Ridgewood NJ, at the April 23, 2024 Ridgewood Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting,in the matter of the Outfront Media LLC application to place an electronic billboard at 500 Route 17 South, there was a packed courtroom . Residents raised quality of life concerns over the billboard , but something else to look forward to , Anti-Semitic messages .
Senator Robert Singer (R-30) and Assemblyman Sean Kean (R-30) released the following statements condemning the Pro-Palestine billboard on Route 9 in Howell, NJ:
Teaneck NJ, a new proposal by School Superintendent Andre Spencer to collaborate with “outside organizations” for educating students on “global issues” has faced criticism. Spencer’s letter suggested partnering with groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the New Jersey chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ) to create webinars for schools.
Ridgewood NJ, Ben & Jerry’s said Monday it was going to stop selling its ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and contested east Jerusalem, saying the sales in the territories sought by the Palestinians are “inconsistent with our values.”
Washington DC, at the very last legislative session of the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that would elevate the State Department’s Anti-Semitism Special Envoy position—first created by Smith’s legislative provisions in 2004—to an Ambassadorship, giving more clout to address the alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. As the Senate has already approved the amended legislation, the bill now heads to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
I am pleased to announce that Rabbis and African-American Clergy from greater Montclair will meet in the next 48 hours to address the relationship between the Jewish and African-American communities. I cannot overstate how much these leaders have committed to addressing the incendiary cloud hanging over our community at the moment.
Trenton NJ, the Murphy administration is once again rocked by aa hiring scandal . Jeffrey Dye, the Murphy administration staffer who wrote anti-Semitic and other inflammatory posts on social media, is out of a job.Dye, who is head of the city of Passaic‘s chapter of the NAACP, had been a $58,000 a year business representative at the Department of Labor & Workforce Development since February. But Angela Delli Santi, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a terse one-line statement Tuesday afternoon that’s no longer the case.
Trenton NJ, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman voted no on a resolution condemning the movement to Boycott Israel Wednesday, the congresswoman is the latest New Jersey representative to embrace anti-Semitism.Earlier this month, Watson Coleman cosponsored a resolution introduced by Omar that affirmed constitutional protections for economic protests like those employed by proponents of BDS.
New York NY, In Thursday’s international edition of The New York Times, featured a cartoon with “anti-Semitic tropes” it portrayed a blind President Trump led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a dog with a Star of David collar around its neck.
The cartoon appeared in the April 25 international edition and coincided with the end of the Passover holiday and Shabbat, two days many observant Jews were not online.
Trenton NJ, Due to Governor Murphy’s declared state of emergency for tomorrow, organizers of the 2019 Women’s March on New Jersey have cancelled the event. The march was originally scheduled for 11 a.m., Saturday, at the War Memorial in Trenton. The safety of march participants, organizers, speakers, and volunteers is of the utmost concern. Information regarding future plans will be released as it becomes available.
Anti-Semitism surged on college campuses across the United States during the first part of 2016, according to a new study that found Jewish students supportive of Israel are being targeted “for harm.”
Nearly 100 more anti-Semitic incidents were recorded on U.S. college campuses during the first six months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, according to the report, published by the AMCHA Initiative, a group that works to combat discrimination against Jews.
In addition, “the number of incidents involving the suppression of Jewish students’ freedom of speech and assembly approximately doubled from 2015 to 2016,” according to the report, which also found that a massive uptick in anti-Israel behavior “was highly correlated with behavior that targeted Jewish students for harm.”
New ‘Daily Show’ host sparks backlash with offensive tweets
South African comedian Trevor Noah has issued series of jokes over the years at the expense of Jews, Israel, women
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF AND JTA March 31, 2015, 3:10 pm
A day after Trevor Noah, a 31-year-old South African stand-up comedian, was named to replace Jon Stewart as the next host of “The Daily Show,” a series of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-women tweets by Noah were being highlighted Tuesday amid a rising tide of online protest at his appointment.
Noah made three memorable appearances as a correspondent on the show starting in December of last year, in which he skewered American (and more generally Western) views and stereotypes of Africa.
Born to a black South African mother and a white Swiss father (when interracial relationships were illegal in apartheid South Africa), Noah is already a star in his home country, where he has filmed several stand-up specials. In 2012 and 2013 he became the first South African comedian to perform on “The Tonight Show” and “The Late Show with David Letterman” respectively, and in 2012 he was the subject of a documentary called “You Laugh But It’s True.”
‘Every single French Jew I know has left Paris’: Editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing terror-hit French capital
Stephen Pollard says terror attack on Kosher store in Paris is no ‘fluke’ ‘Every single French Jew I know has either left or is actively working out how to leave’, he said Experts believe that more than 100,000 French Jews have left since 2013 France’s Chief Rabbi has said after a number of attacks on Jews in the past year: ‘Jews murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish’ Policing stepped up across British Jewish areas, community body says Mayor’s office has announced closure of shops in famous Jewish area
By Martin Robinson for MailOnline and James White for MailOnline
Published: 11:22 EST, 9 January 2015 | Updated: 15:02 EST, 9 January 2015
Jews are fleeing terror-hit Paris because of growing anti-Semitism in France, one of Britain’s most influential Jewish journalists said today.
Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, spoke out after an Islamic terrorist took six people hostage and held them captive in a Kosher supermarket in the French capital.
This afternoon police ordered all shops in a famous Jewish neighborhood in central Paris to close.
The mayor’s office in Paris announced the closure of shops along the Rosiers street in Paris’ Marais neighborhood, in the heart of the tourist district and less than a mile away from the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo where 12 people were killed on Wednesday.
Hours before the Jewish Sabbath, the street is usually crowded with French Jews and tourists alike.
Mr Pollard said today’s terror attack in Paris, linked to the massacre at the office of Charlie Hebdo, will force more French Jews to flee the country.
Anti-Semitism is a major pillar in the ideology of Hamas. by Meir Litvak
Anti-Semitism is a major pillar in the ideology of Hamas (acronym of Harakat al-muqawama al-Islamiyya – Islamic Resistance Movement), a Palestinian national-Islamic movement, which perceives and articulates its conflict with Israel in Manichean and absolutist religious terms. Like most other Islamic movements in the Middle East, Hamas regards the conflict with the latest and most fateful phase of the relentless onslaught waged by western imperialism and culture against Islam since the Crusades. Hamas publications portray the Jews as instruments of the West or, alternatively, as the power that controls and manipulates the West in this war. Concurrently, it views the current struggle as the last link in the war, which the Jews have been waging against Islam since its essence. Consequently, Hamas emphasizes the emphasis on the “Islamic essence” of the Palestinian cause.” As such, the struggle is portrayed as an unbridgeable dichotomy between two absolutes: a “war of religion and faith,” between Islam and Judaism and between Muslims and Jews, rather than one between Palestinians and Israelis or Zionists. It is a historical, religious, cultural and existential conflict between the true religion, which supersedes all previous religions, i.e. Islam, and the abrogated superseded religion, Judaism. It is a war between good personified by the Muslims who represent the party of God (Hizballah) against “evil incarnated…. the party of Satan” (hizb al-shaytan) represented by the Jews.1
Justifying the Self and Demonizing the Other
Every conflict involves justification of the Self and the demonization of rivals and enemies, or in Hamas’ case the Jews as the “enemies of God and of humanity.” Such an accusation, in the words of Bernard Lewis, applies to all enemies of Islam since, if according to the Quran the fighters for Islam are fighting in holy war “in the path of God” and for God, then their opponents are fighting against God and are, therefore, his enemies.2 However, such depiction is used more forcefully and more often against the Jews in view of their explicit castigation by the Quran. Unlike the non-Islamist Palestinian groups, Hamas makes no distinction between Judaism and Zionism, and uses Zionists and Jews synonymously and interchangeably. Judaism is a “religion that stipulates racism and hostility towards others in its books and incites to usurp unjustly Palestine under the slogan of the Holy Land.” Zionism, according to this view, transforms these Jewish ideas into reality. Likewise, terrorism is an integral and inherent pillar of Judaism, which stems from the teaching of the Tora, and it finds its expression in Zionist massacres in Palestine.3 The portrayal of the Jews as powerful archenemies of Islam departs from traditional Islamic depictions of the Jews that are associated with cowardice, degradation and wretchedness. It has become a central element in Hamas’ ideology and an important theme in the writings of all Islamist movements in the Middle East as part of a broader need to explain the current crisis of the Muslim world. It is particularly difficult within this context to explain Jewish or Zionist success vis-a-vis the Muslims since, according to Islamic tradition, the Jews were destined to humiliation and subjugation to Muslims after they had rejected the message of the Prophet. It is one thing to be defeated by a super-power such as the U.S., and a completely different situation to be defeated and ruled by the Jews, who had been an inferior minority in the past under the Muslim empire, and who are a small minority in the modern Middle East. The only way to explain this cognitive dissonance is to magnify the power and evil of the Jews, and thereby help to explain Muslim weakness.4
Modern Anti-Jewish Animosity
The modern anti-Jewish animosity of Islamic movements goes much further than traditional Islam. Although Muslims have always viewed Islam as a superior religion, superseding Judaism, they did not consider Judaism as a heresy, which required eradication, as long as it did not challenge Islam’s rule. Historically, Muslims regarded Christianity as a greater threat than Judaism, and devoted greater attention to it in their polemical literature.5 However, due to the conflict with Israel, Judaism rather than Christianity has become the prime enemy for the Islamist organizations, drawing inspiration from anti-Jewish utterances in the Koran and from modern European anti-Semitism. A good example of this vilification is the Hamas Charter, the movement’s canonical document, which provides a picture of the Jews and Judaism drawn from the notorious anti-Semitic tract, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Article 22, for