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Behind the Aegis
Behind the Aegis's Journal
Behind the Aegis's Journal
January 16, 2018
(Jewish Group) Racist, antisemitic fliers dropped in Virginia neighborhood before MLK Day
Racist and antisemitic fliers published by the Ku Klux Klan were delivered in a Virginia neighborhood.
The fliers were placed in plastic baggies and held down with a piece of candy on the doorsteps of homes in Leesburg, Virginia over the weekend.
One of the fliers reads “Join the United States Army and Fight for Israel.” The caricature shows an American soldier standing in front of a balding, bulbous nosed man in plaid shorts holding an Israeli flag. It also accuses Jews of controlling the media and provides a list of “high ranking Jews who control the media.”
Another flier reads “On Martin Luther King Day you are honoring a Communist alcoholic pervert.” The flier is addressed to Loyal White Knights and provides a web address for a KKK website.
more...
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Oh my. Maybe someone can 'splain to us how these fliers aren't anti-Semitic because they are "about Israel" and we don't know "the motivations" of those who distributed the fliers. 
January 15, 2018
Confronting and defeating a rising wave of anti-Semitism and white nationalism in America begins with local action, a renowned Northwest civil rights leader said.
“It is time for us all to stand up,” Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, said Sunday.
About 175 people attended Ward’s talk — a special event timed to mark the holiday celebrating what would have been the 89th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
King, widely remembered as the most influential civil rights leader of the 20th century, was killed by an assassin on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
more...
(Jewish Group) Civil rights leader at Eugene talk: It is time to stand against bigotry in all its fo
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)Confronting and defeating a rising wave of anti-Semitism and white nationalism in America begins with local action, a renowned Northwest civil rights leader said.
“It is time for us all to stand up,” Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, said Sunday.
About 175 people attended Ward’s talk — a special event timed to mark the holiday celebrating what would have been the 89th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
King, widely remembered as the most influential civil rights leader of the 20th century, was killed by an assassin on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
more...
January 15, 2018
To all appearances, Michael Chikindas was a reasonably successful professor in the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, but that was before the website Israellycool.com discovered that his Facebook page was plastered with anti-Semitic cartoons.
The caricatures — with hook noses, leering grins and ultra-Orthodox religious clothing — were sometimes accompanied by “anti-Zionist” messages, but Chikindas also promoted conspiracy theories ranging from sickeningly familiar to sickeningly inventive. Along with the usual Holocaust denial, Chikindas asserted that Israelis were behind the 9/11 attacks and, more creatively, that Jews had perpetrated the Armenian Genocide.
University President Robert Barchi initially took a hands-off approach. When questioned about Chikindas at a campus town hall meeting, Barchi said, “You may not like what the guy says, but you have to like the fact that he can say it.”
As protests mounted at the New Jersey university, Barchi issued a far stronger statement, condemning Chikindas’ imagery as “bigoted, discriminatory and anti-Semitic material” that “perpetuated toxic stereotypes.” Barchi announced that Chikindas would be barred from teaching required courses and removed from his position as director of the Center for Digestive Health. "No Rutgers student will be required to take a course that he teaches,” Barchi explained, and "No Rutgers employee will be required to work in an administrative unit that he heads."
---snip---
According to Wilson (and other absolutists), academic freedom means that a professor cannot be sanctioned, or even reassigned, for claiming that "gay men have a propensity to molest children," or "Muslims are a terrorist threat," or "blacks are less intelligent than whites on average." If we allow “personal opinions to be the basis of penalties, almost any controversial professor could be punished."
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(Jewish Group) How do we curb racism and anti-Semitism and protect free speech?
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!)To all appearances, Michael Chikindas was a reasonably successful professor in the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University, but that was before the website Israellycool.com discovered that his Facebook page was plastered with anti-Semitic cartoons.
The caricatures — with hook noses, leering grins and ultra-Orthodox religious clothing — were sometimes accompanied by “anti-Zionist” messages, but Chikindas also promoted conspiracy theories ranging from sickeningly familiar to sickeningly inventive. Along with the usual Holocaust denial, Chikindas asserted that Israelis were behind the 9/11 attacks and, more creatively, that Jews had perpetrated the Armenian Genocide.
University President Robert Barchi initially took a hands-off approach. When questioned about Chikindas at a campus town hall meeting, Barchi said, “You may not like what the guy says, but you have to like the fact that he can say it.”
