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Volunteer, Jewish War Veterans organize and deliver Christmas morning gift-bags for V.A. Hospital patients, despite pandemic limitations

The hallways of Veterans Administration (V.A.) Hospitals on the morning of Christmas are typically bereft of people - except for essential staff. Christmas Day can be a lonely time for aging, hospitalized veterans. While most families find gifts under their trees for all to open, most hospitalized see none.

Commanders Sam Yudin (left) and Mat Millen (center) coordinate
volunteers bringing the gift bags to the Vets' health facilities

This Christmas, the 
Jewish War Veterans, the oldest (founded in 1896) veterans' organization in America, continued their 76-year tradition of preparing and delivering a "Gift for a Yank" to hospitalized V.A. patients in cities around the country. Hollywood star, Eddie Cantor originatedhis non-sectarian project in 1946 for World War II veterans in Los Angeles. L.A.-area Jewish War Veterans (L.A. and Long Beach) are among those around the country who keep it going. 

The commander of the JWV's Allan Katz Post #118 in Santa Monica, Matthew Millen, and his colleague, Sam Yudin of the Tibor Rubin Post #786 in Long Beach procured various gift items which are useful for the hospitalized veterans. This year, they (with volunteers they coordinate) stuffed gifts into 1200 bags. While they typically also coordinate volunteers to personally deliver the gift bags to the patients in their rooms, this year, like in 2020 and '21, pandemic concerns restricted  outside volunteers from the patient rooms, so the bags are distributed by hospital (and rehab facility) employees a
round the V.A. hospital campuses.  In 2018, when volunteers did it, Mat Millen explained the procedure to us: 

Concert on former BLM-looted street- Where's our Maccabee defense? (Includes event footage)

Los Angeles' new Mayor Karen Bass, who during the B.L.M. riots of 2020 wouldn't disavow Marxism) was welcomed by Chabad leaders to kindle a menorah on a street (in her Congressional district) which B.L.M. looted Jewish shops on - an action that she didn't speak out against.
Newly inaugurated mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass (fFormer chair of the Congressional Black Caucus) is welcomed to light the first menorah candle on the streets in her former district that suffered a pogrom of looting by the Black Lives Matters rioters that she didn't condemn

L.A. Timesstaff writer Laura Newberry and .18 Dec.

Mayor Karen Bass and other community leaders celebrated the beginning of Chanukah on Sunday, 18 December lighting the menorah at sundown at a citywide ceremony on L.A.'s Westside.

The ceremony, which began at 4:45 p.m., was held on Pico Boulevard between Doheny and Wetherly drives.

Chabad of the Valley's Rabbi Mayer Greene describes how the annual tradition of public concerts were conducted during city health restrictions. Also, when are the the Menorah Lightings concerts in L.A this week besides Pico-Robertson? Universal CityWalk and The Grove.  

Chanukah Menorah-lightings continue at the Santa Monica Promenade nightly at 6:30 (recorded music and horas) through Sunday.

The Pico lighting was part of a larger celebration that ran through the afternoon and featured a street fair, carnival and evening performances that include Benny Friedman, Yoni Z and the Cheder Menachem Boys Choir.


Pico Blvd was closed between Doheny and Livonia Avenue for the celebration, which was hosted by Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin and Chabad of California. 
 
Criminals robbed and ransacked the clocks and jewelry
shop of Persian-Jewish,
Hooshmand Talasazan in
L.A.'s orthodox, Pico-Robertson neighborhood

Along this street around Shavuot 2020, Black Lives Matters rioters looted Jewish-owned stores among their 'pogrom' in and alongside then Rep. Karen Bass' district. Did she condemn that? The election hopeful merely objected to B.L.M's "defund the police" initiative.

Chanukah, also called the Festival of Lights, is celebrated over eight nights and marks the Jews’ recapture and rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, following their victory over Hellenist Syrians.

Chabad Lubavitch, a movement whose work is rooted in orthodox Judaism, reaches out to educate secular Jews, philosophically and culturally. They offer programs to help needy people regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs. The organization’s representatives have joined with mayors and city officials to illuminate the menorah on Hanukkah each year since 1985.

Daniel Greenfield, who writes and edits "The Point" section of Frontpage Magazine online, characterized as "a pogrom" the Black Lives Matter riots that looted stores on this street and desecrated synagogues & ransacked Jewish stores nearby in June 2020.

In consideration of the recent upsurge in antisemitic expressions of animosity from Black supremacists and White supremacists, ought Jews be demonstrating their culture on public streets, in a way which might invite trouble in most large cities in America and Western Europe?

Mr. Greenfield voiced his view of Jews asserting their cultural pride, with the need to prepare for action for circumstances that contrast with fairs in the streets. J.E.T.S. vocational boys high-school students provide the example.

JooTube: What do you think about the level of vigilance that's being taught?

Greefield: It's very important the reality is it's dangerous out there and it's easy for students to become subjected to feel like they're a persecuted minority, that there's nothing good about being Jewish - and this shows the opposite! It shows students the important part that is being Jewish is worth fighting for.

Question: Do you think the kids should be learning more than just Torah? Should they be learning self-defense? 
 
Answer: I mean that's part of it, obviously, you need to actually be able to defend yourself. You need to be able to defend your Jewishness. When they were building the Beis HaMigdash, the Second Beis Hamigdash there were people who had spears half of the time - and they were building the Beis HaMigdash during the other half of the time! 
 
Question: How good are we doing at preparing our warriors today?

Answer: There's a lot more we need to do. But people are starting to wake up - which is very important.

 

Mayor Bass also attended a Hanukkah event Thursday in downtown Los Angeles, appearing with the Los Angeles County Supervisors and other elected officials.

During that event, she spoke about growing up in the heavily Jewish Fairfax District and pledged to combat antisemitism in the city.


Benny Friedman sings "Malachem" ("Angels") at public concert on Pico Blvd  

 Benny Friedman sings "A Yid " like an anthem. 

 Benny Friedman & Yoni Zee rock out

Teen students of J.E.T.S. in L.A. embrace to ballad "Baruch Nafshi" (Bless My Soul) by Benny Friedman


Benny Friedman rocks Chanukah in Hollywood with the JETS guys
 

Benny Friedman and JETS teens sing Matisyahu's "One Day;" "We Are Not Afraid," "Hashem Melech"
These songs are also easy to share in this playlist.

The Mensch Int'l Foundation selected JooTube for a 2022 Mensch Award for providing 17-years of educational service to the Jewish community, Israel, and liberty. Please contribute a gift to sustain our multimedia-production driven, social-networks publishing into 2023! Get the mitzvah!

Artist adapts Chanukah story (and other Jewish scripture) impressively into gifts and cards sold at I.A.C.'s Celebrate Israel Fest in L.A.

At the Israeli-American Council's revived Celebrate Israel Festival in May, we discovered Jewish-American micrographer, Rae Antonoff exhibiting her adaptations of various Hebrew scripture into contextual designs. 

She writes the letters to fit with the context stories of her painting. Antonov. She sells finished prints as posters and greeting cards on her website "RaeAn Designs" and also takes-on custom design projects.

Handwritten menorah

Here, she handwrites the Hebrew scripture of the Scroll of Antiochus (Megillat Antiochus) which provides an historical account of the Maccabean revolt commemorated by Chanukah. Chanukah cards are like Christmas cards. Chanukah begins at sunset December 18th for 8 days til Boxing Day, December 25.

Rae says of the pomegranate tree (below): "When I lived in Israel there was a pomegranate tree outside my balcony so I studied it intently - while I was trying to avoid doing homework!" 

Question: What kind of words or what phrases did he spell? 

Antonoff: This one is it I started at the beginning of Psalms so it's Psalms 1 through 18. and I just started at the beginning and I wanted to see how many Psalms I could fit in as I edit just ended up being 18 and it was too perfect because that's chai!"


 

A look at how Rae's cursive Hebrew
becomes menorah candles


RaeAn Designs produces both calligraphy and micrographic imagery. She sell directly through her website.

Palestine-born Prof. Judea Pearl leads 75th-anniv teaching about the UN partitioning British Palestine for Jewish & Arab states

November 29, 1947 the UN Gen. Assembly ratifies partitioning
British Palestine to establish both a Jewish and Arab state.

UCLA A.I. Professor Judea Pearl initiated a public U.S. commemoration of the 1947 U.N's Partition of British Mandate Palestine on its 75th anniversary. General Assembly Resolution 181h divided the geographical area west of the Jordan River into land for two states: a Jewish state and an Arab state.

The educational ceremony, coordinated with the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, Rabbi Pinchas Dunner, and the Mensch Foundation's Steven Geiger was held with the participation of the Los Angeles Consulate Corps at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance.