instance, describes the Jews as controlling the world media with their money and as having established secret organizations throughout the world – such as the Freemasons and Rotary Club – “for the destruction of societies and the fulfilment of the goals of Zionism.” They have “caused revolutions all over the world,” from France in 1789 to Russia in 1917 “in order to fulfil their goal.” Likewise, “with their money, they seized control of the imperialist powers and pushed them to subdue many countries in order to squeeze their resources and spread their corruption.” In addition, Hamas accuses the Jews of fomenting all-important wars in history. Most important, the Jews stood behind the outbreak of World War I, which ‘eliminated’ the Ottoman Empire, the “state of the Islamic Caliphate.” The breakdown of Islamic unity opened the way for the establishment of “the Zionist entity” in Palestine. Likewise, they “were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state.” Of special significance are the wars, which the Jews have waged against Islam from the time of the Prophet. Accordingly, the Jews opposed the Prophet from the moment he arrived in Medina, in a desperate effort to prevent the spread of Islam, rejecting his generous offers and distorting his message. They tried to harm the Islamic umma (nation) and dominate it.”6
Derogatory Descriptions of the Jews
In many of its publications Hamas employs harsh derogatory descriptions of the Jews, often taken from the Koran, such as “blood suckers,” “brothers of apes,” “killers of the prophets,” “human pigs,” and warmongers “the descendants of treachery and deceit,” “butchers.” They are a “cancer expanding” in the land of Palestine, “threatening the entire Islamic world.” They are “spreading corruption” in the land of Islam. “Deceit and usury are stamped in their nature,” and they are all “thieves, monopolists, and usurers.”7 Almost every issue of the Hamas organ, Filastin al-Muslima contains articles enumerating the evil deeds and character of the Jews based on an analysis and exegetes of specific suras (chapters) from the Koran. Particularly significant, in view of the historical record, are the equations, which Hamas makes between the Jews, the Zionists and the Nazis and the denial of the Holocaust. Hamas argues that Israel’s actions exceed those of the Nazis, and that “the Jews represent Nazism in its most criminal form.”8 Yet, following the Stockholm conference on the Holocaust, held in January 2000, Hamas declared that the conference had:
A Hamas promotional display at a West Bank university A clear Zionist goal, aimed at forging history by hiding the truth about the so-called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis . . .. The invention of these grand illusions of an alleged crime that never occurred, ignoring the millions of dead European victims of Nazism during the war, clearly reveals the racist Zionist face, which believes in the superiority of the Jewish race over the rest of the nations.9
cAbd al-cAziz al-Rantisi, Hamas leader from Gaza, went further by denying the Holocaust, while simultaneously charging that “the Zionists were behind the Nazis’ murder of many Jews,” with the aim of intimidating and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. Furthermore, he claimed that the Nazis “received tremendous financial aid from the Zionist banks and monopolies,” prior to their seizure of power and that “this great financial aid helped the Nazis build the military and economic force needed to destroy Europe and annihilate millions.” “When we compare the Zionists to the Nazis,” Rantisi concluded, “We insult the Nazis,” he concluded. 10 Reviewing the life of the late Pope John Paul II, the Hamas weekly al-Risala concluded that his 1998 letter, in which he apologized to the Jews for the Holocaust was his “greatest crime”.11
Advocating Jihad
The perception of the conflict as a religious one brings Hamas to advocate jihad (holy war) as the only way to combat the Jews. Yet, in addition to practical considerations, Hamas endowed the jihad against the Jews with eschatological significance. The messianic element is relegated to secondary importance in the ideology of modern-day Sunni movements. However, because Hamas’ main preoccupation is fighting a national-religious enemy, and possibly as a means to stave off calls for a compromise among the Palestinian masses, it resorts to messianic symbolism. Thus, the jihad against the Jews is a prerequisite for fulfilling God’s promise to establish His rule over the earth. Citing the tradition (hadith) of the Saltbush, the Hamas Charter states that the final hour will not come until the day when the Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them.12 Lest the meaning of this passage remain unclear, Hamas author Mukhlis Barzaq pointed to the fact that the Prophet had killed more Jews than any other infidels during his wars. The Prophet revealed in a “firmly established Tradition” how the Jews should be handled if they betray the Muslims, and he ordered his followers to carry it out without any feelings of sorrow for this “detested group”. He made it clear that the fate of the Jews should be “complete killing, total extermination and eradicating perdition (al-qatl al-tam wal-ibada al-kamila wal-fana’ al-mahiq).” Perhaps equally significant, considering its intended readership, is the editorial in al-Fatih, Hamas’ children’s publication, appealing to the children of Iraq to pray to God and ask him “O God exterminate the Jews the tyrannical the usurpers” (Allahuma, ahlik al-yahud al-zalimin al-mughtasibin).13
