February 27, 2020

Jewish Student Says She Left CUNY Law School After Being Targeted by Antisemitic Harassment...

for Supporting Israel

Rafaella Gunz — a journalist focusing on LGBT and feminist issues — was studying at the CUNY School of Law when she became a target of pro-Palestinian groups, particularly Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), as a result of her criticism of their attitudes toward Jews and Israel.

Last month, she published an article in The Jewish Journal, titled “Campus Antisemitism Made Me a Zionist,” that detailed her struggle, saying that her Jewish identity had been strengthened as a consequence.

“There were reactions to my article, if you look at the comments on there, basically calling me Islamophobic, calling me racist, a liar, just all these horrible things by my classmates, telling people that are supporting me to shut the f**k up, all these types of things,” she told The Algemeiner in an interview.

Anti-Israel groups on campus then circulated a petition that, Gunz said, did not mention her name, but given that she was the only pro-Israel activist on campus, was unquestionably directed at her personally.

“All the student groups signed it, professors signed it, a bunch of my classmates signed it, so it’s basically saying that if you are anything less than unequivocally supportive of the Palestinian groups, you shouldn’t be at this school,” she noted. “And then I was accused of ‘Zionist violence.’ I don’t know how my words are violent, but there it is.”

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/27/jewish-student-says-she-left-city-university-of-new-york-law-school-after-being-targeted-by-antisemitic-harassment-for-supporting-israel/

I know Rafaella. Attending CUNY Law School was her dream.

February 26, 2020

Uncle Bernie's Anti-Semitism Problem

Democratic presidential front-runner Bernie Sanders announced he will boycott this week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference because of the “bigotry” of leaders it hosts. If Sanders wants to boycott bigotry, he should look closer to home: at his anti-Semitic political cheerleaders.

Last Labor Day weekend, Sanders was the headliner in Houston at the 56th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, where the theme was, “What’s your super power for social good?”

Some misguided “super powers” suggested at the conference for “social good” include actual bigotry laced with anti-Semitism: the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks a “one-state solution” with a “right of return” for Palestinians so they outnumber Jews; the elimination of Israel from "The River to the Sea" as ally Marc Lamont Hill, a professor and author, declares; and violent hate, including a book, “Reliance of the Traveller,” which I bought in the conference bazaar for $39.99, sanctioning jihad as “war against non-Muslims” and “war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians.”

To my chagrin, as someone who voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary, these anti-Semites enjoy growing influence on Sanders, building a disturbing coalition with anti-Israel groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow and Code Pink. Sanders’ supporters say they are “only anti-Zionist,” and Sanders denies his allies are anti-Semitic. But when you cheer a plan to destroy the state of the Jewish people, it is anti-Semitism. Hate of the Jewish state is anti-Semitism.

https://jewishjournal.com/columnist/311085/uncle-bernies-anti-semitism-problem-2/

February 22, 2020

UK left activists attended events with far right antisemites

Former Labour party members have regularly met elements of the far right to discuss and propagate antisemitic conspiracy theories, an undercover investigation has found.

Infiltration of the conspiracy theorist group Keep Talking found that Jeremy Corbyn supporters and confidantes of former Labour MPs have attended meetings addressed by Holocaust deniers.

During one gathering in London last year, suspended Labour supporters heard James Thring, an infamous antisemite linked to the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, speak openly and unchallenged about Holocaust denial.

A covert recording of Thring at the meeting captured him claiming that no deaths were recorded at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, where 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were systematically murdered.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/feb/22/uk-left-activists-at-far-right-events-antisemites-holocaust-deniers

February 21, 2020

Ireland Newly elected Sinn Fein parliamentarian apologizes for antisemitic Tweets.

A newly-elected Sinn Féin parliamentarian has apologised “unreservedly and wholeheartedly” for a string of antisemitic tweets, saying that the remarks were “glib” and “off-the-cuff”.

Réada Cronin, 46, who was elected to represent Kildare North in the Dáil following the Irish general election on February 8, was found to have made a string of offensive tweets between 2012 and 2015.

The messages included comparing Israeli embassy staff to monkeys, alleging that Jeremy Corbyn had been targeted by Mossad, and retweeting a post saying that Hitler was a pawn of a Rothschild-owned bank.

https://www.thejc.com/news/world/new-sinn-f%C3%A9in-parliamentarian-apologises-after-comparing-israeli-embassy-staff-to-monkeys-1.497043

To those who still say that anti-Zionism isn't antisemitism F*ck you.

We're witnessing the beginning of a worldwide pogrom against Jews.

February 13, 2020

New words list January 2020 Oxford Dictionary: Jew York, Jewtown, Jew-free, Jew joke...

Jew-free in Jew, n.: “characterized by the absence of Jewish people.”

Jew joke in Jew, n.: “a joke making fun of Jewish people; cf. Jewish joke n. at Jewish adj. compounds .”

Jew town, n.: “A name for: an area inhabited predominantly by Jewish people. In later use, esp. such an area within a larger urban environment; a neighbourhood with…”

Jew York, n.: “A name for: New York.”

Jew-like in Jew, n.: “(a) adv. in a manner (stereotypically) regarded as characteristic of a Jewish person; (b) adj. (stereotypically) characteristic of a Jewish person.”

https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-january-2020

February 13, 2020

Oxford English Dictionary updates definition of 'Yid' Antisemitism has been normalized.

A debate has broken out following the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) decision to expand its definition of the word “Yid”.

The word is typically used to refer to both Jewish people – albeit one that many find offensive – and supporters of Tottenham Football Club.

Now, the OED definition has been updated to include the latter meaning, “a supporter of or player for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club".

However, the move has been met with opposition – including from the football club in question.

https://sports.yahoo.com/yid-oxford-english-dictionary-tottenham-update-102157604.html

February 4, 2020

Iowa caucuses turnout: Entrance poll shows dip in first-timers

Iowa's presidential caucuses were expected to draw record turnout Monday, but early data from the NBC News entrance poll show a big dip in participants attending a Democratic caucus for the first time.

The entrance poll showed just about a third of voters — 35 percent — caucusing this year are first-timers, a lower level than in 2016, when first-timers made up 44 percent of the Hawkeye State's Democratic caucusgoers.

And this year's level of new participants is well shy of that in 2008, when a whopping 57 percent of Democrats said they had never caucused before.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/iowa-caucuses-turnout-entrance-poll-shows-dip-first-timers-n1129381