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Jewish Life Stories: A lone soldier, the voice of the Shangri-Las, two giants of American health care
This article is also available as a weekly newsletter, “Life Stories,” where we remember those who made an outsize impact in the Jewish world — or just left their community a better or more interesting place. Subscribe here to get “Life Stories” in your inbox every Tuesday.
Rebecca Baruch, 18, a Dutch immigrant who found a home in Israel
Rebecca Baruch was 18 when she moved from the Netherlands to Israel in 2017.
In 2021, in an article in the Christian Science Monitor about her experience as a “lone soldier,” she spoke about the loneliness of graduating from offficer training school during COVID-19, when her family couldn’t travel to Israel for the ceremony. She graduated on Nov. 5, 2020, and went on to lead an all-female field intelligence unit.
“I think women make good combat soldiers in general because we push to prove ourselves, our worth,” she explained. “Inside our unit, we don’t have to prove anything because we build each other up through our hard work and camaraderie.”
She also told the Monitor what she told the soldiers under her command, about “my perfectionism, that if I get angry it’s probably because I need to eat, and why I immigrated to Israel, pulled here as a European Jewish girl looking for a place I could feel fully at home.”
After the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, she rejoined her reserve unit. She served a few weeks and was allowed to leave the army to attend a Habonim youth group camp in South Africa as a counselor. There she contracted a bacterial infection and slipped into a coma. She died Sunday at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel. She was 24.
“In line with Rebecca’s last wish her organs were donated to people that needed them,” her father, Robbert Baruch, wrote in a Facebook post. “Whilst today is one of the saddest days of our lives, the fact that our sister and daughter continues to help people after her death fills us with pride and gratitude.”
Mary Weiss, 75, the leader and the voice of the Shangri-Las
Mary Weiss, center, and The Shangri-Las on the cover of Cash Box magazine, Feb. 13, 1965. (Wikipedia)
Mary Weiss was barely a teenager when she formed the Shangri-Las with her sister Betty and two other Jewish teens from the Cambria Heights section of Queens, New York. The “girl group” had a breakout hit in 1964 with “Leader of the Pack,” a bombastic melodrama about a doomed, bad-boy romance. The group broke up in 1969 but left a legacy that inspired other female musicians, including the Jewish singer Amy Winehouse. “I love the drama, I love the atmosphere, I love the sound effects,” Winehouse said of the group. Weiss died Friday in Palm Springs, California. She was 75.
Norman Jewison, 97, the gentile director who brought “Fiddler” to the big screen
Director Norman Jewison, right, and star Topol as Tevye on the set of the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof.” (Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber)
Norman Jewison relayed a by-now familiar anecdote: When producers of the Broadway musical approached him for the directing job, he had to sheepishly inform them he wasn’t actually Jewish. He got the job anyway, and generations of Jewish families watching 1971’s “Fiddler” would come to associate that big title card displaying the “Jewison” name with the story of their shtetl-born ancestors. Bringing Anatevka to vivid, pulsating life was one of many career highlights for the Toronto native, who died Saturday at age 97. Jewison helmed several other iconic films in his long, distinguished career, including “Moonstruck,” “In The Heat of the Night,” “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “The Hurricane” — many of them involving pressing social matters like racism and other forms of bigotry.
Zevulun Charlop, 94, a transitonal leader of YU’s flagship seminary
Rabbi Zevulun Charlop served as dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University from 1971-2008. (Yeshiva University)
Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, former dean of the rabbinical seminary at Yeshiva University, died Jan. 16. He was 94. When Charlop was named dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Y.U. in 1971, it had 154 students. When he retired in 2008, it had 340. Charlop also saw a transition in American Orthodoxy, training American-born, college-educated rabbis to succeed the European-trained rabbis who had held pulpits and led yeshivas through much of the 20th century. Charlop was himself a pulpit rabbi, having been given a lifetime contract in 1966 by the Young Israel of Mosholu Parkway in the Bronx, New York, which closed in 2015. He once said that his ideal Y.U. would be “a yeshiva like Volozhin,” a legendary seminary in what is now Belarus, and a university like Columbia, the Ivy League university where he obtained a degree.
