Boris Johnson police arrests 77-year-old pro-climate rabbi

This 14 October 2019 video from England says about itself:

Rabbi, 77, arrested at Extinction Rebellion‘s Bank of England protest

About 100 climate activists from Extinction Rebellion protested on Monday in the City of London, sitting in the road outside the Bank of England from 7am. Police arrested a number of people, including Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, of the Finchley Reform Synagogue. ‘We are in a period of enormous catastrophic breakdown and, if it takes an arrest to try to find ways of helping to galvanise public opinion, then it is certainly worth being arrested,’ he said before being taken away.

Lulav-Wielding 77-Year-Old Rabbi Dragged Away By Police At Climate Protest: here.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists yesterday defied a London-wide ban on protests by the Metropolitan Police (Met). The basis cited for the ban Monday evening was a revised Section 14 order, of the Public Order Act, stipulating that by 9:00 p.m., “any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion ‘autumn uprising’…must now cease their protests within London.” The ban was followed by the despatch of hundreds of police to clear tents from Trafalgar Square, the one area where protests have previously been sanctioned after other protests were declared illegal and demonstrators subject to arrest. Four people, who had locked themselves together inside a tent, were cut out of their locks by police. Pamela Williams, 71, had glued herself to where her tent stood. She told the press that protesters were only given 30 minutes’ notice to quit before the 9:00 p.m. deadline: here.

One of those arrested was Ellie Chowns, a Green Member of the European Parliament (MEP). She said in a video posted on Twitter, “Yesterday, public protest was banned throughout our capital city. This is a completely unjustified and disproportionate measure. … The rules have been changed. … No longer is any space in London allowable for peaceful democratic protest.”

Australian governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike, and police authorities across the country have responded to Extinction Rebellion (XR) climate demonstrations over the past week with vicious denunciations and police-state measures. Thousands of people have taken part in various protest actions in the major cities. In some cases, they have blocked traffic and carried out other stunts, as they have condemned the refusal of successive governments to take any action to mitigate or resolve climate change: here.

Researchers have developed a method for statistically predicting impacts of climate change on outbreaks of tularemia in humans. New results show that tularemia may become increasingly common in the future in high-latitude regions: here.

Britain: Anger as Extinction Rebellion included in police list of extremist organisations.  [HuffPost UK]

UK home secretary defends citing Extinction Rebellion in police guide to extremism: here.

86-year-old rabbi arrested for protesting Trump’s ICE

This 1 July 2019 video from Philadelphia in the USA says about itself:

Shame!

Arrest of 84-year-old [no, 86-year-old] Philly Rabbi for protesting ICE.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow & group of Elder activists took to nonviolent civil disobedience against the Trump administration‘s policy of separating immigrant families at the U.S. border.

And, now two months later, on the same Rabbi Waskow:

By Alyssa Fisher in the USA:

86-Year-Old Rabbi Arrested Protesting ICE

September 5, 2019

No letup in Trump’s war on immigrants as 37-year-old Mexican man dies in ICE custody: here.

Jewish boys save American nazi from drowning

This 12 March 2019 video from the USA says about itself:

Teens Come Forward as Nazi Salute Whistleblowers

Two teenagers blew the whistle on the Orange County, California, high school students seen giving the Nazi salute at a party while posing with beer cups lined up in the shape of a swastika. Kaitlyn Turner and Joey Sable, who are Jewish, said enough is enough. Kaitlyn and Joey posted a screenshot of the anti-Semitic photos, which was taken at a party for high schoolers in Newport Beach. Their outrage triggered a viral national response.

Cuban doctors restored the eyesight of the murderer of Che Guevara … after Syrian refugees in Germany saved a nazi politician’s life …

By Marcy Oster in the USA:

A group of teenage yeshiva boys saved a man from drowning in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston.

The man they saved, it turned out, has a tattoo of a Nazi swastika on his hand.

The incident occurred last week, NBC10 Boston reported.

The teens, who study at a yeshiva high school in Brighton, Mass., saw the body and then ran to the police car of Boston College Police Officer Carl Mascioli.