As protests mounted at the New Jersey university, Barchi issued a far stronger statement, condemning Chikindas’ imagery as “bigoted, discriminatory and anti-Semitic material” that “perpetuated toxic stereotypes.” Barchi announced that Chikindas would be barred from teaching required courses and removed from his position as director of the Center for Digestive Health. "No Rutgers student will be required to take a course that he teaches,” Barchi explained, and "No Rutgers employee will be required to work in an administrative unit that he heads."
---snip---
According to Wilson (and other absolutists), academic freedom means that a professor cannot be sanctioned, or even reassigned, for claiming that "gay men have a propensity to molest children," or "Muslims are a terrorist threat," or "blacks are less intelligent than whites on average." If we allow “personal opinions to be the basis of penalties, almost any controversial professor could be punished."
more...
January 11, 2018
An incredible court ruling just ordered 16 countries to make same-sex marriage legal
A landmark court ruling has ordered 16 new countries to make same-sex marriage legal.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights reached a decision today on a marriage equality petition submitted two years ago by Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solis.
20 countries agreed to follow the court’s rulings when they signed the American Convention on Human Rights, including 16 which have not yet legalised same-sex marriage.
These countries are Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname.
more...
Slowly countries come into the 21st century! 
January 11, 2018
On the night of July 16, 1918, Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, was murdered with his wife and five children in a basement in Yekaterinburg, where they had been detained by the Bolsheviks for four months. On orders from Moscow, they were shot and bayoneted, and their mutilated bodies were set afire.
That much has been generally agreed on, based on overwhelming evidence gathered by numerous experts. Yet the Russian Orthodox Church continues to pose more questions, hinting at the darkest of conspiracies: Were the remains that were later exhumed really those of the imperial family? If not, how many were murdered, and where were they buried?
Late last year, church officials added another twist with dark implications, suggesting that the execution of the Romanovs was “a ritual murder” — a phrase evoking calumnies directed against Russia’s Jews as part of their persecution in czarist times.
Now those words have come from Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, during a speech on Nov. 27 at a church-sponsored conference convened to re-examine the circumstances of the Romanovs’ murder. Sitting next to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the church, the bishop insisted that his claim was shared by many members of a committee that has been investigating the czar’s murder since 2015. A representative of the President’s Investigative Committee, the government’s top crime agency, quickly agreed to seek out more expert opinions and “to conduct a psychological and historical analysis” of the matter.
The incident could have been dismissed as a fantasy from some anti-Semitic members of the church who have close links to ultraright Russian groups. But Bishop Tikhon is no ordinary churchman. Besides being a top aide of Patriarch Kirill, he is widely thought to be a spiritual adviser to President Vladimir V. Putin. And the suggestion of a ritual murder is so laden with traditional anti-Semitism that the next day, the spokesman for the Federation of Russia’s Jewish Communities, Borukh Gorin, said it was reminiscent of “the darkest ages.”
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Is this really surprising, especially given the use of anti-Semitism here? What is old, is new again.
(Jewish Group) Reviving Old Lies to Unite a New Russia
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)On the night of July 16, 1918, Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, was murdered with his wife and five children in a basement in Yekaterinburg, where they had been detained by the Bolsheviks for four months. On orders from Moscow, they were shot and bayoneted, and their mutilated bodies were set afire.
That much has been generally agreed on, based on overwhelming evidence gathered by numerous experts. Yet the Russian Orthodox Church continues to pose more questions, hinting at the darkest of conspiracies: Were the remains that were later exhumed really those of the imperial family? If not, how many were murdered, and where were they buried?
Late last year, church officials added another twist with dark implications, suggesting that the execution of the Romanovs was “a ritual murder” — a phrase evoking calumnies directed against Russia’s Jews as part of their persecution in czarist times.
Now those words have come from Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, during a speech on Nov. 27 at a church-sponsored conference convened to re-examine the circumstances of the Romanovs’ murder. Sitting next to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the church, the bishop insisted that his claim was shared by many members of a committee that has been investigating the czar’s murder since 2015. A representative of the President’s Investigative Committee, the government’s top crime agency, quickly agreed to seek out more expert opinions and “to conduct a psychological and historical analysis” of the matter.