Attending international diplomats from the Los Angeles Consular Corps (UAE 2nd from right)
join Israeli Consul General Hillel Newman (6th from left) and Rabbi Pinni Dunner (far right)

This documentary video was screened to explain the historic context of the declaration - including eyewitness testimony from those who were involved.

Dr. Judea Pearl, whose family resided in British Mandate Palestine, explains in this exclusive video interview why he feels 75-yrs ago today, November 29th, was so significant in modern Jewish history.  "It was the first international recognition of the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own. Here the word "State" is mentioned, unlike the Balfour Declaration, which mentions only a "Jewish National Home" and for good reason. There were only 60,000 people in Israel in the time of the Balfour Declaration - not enough to justify statehood. By the 1947, there were 600,000 Jews. The UN Commission could not say no to partition - for three reasons: First, the demography in Palestine. 



 

Second, the 250,000 Jews who were stranded in Displaced Persons' Camps. Third, the fact that Jews already had a state on the way - a medina ba'derech - a fully functioning state in Palestine - which impressed every committee that was sent to the area and made the idea of Two States as a viable option, ready for a vote. Without the last factor, they wouldn't have done it. That's why I'm stressing the role of the Yishuv - the Jewish community in the Mandate Palestine (pre-independent Israel) which called "the Yishuv". These these were the original Zionist pioneers who put together a state on their own initiative! Of course, with the help of world Jewry. They built roads, drained the swamps, created socialized medicine, built kibbutzim and moshavim, organized self-defense units, and established three top universities. I went to a high-school that was formed only one year before I enrolled!"


Jihadist-kidnapped reporter, Daniel Pearl

When in Jan. '02, Prof. Pearl's journalist son, Daniel, was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists, his last words "I am Jewish" shook the world.  Those words inspired a number of notable Jewish people to contribute essays about their identity for publishing in a book by that title.

Dr. Hillel Newman, Consul General to Pacific Southwest US addressed the UN Partition Plan for Palestine to the audience, which included community members, students from Shalhevet High-School, as well as his peers in the Los Angeles Consulate Corps. 

"The official recognition of the historical inherent rights of the people of Israel to their Homeland was at last endorsed by officials in the modern era. First in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and then by the U.N resolution which are we are marking today. By that act, Israel was reborn into the family of nations. For that support we will be eternally thankful to the international community and those countries. We remember those who did justice unto us and justice unto history.
 

Well, we cannot praise the U.N for everything they do. In today's world the structure of the U.N does not allow impartiality and truth. The U.N suffers an ingrained majority-bias which expresses itself in resolutions against Israel in comparison" discrimination against Israel. If you just count the amount of resolutions against Israel in comparison bias is clear to see to all the nations of the world this bias is clear to see. Persecution of a Jew for being a Jew is . . .
Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez said himself that these actions are nothing less than modern day anti-Semitism. This is true. Classic anti-Semitism still exists and is even on a rise. Yet classic anti-Semitism - discrimination against the Jew for being a Jew - or persecution of a Jew for being a Jew - is in an anti-Zionism less-accepted today in official social practice. So many cloak their anti-Semitism in an anti-Zionism.  International Community including the . . . They attack the one and only majority Jewish state. We hope for the day when this bias will be eradicated from the world and no longer tolerated. My friends, when Israel was re-established it extended its hand in friendship and peace with the entire international community including the entire Arab and Muslim world Arab League endorsed its historical of Israel will find our hand extended in peace. Sadly,at the time this hand was rejected.

'Til today the majority of the Arab League and many in the Muslim Block in the U.N refused to even recognize the existence of the state of Israel. Yet the vector is positive. We have finally normalized relations with Egypt, Jordan, UAE (whose representative is here proudly), Bahrain, Morocco, and even with Sudan - where the Arab League endorsed its historical resolution of rejection of Israel. brought the votes to the world stage 75-years ago. There is a growing acceptance of Israel.

The biggest obstacle to peace has always been the rejection of Israel. Any country that comes to terms with the existence of Israel will find our hand extended in peace the same goes for Iran and the Palestinians. At this time, we should also remember that Israel's rebirth was of long labor. It was through the tireless efforts of individuals - Jewish and non-Jewish - from across the globe who never lost sight of the dream of a Jewish homeland and brought the votes to the world stage 75-years ago."

