I am not going to debate here whether this day that the Israeli Government established as "Holocaust Remembrance Day" was the correct decision....
The fact remains that they did establish it as a day of remembrance, and because it is now a fact, it should be revered as a day of respect to at least the survivors who are still alive..
This morning I spoke to a survivor, and old broken Belzer Chasid, and asked him what he thinks of Yom Ha'Shoah?
He looked at me with tears welling up in his eyes and asked me, "how can a thinking person be against a day like this?"
I doubt whether their is one survivor who would be against this idea..
Yes there were Gedoilim like the Chazon Ish that wanted to incorporate this day into Tisha Be'ov ... and there is a lot of merit to this argument, but until this is definitively decided by everyone and I'm including survivors who are chilonim, this day must be respected and revered by everyone ....
Comes along this Deri character, who will soon be in the news for something totally different, who trivialises and makes nothing of this day, spitting in the face of frum survivors...
Shame on him!
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ICC "persecutor" Fatou Bensouda is seen through a plexiglass lectern in the court room of the International Criminal Court
Israel will tell the High Court of Justice that the court does not have the authority to probe alleged war crimes by Israel and Palestinian terrorists.
In its formal response to The Hague-based court’s decision to open the war crimes probe, Israel will say it won’t cooperate with the investigation, according to a statement Thursday from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“In the letter, it will also be noted that Israel completely rejects the claims that it is carrying out war crimes,” the statement said.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Israel’s stance has been made known to the court by “central countries and world renowned experts” and stressed the Jewish state is “committed to the rule of law” and capable of investigating itself.
The decision on how to respond came after two days of talks held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and other top officials.
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"The General Post Office of Vienna was in uproar. Important and less important officials were running to and fro; there was an air of mystery and consternation about the place. For something unusual had happened; among the big parcels sent by post was discovered a huge packet addressed to ‘The Fuehrer and Chancellor, Herr Adolf Hitler.’ The parcel was crudely wrapped up; the handwriting was big and almost childish. Surely there was something wrong about it. Was it a bomb, sent by some Jew who wished to avenge his own and his people’s suffering on the Fuehrer? The matter had to be investigated.
And so the packet was opened and in it was found the dead little body of an infant a few days old, tenderly wrapped in a white shawl to which there was pinned a letter in the same big childish handwriting. The letter was also addressed to ‘The Fuehrer and Chancellor of Germany, Herr Adolf Hitler’ and read as follows:
I, Elisabeth Sultzer, Viennese, aged 32, am sending you herewith my firstborn infant which I have strangled with my own hands as a present to you for your treatment of myself and my family. Signed Elisabeth Sultzer.”
While trying to escape Austria, Sultzer’s husband had been murdered by the Nazis before her eyes, depriving her unborn child of a father and depriving Elisabeth of her sanity.
The grisly scene was reported by prominent London-based Jewish journalist William Zukerman. It was published in newspapers across the United States alongside ads for Caribbean party cruises, luxury hotels in Miami Beach and resort vacations in Hot Springs.
Tragically absurd in hindsight, this was certainly not uncommon in the pre-war American Jewish press.
In the January 5, 1939 issue of The Sentinel, Chicago’s leading Jewish newspaper, ads offering sunshine and pleasure far away from home appeared alongside the story of Elisabeth Sultzer, other reports of Jewish suffering in Europe and efforts to help refugees. From the National Library of Israel Digital Collection
Kristallnacht had taken place two months prior.
During the two day pogrom known as Kristallnacht, some 30,000 Jews – including those pictured here marching in columns – were arrested and subsequently deported to concentration camp
Interior view of the destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin, burned down on Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938
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Azriel David Fastag was a Modzitzer hasid known for his beautiful voice, a chazzan and composer of Hasidic tunes before World War Two. Although the Modzitzer Rebbe had managed to escape Poland before the Holocaust, arriving in New York in 1940, Azriel David Fastag was not so lucky. In 1942 he was put on a train to Treblinka, along with hundreds of other Jews.
While on the train he composed a melody for the words of the twelfth “Ani Maamin”: אֲנִי מַאֲמִין בֶאֱמוּנָה שְלֵמָה בְבִיאַת הַמָשִיחַ, וְאַף עַל פִי שֶיִתְמַהְמֵהַ עִם כָל זֶה אֲחַכֶה לּוֹ בְכָל יוֹם שֶיָבוֹא – “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he may delay, nevertheless, I wait each day for him to arrive.”