Mascioli pulled the body out of the water. He told NBC Boston that the submerged man did not have much time left and would have died if the teens had not spotted him and taken action.

Mascioli said that he told the man with the swastika on his hand that it was a group of Jewish teens who saved his life. “I kind of let the gentlemen know sometimes some deeds have a funny way of turning around,” he told NBC10. “Their good deed had a little bit of a twist to it.”

The teens asked the police officer to tell the man that it was Jewish teens who saved him and that they had no regrets about helping a man with an anti-Semitic tattoo.

He is expected to make a full recovery.

Amazon attacks Yiddish language

This 2015 video from the USA says about itself:

Back to the Future of Endangered Languages | Colleen Fitzgerald | TEDxUTA

Rapid globalization and technology that brings majority world languages into minority language homes threatens the survival of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 languages worldwide. Whether in Africa, Australia, the United States or beyond, tiny languages are endangered, with their survival often depending on the last elderly speakers. Europe’s endangered Irish language is a great story of a language reviving its prospects, but success stories of languages renewed and reclaimed abound, such as the Wampanoag language, spoken by the tribe reputed to have celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. The human spirit craves a connection to ancestors and the past, and heritage languages do just that, while breathing new life into the future.

By Zackary Sholem Berger in the USA:

Amazon Is Dooming New Yiddish Publications. Can It Be Stopped?

January 21, 2019

This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts.

In 2005, Internet giant Amazon swallowed up yet another smaller fish, the self-publishing company CreateSpace, which made it possible to market titles in dozens of languages. Last year, in a decision that you would be forgiven for missing, Amazon announced that CreateSpace was merging with another division: Kindle Direct Publishing, now known as KDP. One Amazon province cannibalizes another. Nothing new there.

But it turns out that this move might endanger the important and unique realm of new Yiddish prose — a forum particularly important to Hasidim since a book released by CreateSpace can be publicized affordably, and sold on Amazon without the author giving his real name. (In the Hasidic community, anonymity is useful and even necessary online). Hasidic blogger Katle Kanye, one of the Forward 50 and often mentioned in the Yiddish Forward, chose CreateSpace to publish his sharp critique of what he says is the failed Chasidic education system.

Another Hasidic forum for self-expression in Yiddish is the online journal Der Veker, or The Alarm, a publication aimed at Hasidim who want to read about sensitive topics. In other Hasidic publications these topics might be censored or not discussed at all. (Full disclosure: I read each issue of Der Veker eagerly and am an occasional contributor.)

Moving CreateSpace to KDP has made it impossible to self-publish titles on Amazon in a number of languages that used to be available, including Yiddish and Hebrew. Without CreateSpace, it becomes prohibitive for small periodicals written in minority languages, like Der Veker, to keep publishing. So Der Veker took to social media. In a call for help published in the chat rooms of the liberal-leaning Haside forum Kave Shtiebel, members of which actually publish Der Veker, the editors informed readers that it would be difficult, perhaps even impossible, to replicate CreateSpace’s convenience and affordability elsewhere. Readers were enjoined to email Amazon, asking them to reinstate Yiddish among the choices for new titles on KDP.

Why did the language selection change when CreateSpace merged with KDP? It’s not clear. Even years ago, when there were several separate divisions of Amazon devoted to self-publishing, each had its list of permissible languages which were technically possible. One should also note that other languages written right-to-left, like Arabic, are still publishing options on KDP. Why Arabic and not Yiddish, Hebrew, or other languages? It seems plausible that larger languages are economically and culturally valued by Amazon, while minority languages are left in the dust.

Reached by the Forverts, an Amazon spokesperson responded: “We are aware that because certain CreateSpace languages are not yet available on KDP, some authors and readers will be unable to publish and read new titles in those languages (all previous titles remain available). We are actively reviewing author and reader feedback to evaluate which features and services we offer in the future, including expanding KDP’s supported languages.”

