If you’ve ever seen a symbol out there and wondered what it represents, wonder no more. Just turn to the ADL’s Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database. It provides “an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by a variety of white supremacist groups and movements, as well as some other types of hate groups.”
Visit and check if the symbol you’ve seen matches any one used by a hate group.
Here are three examples of lies the United Nations spread about Israel in 2017. The ostensible goal was to provoke hatred of Israel and Jews. But United Nations Watch is on hand, monitoring statements and correcting records in order, “to repel the darkness and light the candle of truth.”
Executive Director Hillel C. Neuer writes about the three lies:
By PAUL WIEDER, Associate Editor JUF News on 31 Aug 2016
Hillel C. Neuer is the executive director of UN Watch, a human rights non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that monitors and reports on the actions of the United Nations. Neuer, an international lawyer, diplomat, writer, and activist, was listed in the “Top 100 Most Influential Jewish People in the World,” by the Israeli newspaper, Ma’ariv. Neuer will be the keynote speaker at the Jewish Federation’s 2016 Annual Meeting, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on Thursday, Sept. 15. Here are some excerpts from a recent phone interview with JUF News.
JUF News: Of all the resolutions condemning the action various countries, how many times has the UN condemned Israel, specifically?
Hillel Neuer: Since 2006, when the UN Human Rights Council was officially ‘improved,’ they have issued 61 resolutions against all other countries in the world. In this same decade, they have issued 67 against Israel alone.
What has Israel done to elicit some of these condemnations?
Recently? Jerusalem built a light-rail system that runs through Jewish and Arab neighborhoods, making transportation easier and cleaner. UNESCO has a draft resolution, likely to pass, condemning the train for blocking the view of the Old City walls.
The World Health Organization condemned only one country this year for violating people’s health rights: Israel-over [its] ‘treatment’ of Syrians in the Golan Heights. Israel should be singled out, but for their incredible medical treatment of refugees from Syria’s war. It’s Orwellian, paradoxical, and absurd.
What have other countries done that has not received UN condemnation?
The list is endless. Some recent examples: Turkey just arrested or fired 50,000 academics. It’s a Cultural Revolution-like radical undermining of the social order. For this, they received from the UN no resolution, no emergency session, no commission of inquiry. In Venezuela, there is mass poverty and hunger in a nation with an abundance of resources. Their president, (Nicolas) Maduro, was just reelected, and the nation was reappointed to the UN Human Rights Council. No resolution, no emergency session, no commission of inquiry. Saudi Arabia is waging a war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians, including some 600 children. Again, no resolution, no emergency session, no commission of inquiry. They get a free pass. And the Saudis backed resolutions condemning Israel for actions it took to defend itself.
What can we, as American citizens, do to raise awareness of the UN’s anti-Israel bias?
People should become educated and informed. Resolutions by the UN have the appearance of international legitimacy and are regarded as authoritative. American citizens concerned with justice, Israel, and human rights can go to our website, unwatch.org, can receive briefings, and follow us on Facebook. Then they can write letters to the editor and to Congress, and share what they have learned on the Internet. People can make sure their government is paying attention. When the United States shows they care, it can make a big difference.
A team of three reporters and photographers document the amazing journey of 600 Colombians who followed their young religious leaders from a congregation of evangelical Christianity into Orthodox Judaism, becoming a congregation of 600 in Medellín, Colombia. Guided at first only by books and the deep feeling of connectedness to God which two of the evangelists had experienced during visits to Israel that were not related to religion, the leaders learned how to practice Judaism, converted their families and community members and instructed them in kosher Jewish observance. René Cano eventually moved his family to Israel in 2015 and has become Shlomo Caro.
Shlomo had given his family a new last name — Caro instead of Cano. Joseph Caro was a 16th-century Jewish sage who wrote the Shulchan Aruch, the most widely consulted Jewish legal code. By changing just one letter, Shlomo was hoping to provide his children with a name that had prestige and tradition.
Juan Carlos spent an intensive study year in Israel to supplement his years of self-study and tutored learning in Colombia with visiting rabbis from other countries and has become Rabbi Elad Villegas. He leads the congregation founded by himself and Shlomo and now inspires Jews and teaches Judaism to emerging and older congregations around the country. The reporters write:
In Medellín, though, Elad has become the public face not only of the conversion movement but of Judaism itself. One morning, we drove to an elite school in El Poblado where he had been invited to speak at an interfaith forum. No one from the older Jewish community had been included. The next day, he delivered a lecture on kashrut at a conference on food security at a private university, also in El Poblado. At both events, he was introduced as “the leader of the Jewish Community of Antioquia.”
Elad told me about his many plans. A design for a mikvah, or ritual bath, to be built on the synagogue’s premises had been sent to Israel for rabbinical approval. He was about to close a deal with a poultry farm in Cali, an hour’s flight away, to open a kosher section. With the support of the Goldsteins, a new yeshiva for converts from Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador was in the works.
I was curious. His path toward Judaism had started in Jerusalem. Wasn’t he tempted to make the final step that so many converts take: aliyah, migration to Israel? He loved Israel, he replied, and the idea of living there was tempting, and he had considered it, but he needed to stay in Bello. People depended on him. Here he was a leader.