Azriel David began singing the song, at first quietly, and eventually with his full voice. Soon everyone on the train was singing the moving, haunting melody together with him, as they were transformed from human wreckage into beacons of hope and faith. After some time had passed, and they had sung the melody many times, Azriel David asked for silence and announced that he would give half of his heavenly reward to anyone who would deliver this new melody to his revered mentor, the Modzitzer Rebbe, in New York.
The idea seemed fanciful and far-fetched. How would any of them – prisoners on a locked train to a death camp – manage to get Ani Mamin to New York? Nevertheless, although the train was locked from the outside, two young boys still managed to escape off the train, through a gap in the roof of one of the carriages. One was killed falling from the train, but the other one ultimately made it to New York, where he delivered the melody to the Modzitzer Rebbe. The rebbe was deeply moved by the melody and the story of its composition, and told his followers: “With this tune they went to the gas chambers; with this tune we will march to greet Moshiach.”
by Rabbi Pini Dunner
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Manya Bigunov was born in 1927 in the Ukrainian city of Teplyk, the youngest of Nahum and Frima's three children.
In June 1941, immediately after their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans began shooting hundreds of thousands of Jews at hundreds of murder sites. In July, the Germans occupied Teplyk, and sent residents from the city to forced labor, including Manya and her mother. On 27 May 1942, the Germans rounded up some of the camp workers, including Manya and her mother, and began loading them onto trucks. After Frima was placed on a truck, one of the Germans slammed Manya against a wall and she lost consciousness, remaining motionless on the ground. The trucks drove to the nearby forest, where all the Jews on the trucks were unloaded and shot to death, including Frima.
After she regained consciousness, Manya was transferred to different labor camps. She escaped from one of the camps with her friend Esther, and they returned to Teplyk. There Manya found her father among a group of Jewish professionals who were being held by the Germans for work purposes. The group paid a local man to lead Manya and her friend to the Bershad ghetto in Transnistria, where they arrived in September 1942. In the ghetto, they had to cope with harsh living conditions, hunger and cold. In the winter, Manya fell ill with typhus. In 1943, Nahum came to the ghetto, but died of illness in February 1944, three weeks before the area was liberated by the Red Army.
Following liberation, Manya returned to Teplyk, where she was reunited with her brother and sister. Manya married Naftoli Bigun, who served in the Red Army and survived in POW camps by concealing his Jewish identity. When Naftoli returned from captivity, he was imprisoned by the Soviets, former prisoners being considered traitors by the Soviet regime. It was not until 1954, after Stalin's death, that Naftoli was released, but he died in 1961 at the age of 39. Manya worked as a nurse in a hospital, raising her daughter Edit alone.
After the war, Manya worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of the Jews of Teplyk who were murdered in the Holocaust. She immediately began to write about the experiences of her Jewish community. She described every house where Jews lived before the war, and wrote down the names and stories of all the Jewish occupants of each house, and if they survived, their experiences after the war. The information, including a diagram of the town, was transferred to the Yad Vashem Archives. Manya filled dozens of Pages of Testimony commemorating the people of Teplyk. She wrote articles about her community, and published them in the Russian press. She was also active in a group that erected a monument to the Jews of Teplyk and held memorial ceremonies there.
In 1992, Manya immigrated to Israel with her daughter and two granddaughters. Manya Bigunov has told her story to thousands of schoolchildren, students and teachers.
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Tamar Yonah thinks that the next Holocaust is a very loaded topic. It is up to us to see the signs, signals, and trends, and then immediately act in earnest.
In her opinion one can’t "beat" or win, against the wave of anti-Semitism.
History has shown us this, and has taught us that the only real way to survive and live in safety is to move, and Israel is the only home for the Jewish People, and the safest place to be.
Tamar dishes it out and pleads for her brothers and sisters to see the signs, and realize that not even in the academic world, on college campuses, can a Jew be free.
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This article isn't an April fools Joke .... they are very serious...but you know what? It's a great distraction to all the crazy stuff going on in real life.
Sure, they’reout there, but should we be looking?
Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at City College of New York and all-around pop-science icon, has issued a warning about extraterrestrials — and efforts to seek them out.
“I think that’s a terrible idea,” the 74-year-old astrophysicist said.
Kaku, perhaps best known for his contributions to string theory, spoke to the Guardian about his new book, “The God Equation,” which covers contemporary movements in science and technology.
But his interview took a spacey turn.
In the past, Kaku has theorized that humans may meet their extraterrestrial counterparts within this century. While the prospect might sound thrilling for many, Kaku is more cautious than eager to make contact.
“We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago,” he said, alluding to the disastrous demise of the 16th century Aztec emperor, which was instigated by what seemed to be a friendship of convenience with Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.
