July 21, 2020

French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon accuses Jews of responsibility for Jesus's death

far-left French politician accused Jews of deicide, or being responsible for the death of Jesus, during a television interview.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of the democratic socialist La France Insoumise, or Unsubmissive France party, and a member of the National Assembly, made the remarks on Thursday in an interview on the French BFM-RTL TV news channel.

Asked if the French police were supposed to stand back in the face of violent protest, Melenchon responded that they needed to “stay put like Jesus on the cross without reacting.” He added that “I don’t know if Jesus was on a cross, but he was apparently put there by his own people,” he said, meaning Jews.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/french-far-left-leader-accuses-jews-of-responsibility-for-jesuss-death/

March 19, 2020

Rapper sparks antisemitism outcry with Rothschild, 'synagogue of Satan' lyrics

US rapper and producer Jay Electronica — a friend of Louis Farrakhan — released his debut album on Friday and it’s already causing controversy.

On the “Ghost of Soulja Slim” track, about a late rapper friend, Electronica raps in the second verse:

And I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang for my dollar
The synagogue of Satan want me to hang by my collar

The song also begins with audio from a speech by Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam who has called Jews “satanic” (among other things) in the past. Electronica is a longtime member of the Nation of Islam, and he and Farrakhan are close — despite the fact that his raps are full of profanity, which is shunned by the Nation. Farrakhan has defended Electronica’s profanity in the past.

Jay-Z, who earned some words of caution from the Anti-Defamation League for one of his own rap lines in 2017, is featured on the track and heavily throughout the album titled “A Written Testimony.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/rapper-sparks-anti-semitism-outcry-with-rothschild-synagogue-of-satan-lyrics/

March 17, 2020

Don't Expect Bernie To Drop Out Just Yet

<snipped>

I want the senator to stay in,” Nina Turner, a national co-chair of the Sanders campaign, told the New York Times on Monday. “I think other voters have a right to have a choice. This is not a coronation. We know what happened last time in 2016—it gave us Donald J. Trump.”

But some in Sanders’ camp have urged him to stay in the race because they still see a potential avenue to victory. “I don’t think anyone can predict for sure what’s going to happen between now and the end of this primary contest,” Charles Chamberlain, chairman of the Democracy for America political action committee, told Politico, suggesting Sanders could nab the nomination at a brokered convention should neither candidate reach the delegate threshold outright. “There’s plenty of time, plenty of delegates left, and this game can change at any minute.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/dont-expect-bernie-to-drop-out-just-yet

Bern it Down part II?

March 4, 2020

Near site of landmark march, Philadelphia museum celebrates Jewish role in promoting gay rights

On July 4, 1965, 40 people gathered outside this city’s Independence Hall for the first Annual Reminder demonstration on behalf of civil rights for gays.

For this weekend’s 50-year commemoration, thousands attended a ceremony that included a reenactment of the initial protest.

The milestone, which comes barely a week after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling affirming same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, is being marked by several Philadelphia museums, including the National Museum of American Jewish History across the street from Independence Hall. When the court ruling was announced on the morning of June 26, the museum waived all admission fees in celebration.

“Mazel tov,” proclaimed a sign on the building’s Market Street facade.

"Jews, who are only a very small percentage of the American public, have been very engaged in civil rights struggles in this country,” said Marc Silber, a Philadelphian who created the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, a museum of gay history in Florida. “It makes perfect sense that Jewish gays and lesbians were at the forefront. I’m a gay man. Of course I take pride in that.”

https://www.jta.org/2015/07/05/united-states/near-site-of-landmark-march-philadelphia-museum-celebrates-jewish-role-in-promoting-gay-rights

This is an older article but a very important one. Jewish Americans have been at the forefront of every civil rights movement in our country.

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