On normalizing black and Muslim antisemitism - author Gil Troy in Hollywood

If you haven't watched Dave Chappelle's controversial, monologue
regarding Jews on Saturday Night Live, 12 Nov 2022, watch it here for yourself on JooTube. He begins joking about Kanye West's Jew-hateful remarks causing him brand-contract cancellations - inferring that Jews in showbiz (and business) have a coordinated influence over American culture. Mr. Chappelle allegedly hid this script in advance from Lorne Michaels the show's Jewish executive producer, supposedly switching it when on-air without Mr. Michael's knowledge. 

 

Jewish people in entertainment jobs benefits everyone - except perhaps bigots (and ironically, Israel)
American-Israeli author and historian Gil Troy
asserts
Prof. Gil Troy & CNN-featured, cultural historian.

On the day that the holiday Christmas Tree and Hanukah menorah are being erected in Beverly Gardens Park, visiting Israeli lecturer and author, Prof. Gil Troy contextualizes the brouhaha over Muslim, Dave Chappelle's antisemitic remarks on SNL Saturday Night Live.

Question: Here we have had for the past month an issue of anti-Semitism - particularly Black anti-Semitism - through the mainstream press and you've written an article which appeared a terrific three four page article in the Jewish Journal this week. How is this recent incident now affecting  people's attitudes and concerns?

Gil Troy: There's been a disturbing surge of anti-Semitism. I call it Jew-hatred because anti-Semitism makes it sound too scientific makes it sound too clinical and it's very interesting. Over the last three four five years I've started hearing from my students more and more both the ones who come from Jewish Day schools and come to Israel - but also those who just come from public schools more examples of of anti-Semitism more examples of feeling outed and othered as Jews. And it's so shocking because it's a point in time in history when people are supposed to be more tolerant and what we're seeing on American campuses is that you're supposed to not have microaggressions against anybody but somehow macroaggressions are acceptable against Jews.

And these last couple of weeks people have been completely upset about the YE - I call him the bigot formerly known as Kanye West - controversy. And I'm a little bit wary because if we just focus on the celebrities we miss the what Zev Jabotinsky, the great Zionist thinker called "the anti-Semitism of things." If we just focus so much on what's happening in celebrity culture and Twitterville, we miss what's really going day to day.

With too many of my students and too many of my fellow Jews in the United States of America are experiencing us all of a sudden a certain sense that we're on trial all of a certain sense that the golden age in America is over.  . . .

(Dialogue continues in the video)

Dave Chappelle and normalizing black antisemitism

https://keyimg.hiphoplately.com/1667275200/dave-chappelle-addresses-kanye-west--donald-trump-on-snl.1668349348.jpg
Dave Chapelle normalizing antisemitism on Saturday Night Live


Jonathan Tobin in JNS.Org: "The comedian is right that we need to stop trying to cancel and fire those who say offensive things. But his SNL monologue ignored the truth about a major source of hate.

... Chappelle’s willingness to rationalize, if not excuse, some of what Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have done—even if he was also making fun of them and their critics—sheds light on something quite important: that black antisemitism isn’t treated seriously. This is aside from the fact (the enthusiastic reaction from the SNL in-studio audience notwithstanding) that his jokes about it weren’t very funny.  ...

The main theme of his monologue, however, was about the perils that await anyone who makes the mistake of saying the words “the” and “Jews,” “together in sequence.” He began it by reading a ritual statement about opposing antisemitism, rightly noting that saying something like it would have “bought some time” for Kanye West after he had made a series of antisemitic statements and tweets.

Behind Chappelle’s teasing of West was a sense that while the rapper/fashion mogul was the author of his own troubles, those who were angry at him were also deserving of blame. He seems to think that West’s threats aimed toward Jews didn’t deserve to be taken seriously.

He took particular aim at those avoiding the issue of Jews controlling Hollywood, accusing them of being too sensitive. According to Chappelle, saying Jews run show business is, “not a crazy thing to think, but a crazy thing to say out loud.”

That extended to an even more problematic assessment of the controversy surrounding basketball player Kyrie Irving, who has been suspended by the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets for tweeting a link to an antisemitic film and then being slow and somehow vague when it came to apologies and disavowals about Jew-hatred. As Chappelle put it, “Kanye got in so much trouble; Kyrie got in trouble.”

