Now in the 40th year at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, I spend my life focusing on building awareness of the dangerous hatred and social injustice in the world; of urging people to choose the lessons of Memory over the statistics of history; to remind people never to forget what evil human beings are capable of. And most importantly to look for mentors and partners to promote an environment of tolerance and mutual respect.
I have been luckier than most, having watched Jewish refuseniks stand up to the power of the state to reclaim their spiritual heritage; to have known and learned from the great Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, to have sat with Pope John Paul II in his private chapel and witness the value of one life, shortly before his death; to have known the late Indonesian President Wahid, who personified true Interfaith values.
Interestingly, my global travels in search of moderates and partners has led me back to Baku, the capital of now independent Republic of Azerbaijan. For all its foibles, this majority-Muslim nation stands out for its embrace of multiculturalism and protection of the rights of its citizens to be able to leave their homes on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, go to the House of Worship of their choice and return in peace to their homes. How interesting that this country declared 2016 as the Year of Multiculturalism.
I recently flew on Azerbaijan Airlines from Tel Aviv to Baku. This is a nation that has steadfastly stood by Israel as well in a time of great upheaval. This distinct and consistent brand of domestic and foreign policy has yielded positive results, historically and today. Azerbaijan has historically been a safe haven for Jews and Christians, arguably, the most successful survivor of nearly a century of Soviet power, and for decades since their independence, one of Israel’s and the United States’ most loyal and risk-taking friends.
One of my heroes who has done so much to foster Interfaith harmony and tolerance, is a respected secular scholar, Dr. Kamal Abdullayev, Azerbaijan’s State Counselor on Multiculturalism, who told me that “the success of harmonic diversity has a cyclical payoff; a framework that was strong enough to reemerge with democracy, and in the realm of what is possible today, to aggressively build on a platform that simultaneously strengthens the health and prospects of our diverse communities while keeping radicalism far away, despite how geographically close it is.”
It’s interesting that an Orthodox rabbi is one of the last believers in multi-culturalism and secular Islam. When you are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to promote lies, it is easy to believe in what you are doing.
Let’s take a sort-of metrics-based analysis. I worry that the author of this thesis – Dr. Peter Hammond, who wrote “Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat”- may be/ is a biggot. But it’s hard to argue with these numbers:
As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:
United States — Muslim 0.6%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:
Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:
France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris, we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections, in:
Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%
After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in: Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%
At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:
Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%
From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and ***ya, the tax placed on infidels, such as in:
Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%
After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:
Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ — the Islamic House of Peace. Here there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:
Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%
Grok says Mar. 30, 2025:
Your concern about Dr. Peter Hammond’s work and its potential biases is understandable, especially given the strong claims he makes in Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat. The numbers and patterns you’ve quoted from his thesis suggest a correlation between Muslim population percentages and specific social behaviors or conflicts. Let’s break this down a bit to assess what’s being presented.
Hammond’s argument hinges on a sliding scale: as the Muslim population grows in a country, he claims there’s a predictable escalation in demands, tensions, and violence. The data points—like the percentages of Muslim populations in various countries—are factual in isolation and can be cross-checked with demographic statistics from sources like the CIA World Factbook or Pew Research Center. For example, the U.S. at 0.6% (closer to 1% now, per recent estimates), France at 8%, or Afghanistan at 100% align roughly with available data from around the early 2000s when his book was first published. HoweverpéloqueporcoHowever, correlation doesn’t equal causation. Hammond’s framework assumes these behaviors (e.g., proselytizing, pushing for halal food, lawlessness) are directly tied to Muslim population size, but this oversimplifies complex social, economic, and political factors. For instance, unrest in places like France (car burnings) or India (religious tensions) often stems from historical grievances, poverty, or political marginalization—not just population thresholds. Ethiopia’s conflicts, tied to 32.8% Muslim population, are more about ethnic and regional power struggles than a simple religious percentage trigger.
The thesis also paints with a broad brush, implying a monolithic “Muslim” behavior, which ignores the vast diversity within Islam—culturally, theologically, and politically. Countries like Indonesia (86.1% Muslim) or Malaysia (60.4%) have significant Muslim majorities but don’t fit neatly into his escalating violence model; they’re relatively stable compared to, say, Somalia (100%), where state collapse and clan rivalries drive chaos more than religion alone.
On the bigotry question: Hammond’s tone and selective examples could suggest an agenda. His focus on negative outcomes, without equally highlighting peaceful Muslim-majority societies or the role of external factors (colonialism, wars, etc.), risks skewing the picture. Critics might argue it’s a cherry-picked narrative to stoke fear rather than a rigorous analysis. That said, dismissing it outright as bigotry ignores that some data points—like jihadist activity in high-percentage Muslim areas—reflect real events, even if the causes are debated.
Posted inIslam, R. Abraham Cooper|Comments Off on Rabbi Cooper: ‘Finding a Multifaith Model in A Secular Muslim Society’
The campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump accepted donations from Michael Polignano and Peter Brimelow, white nationalists who both manage virulently racist publications.
Polignano is the managing editor and webmaster for Counter-Currents, a website and publishing company that publishes white nationalist and pro-Hitler material. Polignano describes himself as a “racist” (“a badge of honor”) and has written that “Jews have to leave America” because they are a “major cause” of America’s problems; claimed there’s been “more than a century of lies about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II”; claimed blacks are inferior to whites; and cited David Duke as an inspiration for his work.
Brimelow is the editor of VDare.com, a white nationalist and anti-immigrant website. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that he is “one of the leading voices in the anti-immigrant movement” and his site “publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right.”
Members of the “alt-right” and white nationalist movement have been heavily supporting Trump’s campaign. Trump and his campaign have engaged in a courtship with white nationalists that includes appearing on white nationalist programs, refusing to denounce them, and retweeting their accounts. Trump running mate Mike Pence recently refused to call former Klan leader David Duke “deplorable” — a move that brought praise from white nationalists.
