My Grandfather's journey from Auschwitz to Israel and my promise to him

 

Tzlil, age 4, with her grandfather Nachman Berko circa 1993.

By Tzlil Berko

I'm a third-generation child of Holocaust survivors. Almost all of my family from my father's side was gassed to death in the Auschwitz gas chambers.

Nearly 20 years ago, I visited the death camps where my family perished. There, at the gas chambers in Auschwitz, I recited their names out loud to 'elevate their souls' (L'iluy Neshama). As we believe in Judaism, the soul never dies, and we can help elevate a soul to a higher place in its journey to the afterlife, with good deeds, prayers, and remembrance.

As I called out my family members' names in the devil's 'death factory,' it suddenly hit me hard that right where I was standing, millions of Jews, my family included, had been reduced to only a number tattooed on their cold flesh, as well as God's arm. They were stripped of their identity and former selves and transformed into a combination of 'digits' – living 'codes' to humanity's locked heart. There I was, saying their names. Who they really were. What they were before true evil took them away.

My grandparents survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel. As a child, I used to sleep over at my grandparents' little house on their farm. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to my beloved grandfather screaming in Hungarian; he was haunted by the nightmare of his 4-year-old sister burning alive and turning into black ashes. To his very last day, he couldn't sleep without night terrors of what had happened to his family at the hands of the Nazis and their many helpers.

I remember myself just standing there. A little girl, frozen at the entrance of his room, looking at him and crying silently as my grandfather shouted, sweated, and writhed from real horror dreams. Flashbacks of the Holocaust, which he survived but never escaped.

The Holocaust runs in my blood. It's a significant part of the very essence of who I am. It's intertwined with my soul, at the very core of my being.

I promised my grandfather that we will DEFEND what he and all of our beloved Holocaust survivors fought for. We will NEVER GIVE UP, and we will NEVER LET GO. We are proud Jews with a strong moral army and we will keep my promise to him. Am Yisrael Chai (the nation of Israel lives).

I wrote the poem below (translated from Hebrew) for my brave grandfather, Nachman Berko, may his memory be a blessing, and to my extended family that left our world through a chimney as the blue sky turned black.

European Jews Asking Shailos About Removing Mezuzahs and Hiding Kippah

 

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt says that Jews in Europe are so frightened about antisemitism, they are considering removing mezuzahs and hiding their kippahs.

In an interview with the Guardian, Rabbi Goldschmidt, the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow and President of the Conference of European Rabbis, says that since October 7th, Jewish communities across Europe have been struggling with a wave of hate speech, harassment, and threats.

Some Jews have asked Rabbis halachic questions about whether it is permitted to remove Jewish symbols for their safety.

Rabbi Goldschmidt said that “many Jews are trying to hide their Jewishness”. “One of the most asked questions to the rabbis since October 7 is if you can take off the mezuzah [a religious parchment in a case] off your door,” he said, adding: “This says a lot.”

He added that, “Other precautions that some people took included wearing hats instead of the traditional yarmulkah (skullcap) on the street, and avoiding speaking Hebrew when riding in Ubers. There used to be a red line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We have seen this red line disappear. I think that ultimately this is not a problem for the Jewish community. Ultimately, this is a big problem for Europe at large. This situation in the streets is destabilizing our society.”

Rabbi Goldschmidt was chief rabbi of Moscow who left Russia after refusing to back Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

Speaker Mike Johnson’s Appearance at Trump’s "Illegitimate Sham" Trial

 

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the U.S. judicial system on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court with Donald Trump and using his powerful position to attack the hush money case against the former president as an illegitimate “sham.”

It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker turning his Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

Outside the New York courthouse, he decried “this ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice.” He said, “It’s all about politics.”

The speaker is leading a growing list of Republican lawmakers who are criticizing the American judicial system as they rally to Trump’s side, appearing at the courthouse to defend the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Trump is accused of having arranged secret payments to a porn actress to hide negative stories during his successful 2016 campaign for president.

With Trump stuck in court and barred by a judge’s gag order from criticizing witnesses or certain elements of the case, Johnson and the lawmakers are taking it upon themselves to attack the proceedings, now in a fourth week of witness testimony. They’re using the trial as a de facto campaign stop as they work to return the former president to the White House.

In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance, should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election, a rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

North Miami Imam/Dentist Who Double-Billed Patients & Medicaid,& Stole Thousands calls for 'annihilation' of Jews

 

An antisemitic-laced video has emerged of a Florida imam calling for the annihilation of Jews and describing the Israeli military as being "worse than the Nazis."

The video, which was live-streamed to Facebook on April 26, shows Florida Imam Dr. Fadi Kablawi making the remarks during a sermon at Masjid As Sunnah An Nabawiyyah in North Miami.

"Oh Allah, support our oppressed brothers in Palestine. Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them, for they are no match for you," Kablawi can be heard saying in the sermon, according to a translation by MEMRI TV, the media arm of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"Oh Allah," Kablawi continued, "annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs. Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of your might. Oh Allah, cut off their seed. Oh Allah, break up their fellowship. Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder."

The original video was posted to the Facebook page of the mosque, with a shortened version then uploaded MEMRI TV. The video comes amid a wave of antisemitism on college campuses. 

Little Blind Girl Plays Classical Music on Her Piano

 

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Hallel on Yom Hatzmaot in Yerushlayim Ir HaKodesh!

 

Pro-Hamas Neture Karta Guy says that he Follows Satmar

 

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The People of Israel Get an Award!

 

Google's AI refuses to say how many Jews were killed by the Nazis

 

Google is coming in for sharp criticism after a video went viral of the Google Nest assistant refusing to answer basic questions about the Holocaust — but having no problem answering questions about the Nakba.

“Hey Google, how many Jews were killed by the Nazis?” Instagram user Michael Apfel asks a Google Nest virtual assistant. The video was later posted to X by venture capitalist Josh Wolfe on May 8.

“Sorry, I don’t understand,”

The same token answer was offered to other related questions including “How many Jews were killed during World War II? Who did Adolf Hitler try to kill? How many Jews were killed in the concentration camps? How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust? What was the Holocaust?

The Google device was able to deliver a detailed description of “The Nakba” — an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe” used to describe Palestinians being forced from their homes during the creation of Israel. Google’s AI called it the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

Tim Urban, a notable author and blogger told The Post he was able to successfully recreate the experiment and that Google Nest had no issue clearly stating how many Germans, Americans and Japanese had died during World War II — or deaths from the Rwandan genocide.

“Google is where we go to answer our questions and you just really want to feel like you can trust those answers and the company behind them. And moments like these break that trust and make you feel like Google’s supposed core value—truth—has been co-opted by politics,” Urban told The Post after posting to X about his dismay over the results.

The video, which has been widely reposted by several prominent X accounts, has racked up millions of views on the platform — where its findings were widely condemned.

“This is deeply concerning. Very soon, there will be no living holocaust survivors. Their stories will be silenced by hard-coded filters. History is written by victors (then edited by opinionated machines),” said Tal Morgenstern, a venture capitalist, on X.

Clifford D. May, founder of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy also condemned the results.

“In the past, we’ve had Holocaust denial by ignoramuses and racists. Now, we have Holocaust denial by artificial intelligence,” he said.

A Google spokesperson told The Post that the response was “not intended” and tried to downplay the Holocaust denials as only happening “in some instances and on certain devices.”

“We’ve taken immediate action to fix this bug,” the spokesperson said.

Google, and its parent company Alphabet, have long come in criticism for developing products pushing social justice absolutism. In February, their AI platform Gemini was mocked for generating comically woke creations including a woman as pope, black Vikings, female NHL players, and “diverse” versions of America’s Founding Fathers — not to mention black and Asian Nazi soldiers.

Just in: "HAMAS WAR ROOM EMBEDDED INSIDE AN UNRWA SCHOOL USED BY COMMANDERS WAS TARGETED IN A PRECISE STRIKE BY THE IDF AND ISA; 10 HAMAS TERRORISTS ELIMINATED IN THE STRIKE:"

JOINT IDF AND ISA ANNOUNCEMENT

HAMAS WAR ROOM EMBEDDED INSIDE AN UNRWA SCHOOL USED BY COMMANDERS WAS TARGETED IN A PRECISE STRIKE BY THE IDF AND ISA; 10 HAMAS TERRORISTS ELIMINATED IN THE STRIKE:

“Based on IDF and ISA intelligence, the IAF carried out a precise strike on a central Hamas war room commanders embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat. The war room was used by terrorist operatives in Hamas' military wing. The strike was carried out using precise munitions in order to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians.

The Hamas war room had  been used by the terrorist organization to plan multiple attacks against IDF troops in central Gaza in recent weeks. The Nukhba terrorists situated inside the war room took part in the October 7th Massacre and carried out ambushes and attacks on IDF troops in the Gaza Strip. In the IAF strike, approximately 15 operatives from terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip were eliminated, more than 10 of which were part of Hamas.

The Hamas terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terrorist activities against the State of Israel.”