Egyptian child preaches against U.S., Israel
(JNS.org) An Egyptian child preacher named Ibrahim Adham appeared in a video posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) cursing former U.S. President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama. He also prays for the destruction of the state of Israel.
The video was drawn from Egyptian state television. “Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims… martyrdom on the path of Allah is a religious duty incumbent upon you, oh believers. It is your path for salvation in the eyes of the Lord. Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims (repeated twice)… Oh Allah, destroy Israel (Amen)… Oh Allah, destroy Israel. [inaudible] the accursed Sharon, Bush and Obama,” said the child.
See the full video at http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3623.htm
*
Israeli choreographer dances his way to Julliard award
(JNS.org) Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin has been chosen to receive an honorary doctorate from the prestigious Julliard School in New York. He will receive the doctorate at a ceremony in May, reported Israel Hayom.
Naharin has been the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company since 1990. In 1974 he joined the company of renowned dance choreographer Martha Graham in New York, and began studying on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School, and with master teachers Maggie Black and David Howard. He later performed with Israel’s Bat-Dor Dance Company and Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siècle in Brussels, his official biography on the Batsheva Company official website states.
In 1980, Naharin formed the Ohad Naharin Dance Company and is considered to be one of the world’s leading choreographers today. He has already been honored with doctorates from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University.
*
‘Forward’ cartoon mocks Zionism through Anne Frank DNA experiment
(JNS.org) The Forward on Oct. 29 published a Halloween cartoon by Eli Valley that the newspaper said “takes aim at a Zionist science experiment gone hideously wrong.”
The cartoon (www.forward.com/articles/164948/scary-science-experiment) features Dr. Lowenstein, a scientist in the mold of Dr. Frankenstein who is hired by David Ben Gurion in 1957 to fuse the DNA of Anne Frank and Judah the Maccabee into a serum to “administer to every Jew in the country,” creating “the perfected Jews in our reclaimed homeland.”
Lowenstein’s resulting specimen “shows signs of bellicosity and jingoism,” eventually escaping in 1967 along with the serum, which reaches the water supply and infects “the entire nation.” In August 2012, the “last of the earlier breed” calls out from hiding and holds a sketch of a bomb, saying both “At the red line we will be annihilated” and “At the red line we will annihilate them,” representing a spoof of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent United Nations General Assembly speech on Iran’s nuclear program.
On the Forward’s website, one commenter asked “What happened, did the major Iranian newspapers all turn this down as just too crudely anti-Semitic?” Another online commenter noted how Valley hit “all the usual high points” such as “sinister Jewish conspiracy,” “Zionists as the new Nazis,” “Jews and Israel bringing anti-Semitism upon themselves by exaggerating a nearly non-existent phenomena and seeing it everywhere, for reasons consisting of pyschopathology and cynical political advantage.”
Some commenters did consider the cartoon to be “smart and funny” or “incisive.” But Jonathan Tobin, senior online editor for Commentary magazine, wrote that Valley “stepped across the divide between fair comment and political satire into the realm of anti-Semitic invective.”
“This is not just the usual leftist argument about self-destructive right-wingers, but a full-blown attempt to depict Israel as a monster, built on the ashes of the Holocaust but instead replicating its horrors,” he wrote. “This is not just hostility to Zionism masquerading as an attempt to save it from the Zionists, but propaganda illustrated in the language of hate.”
*
Israeli Jews prefer Romney, Israeli Arabs prefer Obama by wide margins
(JNS.org) They won’t be voting in the U.S. election, but the attitudes of Israeli Jews leading up to Nov. 6 point strongly in favor of one candidate. The same holds true for Israeli Arabs.
The October 2012 “Peace Index” poll conducted from Oct. 22-24 by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University found that Israeli Jews prefer challenger Mitt Romney over incumbent Barack Obama by a margin of 35 percentage points (57-22), while Israeli Arabs support Obama by 30 points (45-15).
A total of 601 respondents were surveyed over the three days, with a 4.5 percent margin of error.
*
Long-delayed museum on Polish Jewry set to open
(JNS.org) After nearly 20 years of planning and delays, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is set to open in 2013 in Poland, the Associated Press reported.
Unlike many other Jewish museums that focus on numerous tragedies of Jewish history, the new museum will celebrate the nearly 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland.
“It is a museum of life,” said Sigmund Rolat, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor and American benefactor who has helped bring the museum to life. “We are showing 1,000 years of a magnificent history.”
The museum is being constructed in Warsaw on the site of the infamous Jewish Ghetto, which became a symbol of Jewish courage and resistance during WWII. It is being funded through a partnership between the Polish government and American-Jewish benefactors.
The museum will highlight the significant achievements in culture, science and the arts that Polish Jews made over the centuries. In addition, the museum will also celebrate the contributions Polish Jews made around the world, including Polish-born Jews like David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel, and Albert Sabin, who developed the polio vaccine.
Beyond the discussion of Polish Jewish history, the museum will also address complex relationship between Polish Christians and Jews over the centuries, a topic that has been taboo until recently. It hopes to challenge the stereotypes on both sides that Poland historically was always a hostile place to Jews by showing long periods where Jews were welcomed and thrived. But it will not ignore the ugliest episodes of anti-Semitism during the 19th and 20th centuries.
“You don’t live in a place for a thousand years and create a great civilization if it’s one unmitigated disaster, which of course is one of the perceptions of the history of Polish Jews,” said Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the program director of the core exhibition.
“It’s a perception that was largely created by the cataclysmic events of the Holocaust. But we don’t start with the Holocaust, and we don’t end with the Holocaust.”
Senior South African leaders endorse boycott of Israel
(JNS.org) Relations between Israel and South Africa may take a significant step backwards after senior South African leaders endorsed a boycott of Israel, the Times of Israel reported.
South African delegates at the International Solidarity Conference, hosted by the South African government, endorsed the anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement.
There was “wide-spread support from international delegates for the adoption and support of the Palestinian BDS call,” a press release from the South African BDS chapter said.
Additionally, according to the release, South Africa’s deputy president Baleka Mbete said that Israel was actually “far worse than Apartheid South Africa,” in response to a German delegate who objected to Israel being compared to apartheid South Africa.
While the South African government is officially against boycotts of Israel, the recent statements by senior leaders are creating mixed signals at a time when relations are already strained between the two countries.
“The government of South Africa has stated time and again that it is against boycotts,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. “We’re waiting for South African officials to respond and clarify the official position.”
Last spring, South Africa’s trade and industry minister began encouraging South African traders to label products from Israel as originating from “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Then in August, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister called on citizens to avoid visiting Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org