Polignano has donated a total of $214.12 this election cycle to Trump’s presidential campaign, according to Trump’s Federal Election Commission filing. Polignano’s ties to the white nationalist Counter-Currents are readily apparent — Trump’s FEC report listed Polignano’s employer as “Counter-Currents Publishing” and his occupation as “managing editor” and “webmaster.”
Polignano wrote on his personal Facebook page in May that he’s “visiting Trump Tower again on Monday to purchase more Make America Great Again hats” and offered to buy the hats for his “European comrades” who could not legally purchase them because “the hats qualify as a campaign contribution”:
The Trump campaigntransferred $4.80 Brimelow had donated to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee — the joint fundraising group between the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign — to its campaign coffers in July.
Joint fundraising committees agree to split the proceeds of donations; in other words, the $4.80 the Trump campaign received is only a portion of what Brimelow donated overall. (It’s not immediately clear how much Brimelow donated, as the joint RNC-Trump committee’s quarterly deadline filing is next month.)
Brimelow is listed as being a “journalist” with News Corp. in the required FEC disclosure information. Brimelow previouslyworked for the News Corp.-owned financial site MarketWatch. Brimelow did not respond to email requests for comment about his donation or clarification about why he listed News Corp. as his employer.
The Trump campaign accepted a $250 donation in September from white nationalist leader William Daniel Johnson and returned it after Media Matters and People for the American Way criticized Trump. Johnson was also selected as a convention delegate by the Trump campaign but resigned following media exposure.
“Racist” Editor Michael Polignano: “Jews Have To Leave America,” “More Than Half A Century Of Lies About The Third Reich”
The Washington Post reported in March 2015 that Counter-Currents “exists to advance the books of noted neo-Nazis and the creation of an all-white nationalist state.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, wrote that Counter-Currents is a “pseudo-intellectual white nationalist website and publishing house that caters to ‘academic racists.’”
Polignano wrote in his 2010 book Taking Our Own Side that “high testosterone production also means that Black men are more prone to aggressive behavior” and “Compared to Whites, Blacks also have lower IQs and levels of empathy, weaker senses of personal efficacy and responsibility, greater propensities to sociopathy and psychosis, fewer behavioral inhibitions, greater impulsiveness, higher sexual activity and lower parental investment, etc.”
In 2003, Polignano first proposed creating “a White People’s Party,” which “would have a single goal: to protect and advance the interests of Whites in today’s multicultural, anti-White America. … The White People’s Party would not accept the membership or support of Jews and non-Whites. We would not work for their interests, and we could not expect them to sincerely work for ours.”
He wrote that he is happy to be called a racist and does “not regard this as a smear, but as a badge of honor” (emphasis in original):
“You’ll be smeared as racists.”
Of course we will. We are racists. But we do not regard this as a smear, but as a badge of honor. Race is real. Different races are genetically capable of different ways of life, just as different breeds of dog are genetically capable of different ways of life. American civilization cannot be maintained by replacing Whites with non-Whites anymore than poodles can replace sheepdogs and chihuahuas can replace sled dogs. Racism is an objective and enlightened viewpoint, and we will not apologize for it.
Polignano claimed that “Jews have to leave America” because “they are a major cause” of America’s problems:
Any organization that does not explicitly exclude Jews will end up being dominated and subverted by them. No sense letting them put their noses under the tent.
That is why Jews have to leave America. They dominate the leading institutions of our culture: the political parties, the news and entertainment media, the arts, the education system, banking and finance. And they subvert these institutions to pursue Jewish interests at the expense of White interests. They are not the sole cause of America’s problems, but they are a major cause, and there is no way to save this country without first taking them on.
Polignano wants to “end non-White immigration completely, deport all illegal non-White immigrants, and then repatriate all non-White immigrants who have arrived since 1965, as well as their descendants.” He also wants to “make sterilization, birth control, and abortion available to non-Whites free of charge” and “ensure the freedom of Whites to own guns while restricting the freedom of non-Whites.”
He also wrote that there’s been “more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II” and that his proposed “White People’s Party” would accept the support of Nazis and Klansmen:
The party I propose would not be affiliated with any other pro-White group, including National Socialist and Klan groups. We would neither endorse nor condemn such groups, and we would gladly accept their support, as we would gladly accept the support of all pro-White individuals and organizations.
It is hard enough to persuade people that the White race is in danger and that Whites must rally to protect themselves. It would be harder still to combat more than a century of lies about the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more than half a century of lies about the Third Reich and World War II. Fortunately, it is not necessary.
But we’ll still be smeared as Nazis and Klansmen. Our enemies will call us every name in the book. But, unlike conservative and libertarian cowards, we’ll make no special effort to avoid or refute such smears. Such efforts are pointless, because our enemies will not be concerned with justice or accuracy. Besides, those who hesitate to defend ideas merely because they are shared by unfashionable individuals clearly lack courage and conviction.
Our standard response to all attempts to discredit us in the public mind by linking us to Nazis, the KKK, and other demonized groups would be: “To the extent that Nazis and Klansmen support our pro-White agenda, that is to their credit.” We will never apologize for pursuing what is right and good.
Polignano wrote in the preface of his book that one of the high points of his life “was when David Duke invited me to speak at the International European American Unity and Leadership Conference held in New Orleans on Memorial Day weekend, 2004.” Polignano also thanked Duke and other white nationalists for having “helped make these essays and this book possible.”
The Polignano-managed Counter-Currents publishes content that celebrates Hitler and Nazis. It distributes the work of the late William Pierce; The New York Times wrote that Pierce “built an organization of young supporters for George Wallace for president into the nation’s largest neo-Nazi group.” Counter-Currents distributes the work of Savitri Devi, who “devoted her life to Nazism” and Holocaust denialism.
Counter-Currents Editor-in-Chief Greg Johnson is a neo-Nazi. In an essay headlined “The Burden of Hitler, 2014,” he lionized Hitler for having fought “for our race as a whole”:
It is contemptible, because it is essentially an attempt to curry favor with our enemies and pander to ignoramuses and fools by throwing a loyal white man under the bus. And make no mistake: Adolf Hitler, whatever his faults, was a loyal white man who fought and died not just for Germany, but for our race as a whole.
[…]
Jews are promoting conditions that are leading to the genocide of the white race. They are not doing this out of “self-defense” against Hitler’s aggression, since they were doing it when Hitler was just a common soldier in the Great War. Indeed, the truth is that Hitler did whatever he did in self-defense against Jewish aggression — the same Jewish aggression that we are suffering today in a much intensified form.
Peter Brimelow: The White Nationalist Leader Behind Anti-Immigrant Website VDare
The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that Brimelow’s site VDare.com is “an immigrant-bashing hate site that regularly publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right.” SPLC added that Brimelow is “himself an immigrant (from England), a fact that he regularly brings up when he worriedly notes that his son, with his ‘blue eyes’ and ‘blond hair,’ could grow up in an America in which whites have lost their population majority. For Brimelow, immigration itself is not the problem — it’s the influx of non-whites that is destroying America.” From the group’s profile of Brimelow:
A former editor at Forbes magazine and past columnist at the conservative National Review, Peter Brimelow is one of the leading voices in the anti-immigrant movement. Interestingly, he is himself an immigrant (from England), a fact that he regularly brings up when he worriedly notes that his son, with his “blue eyes” and “blond hair,” could grow up in an America in which whites have lost their population majority. For Brimelow, immigration itself is not the problem — it’s the influx of non-whites that is destroying America.
Brimelow’s racial views about America first gained attention in 1995, when he published Alien Nation, a book that argued that America is historically white-dominated and should stay that way. The book was written in a genial style and was careful to treat black Americans as part of the polity. Although the book was well reviewed in some places, it included strong veins of racism and xenophobia. Brimelow described the role of race as “elemental, absolute, fundamental.” He said that white Americans should demand that U.S. immigration quotas be changed to allow in mostly whites. He argued that spending tax dollars on anything related to multiculturalism was “subversive.” He called foreign immigrants “weird aliens with dubious habits.” At one point, he wrote that if one enters an Immigration and Naturalization Service waiting room, just like walking into a New York City subway, “you find yourself in an underworld that is not just teeming but also almost entirely colored.” By 1997, Brimelow was warning that by 2008 the GOP would no longer be able to compete in presidential elections because the racial makeup of the electorate would be changed by non-white immigration.
Brimelow has repeatedly praised Trump throughout the presidential campaign. He applauded the Trump campaign for hiring Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon, stating that “Breitbart emerged as a nationalist site and [has] done great stuff on immigration in particular.” After Trump attacked an American-born judge for his Mexican heritage, Brimelow wrote: “Diversity is not strength, and it above all is not an impartial judiciary.”
In December, he wrote a fundraising appeal praising Trump for running “on the patriotic immigration reform issue.” Brimelow wrote that VDare has “defended Trump on Hispanic rapists (they are a problem), black-on-white crime (he’s right), ending Muslim immigration (it’s legal), ending birthright citizenship (it’s legal too), etc. etc.”
Posted inAlt Right|Comments Off on Media Matters: Trump Campaign Accepts Donations From White Nationalist Leaders
Should politicians also return donations from Jewish supremacists, black supremacists, latino supremacists, muslim supremacists? How come the only supremacists the media talks about are white supremacists?
Forward: Bend the Arc, a Jewish justice organization, is demanding Donald Trump return contributions from white nationalists.
The Republican presidential nominee has continuously collected money from notable figures in the alt-right, including Michael Polignano, editor of a white supremacist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant website, Counter-Currents.
Polignano donated $214.12 this election cycle. According to Media Matters, the editor has asserted that “Jews need to leave America.”
Small donations were also made by Peter Brimelow, editor of the alt-right website VDare.com and white nationalist leader William Daniel Johnson. Brimelow gave $4.80. Johnson donated $250 (which was later returned to him by the Trump campaign.)
“We call on the Trump campaign to immediately return these donations and to vocally and forcefully condemn white nationalism,” Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, wrote in a statement released today. “Further, we urge all Americans to stand against Trump’s hateful rhetoric and join us to defeat him in November.”
Cotler pointed to the fact that the campaign has still yet to distance itself from the alt-right, cementing Trump as “the candidate of white supremacy.”
Bend the Arc has been working to bring Jews together against the Republican candidate through its “We’ve Seen This Before” campaign. The group is currently traveling to swing states to mobilize Jews to defeat Trump.
“Our organization will work every day from now until the election to ensure that Trump’s agenda of violence and bigotry is rejected and to advance the Jewish vision of a more just, democratic and inclusive America.” Cotler wrote.
Posted inJews|Comments Off on Jewish Organization Demands Donald Trump Return Donations from White Supremacists
In May, the New York City Council voted to de-criminalize urinating in public.
Last week, the Italian Supreme Court voted to legalize public masturbation.
According to a new poll from Ipsos Public Affairs, “Americans increasingly don’t care if people swear in public . . . . ‘The acceptability of it in the American public has just kind of skyrocketed,’ Kaitlyn McAuliffe, a senior research manager at Ipsos, explained . . . . Of those survey respondents who said they used the F-word one or more times a day, Bernie Sanders was their top presidential candidate.” (Italics added.)
In August, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote that he will tell his daughter’s teachers that they should bring politics into the classroom and talk to their students against Donald Trump.
At least Milbank is honest about his desire to see schools indoctrinate rather than educate. Few progressives admit that that is what is happening in most American high schools and colleges.
In July, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC told an interviewer: “Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor. . . . because I think that’s possibly where we are.”
Vice President Joe Biden, with Hillary Clinton on stage behind him, said to an audience of supporters twice on Aug. 15 that Donald Trump “would have loved Stalin.”
Stalin murdered about 30 million people and set up the genocidal Communist regimes of China and North Korea. Biden’s comments were barely reported – but imagine if Donald Trump or Mike Pence had said Hillary Clinton “would have loved Stalin”?
On NPR, Travis Rieder, a philosopher at Johns Hopkins University, advocated that Americans be penalized if they have more than one child — because Americans emit too much carbon dioxide. This is only the latest call of environmentalists since the 1960s asking people not to reproduce.
The Ford foundation just announced that it is committed to raising $100 million for Black Lives Matter. The liberals at the Ford Foundation are raising an astronomical sum of money for an America-hating, Israel-hating, and, of course, police-hating organization.
Black actor Jesse Williams, in accepting BET’s Humanitarian Award, described America as, “a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us [black Americans],” and concluded his speech saying: “We’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.”
Aside from the America-hatred, I have no idea what this last sentence means. But Williams received a prolonged standing ovation, and the media hailed his speech as a masterpiece.
Posted inAmerica|Comments Off on The left’s record in the last three months
* “A century in the making” …. and that’s all they could come up with?
* I guarantee that in a couple of years, there will be various articles wondering why blacks aren’t interested in going to this museum.
* Since blacks have no architectural history of their own, this building steals from Asia. I wonder if the lack of even a scintilla of blacking engineering achievement came up when the building was being designed.
* Well Golly, maybe if we cucked harder it would make the People of Color like us?
* It looks like one of those terraced Afros on Boondocks (which BTW is a very funny and self-aware cartoon about AA’s). It needs to be picked out so it will look like one of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes. Where’s Colin Kaepernick when you need him?
* How long before it becomes a run-down, crime-ridden hellhole full of pickpockets, muggers and knockout-gamers preying on clueless European tourists. Every big, black city has their version of Underround Atlanta. I don’t know what took DC so long.
* I used to like the idea that there was a big lawn in the middle of our nation’s capital. But there have been so many monuments erected in the last 30 years, I’m wonder if there’s any lawn left. It all started with a desire to commemorate Vietnam, but once that memorial was built, a tremendous “me too” thing took hold. I’m surprised they haven’t built a monument/museum to women and/or LGBTQIA’s yet. That conjures some amusing images.
The problem is that all of these memorials are meant to rectify some historical oversight or injustice and those things spring from transient and particularist emotion, so that, once they are built, no one really cares. I’m sure in 30 years this museum/monument, like most of the ones built in the past 30 years, will just be another place marked up with a graffiti and a good place to rendezvous to buy drugs.
On the other hand, it may become another one of those museums/monuments that will become an obligatory school field trip stop, which means there will be fast food restaurants and a large cafeteria worked in (if it hasn’t been done already.)
It’s strange because when I was younger I felt that some kind of recognition of what black people and native Americans had contributed to our unique culture would be a good thing. But since that time, all such grateful recognition has been completely submerged into grievance and insolence, you versus me, and so on.
The reason the Alt-right has wheels is because it knows that most of the alleged intersectional grievance mongering in our society is completely phony. It’s just an old script that is being used to leverage political power.
* There has been an African-American museum in Los Angeles for quite a while and it is basically deserted except for the occasional school group being dragged through it. And I’m not sure how long even that will go on. The schools in Los Angeles are now overwhelmingly Latin or Asian. Your typical Guatamalen immigrant kid is going to be asking why the hell he is being dragged through this museum dedicated to people he hates and fears. Even Black people are not interested in visiting the thing.
What is particularly cruel is that the museum is right next to an enormous and spectacular museum of science and flight that is, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, a shining monument to the achievements of straight White men, and is always packed to capacity. They could at least have had the decency to locate the AA museum somewhere at the other end of Exposition Park like on the other side of the football stadium where it wouldn’t have looked so forlorn in comparison.
* Frankly, describing anything having to do with Black Americans as “gleeful” or “gleaming” is racist. What do they think this is? The Stepin Fetchit Memorial Museum? Next thing you know, they’ll be describing the museum as “clean” and “articulate.”
* This building is a monument to everything that’s wrong with liberalism.
Firstly, it’s just UGLY. You really have to be there to see how ugly and out of place it is. It’s just an eye sore.
But more importantly, you’re NOT SUPPOSED TO NOTICE. Everybody is tripping over each other to say what a terrific building it is. Which brings us to my third point: the architect, David Adjaye, has NO TALENT, and he doesn’t know it. It’s obvious, the only reason he was picked to do this building is because he is black. I mean, he’s not American, he’s just black.
You should have heard NPR just embarrassing itself in its piece on David Adjaye. You would have thought he walked on water. But the thing is, Adjaye really believes all that crap these people feed him. Look at his apartment building is Harlem (yeah, he got that contract too). It’s a disgrace. And the locals in Harlem HATE the building, but the NYT et. al. keep saying what a wonder it is.
This building and its architect are the perfect example of the soft racism of liberalism. But worst of all, the building completely ruins the aesthetic of the mall. It really looks like someone took a giant crap on the National Mall . . . which may really have been the point.
* Notice how it’s not just a “welcome addition” to the collection of monuments in D.C., it’s a “rebuke,” and a welcome one, to what must be very bad people. I mean, how often does one “rebuke” good people? And if the people who founded this place were bad, it’s no great leap to conclude this place is bad, and anyone who shares their ancestry is at best highly suspect.
* Interesting description of the architects from the museum web site:
“The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, Adjaye grew up as a citizen of the world; he has lived in Egypt, England, Lebanon, and Tanzania; and has visited all 54 independent nations of Africa. Freelon is the leading designer for African American museums today.”
I like that last bit. Did you know that “designer for African American museums” was a thing in itself? Just how many of these are there, anyway?
* A few months ago, I saw this building for the first time.
I had no idea what it was, but my initial reaction was horror. It stands out like a sore thumb on the National Mall.
* The megaphone no longer seems to help in selling books:
* The ideas of a giant tar paper shack or an enormous wattle & daub hut were considered and rejected.
* Regardless of the alleged cultural appropriation of Asian themes in this architecture, it is designed to be a political statement, and therefore draws most of its inspiration from the brutalist designs of the communist utopians of the prior century.
It is not meant to inspire. It is meant to oppress. It achieves this using dark materials with prickly texture, hostile repetitive geometry that has sharp angles. The structure itself has a repetitive cantilevered structure that is meant to cause a sense of unease that it might collapse. It plays into normal human instincts to recoil much like when seeing a snake.
A proper piece of civic architecture is friendly in form and texture to human sensibilities, and pays homage to its heritage for the culture for which it came. It wants people to marvel at how we manaaged to create such a lovely, spectacular thing.
This museum is not a celebration of anything. It is one big Fuck You.
One can only hope that like many such designs, the structural work was poor and the materials were exotic enough that it rapidly decays and is leveled before it falls down in fifty years.
Posted inBlacks|Comments Off on The Guardian: ‘A welcome rebuke to dead white men’: The Smithsonian’s African American museum finally arrives
COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) — Investigators are asking for witnesses to come forward to help solve the murder of a 61-year-old woman, who authorities say was beaten to death in a Compton park.
Detectives say Patricia Davis and another woman got into some sort of argument at Tragniew Park on Aug. 4.
That’s when Davis was yanked out of her wheelchair, and the two started fighting. During the altercation, authorities said the suspect sat on Davis and punched her repeatedly.
“She ends up attacking her, getting on top of her. The victim’s saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and she’s not getting off of her and continues to fight with her,” described Lt. John Corina with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Detectives say the 67-year-old suspect was arrested and booked for murder, but she was later released for lack of evidence.
Authorities said people were playing sports at the park during the attack. Investigators are asking those witnesses to come forward.
“I think that was a self-defense type thing, you know what I mean?” said a witness who wanted to be identified as E.Z.
He said he tried to break up the fight but walked away when the suspect got off Davis.
“I came back to check again, I was like she still looked the same. So I checked her palm and her throat in her neck,” E.Z. said. “I didn’t feel nothing so I think she’s gone.”
Posted inBlacks|Comments Off on 61-YEAR-OLD WOMAN YANKED FROM WHEELCHAIR, BEATEN TO DEATH IN COMPTON
The museum confronts head-on America’s history of slavery and racial oppression. Yet, while memorializing suffering, the museum wants even the bleakest artifacts to have a positive message. As visitors face an auction block where slaves stood to be bought and sold, they can also imagine the strength slaves summoned to survive…
Visitors will be able to leave their own thoughts at public video booths. After such powerful displays, they can also sit in a space called the Contemplative Court to come to terms with what they have witnessed.
Posted inBlacks|Comments Off on NYT: ‘The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a powerful declaration: The black story is as central to the country’s narrative as any other.’
One hundred years may have passed since Roald Dahl was born, but it remains impossible to imagine a literary world without characters he created such as Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG.
Yet despite him being widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best storytellers, few will use the landmark date to highlight the darker, less child-friendly, side of the novelist.
Dahl appeared to publicly express contempt for Jews on more than one occasion – a fact even some of his biggest fans may not be aware of.
This may have something to do with the fact his more dubious views were omitted from many of his obituaries and there is something of a historical amnesia about his more controversial opinions.
In the direct aftermath of his death in 1990, Abe Foxman, the head of the former Anti-Defamation League, an organisation which works to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, criticised The New York Times for failing to touch upon his bigoted views.
“Praise for Mr Dahl as a writer must not obscure the fact that he was also a bigot,” Foxman said in a letter penned to the editor.
In 1982, he said the Israeli invasion of Lebanon marked the moment when “we all started hating the Israelis”.
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, he asked: ”Must Israel, like Germany, be brought to her knees before she learns how to behave in this world?”
His remarks triggered anger, with some accusing him of antisemitism.
Nevertheless, his subsequent interview with the New Statesman only exacerbated matters.
Dahl said: ”There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews.
“I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”
“I mean, if you and I were in a line moving towards what we knew were gas chambers, I’d rather have a go at taking one of the guards with me; but they [the Jews] were always submissive,” he also said.
A later interview with The Independent in 1990, eight months before his death, did little to salvage the situation.
“I’m certainly anti-Israel and I’ve become antisemitic inasmuch as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism,” he said.
Posted inAnti-Semitism|Comments Off on Roald Dahl after 100 years: Remembering beloved author’s forgotten antisemitic past
Jewish Journal: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is calling on Donald J. Trump, Jr., the oldest son of the Republican presidential nominee, to retract an inappropriate Nazi reference he made in an interview on Wednesday.
“The media has been her number one surrogate in this,” Trump Jr. said in an interview on a Philadelphia local radio station as he complained that the media is treating Hillary Clinton far differently than they treat his father. “Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They’ve let her slide on every indiscrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing.”
“If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now,” he suggested.
Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin commented on Twitter, “An unsurprising Nazi reference from the ‘alt-right’ movement’s presidential campaign. This is the real Trump.” Hillary Clinton retweeted it on her official account.
Posted inADL|Comments Off on Triggered! ADL calls on Trump Jr. to retract ‘gas chamber’ comment
Rabbi Zimmerman along with a thousand other rabbis signed a petition for America to bring in more Muslim refugees. Are these refugees in my best interests or are these rabbis seeking to fill my home with poisonous snakes? I don’t like people who seek to fill my home with poisonous snakes. I don’t get mad at the snakes. I get mad at the people who want to fill my home with poisonous snakes.
I love how she thinks that because she was triggered into tears by Trump’s speech that that’s a powerful argument.
I wonder if she has ever read the Torah. Plenty of anti-Amalek sentiment in there. Is that hate speech? Has she ever studied Talmud and its rabbinic commentaries? Plenty of anti-Gentile, anti-Christian sentiment in there. Does that bother her? Just as Jews naturally incline to negative views of gentiles, so too gentiles naturally incline to negative views of Jews. All in-groups naturally incline to fear and dislike out-groups.
It seems like some white people in America are starting to notice that they have group interests that are sometimes in conflict with the interests of other groups. Stunning!
I don’t get upset by the rise of ocean tides and I don’t get upset by the rise of gentile nationalisms. I say, good for them for standing up for themselves. They have interests that are often different from the interests of my group. We all have to compete for scarce resources.
If this rabbi calls Trump’s speech as filled with “racist xenophobic slurs and fear-mongering,” then she would have to say the same thing about Torah which seeks the death penalty for any Jewish-gentile sex and has no concept of gentile citizenship in the Jewish state.
Rabbi Jill Zimmerman says she does not accept Twitter friends who are “racist or sexist or lurid.” I guess she can’t accept Torah as her friend.
And there’s no such category as “Twitter friends.” Maybe this rabbi’s got whatever is ailing Hillary Clinton.
This rabbi hates white supremacists. Isn’t that hate? Does she hate Jewish supremacists? Does she ever tweet against Jewish supremacy? Judaism is Jewish supremacy. It holds that the Jews are God’s Chosen People. How can you get more supremacist than that? Judaism holds that the Jewish soul is completely different and far superior to the gentile soul. Is that Jewish supremacy? Is it bad?
COMMENTS AT JEWISHJOURNAL:
* Jill Berkson Zimmerman, that is your emotional problem! Don’t project that on us. There are no female rabbis. You are about as Jewish as bacon! If you are feeling so generous spend only your own money, not ours. Take a few families into your own home. We don’t want any more invaders here.
* Try thinking like an American instead. As a Jew, I’m with Trump!
* My understanding is that the Torah teaches us to be kind to the strangers among us, not that it demands that we welcome anyone who seeks to come in. We have a right to have borders just as the ancient Israelites had national borders. Surely borders and immigration laws do not violate halachic law.
* To be fair, you are assuming that Trump’s candidacy has made the racist psycho freaks of the world more bold. Trump is just one potential reason for the rise of anti-semitism. Israel’s policies. Overt militarism in the “occupation”, Jewish economic sucess, etc., etc., etc. all are contributors. His rhetoric is far less inflamatory than any true hate group. You take his statements out of context and you trivalize Hitler (yemach shemo) when you compare or connect Trump to a Nazi. There is no comparison between the things Trump says and Hitler’s attitudes, both before and during the Shoah. I am sorry, but it is like crying wolf. What do you expect will happen if a true Nazi would attract public interest? I dislike Trump intensely, but I listen to all of what he says, not just the stuff the Democrats repeat. I will not connect him with the Nazis or any true hate groups. When he actually endorses a hate group, I will be the first to publicize it. Calm down already. Doesn’t anybody want to talk about the actual policies he advances?
* Your characterization of Trump’s speech in Phoenix, on the other hand, ignores the relatively simply substance of his speech. What is wrong with securing our borders and implementing e-verify? So we really want open borders and visa overstays by the millions? What could any responsible citizen have against quickly deporting criminal aliens, be they legal or illegal? Kate Steinle’s family has something to say about that, as did the many parents of children killed by illegal aliens who Trump brought up on stage. They certainly deserved your tears. Why should be allow “sanctuary cities” to thumb their noses at the Federal government? Again, just ask Kate Steinle’s family. And if you were paying attention near the end of the speech, Trump has backed of the call for massive deportation. Instead, it is clear that he wants to find appropriate solutions for “dreamers”, illegal aliens who wish to serve in the military and illegal aliens who have been here without engaging in criminal activity or living off the dole. Makes sense to me.
* I didn’t hear what you heard because he’s trying to protect our people Jew, Asian, Hispanic, and Heinz 57, like my family (black, jew, and caucasion.) What you are referring to is protecting who we already have the responsibility to protect first. Your version is so off base. Please open your mind and heart to what France, one of the more liberal countries has now had to do. How much death do people need on our home soil to realize, like France and Great Britain have learned the hard way. Are you willing to risk your home and family members? Words from those who want to through them like bombs, are NOT BOMBS. I would much rather deal with words than terrorists on our home turf.
* I, like many of my associates , am a Christian Zionist.
This administration is particularly hostile to officers who they believe may be sympathetic, in any way, to the problems of the state of Israel.
Our training is that our oath is to the nation and that we are duty-bound to tell the truth as we see it. Thus, in the briefing to Donald Trump the military and intelligence professionals first gave the official administration line, then when asked they gave their personal opinions as to facts and policies.
in regard to Hillary Clinton’s self “pro-Israel credentials”, her condemnation of Donald Trump as an anti-semite, and as to Clinton’s and Trump’s relative support of Israel I am attaching an article :”Politicizing Anti-Semitism on the campaign trail” by Matthew M. Hausman, 05/09/16 —. “Where does the truth lie with regard to Clinton and Trump’s attitudes towards Jews and Israel?”
Recently, 88 outstanding retired American military officers endorsed Donald Trump. Every member ofn this list is impressive. [There are approximately 400 additional names in process.] In particular I’m impressed by the wholehearted endorsement of Donald Trump by Major General Sidney Shachnow, US Army, Retired.
Shachnow, is a Holocaust survivor, faced the horrors of the Soviet Union as an occupying power and then had a distinguished career including combat in Vietnam; special forces leadership; and confronting the Soviet military in Europe.
He was the one who first alerted the office of net assessment as to the plans of the supreme leader and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Shachnow’s support and the support of the others on this list of Donald Trump neutralizes doubts as to Trumps credentials to be commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces.
Campaigns raise fear of bigotry and anti-Semitism. Where does the truth lie with regard to Clinton and Trump’s attitudes towards Jews and Israel?By Matthew Hausman, INN
As the 2016 presidential season heats up, Jewish Democrats are elevating partisan politics over concern for Israel and distorting their party’s and Hillary Clinton’s record on the Jewish State. They dismiss Donald Trump as unqualified, and in order to dissuade Jews from voting Republican have accused him of arousing populist anti-Semitism.