On May 26 1991, the United States prodded the Ethiopian government to allow Israel to carry 14,500 Ethiopian Jews – just about the entire Jewish population of that country – to safety in 36 hours. The emergency rescue was carried out during the Jewish Sabbath when activities such as long-distance travel and operating machinery are prohibited. Permissible, because this was a life-saving mission.
New York Times’ Joel Brinkley reported,
At the airport this morning, it was difficult to tell who was more joyful — the barefoot Ethiopians who cheered, ululated and bent down to kiss the tarmac as they stepped off the planes, or the Israelis who watched them aglow, marveling at this powerful image showing that their state still holds appeal, even with all its problems…
Pilots, flight attendants and others stood back with pocket cameras, smiling as they snapped reminders of “this historic moment,” as all of them repeatedly called it.
The sun began to rise just as the plane took off. Looking out the window, Yehoda Alamaho shook his head in wonder as he said, “I am so happy to be going to Israel after all this time.”
Chaim Gouri, an Israeli journalist aboard, was just as wondrous when he said, “They’re ending a trip of 3,000 years.” Origins Are Unclear
No one knows with any certainty the origins of Ethiopia’s Jews, but it is clear that they observe the faith the way it was practiced before the First Temple was destroyed 2,500 years ago. They know nothing of the rabbinical teachings, Talmudic scholarship or other refinements that have been added to Judaism since then.
Former President Bill Clinton at a May 13 political event in Ewing NJ told the audience:
…Hamas is really smart. When they decide to rocket Israel, they insinuate themselves in the hospitals, in the schools, in the highly populous areas, and they are smart. They said they try to put Israelis in a position of either not defending themselves or killing innocents. They’re good at it. They’re smart. They’ve been doing this a long time …
I killed myself to give the Palestinians a state. I had a deal they turned down that would have given them all of Gaza.
Reported by the Jewish Press
From Aboud Dandachi, the founder of thankYouAmIsrael.com:
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that”. For Syrian refugees, these are very dark days indeed. Driven from their country by a brutal war fueled by regional and sectarian ambitions, displaced Syrians find themselves thrown into a world where the environment has over the past year become increasingly hostile towards refugees and asylum seekers.
But while wars and conflicts tend to bring out the very worst in human beings, dark days such as these have also given rise to amazing acts of compassion and humanity. Turned away from Arab countries, increasingly unwelcome in Europe, Syrian refugees have found support, aid and assistance from the last place they could have expected; Israeli and Jewish organizations and individuals.
While thousands of Syrians languish on the borders of neighboring countries, Israeli medical teams and hospitals have been tireless and unstinting in treating Syrians in need. While politicians in the USA race to outdo one another in stating their opposition to hosting even “five year old Syrian orphans”, numerous Jewish congregations in Canada have been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to sponsor Syrian families for resettlement.
And while some European countries have taken to confiscating the valuables of Syrian refugees who have fled to those countries, Israeli and Jewish organizations are, despite considerable personal risk, on the ground in Greece and the Balkans, providing aid and assistance to the seemingly endless wave of refugees fleeing the mayhem of the Middle East.
No one could have faulted Israelis and Jews had they taken a strictly hands-off approach to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the Syrian conflict. Indeed, with six Arab societies tearing themselves apart and in different stages of failed statehood, the sensible thing for Israelis to do would have been to hunker down, and wait until the mayhem beyond had burned itself out.
And yet the fact that, despite the understandable ambivalence among some in the Jewish diaspora and the considerable personal risk to Israeli medical and aid workers on the Golan and in Europe, Syrian refugees have been the recipients of so much compassion, assistance and generosity from the Jewish people is not only remarkable; when one considers the unfortunate history of the Middle East, it is miraculous.
I remember my own astonishment when the first news reports began to circulate of the assistance being provided to wounded Syrians by the IDF’s medical teams on the Golan. As the years have gone by, my amazement has not lessened with every act of charity and compassion by the Jewish people to my own. Israeli high schools providing collections of winter clothes. IsraAID volunteers on the ground and beaches in Greece and the Balkans. I will never forget the phone conversations I had with elderly Syrians being treated at a northern Israeli hospital, of the stories I heard of the world-class limb replacement and cancer treatment that Israeli medical staff were providing.
A people who I had been told all my life I was at war with, were proving themselves more humane and more compassionate than the Arab countries I, as a Syrian, was no longer welcome in. Dark days may bring out the worst in people, but they also serve to illuminate the truly enlightened societies. Every humanitarian catastrophe is also an opportunity for individuals to display the best of humanity, and as a Syrian refugee myself I can truly attest to the fact that this generation of Jews have done their people proud.
And as a Syrian, I am morally obligated to ensure that the goodwill that Israelis and Jews have displayed towards my people will not be overlooked nor forgotten. The day will come when the conflict in Syria will come to an end, as all things come to an end. On that day, it is imperative that Syrians reciprocate the enormous goodwill shown towards us by Israelis and the Jewish people. Whatever supposed reasons we may have had to be adversaries is dwarfed by the compassion shown to us during our darkest days, a time when we have nothing to give back except our gratitude.
