Browsing: United States

Last November, Israeli media outlets made a joint request that international media organizations such as CNN and the New York Times should refrain from using pictures from AP and Reuters freelance journalists in Gaza because they had actively accompanied and participated in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th. The request was based on an HonestReporting investigation showing the active participation of some journalists at some of the scenes of atrocities. The Israeli outlets wrote that “an investigation revealed that these journalists documented among other things the kidnapping of Israeli citizens and soldiers, the kidnapping of bodies, a lynch…

The Harvard University community has roundly condemned the political cartoon posted by PSC and HFSJP. The leader of the two anti-Zionist Harvard University groups that posted an antisemitic cartoon on social media has resigned from his positions, according to an announcement first reported by The Harvard Crimson on Tuesday. Walter Johnson, who teaches African and African American Studies at Harvard, left his role as faculty adviser of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Committee (PSC) and ended his membership in Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (HFSJP), of which he was the first founding member. The announcement follows a controversy…

Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, said the poll reflected a shift in Jewish voters. A poll of registered New York voters suggests that a majority of Jews in the state intend to vote for former President Donald Trump in the presidential election in November. New York Jews now favor Trump over U.S. President Joe Biden 53% to 44%, according to the Siena College poll, released on Tuesday. Jews in the state said that they intend to continue to back Democrats over Republicans 54% to 39% in congressional elections. The poll has an overall margin of…

Jeffrey Stevens, 41, allegedly sent messages to the CIA and to the Fort Wayne Police Department, in Indiana, threatening to murder Jews and pro-Israel government officials. According to a complaint, filed on Feb. 12 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to apply for an arrest warrent, Stevens operated Facebook pages under the names “Jeffrey Stevens,” “Zayed Stevens,” and the “Ishmael Report.” On Sept. 28, someone wrote to the CIA from an IP address registered to Stevens and his partner, saying, “I am a journalist covering the Middle East with very strong connections throughout the West…

Pearl Berg, the ninth oldest person in the world, the third oldest person in the United States, and the oldest Jewish person, died on Feb. 1 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 114 years old. She was born on Oct. 1, 1909, in Evansville, Ind., to Archie Synenberg and Annie Gerson. Raised in Pittsburgh, she later moved with her family—she had a sister and a brother—to Los Angeles, where she met her future husband. In 1931, she married Mark Berg, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine who worked as an investor and businessman. The couple had two sons, Dr.…

Dalal Saeb Iriqat an instructor in Jenin blamed Israel for ‘all the bloodshed and loss of civilians.’ Harvard University is enmeshed in another antisemitism controversy following reports that a Middle Eastern studies professor has invited Dalal Saeb Iriqat, an extreme anti-Zionist and alleged advocate of terrorism, to the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). According to The Harvard Crimson, Tarek E. Masoud, director of Harvard’s Middle East Initiative (MEI), invited Dalal Saeb Iriqat as a speaker for MEI’s “Middle East Dialogue Series,” a slate of interviews that will also include former government officials such presidential adviser Jared Kushner and former Palestinian Authority…

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees fired a number of its staffers in Gaza suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants on southern Israel, its director said Friday, prompting the United States—the agency’s biggest donor—to temporarily halt its funding. The agency, known by its acronym UNRWA, has been the main agency providing aid for Gaza’s population amid the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7 attack. UNRWA officials did comment on the impact that the U.S. halt in funding…

(New York Jewish Week) — Among the 6,000 knitters descending on Times Square this week for a major fiber arts convention is a first-time attendee from Israel who hopes a shawl she made can counteract anti-Israel sentiment in the knitting community. A mother of seven and a grandmother of two, Liza Rodrig, 48, is something of a handicraft and fashion icon in her own country. She has been on Israeli television, boasts a significant social media following and has even had her work featured on a virtual runway during Tel Aviv’s Fashion Week. But Rodrig has never before been to…

Complaints about anti-Israel protests at Temple and Brown filed by a Jewish right-wing activist who attends neither university are among the latest round of antisemitism investigations opened by the U.S. Department of Education. The department’s civil rights office is also looking into a series of University of Minnesota faculty statements condemning Israel, following a complaint by a prominent Republican on the law school faculty. In addition, as of this week the civil rights office has opened investigations at the two largest Bay Area public school districts, where some families have cited antisemitism concerns in applying to transfer out. And it…

For months, a subset of New Yorkers has railed against reductions to the city’s public library budget, which has already forced some of them to close on Sundays. This week, a few denizens of social media said they found a culprit for the cuts: Israel. “New York Public Library now closed on Sundays because of $36.2M in budget cuts,” the posts say. “But NYC taxpayers sent $118,929,729 to Israel to commit genocide?” The posts have spread far and wide in recent days. On Monday, a left-wing Twitter account posted that text, garnering more than 3 million views. The following day,…