So it seems that Der Veker’s strategy was the right one. That journal is among the most important cultural institutions now existing in Yiddish, and gives the opportunity for self-expression to Hasidim who might otherwise be shut out of establishment publications. For those who want to support Jewish culture, Chasidic expression, diversity, and Yiddish literature, we join in their call. Let Amazon know that Yiddish – and Hebrew – ought to be reinstated onto the list of languages, in which one can publish new titles on KDP.

No vaccines in Ukraine, rabbi dies

This January 2018 video says about itself:

OUTBREAK: Vaccination Shortage in Ukraine Leads to Return of Forgotten Diseases

Ukraine is struggling with another scourge. The absence of childhood vaccinations is bringing back to the country seemingly forgotten diseases.

In Ukraine today, there apparently is money to indoctrinate children with neo-nazi ideology … but no money to inoculate them against the crippling disease polio.

In Ukraine today, it seems that the money goes to bloody war, to the billionaire oligarchs and to useless expensive foreign advisers like Tony Blair, rather than to healthcare for Ukrainian people.

Kudos to the doctors and others who scored important anti-polio victories. Everywhere in the world, it seems, except in Ukraine. In many countries in Asia, Africa and South America, there are traditionally many poor people who often cannot afford health care. Yet, it seems that even in these poor countries the situation (like in Somalia, suffering from war) is better now than in Ukraine. And than in Afghanistan, ‘liberated’ by George W Bush in 2001, also now one of few countries where there still is polio.

From the Jewish Telegraph Agency, 28 December 2018:

Rabbi’s death from flu in Ukraine has community in panic

An Israeli rabbi living in Ukraine died of an infectious flu virus, raising fears that other members of his community there may also be infected.

Rabbi Israel Pinto, owner of the kosher Orot Hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Uman, died Wednesday in Israel, where he was flown after being hospitalized with acute pneumonia in Uman and later Odessa, the haredi Orthodox news site Ch10 reported Thursday.

Some 80 Jewish families, most of them Israeli, live in Uman. Followers of the Breslov Hasidic movement, they moved into the impoverished city because it is believed to be the burial site of Rabbi Nachman, an 18th-century luminary who founded their religious stream. …

“The situation is very chaotic now, the entire community is in panic”, Rabbi Yaakov Djan, an Uman-based rabbi affiliated with the Breslov movement, wrote following Pinto’s death to Israel’s Health Ministry. He sent an urgent request that Israel send 300 flu vaccines to Ukraine for the Uman community.

It looks like the flu vaccine situation in Ukraine is as bad as the polio vaccine situation, due to ‘free market’ ‘reforms’ in healthcare.

Judaism, atheism, Islam, liberalism ‘dangerous’, Texas preacher says

This 30 October 2016 video from Arizona in the USA says about itself:

Trump supporter yells anti-Semitic chant

Video shows a Trump supporter shouting “Jew-S-A” at the press, calling reporters “the enemy” during a rally in Phoenix.

https://twitter.com/dobrevalaw/status/1003349945733320707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

From Jewish daily The Forward in the USA:

Texas Church Will Hold Lecture On ‘Dangerous’ Judaism

June 4, 2018

By Haley Cohen

A Texas church’s summer lecture series includes Judaism as one of many “dangerous isms” — putting it in the same category as Islamism, alcoholism and pessimism, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson, Texas will hold its “Dangerous Isms” summer series beginning on June 13, church minister, Shelton Gibbs III explained. Gibbs acknowledged that using the term “dangerous” while promoting the program might not have been the best idea. The church has already received backlash, with some on social media calling the church a hate group.

…

Other topics being covered in the series include denominationalism, materialism, atheism,

Spelled by the Reverend Shelton Gibbs III as ‘atheisim’.

liberalism, and emotionalism.

As far as I can see, the Reverend Shelton Gibbs III does not consider conservatism, Trumpism, nazism or fascism ‘dangerous’. Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia; or religious adulation of firearms, like in the ‘Moonie’ church, and not only there; also seem to be not ‘dangerous’, according to the gospel according to the Reverend Shelton Gibbs III.