Claire Fagin, 97, a force in nursing and academia
From 1977 to 1992, Claire M. Fagin served as dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, which named the nursing education building in her honor in 2006. (Penn Nursing)
When Claire Fagin was growing up in New York in the 1930s, her parents — European Jewish immigrants — wanted her to be a physician, like one of her aunts. Fagin, inspired by her “collegial” nature and the snappy uniforms of the Army Nurse Corps, had other ideas. She earned a degree in nursing and went on to become perhaps the most influential nursing educator over the next 50 years. She successfully challenged policies limiting visiting hours to parents of hospitalized children, remade the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing as its dean starting in 1977, was the founding director of a national program on geriatric nursing and championed advanced training that earned nurses more professional respect. And along the way, she became the first woman to lead an Ivy League university when she was named Penn’s interim president in 1993. Fagin died Jan. 16 at her home in Manhattan. She was 97.
Gabriel Maza, 99, a rabbi who championed tough laws against hate
Rabbi Gabriel Maza, longtime rabbi of Long Island’s Suffolk Jewish Center, in a photo from the early 1960s. (Courtesy Devra Maza)
Gabriel Maza, who as the leader of the Suffolk Jewish Center in Deer Park, Long Island urged legislation to combat hate crimes and antisemitism, died Dec. 26, 2023. He was 99. The president of the Suffolk Board of Rabbis and later the Long Island Board of Rabbis in the 1980s, Maza lobbied the New York State Legislature about the need for tougher hate crime laws, and, among other successes, pushed for the creation of the Suffolk County Task Force on Anti-Semitism. “Open antisemitism is contagious among people in whom this old form of hate is dormant or hidden,” his daughter Devra Maza quoted him as saying. “As hate and prejudice travels across oceans and continents, all people of decency, and certainly those in positions of power, have a duty in sounding a civilized alarm, for criminal prejudice sickens every society which allows it to thrive.” Born in Minsk and raised on New York’s Lower East Side, Maza was one of seven children and four brothers who were ordained as rabbis, including the late comedian Jackie Mason.
Naomi Feil, 91, who brought empathy to the treatment of dementia
Naomi Feil was the the developer of the “validation method” for treating the eldderly with dementia. (Validation Training Institute)
Naomi Feil, a gerontologist and social worker who pioneered a method for “validating” the often angry or disoriented behavior of those with dementia, died Dec. 24 at her home in Jasper, Oregon. She was 91. In two books and thousands of workshops, she spread the gospel of “person-centered dementia care,” urging caregivers to affirm, rather than deny, the emotions of agitated people. “You don’t argue, you don’t lie,” she said in a TEDx talk in 2015. “You listen with empathy and you rephrase.” Born in Munich, Feil escaped with her Jewish family to the United States, where her father became the administrator of a Cleveland nursing home. “I grew up in a home, so I know how mean old people can be,” Feil said in 1993, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “The old lady isn’t really yelling at you; you remind her of someone from long ago. She’s trying to resolve some unfinished business from the past at this final stage in her life.”
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The post Jewish Life Stories: A lone soldier, the voice of the Shangri-Las, two giants of American health care appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Roger Waters Defends Hamas, Claims There’s ‘Filthy Lies’ and ‘No Evidence’ of Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
Piers Morgan, left, and Roger Waters discussing Israel and Hamas on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters defended the Hamas terrorist organization for perpetrating the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel in a combative interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan on Tuesday.
Waters, a longtime critic of Israel who has been widely accused of antisemitism, also rejected the use of the term “terrorism” to describe the attack, in which 1,200 people were murdered and some 250 others were taken as hostages by Hamas. Most of the victims were civilians.
