International

Should Everyone Be Afraid of Elon Musk Buying Twitter?

By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS) In February, the Anti-Defamation League announced that it had developed what it called an “online hate index” to monitor antisemitism on social-media platforms. The effort was conceived as a way to adequately measure the amount of hate speech being posted on sites like Twitter and Reddit, which the group thinks […]

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Opinion, USA

PJ Library Serves Up Stories About Passover and Mimouna

From PJ Library comes two Passover-related books suitable for reading to children.  Meet the Matzah is the kind of silly story that children will giggle over.  In this case, different kinds of breads and matzah have been anthropomorphized as students in a classroom where they learn about all kinds of holidays and the breads that are served.  For example, one might eat naan during the Hindu festival of Diwali and tortillas on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Parents: Encourage Your Children to Participate in Student Government

By Elior Amar (JNS) On one Tuesday night in February, a small group of Jewish students at UC Santa Cruz, where I serve as a shaliach (Israeli emissary) for the Jewish Agency for Israel, logged into the weekly Zoom meeting of the Student Union Assembly to support the adoption of a working definition of antisemitism. The

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California, Middle East, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Iran Assembles ‘Building Blocks for Long-Range Ballistic Missiles’

By Yaakov Lappin (JNS) Iran is gradually assembling the building blocks necessary to construct ballistic missiles with very long ranges, an Israeli missile and space expert has said, adding that Islamic Republic’s elite military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “can reach space.” Iran’s space program uses ballistic-missile technology to launch spy satellites into orbit around

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International, Middle East, USA

Beverly Hills Residents Wake Up to Antisemitic Fliers on First Day of Passover

(JNS) Antisemitic fliers blaming Russia’s nearly two-month-long war in Ukraine on Jews were left in front of homes in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the first day of Passover. “Every single aspect of the Ukraine-Russia war is Jewish,” said the flier, which included photos of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also

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California, USA

Reframing the Arguments in Israel and the Palestinian Authority

Almost all arguments about Israel revolve around one or more of the following themes: security, collective identity, freedom, and territory. Authors Gringras and Sterne help us to conceptualize these arguments with a series of analogies.  They challenge us to argue, in the classic sense of the word, about right and wrong in the hope that we may learn from each other. Arguments are different from fights; they are mental exercises, not physical, and they are laid out methodically, with each side trying to educate the other using such tools as logic and empathy. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Brothers Al Lapin Jr. and Jerry Lapin Founded IHOP Chain

The International House of Pancakes at the Bay Plaza Shopping Center in National City was built in conformance with the shopping center’s architectural guidelines, rather than in IHOP’s usual configuration. However, it still has a trademark blue roof, and its menu is fairly typical of some 1,500 other establishments in the family restaurant chain created by two Jewish brothers. Al Lapin Jr. and Jerry Lapin started IHOP in 1958 in the tony San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Toluca Lake. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Business & Finance, California, Donald H. Harrison, San Diego County, Travel and Food, USA

StandWithUs Commends Tennessee for Landmark Antisemitism Legislation

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Press Release) — StandWithUs commends the state of Tennessee for overwhelmingly passing (by a vote of 29-0-0) groundbreaking legislation to help confront antisemitic crimes and discrimination on April 14, 2022. By passing HB 2673, Tennessee now joins the ranks of Florida, Iowa, and South Carolina in codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA)

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USA

Tradition

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — As Passover approaches the word “tradition” assumes increasing prominence in the lives of Jews — and Israelis. Each ethnic group, and each family, has its own traditions regarding the way the festival is celebrated (cue musical interlude “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof”). This was brought home to

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles, Middle East

San Diego Attorney Admits to Conspiring to Commit $500,000 of Tax Fraud with Former Chabad of Poway Rabbi Goldstein

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — Elliot Adler, an attorney and founding partner of a boutique San Diego law firm, pleaded guilty in federal court today to conspiring with former Chabad of Poway Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein to commit tax fraud. According to his plea agreement, Adler admitted that beginning at least as early as 2010 and

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San Diego County, USA

First Rehabilitation Hospital in Israel’s Negev Poised to Put Region ‘On the Map’

By Jacob Kamaras (JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, while serving as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war as well as grappling with a wave of terrorism in Israel and the collapse of his governing coalition, has dealt with anything but “good news” in the weeks leading up to Passover. But just in time for

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Jacob Kamaras, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA