Shabbat shalom.
Spring has finally sprung around New England. Soon, our cherry tree buds will pop open with a breathtaking display of pink, creating a scene right out of a Claude Monet painting that literally stops people on their walks to capture nature’s beauty on their phone cameras. Meanwhile, the gardens are popping with new life that the bunnies are feasting upon, and the orange turd is popping up in both new indictments and current criminal trials on a daily basis.
Things seem to be popping these days. And none more so than that bastion of hate that has plagued our people for time immemorial: antisemitism. While it may appear that it popped all over campus’s across the country as a response to Israel’s handling of the Gaza war, it has actually been brewing on campus for decades and has even been nurtured there by “professors” in the Middle East departments of these “educational institutions”, unchecked by administrations who require “context” to recognize and respond to blatant hatred when it happens. Unfucking-believable.
I can almost forgive a bunch of naive privileged kids becoming useful idiots in their bleeding heart response to the horrors of war and the resulting death of Palestinian innocents. Even though Gaza and the West Bank Palestinians support Hamas and their October 7 brutality by 70-80% respectively, it is horrifying to see innocent women and children being pulled from the rubble. We all want it to end, sooner rather than later. But I cannot forgive their idiotic and illogical anti-Israel arguments, nor can I forgive them for being duped into supporting the nonsense spewed by the so called “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP). The SJP has chapters at campuses all over the country, and while they claim to be an organization primarily focused on “Palestinian rights and self-determination” they are actually a pro-Hamas organization, filling our useful idiot student’s heads with lies and propaganda. According to the ADL,
In the days following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, the national leadership of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and many of the organization’s campus chapters explicitly endorsed the actions of Hamas and their armed attacks on Israeli civilians and voiced an increasingly radical call for confronting and “dismantling” Zionism on U.S. college campuses. Some SJP chapters issued pro-Hamas messaging and/or promoted violent anti-Israel messaging channels.
And here is what one of the SJP leaders at Columbia had to say when he was brought before a disciplinary committee, which the misguided imbecile recorded and then posted to instagram. According to the NYT,
The hearing, conducted by an administrator of the university’s Center for Student Success and Intervention, was focused on an earlier comment he shared on social media, in which he discussed fighting a Zionist. “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he wrote. A Columbia administrator asked, “Do you see why that is problematic in any way?”
Mr. James replied, “No.”
He also compared Zionists to white supremacists and Nazis. “These are all the same people,” he said. “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”
And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
Nice guy. Glad I didn’t invite him to our Passover seder. If you can stomach it, here is a link to his own posting. Columbia’s best and brightest.
Here’s the kicker. This shit has been going on for decades! Did we turn a blind eye? Jews did not, as many Jewish students have registered these issues appropriately, but for whatever reason, (I can think of a few), the administrations have let it run its course. Here is a documentary film, “Columbia Unbecoming”, produced at Columbia by Jewish students (in 2004!), laying out the issue very clearly. The Professor leading the Middle East department at the time was none other than Joseph Massad, who stated in one of his lectures, “The Jews are not a nation. The Jewish state is a racist state that does not have the right to exist.” Head of the department. The same moron whose reaction to October 7 was, “Awesome!” He was investigated after the film came out, but the board reviewing the investigation was made up of all his friends in the department. Hence, he was found innocent, and eventually became tenured.
If I am sounding a bit tough on our future leaders, so be it. Our elite educational institutions have not only failed to educate these useful idiots, but they have planted demon seeds, nurtured them, and now, we are unfortunately reaping what the “brilliant” minds at these elite institutions have regrettably sown. If I had college bound kids, I would seriously consider Brandeis, or Yeshiva University, both excellent schools, both of whom have extended their transfer deadlines in order to accommodate Jewish kids who no longer feel safe at other institutions of lower learning.
For a more in depth account of what is going on in Columbia, here is a link to the latest from Dan Senor, who interviews Columbia professor Shai Davidai, an Israeli American who has been in the thick of the issues there.