“To kill a civilian is a war crime,” Waters, 80, said about the Oct. 7 attack during an appearance on the talk show “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” When Morgan asked him if it’s considered “terrorism” as well,” Waters replied, “Well, to use the word ‘terrorism’ is really dangerous and difficult. You have to remember that the people fighting on behalf of Palestine liberation have a legal and moral, not just a right, they have a right to fight back against the oppressor.”
He added: “If someone invades your country, kicks all the people out of their home, steals everything and is stealing all your land and occupies all your land for 75 years, you have an absolute right to armed resistance against that invader.” When asked if Hamas committed war crimes on Oct. 7, Waters replied, “probably.”
Rogers further denied there is proof that Hamas terrorists raped some of its victims on Oct. 7, despite widespread evidence to the contrary, including testimonies from former hostages.
“All the filthy disgusting lies that the Israelis told after Oct. 7 about burning babies and women being raped — No they weren’t,” he claimed. Morgan shot back, “Actually women were raped. It’s been established by the United Nations. There is extensive evidence of assault and rape.” But Waters repeatedly replied, “You can say anything you want [but] there is no evidence.”
“All those piles of cars that were destroyed by Apache missiles from helicopters… Hamas didn’t have helicopters,” Waters added, referring to the site of the Nova music festival in Israel where Hamas murdered more than 350 party-goers on Oct. 7.
The tension between Morgan and Waters escalated when the singer questioned Hamas’ abduction of infants and seniors on Oct. 7. Talking about now 1-year-old Kfir Bibas, who at nine months old was the youngest Israeli abducted on Oct. 7 along with his mother and four-year-old brother, Waters falsely claimed that the child has been released in a hostage exchange. Morgan corrected him, saying that the child has not been released, but an annoyed Waters replied, “Piers, you may or may not be making it up — I know you believe nonsense that you’re told by ZAKA or people who have made up tons of lies about Oct. 7.”
ZAKA is a volunteer-led rescue and recovery organization that assisted with the collection of bodies of victims from the Oct. 7 attack so they could be buried in accordance with Jewish law.
Waters repeatedly refused to condemn the Oct. 7 attack, telling Morgan, “I’m not going to have this conversation.”
“I condemn the killing of civilians, always. Whoever does it,” he said. “I condemn war crimes. If Hamas committed war crimes on Oct. 7, I condemn it.” Waters reiterated a claim he made earlier this year that it was impossible to know what really took place on Oct. 7, because “Israelis won’t allow any real investigation,” he told Morgan.
Morgan told the singer that Hamas terrorists were open about what they did on Oct. 7 and even broadcasted live footage on social media during the attack. Waters went on to say, “I’m not saying that part of the Palestinian resistance movement didn’t cross that wire fence into what’s called Israel. I’m not saying that didn’t happen. What I’m saying is, there’s all this talk about, ‘Does Israel have a right to defend itself?’ Why didn’t Israel defend itself that morning? Why did they wait seven hours before they started machine-gunning everyone?”
Waters, who has repeatedly denied accusations that he’s antisemitic, also defended a video he previously published on YouTube in which he told Israelis to “go back to Eastern Europe or the United States or wherever you came from.” He said in the clip that Israelis who chose to stay in their homes would be “welcome” in a new Palestinian state.
Commenting on the video, Waters told Morgan: “I am in tears over Gaza every morning when I wake up. I’m only 80 years old, I have never experienced the genocide of a whole people in front of my eyes happening every day.” He said what’s happening to the Palestinians in Gaza now during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war is “a disgusting, awful crime” akin to what Jews experienced during World War II. He also accused Israel of currently carrying out the “extermination of the indigenous people of Palestine” and committing a “genocide” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
At various stages of the interview, Waters began talking out loud to himself, urging himself to calm now and not let Morgan get him riled up or angry. He also talked to Morgan during the interview about the “Israeli lobby” and Israeli “war machine” being “very powerful” and critical of him in the past. He additionally called Israel “oppressors” and “torturers,” and Zionism a “failed experiment.” Numerous times he accused Israel of “committing genocide” in Gaza, additionally claiming that the Jewish state aims to “killing every single Palestinian.”
