“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
Friday, June 3, 2022
Iranian Colonels' Now Falling Off the Roofs
Col. Ali Esmailzadeh, one of the commanders of the 840th Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards and a close associate of Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodaei, died on Monday after falling from the roof of his house in the Karaj World View area, Iran International, a Saudi-sponsored Persian language television station headquartered in London and targeting Iranian viewers, reported on Thursday.
The Holocaust Photo that Offended Facebook
Julius Ciss is the executive director of Jews for Judaism, Canada. When he posted the this picture of his daughter outside Auschwitz holding the Israeli flag in 2015, he was shocked to discover that Facebook considered it to be ‘insensitive’. What could be insensitive about such a picture?
Ciss has given us permission to repost what he wrote on Facebook, presenting Facebook’s response to the picture:
Last week I posted the following regarding how Facebook had tagged the attached photo as “insensitive”:
“It seems that someone complained to Facebook about this previously posted photo of my daughter at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. When I posted it, I stated:
“My daughter, Miriam Ciss, was in Auschwitz Concentration Camp today. My mother Helena and Aunt Dolly survived Auschwitz Birkenau. This is just one of the amazing photos she took. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Passover.
“What I didn’t say was that aside from my parents and aunt, the Nazis murdered both my father’s and mother’s entire families.
“Well, today I received the following notice from Facebook: ‘Your photo wasn’t removed because it doesn’t violate our community standards, but it has been marked as insensitive because it could offend or upset people.’
“What do you think?”
This above posting went viral and in seven days, from April 9 – 15, 2015:
Reached 1,886,456 people,
Was Liked by 69,751 individuals,
Commented on 26,211 times,
Shared by 19,816 persons.
I guess enough friends complained because Facebook has now issued the following apology, just in time for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Rememberance Day):
“It has come to our attention that a piece of your content was mistakenly flagged by one of our reps. This was a mistake and we’ve reversed the action taken. We apologize for our error.” – Eleanor, Community Operations, Facebook
I thank Facebook for acknowledging this mistake.
As I searched for an applicable quote to close off this posting in honour of Yom HaShoah, I realized that a very appropriate quote would be the following excerpt from my daughter Miriam’s diary of her recent trip to the death camps of Poland:
“Today was kind of a gap day… The fill in day… And yet, it was one of the saddest days of my trip to Poland…
“Today, we visited a mass grave. Yes, on this program, we’ve been to many and I never cried at any of them. Not as much as I cried here. You see, this mass grave is different… This mass grave holds 700 children. Yes, you heard me… Children.
“Alone, frightened and clinging to whatever family they had with them, if they even had any left to cling to… Nazis shot them… The children… And for what? Because they couldn’t produce… They were useless to the Reich and so, they were shot… Murdered…
Obama’s ‘Personal’ Vendetta and Hate Against the Jew Netanyahu Drove Anti-Israel UN Campaign
During their terms in office, it was no secret that there was friction between former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-U.S. President Barack Obama. While the U.S. remained Israel’s top ally during this period, concessions were requested from the Jewish state vis-a-vis Iran and the Palestinians that many Israelis deemed an existential threat.
A new book by former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon sheds light on his tenure at the United Nations, where he served as Permanent Representative until 2020.
In The Lion’s Den: Israel And The World also delves into the Netanyahu-Obama dynamic, examining the source of alleged animosity on the part of the American president toward his Israeli counterpart.
Obama’s hostility reached a crescendo immediately before the end of his term with the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which demanded that Israel stop building Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria and portions of its capital, Jerusalem. The resolution passed based on the U.S.’ abstention from voting, an unprecedented step that represented a diplomatic betrayal of the Jewish state of the highest order.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Rabbi Uri Zohar Passes Away at 86
Rabbi Uri Zohar, one of Israel's most famous performers and later, one of the world's most prominent figures to become religious, has passed away at the age of 86.
Rabbi Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in 1935 to parents who were recent immigrants from Poland. He studied philosophy in Hebrew University and then began a hugely successful career in the performing arts, gaining renown as an actor, comedian, screenwriter and film director, alongside fellow artists such as Arik Einstein, Shalom Hanoch, and Jonathan Geffen.
In the late 1970s, Rabbi Zohar became religious, joining the haredi community over time; his transformation was watched with shock, admiration, and sometimes horror by the Israeli public. He later chronicled this period of his life in a book he titled, "My friends, we were robbed!" referring to the Jewish heritage so many secular Israelis are ignorant of.
Around a year before he became religious, Zohar won the Israel Prize, but refused to accept it.
In the video below, Rabbi Zohar was interviewed by Sivan Rahav Meir:
On Thursday morning, Rabbi Zohar suffered a heart attack and passed away.
May his memory be for a blessing
Ger Doing Massive PR as Cover for their Pogroms on their fellow Gerer Chassidim
The Ger Pogromists are busy promoting their "Shas Bechina" on all Frum blogs such as Yeshivah World and Vosisneis etc.
Gedoilim and other Rebbes such as the Stoliner and Viznitzer Rebbes called out the Gerer Terrorists and condemned them!