The comedian claimed here that Irving’s support of a film called “From Hebrews to Negroes,” which claimed, among other antisemitic libels, that African-Americans are the real Jews, and that the actual Jews are frauds, was not worthy of much outrage. He went further by asserting that what followed—the list of demands placed on the athlete to get him out of hot water—was excessive.

“I know the Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can’t blame that on black Americans,” said Chappelle. “You just can’t.”

He went on to say that “a fair punishment” for Irving would be to require him to “post a link to ‘Schindler’s List.’” The focus on the player was wrong, he added, as the audience laughed, because “Kyrie Irving’s black ass was nowhere near the Holocaust.”

I don’t often agree with Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League. But he was right when he tweeted: “We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism. Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?”

Chappelle doesn’t seem to understand what’s really behind the controversies surrounding West and Irving. Their insults directed at Jews and attempts by those who seek to minimize or shrug them off—as was the case with the efforts of pundit Candace Owens to stand up for West—are evidence of the troubling rise of black antisemitism.

No one claimed that Irving had anything to do with the Holocaust. West’s tweet about going “deaf-con 3” against the Jews was also not the moral equivalent of Iran’s threats about wiping Israel off the map.

But they are a reflection of pop culture’s toleration of tropes of Jew-hatred that have helped generate the growth of antisemitic attitudes among American blacks. As numerous studies have shown, African-Americans are far more likely to think tropes about Jew-hatred are true than other demographic slices of the population.

It is those attitudes, and not the sort of grievances against Jews rooted in myths, which people like West and Irving cite, that are at the root of violence against Jews.

Chappelle and the SNL audience who cheered him in a Manhattan studio act as if the epidemic of violence currently being experienced by Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn happened 80 years ago in Europe. But it is happening right now, only a subway ride away in the same city in which they were sitting. And the perpetrators are largely African-Americans, not Nazis or Trump supporters.

We can attribute this to the influence of a Jew-hater like Louis Farrakhan, whom many in the world of the arts treat as a legitimate spokesperson for African-Americans, rather than an extremist hatemonger.

We can also point to the growing influence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the intersectional catechism it promotes, falsely labelling Jews and the State of Israel as white, colonialist oppressors. Sadly, that’s a movement that the ADL has supported, rather than opposed.

Black hatred against Jews persists and grows. Yet it is invisible in newspapers like The Times and erased completely in the influential pop-culture venues of network comedy shows.

The correct response to Chappelle should not be renewed calls for his cancellation. Instead, it should be to demand that such groups as the ADL, which purport to speak for Jewish interests, consistently focus on fighting the true sources of contemporary Jew-hatred, rather than on waging partisan battles on behalf of their liberal Democratic political allies.

Just as important, it is not unreasonable to ask influencers like Chappelle to start treating black antisemitism as a genuine problem, not something about which one can mock supposedly hyper-sensitive Jews for their fumbling efforts to use cancel culture against African-Americans who promote hate."

See ADL's article on "Alleged Jewish 'Control' of the American Motion Picture Industry" 1999.

Jonathan Tobin on antisemitism with Ari Fleischer

On the latest episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin discusses the latest anti-Semitism expressed and excused by the right and the left.  

JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin speaks with former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, author of a new book on media bias about how a partisan and untrustworthy press is not only destroying journalism but driving Americans further apart. Tobin and Fleischer discuss how a biased mainstream legacy media is dominated by liberals who think alike and have lost interest in objective reporting. Instead, they engage in political activism, causing them to fail to understand the rest of the country. This trend has also enabled anti-Semitism since the left-wing acceptance of critical race theory and intersectionality has both undermined faith in the media and prioritized identity politics. Fleischer also makes predictions about the midterms and the 2024 presidential election.

Rabbi Meir Kahane remains a target for those who do not understand him - 32-years after assassination by NYC's W.T.C.-bombing crew

Op-ed by Meir Jolovitz in Israel National News

He was a radical. And anti-establishment And he hated to see the Jew as victim after the bitter memory of a Holocaust when too few acted.

As part of the prepublicity for the most recent of a series of books that have been written during the past thirty-five years about Rabbi Meir Kahane, Internet sites dedicated to Israeli or Jewish affairs offered their readers a new invective, a preview of what I consider an academic diatribe. Three decades after the murder of the controversial rabbi, it seems transparent that the intent was to disparage and disgrace the man and his memory. In doing so, the truth fell victim. The truth about Kahane. And “Kahanism.”