“They’re not gonna kill every Palestinian, obviously,” Morgan cut Waters off by saying.
“Oh, they’re not? Well they’re trying to,” Waters replied.
“No,” Morgan clarified, “they’re trying to kill every member of Hamas.”
An utterly frustrated Waters then looked straight into the camera and told viewers, “The oppressor, the stare of Israel, is committing genocide on a whole people. Some of the people, in the prison where the genocide is being committed, resisted the genocide on Oct. 7 and some people in Israel were killed. And I feel for them and their families. But let’s not forget where this started … It’s one set of people trying to steal a whole land from another set of people.”
When Morgan asked him to respond to accusations of him being antisemitic, Waters said, “I’m not antisemitic even very faintly. You know who would know if Roger Waters were an antisemite? Roger Waters would know, because I would have feelings about Jews!”
Last year, an explosive documentary showed fellow musicians detailing Waters’ long record of anti-Jewish barbs. In one instance, a former colleague recalled Waters at a restaurant yelling at the wait staff to “take away the Jew food.”
Morgan tweeted about his interview with Rogers, saying, “I interviewed Pink Floyd star @rogerwaters yesterday, after calling him ‘the world’s dumbest rock star’ and a ‘complete and utter moron.’ It went as well as could be expected.”
Watch Waters and Morgan’s full interview below.
The post Roger Waters Defends Hamas, Claims There’s ‘Filthy Lies’ and ‘No Evidence’ of Sexual Violence on Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Hamas Groups Planning to Crash Fourth of July With Riotous US Protests
Illustrative: A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
Pro-Hamas groups are planning to disrupt Fourth of July celebrations marking US Independence Day in Philadelphia and New York City with “All Out for Gaza” protests, demonstrating again an ideological link between their anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism.
“Philly, mark your calendars: July 4,” said an announcement circulated on social media by two groups, The Philly Palestine Coalition (PPC) and CodePink, the latter of which has ties to the virulent antisemite Louis Farrakhan through its proxy Linda Sarsour and has itself promoted antisemitic conspiracies of Jewish power and control.
The Philly Palestine Coalition, meanwhile, came under national scrutiny in December when it organized what lawmakers and other government officials described as an antisemitic demonstration targeting a restaurant owned by American–Israeli Michael Solomonov, making outlandish accusations against the famed chef and the Jewish state. The group has a history of backing the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and ridiculing victims of Hamas’ violence.
The two groups made clear in their latest social media announcement that Thursday’s planned demonstrations won’t just be protests against Israel but the US as well.
“For the past 9 months, this country’s continued to support, fund, and oversee this ongoing genocide and warmongering all over the world,” the announcement continued, referring to the US government’s overall backing of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“This July 4th, join us as we stand with the resistance and support Palestine, not AmeriKKKa!” the post continued, combining “America” with the infamous acronym of the Ku Klux Klan. “We don’t celebrate the legacy of genocide, colonialism, and slavery that July 4th symbolizes but struggle for true liberation for all.”
The post concluded with emojis of the Palestinian flag.
The Philadelphia protest will take place in Rittenhouse Square, while the New York City protest will take place in Union Square, located in the Manhattan borough.
Similar to far-right, white nationalist organizations, CodePink has, through its campaigns and social media activity, attempted to undermine the legitimacy of the state by spreading falsehoods about the foreign policy objectives of the US and its allies, including Israel, which it has spuriously accused of committing a genocide in Gaza and manipulating US elections.
