November 2, 2018

Anti-Semitism Is a Conspiracy Theory

The mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill is believed to be the worst single attack on American Jews in our history. That’s grim—it’s 2018, a hundred years after the lynching of Leo Frank and 75 after the near extermination in Europe. Worse is the foreboding that the pulse of anti-Semitism—the harassment and violence that have begun again in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, and escalated to mass murder in France, Belgium, and Denmark—have begun to reverberate here. As Jews continually appear as the most frequent targets of religious hate crimes, the slaughter in Squirrel Hill seems to punctuate a foregone conclusion.

To be sure, we’ve seen flares—in L.A. in 1999, Seattle in 2006, and Kansas in 2014. The enemies of liberal democracy, who seek to destroy it in a revolutionary conflagration, always feel an urgency and ecstasy in purging the Jews. Yet with the accelerating entropy of our politics under Donald Trump—an American president who makes speeches about corrupt “globalists” who put America second—for many Squirrel Hill feels different. Indeed, it is just one of three attempted or successful white-supremacist mass murders in the last two weeks.

One consequence of the increase in militancy and growing sense of peril is that it seems to be waking people up to the fact that anti-Semitism is not the same as other forms of racial or religious bigotry. Even in a country where the apogee of exploitative racism—slavery, of African-Americans—eclipses our historical awareness of the hysterical hatreds of Europe, it has become difficult to miss that anti-Semitism is something else. It is a racist conspiracy theory, and that drives it to a very different end—the salvationist violence of mass murder and genocide.

There is a sudden interest in the conspiratorial quality of anti-Jewishness among people in the center and on the left as they watch the growing obsession on the right with George Soros and “white genocide.” But becoming more aware of conspiracism is not the same as understanding it. “Anti-semitism [sic] is the source code for almost every form of religious and racial bigotry,” announced Huffington Post’s editor in chief, Lydia Polgreen, in a heartfelt tweet. “It’s the hideous seed from which hatred grows.” Poignant, but wrong. While all forms of racism share a common ancestor in xenophobia, anti-Semitism evolved in a religious struggle for survival and has followed a distinct path.

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November 2, 2018

How the rise of conspiracy theory politics emboldens anti-Semitism

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Anti-Semitism is an ancient form of hate, stretching back for millennia and leaving ghettos, pogroms, and mass industrialized murder in its wake. And the language of the anti-Semitism of the Wannsee Conference is being repeated today, on 4chan and by far-right mayoral candidates alike.

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Anti-Semitism in America is a form of hate, but its motivations aren’t identical to other forms of prejudice.

For example, while anti-black racism or white supremacy revolve around on the (wrong) idea that black people or nonwhites are inferior, anti-Semitism, as practiced by many of its adherents today from a number of political and social backgrounds, is based on the idea that Jewish people have too much power, or even that Jewish people are secretly in charge — of the government, of culture, of the world in its entirety.

I spoke with Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and an expert on far-right white supremacist organizations. “In general, racism against people of color tends to denigrate their abilities or ascribe criminality to them,” Beirich told me. “With Jewish people, it is more often the case that they are seen as nefarious connivers who engage in activities to harm the majority population, meaning white people, by bringing in nonwhite immigrants or refugees.”

The idea that Jewish people, or Jews in general, hold secret power over everyone else is widespread among anti-Semites. Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan (himself deeply anti-Semitic) put his views bluntly in February of this year: “The Jews have control over those agencies of government. When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.” (Anti-Semitism on the left has its own very worrying history and legacy.)

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November 1, 2018

Pittsburgh shooting: Jewish medics helped to save synagogue gunman's life

Robert Bowers was shouting about 'killing Jewish people' while being treated by the doctors

Jewish doctors and medical staff helped to save the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s life, it has been revealed.

Eleven people were killed and six others wounded after a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Jewish neighbourhood of Squirrel Hill on Saturday.

Authorities made clear they believed the attack was motivated by religious hatred and 46-year-old Robert Bowers has been charged in connection with the incident.

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November 1, 2018

Pittsburgh: Hero Dr Jerry Rabinowitz died rushing into gunfire at synagogue to help the wounded

Dr Jerry Rabinowitz, one of the victims in a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue over the weekend, has been hailed for helping the wounded in his final moments.

The 66-year-old doctor is one of 11 people killed in an apparent antisemitic attack targeting the Tree of Life, a synagogue located in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood. As a shooter opened fire on the community’s weekly Saturday service, he reportedly rushed to help those injured, according to his nephew, Avisahi Ostrin, who wrote about the tragedy in a public Facebook post.

“In addition to being the president of the congregation, he was a doctor, a healer,” Mr Ostrin wrote on Sunday. “I just learned a short while ago that although the shooter travelled within the building looking for victims, Uncle Jerry wasn’t killed in the basement of the building where the congregation was Davening [praying], he was shot outside the room. Why? Because when he heard shots he ran outside to try and see if anyone was hurt and needed a doctor.”

He added, “That was Uncle Jerry, that’s just what he did.”

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October 31, 2018

#ShowUpForShabbat: Westboro Baptist Church is planning to do so.

In another thread, someone asked what the hatemongers of Westboro (WBC) were "up to" given the recent murder of 11 Jews. I thought the same and looked into it. I found they are taking the Twitter hashtag "#ShowUpForShabbat" to "heart" and are planning to protest the B'Nai Judah Synagogue in Overland Park, KS this Saturday. Here are excerpts from their flier (I will not link to the source, but if you need to see it all or verify I am telling the truth, please head over to "G-d Hates Fags" dot com (no - in the first word)):

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent the shooter to the deceitfully-named Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday, October 27, 2018. As this world of idolaters inflames their passions about how they will fix the blame for this terrifying, though all too common, event, “wisdom (of God’s servants will cry) without; she [will utter] her voice in the streets” (Proverbs 1:20).

So, we will stand in your streets and give the Jews of America plain words about the promise God pronounced through His prophets that you have a desolate house, because of your sins. Further, that you will all be brought to Israel and (eventually) Jerusalem from all points of the globe – where God will slaughter all of the Jewish race, except for 144,000 who will be granted the gift of repentance. We, like Christ, weep at the contemplation of it; yet we must warn you, so that you will be bound by the knowledge and peradventure there may be some of God’s elect Jews dwelling among you. Thus, we will #ShowUpForShabbat with glorious words from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
#ShowUpForShabbat – REPENT OR PERISH

October 29, 2018

They Died As They Prayed In The Place That Bound Them Together (Profiles of 6 victims)

One was a sprightly 97-year-old who was a regular sight walking around her Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Another was a big hearted retired accountant who did folks’ tax returns for free — and helped collect clothes for a black church after Hurricane Florence struck.

Two were grown brothers who were mentally challenged and had a special bond few siblings could boast of.

Another was a synagogue men’s club president who was praying in the same sanctuary where his grandson was circumcised just a few months ago.


Joyce Fienberg Became Regular Presence In Synagogue After Husband’s Death

97-Year-Old Rose Mallinger Never Missed Synagogue

Melvin Wax Was ‘Pure Soul’ Who Was First In Line To Help Others

Daniel Stein Murdered In The Same Room Where His Grandson Was Circumcised

Brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bound Together By Love

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October 24, 2018

(Jewish Group) Fact: Jews support Democrats and Dems support Israel

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

In just two weeks, Americans head to the polls in what is predicted to be one of the closest midterm elections in history. Many of the races that will determine which party controls Congress will be decided by an extremely small percentage of the vote. In light of this political reality, all eyes are on key constituencies in critical states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey where the Jewish community plays an outsized role. This is because Jewish voters show up to the polls and have historically identified with Democrats by more than 20 points than the American electorate as a whole.

As some question whether Jews will continue to support Democrats this election cycle, the answer is unequivocally and empirically “yes.” According to a recent non-partisan national poll of the Jewish electorate, Jews remain overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats and see themselves and the Democratic Party as pro-Israel. Political affiliation among the Jewish electorate continues to be driven by values, and Trump’s lack of a moral compass is driving Jewish voters straight to the polls in November, where they will vote for Democrats.

“The silence of Republicans has been deafening in the face of rising anti-Semitism, and they have done nothing to stop neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and white supremacists from running for office as Republicans."

The organization with which we are affiliated, the Jewish Democratic Council of America, has publicly expressed concern about three Democratic candidates’ positions on Israel. At the same time, there are 467 Democratic candidates running for Congress this cycle, substantially all of whom share our support for a strong US-Israel relationship. The notion that a small number of obscure and outlying views on Israel may influence mainstream Democratic positions in Congress or Jewish votes in the midterms is simply false. Support for the US-Israel relationship remains incredibly strong among Democrats, and Israel remains a priority for Jewish voters. But don’t take our word for it.

National polling conducted earlier this month by the Mellman Group – sponsored by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization – found that 74% of Jewish voters will vote for Democratic candidates in the midterms. This is higher than the total number of Jews who identified themselves as Democrats (68%), demonstrating that some support for Democratic candidates from Jewish voters will come from Independents or even Republicans. Moreover, party identification with Democrats is over 20 points higher in the Jewish community than among the American electorate generally. Jewish voters are Democrats, and that’s not changing.