The most recent manifestation of several previous studies of this type was the release of Shaul Magid’s Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical. The Dartmouth College professor, who is also affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, presents us with a 296-page assault on a man whose place in modern Jewish history will long outlive all the attempts at armchair psychiatry.


Magid targets a reading audience which knows neither the real history of radical Jewish politics of the 1960s, 70s and 80s America, nor of the nationalist politics in Israel from 1970 through 1990. His study – of a man and his impact – offers a portrait that works only if one is unaware of the political, social, and psychological dynamics that fueled that generation of political activists – and their movement.

This work, to my mind, contains historical mistakes, non-facts written as facts. Space prohibits a detailed cross-examination which would expose research whose conclusion was already know, but the author describes what he sees as historic facts in such a manner that any reasonable reader will see how they corroborate his thesis.

Rabbi Meir Kahane was a radical. He was anti-establishment. But he also hated to see the Jew as victim. And he employed the bitter memory of a Holocaust that raged when too few acted. He too-often saw the world as black and white, and he responded accordingly, and angrily. He became the resident militant rabbi against an American backdrop whose landscape had become politically-charged. True, True, And true. In the face of societal and political issues affecting Jews, if Rabbi Meir Kahane did not exist – someone needed to invent him.

And, it seems, if one couldn’t find an author to castigate him – someone needed to invent one. Every number of years. Now, we have the most recent iteration with the publication of Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical.

Rabbi Meir Kahane was indeed controversial. Because he needed to be. Because no other American Jewish spokesman gave a damn about the growing anti-Semitism that targeted so many Jews in the streets of New York. And because too few others had addressed the issue of the persecution of Soviet Jewry for fear that they would upset those establishment people who preferred quiet diplomacy. The same diplomacy exercised by Franklin Roosevelt’s court Jews.

The problem that the rabbi confronted then – more than fifty years ago when he established the Jewish Defense League – was the trouble he caused when his actions made noise. But it was a noise that needed to be heard.

Of course Rabbi Meir Kahane wasn’t the only innovator among Jews who stood up, historically, to rebel against anti-Semitism. But he was a voice representing a small minority – of another minority. As others before him had been. His heroes were Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Yosef Trumpledor, Menachem Begin, Shlomo Ben Yosef, Dov Gruner, Meir Feinstein, and their compatriots of the Irgun and Lehi in Eretz Yisrael.

It was their memory that motivated him – this too-small select group of modern Jewish warriors whose names were sadly unknown, or unspoken, in too-many Jewish homes. Certainly not in America. It was not, as Magid’s book would intimate, some psychobabble about the Black Panthers in New York or Chicago. For the rabbi – not yet a radical – it was about Jews standing up to be counted. However few.

But establishment Jewish leadership attacked him – vilified him – because if he was right, then they were wrong.

We recall that Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, in the pre-State days, had denounced Ze’ev Jabotinsky as 'Vladimir Hitler'. Not because Jabotinsky was, as others had argued, history's most misunderstood Zionist. It was because his methods were considered extreme (read: unpopular, and sometimes militarist) by the Jewish establishment. And of course, tragically, history proved him right. Yes, Jabotinsky was right.

In Israel – during this period, the exploits of Rabbi Kahane in America were viewed, in the circles that mattered, as brazen. And heroic.

In the Soviet Union – the exploits of Rabbi Kahane and his JDL “hoodlums” were seen as brazen. And heroic.

In the poor sections of New York – where the ADL was not found – JDL leader Rabbi Kahane was seen by the frightened and forgotten senior citizens who his JDL members protected, as brazen, and heroic.

But, in the opulent offices of the American Jewish leaders – he was seen as brazen; and the enemy.

Donald Trump’s justified critique of American Jews

Writer, Ruthie Blum
(photo: Jewish Journal)
"The response to the former U.S. president’s Truth Social post has been nothing short of a hysterical, purposeful misreading of his words, which were neither threatening nor anti-Semitic."  A column by Ruthie Blum in Israel.
 
The latest brouhaha surrounding former U.S. President Donald Trump pertains to comments he posted on Sunday about—and directed to—American Jews.

“No president has done more for Israel than I have,” he wrote on his platform, Truth Social. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.”