One of CodePink’s board members is lawyer Huwaida Arraf, an anti-Zionist activist who has shared on social media atrocity propaganda manufactured by Hamas to misrepresent Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories. He was also the co-founder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group that was linked to terrorists in a 2004 investigation conducted by the FBI.
CodePink publicly boasts ties to other groups linked to terror, including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an advocacy group that, according to a landmark report published last year by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), “retains ties to terrorist groups operating in the Palestinian territories.”
In 2019, CodePink defended US Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) saying that support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins, baby,” an evocation of antisemitic tropes concerning Jewish influence through money. In a statement posted to its website, the organization accused Jews of attacking “people of color,” a tactic that has been appropriated by far-right groups to defend minority public figures of color who embrace and traffic in antisemitic conspiracies.
“Everyone who works in Washington, DC knows that when an elected official crosses AIPAC [the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying organization in the US], it uses its enormous power to exact revenge,” CodePink said. “We are seeing it now as they try to destroy a brand new, inspirational congresswoman: Ilhan Omar. We won’t stand for it again. Every moment that we allow false accusations of anti-Semitism [sic] to dominate the national conversation, we ignore the actual issues … The pro-Israel lobby has been looking for any reason to attack Ilhan Omar, but don’t let them dictate the terms of the debate.”
The Philly Palestine Coalition (PPC) was the principal orchestrator of illegal “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, according to an investigative report by The Washington Free Beacon, demonstrations which resulted in dozens of antisemitic incidents, vandalism, and hate speech.
At the University of Pennsylvania, protesters, students, and non-students who were sent there by PPC vandalized a statue of Benjamin Franklin. At Drexel University, during the time of PPC’s involvement in protests, the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life was vandalized, with the perpetrators removing large channel letters spelling out Perelman’s name from a brick structure bearing the building’s name.
A month later, Drexel University was pushed into lockdown when the PPC-backed group “Drexel Palestine Coalition” (DPC) set up an encampment and flooded it with non-students. DPC then demanded that the school adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and “terminate” its Hillel and Chabad chapters.
“These organizations must be replaced by non-Zionist Jewish ones that in no way support the ongoing genocide, occupation, or apartheid in Palestine,” DPC said in a statement posted on social media.
DPC also demanded that the university abolish its police, grant amnesty to any protester charged with violating school rules, and reduce the salary of the university’s president John Fry by “60 percent.” Footage of their demonstration showed some aggressive behavior, including the dismantling of police barricades.
“Since Oct. 7, we have seen pro-Hamas activists abuse the First Amendment to rationalize their support for terrorism under the guise of ‘free speech,’ turning America on its head by spreading anti-American values,” Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “With July 4th around the corner we are now seeing yet again another egregious attempt by pro-Hamas groups, including CodePink, to subvert our democracy by presenting anti-democratic values as ‘democratic’ but instead showing their roots in an ideological nexus of Marxism, Communism, and antisemitism.”
He continued, “The continuous attempt to push their unbridled defenses of Hamas in every aspect of American life is part of a consistent strategy to marginalize and exclude Israelis and Jews from the American zeitgeist as a pretext for increasingly crude antisemitism.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Pro-Hamas Groups Planning to Crash Fourth of July With Riotous US Protests first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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CNN Fires Hamas-linked Gaza Freelancer Exposed by HonestReporting
CNN announced Wednesday that it would no longer use a Gaza freelancer, whose ties to Hamas were exposed by HonestReporting.
Abdel Qader Sabbah photographed himself with a senior Hamas leader, served in a Hamas-run body to which he also provided work, praised terrorists, and shared anti-Israeli propaganda online, an HonestReporting investigation revealed.
Throughout the Israel-Hamas war, CNN has given a prominent platform to news reports by Sabbah, who has also worked for the Associated Press, and the exposure of his links to the terror group casts a long shadow over the network’s vetting procedures and journalistic standards.