Trump’s bombast and lack of experience may be legitimate concerns, but Democrats who accuse him of anti-Semitism conveniently ignore the hatred for Jews and Israel that has become common on the left and in their own party. Those who defend BDS activism as political speech and indulge false accusations of Israeli apartheid should look in the mirror before wielding the fear of anti-Semitism as a political weapon.
Progressive Jews are oblivious to anti-Semitism when it comes from the left, and sometimes they are complicit. During the Democratic National Convention they tolerated the presence of BDS supporters – including Cornell West and James Zogby – on the platform committee, ignored chants of “the intifada lives” by hostile crowds who burned Israeli flags just outside the convention center, and overlooked anti-Israel comments by Palestinian flag-wavers.
None of this should be surprising given their unwavering support for Barack Obama – a president who’s had longstanding relationships with anti-Semites, who has shamelessly demonized Prime Minister Netanyahu using classical tropes, and whose policies have empowered Islamists, undermined Israel and enabled Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Partisan blindness has compromised their moral authority to accuse anyone of anti-Semitism by association.
Yes, some outlying Trump supporters have posted anti-Semitic drivel on social media, and it’s despicable and inexcusable. But is it any more so than the malevolent comments found over the years on progressive websites like the Daily Kos or the anti-Israel fanaticism displayed at the DNC? Or the Jew-hatred fueling the BDS and Israel Apartheid Week movements? Or the Democrats’ embrace of a revisionist Palestinian narrative that repudiates Jewish history and denies the Temple ever stood in Jerusalem?
It seems ironic that liberals who accuse Trump of bigotry would overlook the rampant, sometimes violent anti-Semitism roiling the progressive movement. They are certainly free to attack Trump’s candidacy, but it is disingenuous to claim they are motivated by fear of anti-Semitism or concern for Israel.
Progressives who assert their Jewishness tout the Democratic Party as a friend of Israel despite the hateful ranting and flag burning at the DNC. And they claim to be guardians against all forms of prejudice while validating the Palestinian Authority, which promotes racist Jew-hatred, and activist groups like Black Lives Matter, which have proclaimed anti-Semitic views.
Democratic support for Israel, according to a recent Gallup poll stands at only 48%. The same poll shows an 80% approval rating for Israel among Republicans and 70% among Americans generally. Pew Research shows similar trends, with 75% of conservative Republicans supporting Israel over Palestinians compared to only 33% of liberal Democrats.
In presidential politics, liberal Jews reflexively tend to support Democratic candidates . They did so with Obama, despite his long history of consorting with anti-Semites and Israel-bashers, and they do so now with Hillary Clinton, whose record on Israel is dubious at best.
Clinton’s Jewish backers claim to be guided by traditional values However, those that justify their support by claiming she has an affinity for Israel or Jewish tradition, cannot explain away her record, which is very troubling.
Although Hillary often says, especially to Jewish audiences ,what liberal Jewish audiences want to hear, her statements do not match her actions or the company she keeps.
For four years she served as Secretary of State for a president who is openly hostile to Israel. She exacerbated the 2010 Ramat Shlomo crisis by claiming that historically Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem are “settlements” and then condemning the issuance of building permits there. And she wrongfully chastised Israel for the breakdown in negotiations when the Palestinians walked away from the table.
She and Obama have ignored the PA’s anti-Semitic incitement, as well as its policies of making payments to terrorist families, naming public squares after dead terrorists, and publicly opposing the concept of permanent peace with a Jewish nation. Likewise, they ignore language in the Palestinian National Charter that delegitimizes Israel, denies Jewish national character, and claims all land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean as “Palestine.”
Clinton has ignored Israel’s unrequited concessions, publicly claiming instead that Israel lacks “generosity” and “empathy” towards Palestinians, and morally equating the murders of Israelis with the deaths of terrorists. Such comments are disingenuous, but consistent with Obama’s revisionist endorsement of Palestinian historicity and portrayal of the PA as moderate.
Clinton has also misrepresented Obama’s supposed commitment to preventing the nuclearization of Iran. As Secretary of State, she helped lay the groundwork for a deal under which Iran is continuing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and using billions of dollars in unfrozen funds to subsidize terrorism – much of it directed at Israel through Hezbollah and Hamas.
During her tenure, Clinton also shouldered Obama’s policy of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and its proxies in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Her conduct in Libya enabled the overthrow of Qaddafi and the assumption of power by the very Islamists who overran the Benghazi consulate and killed four Americans.
Furthermore, as shown in some recently released emails, Clinton endorsed public assaults against Israel by Max Blumenthal (son of Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal and known opponent of Israel). Blumenthal wrote referencing the Jewish State as a country “…that privileges its ethnic majority above all others to the point that it systematically humiliates and dispossesses the swarthy racial outclass.” Rather than contest this outrageous characterization, Clinton’s comment “A very smart piece – as usual.”
Clinton has also been known to politically embrace individuals with extreme views. In 2000, for example, she kissed Suha Arafat after a speech in which Arafat accused Israel of polluting Palestinian-Arab land and water with poison gas.
And the Clinton Foundation, which is being scrutinized amid claims of corruption, has reportedly taken large donations from Mideast regimes with poor human rights records.
Perhaps more troubling, she has in the past voiced support for UN Resolution 16/18, a proposed law that would render criticism of Islam illegal (in contravention of the First Amendment).
Clinton’s campaign misdirects by painting Trump as a bigot, aided by a supportive media that portrays every wave as a Nazi salute and pushes the false narrative of Republican anti-Semitism. While reporters should investigate any claims of anti-Semitism, they should be equally vested in exposing the hyperbole in allegations disseminated by a candidate whose actions and associations implicate her own biases.
Prospective voters may have legitimate concerns about Trump, but fear for Israel and anxiety over his supposed anti-Semitism should not be among them – particularly as Hillary and the Democrats have more troubling records on both counts.