Gibbs said topics such as racism or sexism won’t be discussed because “there are only so many Wednesdays in a summer.”

And now, also from the Forward, about something really dangerous:

UC San Diego Hillel Sign Vandalized With Threatening Graffiti

June 5, 2018 By JTA

(JTA) — Threatening graffiti was written on a sign announcing the future home of the University of California San Diego Hillel Jewish Center.

The graffiti discovered early Monday morning read “F—- You All” in letters resembling Nazi swastikas, according to local media.

Hillel staff members washed the graffiti off, according to the NBC San Diego affiliate.

“I was disappointed, I was sad. I grew up here in La Jolla I don’t want to see that graffiti on any institution”, Hillel Center Executive Director Rabbi David Singer told NBC 7.

Singer reported the graffiti to the local police and to the local office of the Anti-Defamation League. Police told NBC 7 that the graffiti incident is under investigation, but that so far they do not consider it a hate crime.

American rabbis against Trump’s Islamophobia

This video from Washington, the capital of the USA, says about itself:

Rabbi Sharon Brous – Women’s March on Washington 1/21/2017 (C-SPAN footage)

Rabbi Brous takes the stage at the Women’s March on Washington before a crowd of hundreds of thousands as part of a lineup of activists, faith & community leaders and entertainers. Grateful to Henry J. Bernstein for his video editing savvy.

By BFSkinner in the USA:

Rabbis speak out against tRump

Monday Dec 04, 2017 · 8:26 AM

At an interfaith event several Rabbis did not hold back.

The comments were in response to tRump using fake/unverified videos to spread hate against Muslims.

“I speak to you today as a rabbi and as a Jew,” said IKAR Rabbi Sharon Brous. “My people know all too well the dangers of fascist regimes that rise to power through stigmatization and the scapegoating of vulnerable minority populations. We will not shrug this off as yet another reckless act from a reckless administration.”

“The hatred that was spewed out by the president earlier this week can only be combated with this kind of love,” Comess-Daniels said.

“As a Jewish person there is no question where we need to be right now. We need to be standing with our Muslim sisters and brothers and comforting you and letting you know that though there is so much care and love and protection for you,” she said.

The whole story can be found here.

We all must unite together, Jew and gentile, Muslim and Atheist, against tRump.

From Newsweek in the USA:

By Cristina Maza

11/29/17 at 5:00 AM

Progressive Americans must unite against President Donald Trump to fight anti-Semitism regardless of their views on Israel, a prominent and controversial Muslim activist said at a conference on anti-Semitism at the New School on Tuesday.

“Anti-Semitism is real, it’s pervasive, and it’s institutionalized in this administration,” Linda Sarsour told Newsweek during a private conversation at the event, dubbed “Anti-Semitism and the Struggle for Justice.” “The progressive movement has to take combating anti-Semitism seriously and put it as part of the agenda we are all working towards.

“There are actual anti-Semites who have some of the most powerful positions in this country,” she added. “So that’s real, and it’s scary. We need to all be clear that we have to stand together to fight this administration, and whatever our political differences are on some Middle Eastern conflict cannot be the reason why we organize or don’t organize together. There is a bigger fight to have.

Sarsour is a Palestinian-American political activist from New York who has won numerous awards for her advocacy on behalf of American Muslims and as a co-chair of the Women’s March that became the face of the Trump “resistance”.

‘HATE 24-7’ We expose Amy Jane Mekelburg, Trump’s loudest anti-Muslim Twitter troll, who tweets “hate 24-7” from Fishkill, New York. [HuffPost]

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Theresa May, a British Jewish New Year message

This video from Britain says about itself:

Theresa May parody – funny but at the same time very true

27 May 2017

A comedy impression of Theresa May. Done as a spoof, but hits home with the truth which is so shameful, that it’s actually funny! From the aloof attitude Tories have, the entirely fake “touring the country” with actors and all “normal” staff [of businesses visited by May] being removed from shots because they booed her. Brexit plans – or lack there of, etc.. Worth watching for a laugh, or maybe a cry! Vote Labour.

