Renowned Holocaust historian Israel Gutman dies at 90
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) World-renowned Holocaust historian Professor Israel Gutman, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Auschwitz concentration camp and one of the founders of the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research, passed away in Jerusalem on Monday night. He was 90.
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said, “My mentor and friend, Professor Israel Gutman, made a deep impression on historiography in Israel and around the world, and made a significant and unique contribution to the propagation of historical awareness of the Holocaust and its meanings among the wider public forum in Israel, especially among the youth.”
Joe Biden slammed for calling Palestinians ‘least ideological and sectarian’ Mideast Arabs
(JNS.org) In a speech at the conference of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby J Street, Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that the Palestinians are the “least ideological and sectarian” Arabs in the Middle East.
Biden’s comments on the Palestinians were an attempt to address questions concerning the Obama administration’s brokering of Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations during a time of upheaval elsewhere in the region, including in Syria and in Egypt.
“In light of all these problems, some people ask us: Why Biden, why, why Obama. Why are you so set on trying to resolve the peace process?” Biden said.
“The Palestinian-Israeli issue involves the least ideological and least sectarian Arabs in the Middle East,” he said in an answer to his rhetorical question.
Dr. Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, said Biden’s characterization of the Palestinians revealed the Obama administration’s “profound ignorance—or willful denial—about the Middle East.” He said the Palestinians, contrary to Biden’s assessment, have “shown themselves over the last century to be the most radicalized of populations not just in the region, but globally.”
“In the 1920s, they initiated a policy absolutely to reject the Zionist presence; in the 1940s, they joined with Adolf Hitler; in the 1960s, they founded modern terrorism; in the 1990s, they fraudulently signed an agreement on the White House lawn; in the 2000s, they engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing vis-à-vis Christians; and today, as a terrorist organization rules in Gaza, a large majority endorses terrorism as a tactic and retains the goal of eliminating the sovereign Jewish state,” Pipes told JNS.org.
“Palestinians are, in fact, most ideological and most sectarian of Arabs,” he added.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that Palestinians express the highest support for terrorism and terrorist groups among Muslims, despite overall drops in support of terrorist groups across the Muslim world.
According to the survey, “Support for suicide bombing and other violence aimed at civilian targets is most widespread in the Palestinian territories, with 62% of Muslims saying that such attacks are often or sometimes justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies.”
Newly canonized Popes John Paul II, John XXIII praised for denouncing anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed the Vatican’s announcement of the canonization of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII, citing their groundbreaking work in denouncing anti-Semitism and building positive Jewish-Catholic relations.
“For us in the Jewish community, Popes John Paul II and John XXIII have already been saints for a long time. They are towering men whose visionary leadership and groundbreaking reforms transformed Jewish-Catholic relations and reversed two thousand painful years of church-based anti-Semitism,” said Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman, who met Pope John Paul II on several occasions, in a statement.
Pope John Paul II was the first pope to visit the Great Synagogue of Rome since Saint Peter and also denounced anti-Semitism as a “sin against God and humanity.” John Paul II formally established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993 and made a historic visit to Israel in 2000.
Pope John XXIII is notable for being the driving force behind the Second Vatican Council, including its landmark Nostra Aetate, which ended centuries of anti-Semitic policies within the Catholic Church and paved the way for improved Catholic-Jewish relations.
Since becoming pontiff in March, Pope Francis has made Jewish-Christian relations a priority, continuing the legacy of his predecessors. Recently, Pope Francis praised the Jewish people for “keeping their faith in God” despite centuries of persecution, and also declared in June that a true Christian “cannot be anti-Semitic.”
Pope Francis has also met several times with Jewish leaders and has announced tentative plans to visit Israel next year.
Cornell University launches media technology degree with Israel’s Technion
(JNS.org) New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and major media companies on Tuesday announced the official launch of a degree program which, in a collaboration between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology, will train engineers and other technologically skilled professionals for careers in media.
The program—which is the first degree offered by the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (JTCII) at Cornell Tech—entails two years of study to earn a master’s in Connective Media. Graduates will receive their degree from both Cornell and Technion. The program will collaborate with major media companies such as Facebook, Hearst, WordPress and the New York Times.
“New York City is the world’s media capital, but we can’t take that position for granted because the way media is produced and consumed is changing dramatically,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “Media creators and tech companies have a lot to gain from a strong, collaborative working relationship, and I am proud that Cornell and the Technion will be training the next generation of tech talent in New York City to work with the media industry. We will reap the benefits of that partnership in the form of job creation and global competitiveness.”
