By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
Historian Rafael Medoff reports that he and 111 other Holocaust scholars from around the world have signed a letter protesting the “Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention” using the name of Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word ‘genocide,’ without the permission of the Lemkin family. Further, Medoff contended in the letter to Joseph Lemkin: “The false accusation of genocide is nothing less that Holocaust-inversion. The fact that extremists are exploiting Lemkin’s name to do so adds insult to injury.”
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Local Jewish organizations and Israel’s Foreign Ministry have protested the desecration and destruction of several gravesites at Les Corts Jewish Cemetery in Barcelona, Spain. The Jewish Community of Barcelona and the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Spain released a statement last Sunday that called the vandalism “a grave offence against the memory of the deceased and an affront to the values of coexistence, respect and religious freedom.” According to The Jewish Chronicle of London, Israel’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the vandalism, calling it “a result of the anti-Israel campaign by the Sánchez government. We stand with Spain’s Jewish community. Antisemitism must never be normalised and must be firmly rejected in all societies.” Barcelona’s Mayor Jaume Collboni said “hate has no place in a pluralistic and respectful Barcelona.”
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NATIONAL
The Justice Department announced on Friday it has released on its website 3.5 million pages; 2,000 videos; and 18,000 images in its files on convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
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New York City Police have identified the driver of the car that rammed Chabad World headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn as Dan Sohail, 36, of Cartaret, New Jersey. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was charged with four crimes: attempted assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and aggravated harassment. Chabad spokesperson Ari Winner was quoted as saying “…to balance being accessible and welcoming to everyone, and also having healthy boundaries and security, it’s a tough balance. But there has to be a change. This has to be a wake-up call.”
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Thursday told the Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C. that their cities could be the next targets for federal immigration enforcement, so mayors ought to stand together on the issue. In a news scrum afterwards, according to The Washington Post, Frey said he wanted his city’s police officers “to spend every second keeping people safe. … I don’t want them spending a single minute hunting down a father who just dropped his kids off at day care and is about to go to work a 12-hour shift who happens t be from Ecuador.”
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The New York Times reported that in the lead-up to the agreement to separate the Department of Homeland Security from other federal departments being funded in the coming fiscal year’s budget, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) commented on Thursday: “This is a moment of truth. Congress must act to rein in ICE and end the violence … No more secret police. The Republican majority must step up to the plate. The Republicans in Congress cannot allow this violent status quo to continue. They must work with Democrats on legislation – real legislation.” The agreement with President Trump was to extend financing for the Department of Homeland Security for another two weeks under a continuing resolution and in that time address needed reforms for ICE.
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Beth Kieffer Leonard, a board member from Minneapolis of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, writes in the organization’s newsletter: “At JDCA, we are committed to providing Jewish Americans with ways to create political change that will hold ICE accountable and to fight back against Trump’s authoritarian agenda. Thousands of Jewish Americans have already sent nearly 10,000 letters to members of Congress, calling on them to hold Trump accountable, support the impeachment of Kristi Noem, and oppose increased funding for ICE in the absence of safeguards and credible investigations. We hope you’ll join us, especially as Congress is determining the path forward on ICE funding as we speak.”
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Seven Jewish Democratic and Independent U.S. Senators were among a group of 26 who filed a friend of the court brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concerning a dispute with the Trump Administration over whether the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill repealed family protection provisions of the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement. The senators said the Trump administration exhibited a fundamental misunderstanding of the budget reconciliation process. The OBBB Act’s provisions “were limited to budgetary matters—appropriations for detention capacity, not changes to legal standards governing detention,” the senators wrote. The seven Jewish senators signing on to the brief were Michael Bennet of Colorado, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Adam Schiff of California, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
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Brooke Goldstein, founding executive director of the Lawfare Project, attended the premiere of Melania at the Trump-Kenney Center in Washington, D.C. She commented: “Melania Trump’s public work has long emphasized safeguarding those who are too often overlooked—children, families, and individuals targeted simply for who they are. At its core, her story is about standing up for people who do not always have a voice. That commitment resonates deeply with me and with the mission of The Lawfare Project. Fighting Jew-hatred is not only about responding after harm occurs; it is about defending those who are pressured into silence and insisting that the law be applied equally and without apology.”
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STATE & LOCAL
Three members of the San Diego City Council – Marni von Wilpert, Sean Elo-Rivera, and Vivian Moreno — will bring forward a resolution on Monday afternoon to have the city support lawsuits brought by the states of Minnesota and Illinois against the alleged juxc vexcessive use of force by agents of the federal Department of Homeland Security. Times of San Diego quotes Elo-Rivera as saying “The violent, dehumanizing tactics being used by federal immigration agents are a betrayal of our values and a threat to our communities. These unconstitutional actions are not about safety; they are about fear and control. In San Diego, we believe in dignity, due process, and the right to feel safe — whether you’re dropping your child off at school, going to work, or simply living your life.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World