Hatred of Jews has Reached a New High

It’s called anti-Semitism.

Harvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism. The president, Claudine Gay, told the campus newspaper that she “should have had the presence of mind” to answer differently.

The presidents of leading Ivy League universities seem to be in support of on campus groups calling for a genocide against all Jews.

The exchanges involving Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Dr. Gay and two other university leaders, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T., have thrown three of the country’s most influential colleges into turmoil. On Thursday, a House committee opened an investigation into “the learning environments” on all three campuses, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said the three presidents should leave their posts.

When the hate reaches a fevers pitch there is one place American Jews can go and feel safe. Israel. That is the reason that even Jews who believe Israel attacks on Gaza are too much still support that country.

Anti-Semitism is alive and well in Germany

Wars won do not end hatred!

Just because WWII ended, hatred of Jews didn’t end. Kristallnacht, literally, , literally, “Night of Crystal,” is often referred to as the “Night of Broken Glass.” The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938 in Germany. That was well before the Holocaust. The wave of violence took place throughout Germany as they annexed Austria and areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

This past week a nationwide controversy erupted in Germany over a taboo-breaking rap duo that won one of the country’s most important music industry awards for a best selling album and song that included lyrics that made references to the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Then just three days later German police said that they had launched an investigation after two men wearing Jewish skullcaps were attacked and insulted in Berlin. It was an incident that comes amid concern that anti-Semitism could be on the rise in Germany.

What is really curious is the growing Jewish population in Germany.

When Germany was reunited in 1990, there were 28,000 Jews in the country. Since then, the number has more trebled to 107,000, largely due to an influx from Eastern Europe, after Germany passed the “Quota Law”. Enforced until 2004, this gave those from the former Soviet Union who could prove they were Jewish, or had a Jewish parent, the right to settle. Germany now has now the third largest Jewish population in Western Europe after Britain and France. The New York Times reported on September 27, 2017 that Israelis are also moving to Germany.

Jews must be suffering some kind of amnesia.

The Future of Jews in America

Historically, when a country has economic issues the leadership frequently blames the Jewish population. It is a convenient scape goat that is usually a small part of the total population.

‘Hail Trump’: That’s how a group of white nationalists saluted the November 8 victory of the president-elect this weekend at the annual conference of the National Policy Institute, as seen in an exclusive video filmed by The Atlantic. The disturbing scene came during an after-dinner speech by alt-right leader Richard Spencer, who among other anti-Semitic and racist statements described America as “a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity.” His audience cheered, and many raised their arms in Nazi salutes. Trump has not endorsed these statements, of course, nor has he asked white nationalist groups for their support. But the sentiment is alarming.

Meanwhile Congressman Keith Ellison is the leading candidate to head Democratic National Committee. A growing number of pro-Israel activists and Jewish community figures are expressing concern that Minnesota’s U.S. Rep. Ellison will turn the Democratic Party away from Israel if he is elected party chairman.

While I am not a Zionist I do appreciate the fact that Israel is the only majority Jewish nation in the world. “Hail Trump” frightens me and so does a congressman who has a history of relations with Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam movement. The Jewish News Service reports on Ellison’s relationship with Farrakhan in detail.

My family thinks I am too involved with politics and my fears are unfounded. Sadly history seems to support my fears.

Are boycotts against Israel anti-Semitism or free speech?

Free speech in America means saying what you want to say no matter who is offended. That translates to the KKK and other extremist groups having the right to hold rallies in public places. That results in demonstrations in big cities by groups wanting to express their demands or frustrations.

Thus the above question posted on KPCC, the large audience NPR, FM station, in Los Angeles. following is their explanation of a proposed law in the California legislature. Although the intent might be pleasing to some people, the proposed law strikes me as unconstitutional. At the end of the article on KPCC’s web site there were comments both for and against the law.

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A California state bill that would punish companies participating in the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel recently passed the California state Senate Judiciary Committee.

The controversial movement calls on individuals and companies to boycott Israel until it ends occupying “all Arab lands.” Rather than punish boycotts directly, AB 2844 targets “violations of existing anti-discrimination laws that take place under the pretext of a boycott or other ‘policy’ aimed at ‘any sovereign nation or people recognized by the government of the United States, including, but not limited to, the nation and people of Israel,’” according to a Los Angeles Times editorial. It also requires those seeking state government contracts to certify that they haven’t engaged in discrimination through such a policy.

There is disagreement about the strength of the current bill, as language directly referencing BDS has been removed in favor of more general assertions that reference the existing Unruh Civil Rights Act and California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

This has not mitigated the controversy surrounding the legislation.

Proponents of the bill seek to portray the BDS movement as anti-Semitic. Dillon Hosier, senior political adviser for the nonprofit advocacy organization Israeli-American Nexus, said that it has created an insidious anti-Jewish environment across California.

“Californians are being targeted who have zero connection to the government of Israel,” Hosier said. “What BDS has become is not ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions,’ [but rather] ‘bigotry, discrimination and anti-Semitism.’”

Opponents of the legislation argue the bill violates the First Amendment.

Estee Chandler is a founding member of the Los Angeles Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that seeks to end Israel’s presence in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. She finds the California legislature’s actions against BDS “deeply troubling,” saying she sees what the Legislature is doing as punishing political speech.

“From the start, AB 2844 was introduced to single out, stigmatize and suppress the political speech of Californians who criticized … Israeli and U.S. policies,” Chandler said. “Denying state business to an otherwise qualified contractor based solely on their views about Israel and their participation in a legal boycott … goes beyond government exercising its speech, and it impedes on our constitutional rights.”

AB 2844 passed an initial vote in the Assembly, and last week it passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Next, it heads to a vote in the Appropriations Committee in early August.

Assembly Bill 2844