The incident could have been dismissed as a fantasy from some anti-Semitic members of the church who have close links to ultraright Russian groups. But Bishop Tikhon is no ordinary churchman. Besides being a top aide of Patriarch Kirill, he is widely thought to be a spiritual adviser to President Vladimir V. Putin. And the suggestion of a ritual murder is so laden with traditional anti-Semitism that the next day, the spokesman for the Federation of Russia’s Jewish Communities, Borukh Gorin, said it was reminiscent of “the darkest ages.”
more...
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Is this really surprising, especially given the use of anti-Semitism here? What is old, is new again.
January 11, 2018
Alarmed by displays of anti-Semitism among new immigrants to Germany, a German politician has offered a novel idea that appears to be gaining traction: required visits to Nazi concentration camp memorials.
The idea, proposed by Sawsan Chebli, a Berlin state legislator of Palestinian heritage, received a significant boost on Wednesday when the leaders of Germany’s Central Council of Jews and the far larger World Jewish Congress agreed with her.
“People who have fled to us who have themselves had to escape or been expelled can develop empathy in such memorials,” the council’s president, Josef Schuster, told Deutschlandfunk radio.
The World Jewish Congress, a leading advocacy organization that represents Jewish communities in 100 countries, also welcomed the idea.
“This proposal is an encouraging and effective method of educating people of all backgrounds about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish population of Europe and the dangers such hatred can yield,” Ronald S. Lauder, the organization’s president, said in an emailed response to a request for comment.
“More than any other country, Germany has faced up to the crimes of its past in an honest and straightforward way, and has made it clear at the highest levels of government that the memory of the Holocaust must never be forgotten or diminished,” Mr. Lauder said.
more...
(Jewish Group) German Idea to Fight Anti-Semitism: Make Immigrants Tour Concentration Camps
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)Alarmed by displays of anti-Semitism among new immigrants to Germany, a German politician has offered a novel idea that appears to be gaining traction: required visits to Nazi concentration camp memorials.
The idea, proposed by Sawsan Chebli, a Berlin state legislator of Palestinian heritage, received a significant boost on Wednesday when the leaders of Germany’s Central Council of Jews and the far larger World Jewish Congress agreed with her.
“People who have fled to us who have themselves had to escape or been expelled can develop empathy in such memorials,” the council’s president, Josef Schuster, told Deutschlandfunk radio.
The World Jewish Congress, a leading advocacy organization that represents Jewish communities in 100 countries, also welcomed the idea.
“This proposal is an encouraging and effective method of educating people of all backgrounds about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the entire Jewish population of Europe and the dangers such hatred can yield,” Ronald S. Lauder, the organization’s president, said in an emailed response to a request for comment.
“More than any other country, Germany has faced up to the crimes of its past in an honest and straightforward way, and has made it clear at the highest levels of government that the memory of the Holocaust must never be forgotten or diminished,” Mr. Lauder said.
more...
January 11, 2018
On Sunday, the Golden Globes for best TV comedy series and best actress in a comedy or musical went to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon’s new show about a young mother who becomes a stand-up comedian after her husband walks out on her.
Maisel is a pun on mazel, the Hebrew word for luck, which when joined to tov (good) is what you say to congratulate someone on an achievement. Two Golden Globes? Mazel tov!
The show, set in Manhattan in 1958, is itself a congratulatory celebration of Jewish success in post-World War II America. Miriam (aka Midge) Maisel, played brilliantly by Rachel Brosnahan, is the daughter of a Columbia math professor who works on the side for Bell Labs. Her father-in-law, up from Brooklyn, owns a successful clothing factory.
(There’s a sly flashback to a scene from Midge’s wedding in which four clearly professional dancers entertain the crowd with Old Country-inspired numbers. Midge delights her new husband by admitting that she’s hired them from The Pajama Game, the Broadway musical about a union campaign for higher wages at a Garment District pajama factory.)
In Protestant-Catholic-Jew (1955), Will Herberg famously argued that while ethnic differences were disappearing in America, religion had “become the differentiating element and the context of self-identification and social location.” Without a doubt, Midge’s synagogue-going community fits that bill.
They hang together and don’t want their children to marry outside the faith, even as they embrace American society and culture. And in New York City, the only place in America where Protestants, Catholics and Jews exist on demographically equal terms, they can have it all.
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Great show! Well worth a binge!