Heaven forbid that the Jewish people ever need the assistance of other people the way that war has forced Syrians to seek out the assistance of Europeans, Arabs and the world at large. History will record that when Syrians were being turned away from Arab countries and most European ones, the Jewish people opened their hearts to our plight.
Let history not record that one day we forgot the kindness shown to us. If a person’s situation prevents them from reciprocating the kindness shown to them, it does not prevent that person from saying “Thank you”.
For what it is worth, you have the thanks of at least this Syrian. I myself am not a media mogul, or a well placed columnist. I am at heart a simple Syrian village boy caught up in events far bigger than himself, trying to muddle through as best as can be expected. My powers of persuasion are limited. Heck I can’t even convince one of my own brothers to stop being such a Russophile.
But by chronicling and acknowledging the numerous acts of compassion and generosity shown by the Jewish people to my own people, I can try to ensure that Syrians, Arabs and the world at large never be allowed to forget what you have offered and provided to Syrian refugees, at a time when you had every historical and practical reason not to.
Thank you Am Israel, and may you always be safe and blessed.
Aboud Dandachi, Istanbul January 2016
thankYouAmIsrael.com
Thanks for sharing this Shammy Whammy
Megillah Readings Wednesday night 23 March 2016
| 7:20pm | Arzei Darom, Teaneck | |
| 7:40pm | Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn | |
| 7:40pm | Teaneck Jewish Center – Pressburger | Regular Megillah Reading |
| 7:40pm | Teaneck Jewish Center – Library | Quiet Megillah Reading |
| 7:50pm | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 8:00pm | Zichron Mordechai | |
| 8:00pm | Zichron Mordechai | |
| 8:15pm | Teaneck Women’s Tefillah | |
| 9:00pm | Arzei Darom, Teaneck | |
| 9:15pm | Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn | |
| 9:30pm | Keter Torah, Teaneck | |
| Bnai Yeshurun | ||
| 9:45pm | Beth Aaron, Teaneck | |
| 9:45pm | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 10:00pm | Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn |
Megillah Readings Thursday, 24 March 2016
| 5:55am | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 6:40am | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 7:30am | Teaneck Jewish Center | |
| 8:10am | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 8:30am | Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn | |
| 9:25am | Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn | |
| 9:45am | Paterson Federation Building (and special event*) | Contact JerrySchranz@gmail.com |
| 11:00am | Teaneck Jewish Center – Women’s Reading in Stein | Contact Judi Resnick |
| 2:00pm | Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn |
Shuls/Reading Locations
Teaneck Women’s Tefillah: 595 Wyndham Road, Teaneck.
More Megillah readings and special Purim events
It’s always remarkable to find those champions of justice whose job it is to confront daily incidents of hatred, bigotry and harassment … who take a stand on behalf of equity and fairness … and do so without losing their faith in the overall goodness of humanity. Etzion Neuer is one such champion. He now heads up the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) NY’s Regional Operations Department and was the New Jersey office chief for over six years, handling calls for both organizations for some time.
The Jewish Standard’s Larry Yudelson quotes Neuer:
At the ADL, “our office is a nexus for hate of all kinds. Virtually every anti-Semitic complaint crosses my desk. We get them from the state police. We get calls from children harassed in school. I’ve had parents who cry to me on the phone because their children are the victims of anti-Semitic bullying in their school. I’ve had people cry to me because they’re experiencing discrimination in the work place.”
“I see the worst Jew hatred, an unceasing flow of hatred.”
Neuer said he tries hard not to let this give him a bleak perspective on humanity. “It’s my job to make sure that I don’t become despondent.”
“I have tried to seize on the inspirational moment. It is seeing the incredible work done by Catholic teachers to teach Holocaust education in their schools. It’s the person from Louisiana who called me last week, an 82-year-old Methodist, who read about the incident online and called me to say that he felt for this young rabbi and wanted to add a thousand dollars to our reward fund.
“It’s those moments that remind me that while, yes, there are extremists, there are haters, they really represent the fringe, and the vast majority of New Jerseyians and indeed Americans are good people. I’ve seen that just as hate can be learned, it can be unlearned.”
Neuer takes pride in the success of two legal efforts the New Jersey ADL undertook: Helping pass the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights in 2010, and the 2008 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in Cutler v. Dorn, which held that anti-Semitic harassment was not “mere teasing.”
Black South Africans speak out against the false labeling of Israel as an apartheid state. Olga Meshoe, CEO of DESHI International puts it wonderfully:
When I hear that Israel is an apartheid state … depending on the mood I’m in I either pack out laughing or I get really, really angry. Because it’s an absolute lie … To incite violence and encourage the destruction of a people just because you don’t like them, that’s disgusting. You are making what our parents went through – you’re making the struggle – a mockery…
To my brothers and sisters, specifically in South Africa, specifically like me, that are black: This war is real. It’s a war for history, it’s a war for another nation’s survival. There was a time when people did not want us to exist; when they didn’t believe we had a right to anything…