 All true, other than the “surprisingly” part. The majority of Jews in the United States wouldn’t support a Republican if their lives, or Israel’s, depended on it. A befitting quip that circulated in Jerusalem ahead of the 2012 election was that if then-President Barack Obama were to nuke Tel Aviv, the Jewish vote for him might drop to 75%.

Trump continued, “Those living in Israel, though, are a different story; highest approval rating in the world. Could easily be P.M.!”

Israeli Premier Netanyahu with Presidents Obama & Trump
(photos: Mark Israel and Amos ben Gershon)

Again, though characteristically self-congratulatory, what he said is accurate. During his tenure, many adoring Israelis joked about wanting to elect him to the premiership. And with good reason.

He canceled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal with Iran. He moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which he recognized as Israel’s capital. He ceased funding for the terrorist-supporting UNRWA. He shuttered the PLO mission in Washington. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. His State Department removed the word “occupied” from references to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). He designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. And he brokered the historic Abraham Accords.

Still, his political and personal foes were furious that he dared to take credit for being the best friend that Israel ever had in the White House. What really got their bilious juices flowing was his warning that “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel, before it is too late!”

The response has been nothing short of hysterical, and not in the funny sense.

“We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship,” tweeted Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting.”

Greenblatt is actually the one who has no business talking about “shared values” with Israel, whose harshest critics he regularly defends. It is he who could use a hefty dose of “Jewsplaining,” to remind him of what his role is supposed to entail.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America spewed equally vile vitriol. “More unabashed anti-Semitism from GOP leader Donald Trump,” the group tweeted. “His threat to Jewish Americans and his continued use of the anti-Semitic dual loyalty trope fuels hatred against Jews. We will not be threatened by Donald Trump and Jewish Americans will reject GOP bigotry this November.”

This is particularly worthy of note in its idiocy. Trump issued no “threat,” and he certainly wasn’t invoking the “dual loyalty trope.”

On the contrary, he was calling on Jews to be more, not less, invested in Israel’s future and well-being. And he was warning that failure in this regard would have negative consequences for the Jewish state. What about this is wrong, let alone anti-Semitic? The answer is: nothing.

Nevertheless, White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre parroted the false accusation, though “plagiarized” would be a better depiction.

“Donald Trump’s comments were anti-Semitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies,” she told reporters on Monday. “But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremist and anti-Semitic figures. … We need to root out anti-Semitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. We need to call this out. With respect to Israel, our relationship is ironclad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”

Really? Maybe she ought to tell her boss to “root it out” of the Democratic Party and its backers in academia, where it’s been “rearing its ugly head” with a vengeance.

Perhaps, as well, she might want to review the definition of “ironclad.” You know, since the Biden administration refers to Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli military as “both sides” when urging restraint and de-escalation.

This brings to mind comedian Jay Leno’s 2014 barb about then-President Barack Obama knowing “just how unbreakable the U.S.-Israel bond is, since he’s been trying to break it for years.”

It was Trump who turned this around, to the dismay of the very progressive Jewish organizations that have been slandering him for his Truth Social post. They and numerous media outlets have been going so far as to compare his statements to those of rapper/designer Kanye West (a.k.a. Ye), whose recent rants have been filled with unapologetic Jew-hatred with violent rhetoric.

It’s a neat trick, since West is a pro-Trump conservative. But, comparing Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband—who boasted of his intention to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”—to Israel’s proven ally isn’t merely disingenuous. It’s also transparent.

Not only does it serve to highlight the subpoenaing of Trump to testify before the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots; it also constitutes a Hail Mary pass on the part of all those praying to stave off a likely defeat for Democrats in the upcoming midterms. Prominent among the worriers are Jews.

Though Trump is not alone in bemoaning their counter-intuitive ballot-box behavior, he makes the mistake of taking the age-old phenomenon personally. As the late sociologist Milton Himmelfarb famously pointed out in Commentary magazine in 1973, “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.”

Fortunately, there are exceptions to that rule. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), for example, announced on Friday that it will be awarding Trump its Theodor Herzl Medallion. The honor will be bestowed on the “best friend Israel ever had in the White House” during the organization’s gala on Nov. 13 in New York City.

Kudos to the ZOA for giving gratitude where it’s due.

Dr. Charles Jacobs, a pioneer in combating modern-day slavery and fighting anti-Semitism (co-founded The David Project, Boston's CAMERA, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, and now the Jewish Leadership Project) expresses his experience with the Anti-Defamation League and how its leaders co-opted it to service (or cover for) the Democrat Party.