Jacobs, a co-founder of Qualcomm in San Diego, went to Cornell University as an undergraduate and has been a strong supporter of Technion. A Qualcomm plant is based near Technion in Haifa.
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Hungary vows to ‘crack down’ on anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics vowed to “crack down” on anti-Semitism in his country through legal and political means during a conference on Jewish life and anti-Semitism in Europe.
“We cannot allow, especially knowing our own responsibility, anti-Semitism to gain strength in Hungary,” he said. “We know Hungarians were responsible for the Holocaust. Hungarians were perpetrators, and victims.”
Contemporary Hungary still has a Jewish community, even though up to 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust. In recent years, the country has seen a rise in anti-Semitism. The far-right Jobbik party, which has displayed anti-Semitic tendencies, holds 43 out of 386 seats. in the Hungarian Parliament.
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid spoke at the parliament during the conference, commenting that the parliament building once had a sign barring entry “for Jews and dogs,” according to Reuters. Lapid’s own father had escaped a shooting on the banks of the Danube river with thousands of other Jews in 1945. “There is a stain on the honor of this house,” Lapid said of the Hungarian Parliament.
Netanyahu at U.N. outlines steps to dismantle Iran nuclear program
(JNS.org) Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the need for firm pressure on Iran to open its nuclear program and asserted that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a “clear and present danger,” despite Iran’s apparent attempts to foster diplomacy with the U.S.
Netanyahu credited the U.S. for the impact of Iran sanctions, stating that the “tough sanctions have taken a big bite” out of Iran. He said that continuing to “combine tough sanctions with a credible military threat” was the only way to force the dismantling of the Iran nuclear program.
Though his speech this year did not come with a trademark prop like his “red line” diagram at last year’s U.N. General Assembly that illustrated Iran’s nuclear timetable, Netanyahu did outline four steps that would dismantle Iran’s nuclear program: ceasing all uranium enrichment, removing the stockpiles of enriched uranium from Iranian territory, dismantling Iran’s nuclear breakout capability, and stopping all work at the Islamic Republic’s heavy water reactor in Arak (whose aim is to produce plutonium).
Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke at the U.N. in New York and got a phone call from U.S. President Barack Obama, the first interaction between U.S. and Iranian heads of state in 30 years. Netanyahu called Rouhani’s recent expressions of openness to diplomacy a “ruse” to make the West back down.
“I wish I could believe Rouhani, but I don’t,” Netanyahu said. “Rouhani thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it, too.”
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu said, “The dangers of a nuclear armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to finally recognize that Israel is not their enemy, and this affords us the opportunity to overcome historic animosities.”
“Israel continues to seek a historic compromise with our Palestinian neighbors,” Netanyahu said. “One that ends our conflict once and for all: we want peace based on security and mutual recognition, in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state of Israel.”
Pew Research Center survey finds steady trends on American Jewish support for Israel
(JNS.org) “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, has found steady trends on support for Israel among American Jews, especially among the Orthodox and Jewish Republicans.
Emotional attachment to Israel has not decreased over the past decade.
“Overall, about seven-in-ten Jews surveyed say they feel either very attached (30%) or somewhat attached (39%) to Israel, essentially unchanged since 2000-2001,” the report said.
While the survey found that solid majorities of Jews across the denominational spectrum support Israel—Orthodox Jews 91 percent, Reform 71 percent, and Conservative 88 percent—it also said that Orthodox Jews “are more apt than members of other denominations to say they feel very emotionally attached to Israel,” due to the “deep attachment to Israel felt by modern Orthodox Jews.”
Despite the gridlock in Washington, DC over healthcare and other issues, there remains bipartisan support for Israel among American Jews. “Roughly two-thirds of Jewish Democrats (65%) and Independents (69%) say they feel at least somewhat attached to Israel,” the Pew survey said. Eighty-four percent of Jewish Republicans, meanwhile, say they feel an emotional attachment to Israel.
Additionally, Jewish Republicans (62 percent) and Orthodox Jews (61 percent) are more likely to support Israel’s efforts on the peace process than Democrats (32 percent), Reform (36 percent), or secular Jews (27 percent). Large majorities of Jews in all religious denominations and political affiliations (12 percent) are skeptical of Palestinian efforts towards peace.
Forty-percent of Jews believe that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God, including 84 percent of Orthodox Jews, which is comparable to the attitude among white Evangelicals (82 percent belief) on the same topic.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org