“This freelance journalist has provided material used in stories for us and other outlets over the past nine months, during which time our own journalists have been barred from entering Gaza independently,” a CNN spokesman told HonestReporting. “We have reviewed this material carefully and are comfortable that it meets our standards. However, we were not aware of this individual’s historical social posts and recognize that they are highly offensive. In light of this, we will no longer be using his material going forward.”
Sabbah is the 11th journalist reassigned, suspended, or fired due to HonestReporting since August 2022.
The following details are based on a survey of Sabbah’s social media activity, predominantly on Facebook, where his connections and bias have been hidden in plain sight.
Abdel Qader Sabbah’s Links to Hamas
Sabbah, who describes himself on Facebook as a freelance journalist, director, and photographer, has proudly shared posts showing he had connections to Hamas figures and institutions run by the terror group.
In 2018, he posted a selfie taken with none other than senior Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar, who had called for world domination with “no Zionists.”
In the photo, the two men are seen smiling, and the post caption reads in Arabic: “This morning, with commander Abu Khaled Al-Zahar, literature teacher…”
Sabbah — whose Facebook bio mentions “military service” in 2013 — also posted a photo of himself wearing the uniform of the “General Training Directorate,” a body that’s officially under the Palestinian Authority’s police and Interior Ministry. In Gaza, however, these government agencies are de facto run by Hamas.
In 2013, then Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh paid an official visit to the training directorate, where he scrutinized an honor guard and “praised the role of the General Directorate … in developing and qualifying the cadres of the Ministry of Interior and National Security.”
It appears that Sabbah also provided work to the Hamas-run body. In March 2023, he boasted online about making a promotional video for the Directorate’s academy, which according to MEMRI, trains members of Hamas’ security apparatuses. His video was shared on the official page of the Hamas-run interior ministry.
Anti-Israeli Propaganda
But Sabbah did not just share personal posts and selfies on his social media. He also regularly praised terrorists, shared propaganda videos by Hamas’ armed wing, and expressed anti-Israeli slurs.
In 2014, he praised as a “hero” Hamas suicide bomber Izz A-Din Al-Masri, who had blown himself up in a Jerusalem restaurant in 2001, killing 16 people, including children.
Sabbah’s praise came as Israel returned the terrorist’s body to the Palestinian Authority 13 years later.
And in 2013, he posted a commemoration photo for Hamas’ “Khan Younis martyrs:”
Sabbah also had no qualms about sharing media censorship instructions during the 2021 conflict with Israel. One of the guidelines he had shared read in Arabic: “Not filming the sites of the fighters, and the places where rockets and mortar shells are launched.”
A few days earlier, he shared a post that read in Arabic: “May God curse the raped Zionists.”
And in April 2023, six months before Hamas’ deadly October 7 massacre in southern Israel, he posted — with green and black heart emojis — a propaganda video by the group’s armed wing, titled “Ready.”
No Due Diligence?
We asked CNN whether it did a background check of Sabbah before hiring him, keeping in mind that there are only two bad answers to this question:
Yes, which means the network knowingly uses biased reporters.
No, which means the network hasn’t done its due diligence.
Their answer indicated the latter.
The network disturbingly said it was “comfortable” with Sabbah’s agenda-driven work, which included faulty reports on the non-existent Gaza “famine” or on the death toll of Gazan journalists, without mentioning that some were affiliated with Hamas and other proscribed terror organizations
We have asked and not yet received answers to the same questions from AP, which according to its database used Sabbah’s photos from Gaza in October-November 2023. These included destroyed buildings and wounded Palestinians in a hospital. It’s unclear whether Sabbah still works for the agency.
What’s clear is that someone like Abdel Qader Sabbah cannot be considered an objective journalist. His posts expose him as a Hamas mouthpiece, at best, or a serviceman affiliated with a proscribed terror group, at worst.
A respectable news outlet should not trust his reports, let alone pay him for them.
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post CNN Fires Hamas-linked Gaza Freelancer Exposed by HonestReporting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.