(Jewish Group) Mazel tov, Mrs. Maisel
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)On Sunday, the Golden Globes for best TV comedy series and best actress in a comedy or musical went to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon’s new show about a young mother who becomes a stand-up comedian after her husband walks out on her.
Maisel is a pun on mazel, the Hebrew word for luck, which when joined to tov (good) is what you say to congratulate someone on an achievement. Two Golden Globes? Mazel tov!
The show, set in Manhattan in 1958, is itself a congratulatory celebration of Jewish success in post-World War II America. Miriam (aka Midge) Maisel, played brilliantly by Rachel Brosnahan, is the daughter of a Columbia math professor who works on the side for Bell Labs. Her father-in-law, up from Brooklyn, owns a successful clothing factory.
(There’s a sly flashback to a scene from Midge’s wedding in which four clearly professional dancers entertain the crowd with Old Country-inspired numbers. Midge delights her new husband by admitting that she’s hired them from The Pajama Game, the Broadway musical about a union campaign for higher wages at a Garment District pajama factory.)
In Protestant-Catholic-Jew (1955), Will Herberg famously argued that while ethnic differences were disappearing in America, religion had “become the differentiating element and the context of self-identification and social location.” Without a doubt, Midge’s synagogue-going community fits that bill.
They hang together and don’t want their children to marry outside the faith, even as they embrace American society and culture. And in New York City, the only place in America where Protestants, Catholics and Jews exist on demographically equal terms, they can have it all.
MORE...
-----
Great show! Well worth a binge!
January 11, 2018
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Alex Borstein: ‘My batmitzvah was my only profitable show!’
Whether it’s turning up at a comedy club with freshly-cooked brisket, drowning sorrows with a bottle of Palwin No. 10 or joking about “shrimp in the egg rolls” at the wedding banquet, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel never fails to deliver hemische humour in every scene.
This week the punchy Amazon show from Gilmore Girls’ creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer husband Daniel Palladino about an America-Jewish housewife in the 1950s picked up a Golden Globe for best television comedy.
Rachel Brosnahan, who also took home the best actress award for a television comedy, stars as the eponymous Miriam “Midge” Maisel, an upper-middle-class New Yorker who seemingly has it all – until her failed stand-up comic husband Joel (Michael Zegen) unexpectedly dumps her just hours before Yom Kippur.
Embarking on a drunken rampage, she heads down to Greenwich Village and spontaneously takes the stage at her husband’s comedy club. She leaves nothing unsaid during her ribald act – or unseen as she reveals her breasts – and soon has the audience howling in their seats.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel features a stellar supporting cast, including Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle and Kevin Pollak, as well as actress Alex Borstein, who plays Midge’s misanthropic manager Susie Myerson.
more...
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If you haven't seen this show, WATCH IT! Besides being funny, it is a nice portrayal of Jews without being tied to the Holocaust or Israel. It is refreshing to see Jewish characters who are Jewish, and not in a caricature way.
(Jewish Group) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Alex Borstein: My batmitzvah was my only profitable s
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Alex Borstein: ‘My batmitzvah was my only profitable show!’
Whether it’s turning up at a comedy club with freshly-cooked brisket, drowning sorrows with a bottle of Palwin No. 10 or joking about “shrimp in the egg rolls” at the wedding banquet, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel never fails to deliver hemische humour in every scene.
This week the punchy Amazon show from Gilmore Girls’ creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer husband Daniel Palladino about an America-Jewish housewife in the 1950s picked up a Golden Globe for best television comedy.
Rachel Brosnahan, who also took home the best actress award for a television comedy, stars as the eponymous Miriam “Midge” Maisel, an upper-middle-class New Yorker who seemingly has it all – until her failed stand-up comic husband Joel (Michael Zegen) unexpectedly dumps her just hours before Yom Kippur.
Embarking on a drunken rampage, she heads down to Greenwich Village and spontaneously takes the stage at her husband’s comedy club. She leaves nothing unsaid during her ribald act – or unseen as she reveals her breasts – and soon has the audience howling in their seats.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel features a stellar supporting cast, including Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle and Kevin Pollak, as well as actress Alex Borstein, who plays Midge’s misanthropic manager Susie Myerson.
more...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you haven't seen this show, WATCH IT! Besides being funny, it is a nice portrayal of Jews without being tied to the Holocaust or Israel. It is refreshing to see Jewish characters who are Jewish, and not in a caricature way.
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