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How's that for some fucking truth!

October 14, 2018

There's Been a George Soros for Every Era of Anti-Semitic Panic

It’s been largely forgotten, but when Russian military intelligence created online cutouts in 2016 to manipulate the American electorate, the Democratic Party wasn’t its only target.

The most prominent of those fake digital identities was Guccifer 2.0, which took credit for hacking the Democratic National Committee and then provided the pilfered information to WikiLeaks. The other was called DCLeaks. On Aug. 29, 2016, two months after the DNC hack became public, DCLeaks’ now-banned Twitter account told its followers to check out another of its projects: “Find Soros files on soros.dcleaks.com.”

Visitors to the now-shuttered site could find purported documents from the billionaire philanthropist’s Open Society Foundations, which promote liberal values and democratization. They had file names like “public health program access to medicine” and “youth exchange my city real world.” But before those curious about the leaks got there, the Russians wanted to put George Soros in a particular context.

The homepage displayed a photo illustration of a smug-looking Soros in the midst of four scenes of street chaos whose apparent perpetrators were conspicuously nonwhite. They were taken from the Ferguson, Missouri, protests in 2014, the birthplace—to the consternation of many white Americans whom the Kremlin sought to cultivate—of the contemporary civil rights movement. In both the image and the accompanying text, the Russians portrayed Soros as the puppet master.

“Soros is named as the architect and sponsor of almost every revolution and coup around the world for the last 25 years. Thanks to him and his puppets USA is thought to be a vampire, not a lighthouse of freedom and democracy,” the website proclaimed. The “oligarch” who sired the U.S. vampire, and whose “slaves spill blood of millions and millions people just to make him even more rich” [sic], had a particular background the Russians highlighted in the very first sentence: Soros is “of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry and holds dual citizenship.”

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October 12, 2018

LGBTQ History: Were Gay Concentration Camp Prisoners 'Put Back in Prison' After World War II?

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Both claims made in the post are accurate, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:


The men arrested for being gay were targeted under a revised version of a 19th century statute, Paragraph 175, which was expanded to categorize homosexuality as a crime of “indecency.” But even though the U.S. and their allies defeated the Nazi regime, the law remained in effect after World War II, as the Holocaust Memorial museum’s exhibit on the regime’s anti-gay persecution states:


Paragraph 175 was not repealed in full, however, until 1994. On 22 March 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet approved a bill that overturned convictions for gay men which had carried out under Paragraph 175 between 1949 and 1969 and also provided compensation for surviving victims.

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October 12, 2018

Two decades after Matthew Shepard's death, LGBTQ community still battles hate violence

Twenty years ago, gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard died after being brutally beaten on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. His mother, Judy Shepard, has never stopped missing him.

“I miss talking to him, arguing with him — his big, bright smile, his great hugs,” Judy Shepard told NBC News.

Six days before his death, Matthew Shepard's assailants — Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson — picked him up at a bar, drove him to the edge of town, tied him to a fence and brutally beat him. Eighteen hours later, a passerby discovered Shepard barely alive. He was taken to a Colorado hospital where he later died on October 12. Russell and McKinney were sentenced to life in prison.

The homophobic attack of Matthew Shepard was a watershed moment for LGBTQ activism. Advocates staged protests and candle light vigils across the U.S. Activists were especially enraged that McKinney, who alleged Shepard made sexual advances toward him, claimed “gay panic” in his defense — a defense that is still legal in most states.



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Visit: The Matthew Shepard Foundation




Required to move it from LBN.

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Gay Man Dies From Attack, Fanning Outrage and Debate
By JAMES BROOKEOCT. 13, 1998

Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was kidnapped, robbed and pistol-whipped, died here today, five days after he was rescued from a Wyoming ranch where he had been left tied to a fence for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures.

His death, announced at the Poudre Valley Hospital here, fanned the outrage that followed word of the attack, spawning vigils, producing calls for Federal hate-crimes legislation from President Clinton and fueling debates over such laws in a host of Western states, including Wyoming, that have resisted them.

In places from Denver to the University of Maryland, people turned out to mourn the soft-spoken 21-year-old who became an overnight symbol of deadly violence against gay people after he was found dangling from the fence by a passerby.

Russell A. Henderson, 21, and Aaron J. McKinney, 22, were charged with attempted murder and are expected to face first-degree murder charges that could bring the death penalty. Their girlfriends, Chasity V. Pasley, 20, and Kristen L. Price, 18, were charged as accessories.

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