Cortés’ amiable acquaintance would devolve into the fall of the Aztec Empire as Spanish colonizers usurped power over native peoples — all based on what historians describe as a big miscommunication between the disparate cultures. Or, that Cortés lied to the Spanish monarch as justification to wage war against the Aztecs.
Either way, those worlds colliding ended in tragedy for some 200,000 Aztecs.
And, like the European settlers to the Americas, Kaku hypothesizes that our other-worldly visitors may also approach amicably, although they could harbor more insidious intentions.
“Now, personally, I think that aliens out there would be friendly, but we can’t gamble on it. So I think we will make contact but we should do it very carefully.”
And the potentially disastrous meeting could also happen sooner than you might think.
“Soon we’ll have [NASA’s James] Webb telescope up in orbit and we’ll have thousands of planets to look at, and that’s why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilization,” Kaku said.
Recently, Kaku made another alarming prediction for the near future: self-replicating robots. In a 15-minute video for Big Think, the scientist discussed the prospect of sending clone bots to help build-out Mars for galactic colonization.
While discussing Elon Musk’s plans for a “multi-planet species,” by sending about 1 million humans to colonize Mars via Musk’s SpaceX rockets, Kaku notes that the job would also require “a million hammers” and “a million saws.”
“You have to have fleets of workers to begin the process of building things — unless you create the first self-replicating robot … until you have an army of these robots that can build cities on Mars,” he told Big Think. In his vision, these robots “can make copies of themselves by mining the minerals that are already on Mars.”
“And then beyond that, who knows? Maybe our destiny really does lie in outer space,” he concluded — that is, if the robots don’t wise-up and turn against us first.
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The first argument in the newly sworn-in 24th Knesset took place on Wednesday morning between the first Reform Rabbi to become an MK,Gilad Kariv(Labor) and Noam MK Avi Maoz.
Kariv spoke from the plenum about the state of Israel cultivating a commitment to all Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora – to all streams of Judaism.
“As long as the state of Israel isn’t willing to recognize all the streams of the Jewish people, Israel’s investment in the Diaspora won’t be of benefit,” Kariv said. “Because despite the investment people won’t accept being told that they’re second-rate or third-rate Jews.”
MK Avi Maoz responded: “A Jew is whoever the highest halachic authority, which is the Chief Rabbinate, determines is a Jew. There’s a difference between individual Jews and streams or movements. There are no streams in Judaism. There’s one Yahadus according to the Torah. And these streams are new, but Yahadus is over 3,000 years old.”
“It’s impossible to mislead the public and say that everyone can establish their own Judaism. Just like I can’t establish an academic institution and call myself a professor, it’s the same thing in Judaism. There is only one Judaism.”
Kariv interjected: “You’re a small minority. This is a Jewish and democratic state, not a halachic state.”
Pass the popcorn
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Scan the people below. These are the featured speakers that JSTREET will have... not one is pro-israel and most are actually antagonistic.
And the JStreet liars call themselves "Pro-Israel".... they are not fooling anyone ......Goebbells would have loved to have them at his rallies.
Azzeh is a member of the PLO...enough said ...
She was rated as +2 by the Arab American Institute , indicating her pro-Arab ,pro-Palestinian voting record.She is a stanch supporter of Ilhan Omar
He tweeted criticising Israel's vaccine policy, repeating the lie that Israel wasn't vaccinating Palestinains but then removed it. He was endorsed by AOC and Bernie Sanders who have been openly critical of Israel.
He doesn't hide his hostility towards Israel and indicated that he would restrict Israel aid over annexation.
Repeated the lie that Israel isn't vaccinating Palestinians
She refused to condemn BDS, is for a two-state solution , which even the Arabs don't want
He ran against Lindsay Graham and was defeated, he is for BDS , supports the Iran Deal, and a two-state solution, also was against the US Embassy move to Jerusalem
He said that the ICC probe against Israel is "legitimate" ...enough said
She is a self-hating Jew who is dating a Palestinian Arab.. see our post
He finally under pressure backtracked his outrageous claim which he made on on live TV on CNBC that Israel is "burning down Palestinian villages," he is a clueless Jew Hater.
Kim stupedly questioned why Trump had Soleimani, an Iranian murderer of thousands of innocent women and children, killed. He also signed a letter opposing Trump's peace plan in the Middle East. He isn't one of the sharpest knives in the drawer.
She isn't even hiding that she is Anti-Israel and is a BDS backer and called for Israel to go back to the suicidal 1967 borders
Knowing zero about the Middle East this clueless Latino advocated for a two-state solution that even the Arabs don't want... ..