Now, let’s get to the rest of the news from Israel and across the Jew S of A. Here for your enjoyment and edification, is an especially engrossing edition of editorial exclusives copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, Haaretz, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Times of Israel, and other fine Jewishy journals:
- The latest on campus…
- Pro-Palestinian activists clashed with authorities on campuses across the country Thursday, leading to more than 400 arrests. Here’s a map showing where. The schools included Emory University, the University of Texas and Ohio State.
- At the University of Southern California, where 93 protesters were arrested, the school took the unusual move of canceling its primary graduation ceremony in May. Some expressed sympathy for the class of 2024, which also missed its high school graduation because of the pandemic.
- At Brown University in Rhode Island, our reporter found a different story. The university is taking a less confrontational approach: not arresting people who set up encampments, and keeping its main campus green open to the public.
- A day after Brandeis University, where a third of the population is Jewish, invited students to transfer to its campus, Yeshiva University did the same. The Modern Orthodox institution, located about 70 blocks north of Columbia, said it was reopening its transfer portal to allow students who feel unsafe at other schools to switch to Y.U.
- Meanwhile, an umbrella group for colleges in Israel has also said that they will do their “best to assist” U.S. students “who wish to join Israeli universities and find a welcoming academic and personal home.”
- The latest on the war…
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in Israel on Tuesday to discuss a possible Rafah invasion and the latest on a hostage deal.
- Israel is now willing to accept less than 40 living hostages in the first phase of an upcoming deal.
- Freed hostage Noga Weiss, 18, said in a new interview that her Hamas captor gave her a ring and said they would get married and raise children together. The captor went so far as to reunite Noga with her kidnapped mother, so that he could get her blessing for the marriage.
- U.S. troops began construction on a pier off the coast of Gaza to help with the flow of humanitarian aid into the enclave. It should be operational by early May.
- An interfaith memorial service was held Thursday in Washington, D.C., for the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers who were killed while trying to deliver food to Gaza.
- Sheryl Sandberg, the former Facebook COO, released a new documentary, Screams Before Silence, about Hamas’ sex crimes on Oct. 7. It is free to watch on YouTube.
- The upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, set for May 7-11 in Sweden, is adding extra security for expected protests against Israel’s participation in the annual event.
- Bring them home! – President Biden on Wednesday spent over an hour with several children who were held hostage by Hamas at the start of the war — including Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old American girl. “She’s remarkable and recovering from unspeakable trauma,” Biden said, adding that the visit “was a reminder of the work we have in front of us to secure the release of all remaining hostages.”
- Kraft says no cheese for Columbia – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraftsuggested Monday that he will cut off financial support to his alma mater, Columbia University, amid contentious pro-Palestine protests that effectively shut down the campus Monday after the school’s president, Minouche Shafik, announced that classes would be going remote for the immediate future. “Over the past days, there have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behavior on our campus,” she said, referencing complaints lodged by some Jewish students at Columbia who reported antisemitic attacks and harassment by the protesters. Kraft echoed the sentiment in a statement issued through an organization he founded called the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. “I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country,” he wrote. “I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken.”
- The Jewish Sport Report: For Max Fried and Dean Kremer’s Passover dominance, dayenu – It was a stellar week for two of MLB’s most notable Jews. Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried produced one of the more dazzling performances you’ll ever see in his Tuesday night win over the Miami Marlins: Fried threw a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits while striking out six. The most impressive part? He did it all in only 92 pitches, earning the lefty his third career “Maddux,” a feat named for Hall of Famer Greg Maddux that represents the rarity of a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches. According to Baseball Reference, Fried became the 41st pitcher in MLB history with three “Madduxes.” Maddux himself leads the history books with 15, while Sandy Koufax threw five. (MLB added pitch count as an official stat in 1988.) In the American League, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer earned his first win of the season on Wednesday as he struck out 10 across 5.1 innings as the Os beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-5. It was only the second time the Team Israel alum has reached double-digit strikeouts in his 75 career starts.
I hope you all had a wonderful Passover! Ours was amazing, and delicious! Here is the cover for this year’s Haggadah, featuring the latest grandchild, Cameron, which I hope brings a smile to your faces, as it did with ours.
And here is the latest rendition of “Go Down Moses” from the world famous Matzah Men. And on that sweet note, let’s call it a post. And remember, be careful out there. Shits getting crazy.
Brad out.
Jew News Review 