to seeing bathroom graffiti that called for boycotts of Israel or condemning Ariel Sharon. To be honest, this never bothered me. Since the start of this quarter, I have several times found swastikas drawn in the men’s bathrooms. In one case, the swastika was drawn rather large and followed by the phrase “3rd Reich m**** f****!” In the other incidents, a swastika would be placed on one side of a =, with the drawing of an Israeli flag on the other. If this were an isolated incident, it would not bother me, but I have seen this repeatedly over the past month and half, and it seems that the number of incidents are increasing in frequency.

Now you might think that I’m going to come up with some clever toilet quip, but I’m not. This is not funny.

This is not funny because none of the chancellors in the UC system can claim ignorance. None of the student associations which help to fund anti-Israel activities can claim to be ignorant about these things. The professors who defend the students who bring these activities to campus, like Andrew Gutierrez at UC Berkeley, Mark LeVine at UC Irvine (click on that link to see how LeVine uses the term “pound of flesh” to describe Jewish groups’ actions when they seek to address the problems on his campus) and Luis Martín-Cabrera at UC San Diego, are fully aware that these events are rightfully construed by Jewish students as incitement against the Jewish student body on their campus. Finally, the students on these campuses, since even the ones who don’t care or ignore the anti-Israel activities sit in bathroom stalls, know what is going on.

Nobody is doing anything about it, though.

No, there is nothing funny here. There is a reason for deep concern.

Here is my theory: Jews are an affluent, well-educated group in North America. We are well represented in academia, in the administrations of university campuses and in the donor groups that contribute handsomely to many universities, including those in the UC system. As such, it is difficult for many, including Jews themselves, to view Jews and Jewish students as victims, particularly on these campuses.

Well, things are changing. University administrators would do well to read the writing on their campuses’ bathroom walls.

The problem, unfortunately, is not only what this woman, an officer of the MSA, believes, it is that many universities across North America have permitted her and her colleagues to run week-long propaganda-fests using names like “Israel Apartheid Week” on their campuses. These highly charged events have actually created a class of victim on these campuses. These are Jewish students in general, and in particular the majority who do not align themselves with the MSA, MSU or any of the anti-Israel groups.

I’ve just come across this letter written by a UC San Diego Jewish student following their campus’s anti-Israel week. It describes how the university alertly responded when it was felt that anti-black racism was rearing its ugly head, but has done nothing in response to the marginalization of Jewish students resulting in a nod of the head from an MSA member regarding extermination of Jews.

Nobody should pretend to be surprised. What is happening across North American campuses is happening with the consent and even collusion of university administrators.

UCSD Jewish Student: “Why are we suffering in this pain alone?”

Posted on May 17, 2010 by TDB
UCSD Hasn’t Learned From ‘Compton Cookout’

UCSD Daily Guardian

Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my disappointment in the university’s leadership for its failure to respond to a recent act of hatred on this campus.

Last Monday night, a UCSD student who identified herself as a member of the Muslim Student Association stood up in a public forum and announced her support for Hamas and Hezbollah, two terrorist organizations whose genocidal charters state their goals to destroy the State of Israel and the Jewish people as a whole.

Indeed, it was brought to this student’s attention at the time that the head of Hezbollah has repeatedly said he hopes the Jews will gather in Israel so that he doesn’t have to hunt them down globally. Still, she didn’t hesitate to show her support.

To put this in perspective in light of recent campus events, it would be the equivalent of a student standing up in support of the KKK and hoping that all blacks would gather in Alabama so they could all be lynched at once.

I am not asking that the university limit her First Amendment rights; I am only asking that it be recognized that actions promoting hate have no place in our campus environment.

La Jolla has a history of anti-Semitism, where — prior to the establishment of this university — Jews were not allowed to buy homes or establish businesses here. It was upon the insistence of Roger Revelle — who said that a leading university had to include Jews — that Jews were finally allowed into La Jolla.

As a Jewish student, I am deeply hurt and saddened by recent campus events, and I am questioning whether or not I belong to this community anymore. I am calling upon the university to recall the legacy of Revelle, and to recognize that a serious academic institution can neither be a platform for anti-Semitism nor for racism to flow freely. In the past few months, this university has experienced multiple instances of hatred and racism, yet it seems that we have learned nothing.

When the Black Student Union cried out in pain, our campus community came together — not to discuss the legitimacy of their feelings, but to ask what we could do to help. Why are my cries and the cries of my community going unanswered? Why are we suffering in this pain alone? And, more importantly, why is the rest of this campus standing idly by?

—Myra Meskin

We should all be sad and deeply concerned.

Hat tip to Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism

According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, stones were thrown twice during a seder at a Chabad house in Budapest. The police, according to the article, did very little, and did not seem to take the situation seriously. On a night when we commemorate our freedom from oppression, there are those who wished to scare this Jewish community with this anti-Semitic act. We ought to remember that fear, too, is a form of oppression; when we give in to fear and dread, we lose our ability to think clearly and reasonably. We ought to applaud those individuals who continued with their seders, as they made a statement, simply by continuing in their religious ceremony, that despite the acts directed against them, and despite the memories that such events, no doubt, evoke, we, as the Jewish people, will not give in to fear, and will not be oppressed.

Chag Herut Sameach!

Recently, the UCI student government passed a first reading of a resolution BACKING the MSU, and the anti-Semitic thugs trying again to shut up the Jews from speaking freely at UCI.