Celebrating Jewish holidays, Sukkot through Simchas Torah, with the Carlebach "Happy Minyan" of Los Angeles

Cantor Yehuda Solomon shakes the lulav in all directions of the sukkah
at Happy Minyan's 2020 Hoshana Rabbah prayer service in L.A.

Sukkot, followed by Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah is the culminating celebration of the High Holiday period. Following the weighty days of personal reflection and repentance on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, these joyous days spent feasting in outdoor booths and dancing with the Torah help us balance the disparate observance of these holidays. This fall harvest festival brings us back to the reality of the outside world, integrating our "new" selves with our "old" lives.

The four species: Willow leaves (aravah), date-palm tree frond
(lulav), myrtle tree bough w/leaves, and citron-tree fruit (etrog)
Hoshana Rabbah is known as the last of the Days of Judgment which began on Rosh Hashana. The Zohar says that while the judgment for the new year is sealed on Yom Kippur, it is not "delivered" until the end of Sukkot (i.e., Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot), during which time one can still alter their verdict and decree for the new year. Chabad.org offers a good description of these holidays.

Consequently, the blessing which Jews give each other on Hoshana Rabbah, פתקא טבא (piska tova or pitka tova), which in Yiddish is "A guten kvitel", or "A good note", is a wish that the verdict will be positive. In this spirit, the cantor wears a kittel as on the High Holidays. Since Hoshana Rabbah blends elements of the High Holy Days, Chol HaMoed, and Yom Tov, in this spirit the cantor, in the Ashkenazic tradition, recites the service using High Holiday, Festival, Weekday, and Sabbath melodies interchangeably. 

The Carlebach Happy Minyan of Los Angeles has relocated from temporary synagogue locations (seen above) to its own, new permanent location in the Pico-Robertson district (with prayers led by Cantor Yehuda Solomon in video above and at end; Jonathan Hoenig (not shown here), and Jeffrey Rohatiner (shown below).


 

At the annual Hoshana Rabah service at L.A.'s Happy (Carlebach) Minyan in 2020, Rabbi Aaron Parry and Cantor Yehuda Solomon teach us their thoughts about Hoshana Raba, the concept of "Mechilah" (which means seeking forgiveness) - and how long beyond Yom Kippur may we still influence our fate for the coming year?

Improve your fate for the New Year 5783 - How to repent & forgive - with other people and with G-d

Rabbi Moshe Parry  teaches us about repentance and forgiveness protocols for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement of the New Year.


Heaven obligates us to pursue forgiveness from others we may have offended- and for those recipients of sincere appeals- to grant forgiveness, wipe the slate clean, and start afresh in the New Year. Just how long do we have to atone in a way which will enhance our fate for the New Year? It doesn't end at Yom Kippur's Neilah prayer.


 

Rabbi Moshe Parry breaks his absence from YouTube to overcome his Bell's and deliver this message for atoning and redeeming ourselves through these acts now.

 

Judaism teaches that we can influence Heaven's forgiveness of our sins for the year though demonstrating charity, repentance, and prayer. These acts can alleviate the severity of His decree for our fate for this Hebrew New Year 5783, which we're only days into.

In "Teshuvah, Tefillah, and Tzedakah: Alleviating the severity of the Decree," in Mark's BlogSpot:

"We are told that the proof text for this central assertion of Unetaneh Tokef comes from a verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14: R. Yudan [said] in the name of R. Leazar: Three things discharge the decree, and they are: Tefillah, Tzedakah, and Teshuvah, And these three are found together in a single verse: “when My people… pray,” – this is tefillah “seek My face,” – this refers to tzedakah, as it says: “and I, with righteousness (tzedek) will grasp Your face,” (Ps 17:15) “and turn from their evil ways,” – this is teshuvah- then, “…I will forgive their sins…” (Midrash Bereshit Rabba 44.)

Rabbi Moshe Parry encourages you (and your family and friends) to donate charitably to sustain the efforts of JewTube.Info, North America's original, Zionistic Jewish video news and information magazine. JewTube, in it's tenth-year, illuminates the quest for Jewish survival and dignity in a world of resurgent anti-Semitism. 



Please don't let the light burn out. Use this charitable opportunity to sustain JooTube's effort by making a one-time or (even better) recurring donation (via the icon in the right margin). May you and your family merit heaven's judgement for a year of good and health!