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Gov. Hochul unveils new plan to combat antisemitism in New York
(New York Jewish Week) – Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the founding of a new center to combat hate via education — the centerpiece of a larger plan to fight antisemitism in New York, the state with the largest Jewish population in the country.
Hochul unveiled plans for the State Anti-Hate in Education Center during an event Tuesday at the Center for Jewish History in downtown Manhattan, in front of a crowd of about 300 people that included representatives of Jewish organizations across the city. Hochul portrayed the initiative as a response to the Biden administration’s national plan to counter antisemitism, which was presented in May.
An annual survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitic incidents in New York state had jumped 28% in 2022 from the previous year.
“I will stand here as your governor and tell you, with every fiber of my body, that we will never show indifference to the evil of antisemitism — not now, not ever,” Hochul said at the event.
The State Anti-Hate in Education Center will be part of the governor’s office and will aim to bring together representatives from major educational bodies in the state, including the City University of New York, State University of New York, the state’s Education Department and a group representing the leaders of independent campuses across the state. The center will focus on outlining ways institutions can partner to combat hate, particularly through education, and will host a conference next summer. This year, the center will focus on antisemitism, and will choose a different form of bigotry to study annually in subsequent years.
“Hate cannot be fought in silos. We know what begins with the Jews rarely ever ends with the Jews,” said Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who spoke after Hochul about the Biden administration’s anti-antisemitism plan. “What we’ve got to understand, and what I believe that our government does understand, is that there is an interconnectedness of hatred, that what begins with one group never ends with that group.”
L-R: Ted Deutch, Deborah Lipstadt and Kathy Hochul at the Center for Jewish History, New York, NY, Sept. 19, 2023.(Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
Hochul also pledged to implement a program that would educate children about discrimination, and to enforce a law requiring Holocaust education in schools. New York has required schools to teach about the Holocaust since 1994, and last year, Hochul signed a bill directing the state to survey whether schools are complying with that mandate.
Hochul’s plan also includes measures to improve the way law enforcement responds to, investigates and collects data on reported hate crimes. She also pledged to simplify the process by which victims of crimes can apply for financial assistance for lost or damaged property and other crime-related expenses.
Another facet of the plan, Hochul said, focuses on providing culturally sensitive mental health care to help Jewish New Yorkers “handle what they’re going through over the last couple years.”
“I want the word out. We have the resources, we have the commitment, we have the people who will do the right thing,” Hochul said. “I don’t ever want to find any limitations on our ability as a state — or my ability as a governor whose number-one job is to protect people in this state.”
She also announced that $38 million of federal funding has been allocated to help fund security measures at 195 synagogues and other religious and nonprofit institutions in the state. In addition, the state has allocated $500,000 toward a program that would “empower community organizations to help lead other, non-Jewish organizations in systemwide anti-hate efforts.”
Antisemitism was not the only issue that came up at the event. Before her speech, the governor was interrupted by two screaming protesters — including Jonathan David Rinaldi, a Jewish Republican candidate for New York City Council — who demanded that she “close the border” in response to the influx of migrants into the state. The two men also demanded that Hochul stop seeking federal funding to help resettle migrants, that she fight what they termed “Jew hatred at CUNY” and that she lift COVID-19 vaccine requirements (though what they were referring to was unclear). The men were swiftly removed by security.
In addition to Hochul and Lipstadt, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch spoke to the crowd, praising the governor and quoting the rabbinic adage that “All of Israel are responsible for one another.”
“That responsibility starts very much with us,” Deutch said. “It’s true within the Jewish community, it’s what we say about our own community, but it’s remarkable to see the governor of the state of New York recognize that responsibility the way you have.”
Some attendees hoped the governor would address Jewish concerns beyond antisemitism and hate.
“I believe it’s very good what the governor is doing, but we still need to meet about something positive,” said Alexander Rapaport, the founder of Masbia, a kosher food pantry network, and Masbia relief, a Jewish communal disaster relief team that has been aiding newly arrived migrants to New York City. “If all we can talk about is antisemitism and combating hate and it takes up all the air in the room, the haters are still winning in some way.”
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The post Gov. Hochul unveils new plan to combat antisemitism in New York appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.