Instead of being busy with the sick political situations in Cuba and Venezuela, she is busy with the Jewish State.. I don't know if she is a "beast" but she is certainly no "beauty". But JStreet is featuring this political ignorant fool as a "confirmed" speaker.
Has advocated for a two-state solution that even the Arabs don't want... the Arabs are all for a one state being Arab.. This Jew in name only visited Shomron and while there blasted Israel ..something that no Israeli politician would do in the USA..
This naive useful idiot for JStreet supports the Iran deal, and supported UN's Goldstone report that falsely accused the Israel military of targeting civilians, charges that Goldstein himself who wrote it, admitted was inaccurate.
She is the leader of the Dying Labor Party, the Labor Party are the wonderful folks that gave us the suicidal Oslo calamity, and she promises Israelis a "feminist paradise" whatever that means. Oh did I mention that she is for a two-State solution. All of Israel including the far leftist media are still wondering how she got a seat.
This beauty supports the Iran deal, a two-state solution, and was against the US Embassy move to Jerusalem, a move that was overwhelmingly supported by both parties. In 2019 he voted against Strengthening America's Middle East Security Act which, strengthened Israel's security and allowed a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities that boycott Israel.
She was endorsed by AOC and Bernie Sanders .. which tells you everything you would want to know about her but know that she is one of the most vocal anti-Israel Democrats in Congress and repeated the lie that Israelis weren't vaccinating Palestinians. On her website she has 12 points which has demands on Israel but has only one for the Palestinians. She opposes making BDS illegal in the USA... and was against the Embassy move to Jerusalem. She claims that her husband is Jewish so that gives her the license to bash them.
He is a fancy Arab lawyer but don't get fooled by this smooth talker as he heads the Joint Arab List that vows in its charter the destruction of Israel, but Left-wing American Jews adore him, regardless, even though he also hates the USA..... But JStreet believes he would be a great speaker at their "pro-Israel" convention.
Was Prime Minister and resigned in 2009 in disgrace after being indicted and then convicted over corruption, he sat in jail, he is for giving back most of Israel even land that the Arabs are not claiming. Instead of crawling under a rock he writes a column in The Jerusalem Post every single week that only bashes Israel.
Claims he supports Israel, but is all for the Iran deal, that gives and gave the Iranian murderers money even though they vowed countless times to wipe Israel off the map. They also stage rallies with thousands of people chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel." He is for a two-state solution and loves matzo ball soup.
The Nazis would have loved him in their cabinet and the minute he would have become useless to them, they would have fed him alive to the fiery furnaces of the Concentration Camps, since he is Jewish, but don't let his Jewishness fool you as he hates everything about it and hates the State of Israel, married a shiksa, honeymooned in Soviet Communist Russia and all his children are goyim.
She is not only ugly as sin, she a vicious Israel hater and advised the Student BDS movement at UCI, she supports Israel's enemies in Congress and on Campus; she cannot be trusted but she will speak at the "pro-Israel" JStreet Convention.
Warnock is not only anti-Israel, but is anti white, he claimed that Israel is deliberately polluting the water in Gaza making it undrinkable in an effort to kill Palestinian children. This past Easter Sunday he even mocked Christian theology regarding the resurrection of Jesus.
She is all for a two-state solution and calls for Israel to give up the West Bank where over a half million Jews currently live... she isn't asking anyone in the entire world to give up their homes except for Israelis ..she was nicknamed Pocohantos by Trump because of her lying claim that she had Native American blood... she, who is whiter than white, benefited financially from that claim in many ways ... she is not only a liar and a thief.. she is also an annoying "klafta"
This lunatic said the Trump's Jerusalem decision to move US embassy was " provocative and counterproductive"... which turned out to be one of the most stupidest comments ever uttered in the halls of congress.
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The "distorter" of Jewish History Michael Fischbach
Michael Fischbach's book review in "American Jewish History" is a vicious screed that challenges the very legitimacy of Israel's existence and justifies the anti-Israel "right of return."
It may not be news anymore when a Jewish professor bashes Israel. But there should still be outrage when a respected US Jewish academic journal publishes a virulent attack on Israel disguised as scholarship.
The journal in question, American Jewish History, is published by the American Jewish Historical Society, a distinguished scholarly organization. Its latest issue features heavily footnoted essays on topics like healthcare workers on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s and the debate among Orthodox Jews over family planning in the 1950s.
And then, sticking out like a sore thumb is Michael Fischbach's tirade against Israel, presented as a normal, scholarly book review.
Fischbach is a professor of history at Virginia's Randolph-Macon College.
He writes that the "settler movement creating a Jewish state out of 77% of Palestine/Israel" caused "the permanent exile of 80% of those who had lived there."
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