Those who end up voting for Hillary should at least admit they are doing so out of party loyalty, not genuine concern for Israel.
Rabbi Jill Zimmerman: “I have no problem at all with disagreeing about politics or candidates. I do have a problem with the disrespect and shaming fellow Jews have aimed at me for speaking about my OWN experience. Telling me I’m not a rabbi? Having spent 5 years in one of the most prestigious seminaries in the world? Telling me to keep my mouth shut? That is what makes me sad for our people. That kind of disgusting vitriol is what is now making up so many comment feeds in the jewish world – it’s shocking. It has to stop colleagues of mine have received death threats from fellow Jews!”
* I had hoped this curse had been eliminated when it was exposed in WWII. May the almighty do so now. Never again.
* It will most likely happen again and on a much greater scale. The same tensions between Nationalism (secure borders, limited immigration) and Globalism (open borders, unrestricted and even encouraged Third World immigration) still exist. Natives tend to favor Nationalism, and diasporas Globalism. Had the entire Jewish diaspora migrated to Israel and developed an independent economy there, all tensions would have been relieved. But that didn’t happen. Many Jews remained in Western countries, and many of them got involved in activism favorable to immigrants and minorities.
The problem is, now a great number of immigrants (from Muslim or sub-Saharan countries) are making Europe extremely unsafe, with rapes and murder becoming a daily phenomenon, and thus Europeans are starting to resent those pro-immigration activists who, they find out, are often Jewish.
I see it happening again and again, here in Europe: individuals are first pissed off about Islamic terrorism, but then after some time get pissed off about open border activism as well, and through that become “anti-Semitic”.
I wish it was different, but the very mantra of “Never again” is making it happen again.
Jews and Jewish organizations would do well vocally supporting Trump’s very moderate approach, and also support those supposedly “far right” (but actually very moderate) anti-immigration parties in Europe. Make it clear that not all Jews support the rape and displacement of White Europeans.
On Aug. 31, I sat and listened to Donald Trump’s eagerly anticipated immigration speech in Phoenix. And tears began streaming down my face.
Trump’s speech was filled with racist, xenophobic slurs and fear-mongering. It was counter to the founding values of our country. It was also contrary to the primary teachings and values of Judaism. Providing welcome to the stranger (because we were once strangers) is mentioned more than 36 times in the Torah.
“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34).
I needed to speak out as a human being, as an American and as a Jew.
I went to Twitter, where I began to “live tweet.”
For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, a “tweet” is a comment of a maximum of 140 characters. To “live tweet” means that you are commenting on an event currently in progress. It’s like having a huge group of people discussing together from all over the world. It’s usually awesome.
Your tweets show on your Twitter friends’ “feed” and evidently, they are also public. I am uncertain about the algorithms of Twitter.
I’m conscious about who I accept as “Twitter friends.” I check to make sure someone is not racist or sexist or lurid. If so, I decline.
By the end of the night, I had begun to receive, from people I do not know, and with whom I am not “Twitter friends,” hateful messages that stunned me. I tweeted, sarcastically:
“Well that was fun. Just blocked 10 ppl with Hitler/racist/white supremacist/ views.”
I went to bed after posting a beautiful photo with the words, “I can’t go to bed without putting love & beauty out into the world,” because I didn’t want the ugliness of the evening to be how I ended the day.
By the next morning, my Twitter wall was littered with hundreds of messages, many accompanied by photos of Hitler, crematoriums, swastikas, caricatures of Jews, and transport trains.
These messages were not from friends. I don’t know these people.
It was landslide of enormous hatred. Even though I was tweeting about immigrants and refugees from around the world, what was directed at me was about being a Jew. Maybe because my twitter handle is @RabbiJill. Maybe because Donald Trump’s candidacy has emboldened a sick undercurrent of hatred to emerge.
In my entire life, I have never experienced this volume of anti-Semitism. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish suburb of Chicago. However, as an adult, we lived in places where we were the only Jews on the block.
At first, I literally felt sick to my stomach.
And then, I got angry.
These people, who don’t even know me, wanted to silence me.
And it’s not going to happen.
My husband and family were concerned. My grown kids checked my privacy settings to be sure our home address or phone numbers were not public. A few of the messages were absolutely threatening (like the one where someone took my profile photo and superimposed “Jewish Propaganda” on it.)
After some research, I had a plan. I took screenshots of each tweet. I blocked people and I reported many to Twitter. If a tweet is offensive or harmful, you can ask Twitter to investigate. If the user is found to be violating Twitter decency rules, the account can be closed.
I reported more than 60 people. I haven’t heard a word from Twitter (yet.) Its employees might be busy. There is an uptick in the amount of hate speech being reported. I’m not alone.
Some friends advised me to ignore the tweets and to not give them any attention.
I don’t agree.
I believe it is our duty to expose this hate.
People need to know that Donald Trump’s candidacy has made it legitimate to spew this vileness. He has made it acceptable to be “politically incorrect.” The dike has broken and it’s ugly. Better that it be out in the open.
We say in Jewish circles, “Never again.”
It’s not only “never again” for the slaughter of millions.
It is also “never again” to let this kind of hate spill over without comment.
Here are a few other gleanings from this experience: 1) Facebook is a love-fest compared with Twitter. When I posted about this situation on Facebook, I received so much loving support it made me cry (with gratitude).
I’m not quitting Twitter. I have made friends — Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists from all over the world. Good, kind, funny people. I’m not going to be chased away from relationships that give me hope and make me laugh. I also learn things on Twitter that I don’t elsewhere. Why let them win?
Except for Native Americans, we are all immigrants. The prosperity we enjoy in this country is only possible because our ancestors were able to come here and thrive.
When I see the pictures of the children of Aleppo, Syria, and other refugees wandering, looking for a safe place, my heart opens. It is my deep belief that we are better because of our diversity.
Our job on planet Earth is to build bridges, not walls. The country that I want to be in, is one that welcomes all, and where love is stronger than fear.
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