The Pogrom Askanim quickly hired "PR Askanim" to cover for their brutality and chillul shabbos, and flooded the frum media with this event that occured two months ago!
Shlomo Ha'melech described events like this as נזם זהב באף חזיר
All the learning cannot erase the pasuk in the Torah
Footage of Ger Bechina on all of Shas which took place at Pais Arena, Yerushalayim, Adar II 5782 / March 2022
Reporter Doesn't Challenge Arab Meshinginar that says that Israel Steals organs from Dead Palestinians and gives it to Ziontists
How does the interviewer not laugh?
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) May 30, 2022
International law expert Samir Zaher to Palestine TV: Israel steals organs from dead Palestinians, gives them to Zionists, wounded soldiers; the Rabbinate sanctions this:
pic.twitter.com/6t3gGDXMQF
General Mills Caves into Anti-Semites And Divests Its Israeli Dough Operation
General Mills announced Tuesday it would be fully divesting from a business venture in Israel that had operated in an East Jerusalem settlement, in a move pro-Palestinian activists celebrated as the result of their campaign against the food conglomerate.
The Minnesota-based company has operated a Pillsbury frozen-food factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone since 2002, in a joint venture with Israeli investment group Bodan Holdings. In a statement, the company said it would sell its majority stake in the venture back to Bodan as part of a larger international investment strategy.
General Mills’ statement did not mention politics and noted that the company had previously moved to sell off its European dough business, as well. The company did not return multiple requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The company has been a target of pro-Palestinian activists since it was included in a 2020 United Nations database of companies doing business in Israeli settlements.
American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-affiliated activist organization that has been pushing the company to end its Israel operations via a campaign called “No Dough For The Occupation,” took credit for the divestment in a statement.
“General Mills’ divestment shows that public pressure works even on the largest of corporations,” Noam Perry, a member of the group’s Economic Activism team, said in the statement.
The divestment carried echoes of another food producer’s Israel-related move: last year’s decision by ice-cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling ice cream in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” In that case, the decision was explicitly political, coming on the heels of Israel’s deadly conflict with Hamas.
And the blowback was swift, with Jewish groups and several state governments lining up to not only boycott Ben & Jerry’s products but also divest from its parent company, the British multinational conglomerate Unilever — in many cases citing anti-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions laws to do so.
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Nadvorna "einikel" Arrested for tax fraud
I have two questions:
א) Why are these rebbeshe children always called "einiklach?" Are they orphans? Don't they have "Fathers?"
ב) I thought these guys don't work, where do these guys get this kind of money?
Shmuel Shmelke Rosenbaum, a scion of the Nadvorna chasidic dynasty, was arrested at the beginning of May after he failed to report bank accounts abroad holding a sum of 6.3 million NIS in an attempt to evade income taxes.
During an international operation by the Israeli tax authorities, Rosenbaum’s accounts were revealed and he was arrested. Rosenbaum was released on bail at the beginning of the month but the court rejected his request to prevent the publication of his name.
Rosenbaum’s lawyer had claimed that publication of his name could “cause damage to his family members, two of who serve as Admorim in a chasidic group and this could severely damage their communities.” However the court did not accede to the lawyer’s request.
In the wake of information exchanges between Israel and foreign countries under the CRS (Common Reporting Standard), the authorities received information about an account in Switzerland with significant sums as well as possible financial income from activities within the account. An investigation was initiated and many documents were confiscated from Rosenbaum demonstrating that he had large unreported sums in the account.
The Tax Authority’s operation uncovered many other foreign accounts with a total of over 85 million NIS in undeclared assets. The Tax Authority said it would continue to use CRS to locate undeclared assets abroad and bring tax evaders to justice.
Fearless Flatbush City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov Pulls $50,000 Funding From Cuny Law School
New City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov is set to pull $50,000 in funding for the CUNY Law School over the faculty's support of a Boycott, Sanction and Divestment (BDS) movement resolution, New York Post reported on Friday.
Funding pulled over BDS
"I have pulled funding from the program and redirected it to Legal Services NYC,” Vernikov, who is a Ukrainian-born Jew, told The NY Post. “It seems as if antisemitism is the only politically acceptable form of racism which exists. We must stop handing out free passes to antisemites like candy.”
The institution has been embroiled in multiple scandals connected to anti-Israel sentiment, including having a BDS leader give the 2022 graduating class's commencement speech.
The faculty adopted a BDS resolution on May 11 that had been originally introduced and passed by the student government in December. The resolution officially endorses BDS, and calls on the institution to divest from Israel, end-all Israeli student exchanges, and cut ties with any groups that "repress Palestinian organizing."
The self-described "anti-Zionist" CUNY Law Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) celebrated the faculty's decision "recognizing that the Palestinian people's struggle for freedom, justice and equality needs our support and calls for us all to fight against the institutional complicity that funds and supports their genocide."
“During a time when antisemitic hate crimes are up by 300%, it is incumbent upon our academic institutions to do everything in their power to protect their Jewish and pro-Israel students, not pass resolutions which directly place them in harm’s way.”
New City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, to New York Post