By Dana Mills in Britain:

Please make this the year you discover compassion

Wednesday 20th September 2017

DANA MILLS writes a message to Theresa May on the eve of Jewish New Year

IT CAME as a disappointment, yet not surprise, to hear that on the September 22 Theresa May will set out her plans as Brexit negotiations develop.

That is the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Many Jewish people in Britain will spend that day with their families, reflect on the year that has passed and think ahead to the year that is just starting to unfold.

Although I am rather cross that the Prime Minister decided to intervene in my holiday plans, I decided to take the time and write Ms May a holiday message from one disappointed Jewess.

We Jewish people like to celebrate the holiday by saying: “May this year and its curses end; may a new year and its blessings start.” So, here are a few curses for you to do away with, Prime Minister, and a few things to bring back.

May this be a year in which you bring back to your priorities the welfare and wellbeing of all your citizens.

May this be the year when you dispense with the politics and economics of austerity, which have wrecked many lives; when you think of the many, not the few; when you lift the pay cap for the public-sector workers; when you don’t refer to nurses’ pay as “this, that and the other;” when you work in sincerity to save the NHS; when you prioritise access to justice for all workers and stop exploitation enshrined in the economy; when you make sure all those living on this island live in dignity and prosperity.

The year will only be as sweet as honey — as we will dip our apples in honey and wish each other well — if everyone enjoys it. Nobody is free until everyone is free.

We eat a fish’s head and say on the Jewish New Year that we should be a head and not a tail. May this be a year in which Britain regains its integrity in its international position. We will be heads and not tails if we know that hatred, racism and bigotry of all kinds are opposed by our representatives.

Don’t roll out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump, that country’s most sexist, racist, antisemitic and homophobic president to date.

Don’t smile in photo shoots and sign deals with leaders such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who make a mockery of human rights and civil liberties in their countries daily.

Oh, and definitely don’t court Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s most right-wing Prime Minister, who is deepening the Israeli occupation of Palestine every day and causes much misery on both sides of the border. As a Jewess I beg that of you.

The Jewish high holidays are days of repentance and forgiveness. We Jewish people will reflect on the ways we have wronged each other, and ask for each other’s forgiveness.

I hope you repent too, Prime Minister. I hope you consider how the economy is lagging, inequality is on the rise, hatred and anger occupy our virtual and physical worlds, thanks to the actions of your government.

I will forgive you, Ms May, if you change your ways, if you show us an example of humanity and decency, if you choose policies, on both international and national levels that serve the interests of us all.

My fellow Jewess Rahel Levin Varnhagen (1771-1833), a pioneering feminist, advocate of social justice, intellectual, mentor to Heinrich Heine and admired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, once said: “In my heart I carry a kind of plan, to call upon all European women that they never participate in war and help those who suffer.”

This is my message to you, upon your Brexit speech, Ms May. Stop making Britain poorer. Stop arming the malicious. Stop standing by quietly as injustice is done in the world and within Britain.

Happy New Year, Ms May. May this year and its curses end, and a new one and its blessings begin. Otherwise, we keep fighting for a better Britain and for a better world.

Dr Dana Mills is a British-based academic and activist.

Jewish women sing, pray for peace in Jerusalem

This 25 July 2017 video from Women of the Wall in Israel is called Maker of Peace, Osse Shalom. It is about Jewish women singing and praying the Rosh Chodesh Av prayer at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem.

In the background, ultra orthodox fanatical men try to disrupt the women.

There was an Israel government compromise plan for women to have praying rights at the Kotel. However, Prime Minister Netanyahu flip-flopped on that.

A spiritual visit by the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to Jerusalem’s Western Wall has been overshadowed after female journalists were forced to stand behind their male counterparts in a fenced-off area: here.

Jewish women harassed for praying in Jerusalem

This 24 July 2017 video by Women of the Wall in Israel is about incitement and harassment against Jewish women praying at the Kotel (Western Wall in Jerusalem) by fanatical ultra orthodox men.