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Anger As London Statue of Iconic Jewish Singer Amy Winehouse is Vandalized With Palestinian Symbol
The vandalized statue of singer Amy Winehouse at Camden Market in London. Photo: Screenshot
The authorities at one of London’s most popular open-air markets have confirmed that a sticker of a Palestinian flag placed over the Star of David necklace on a statue commemorating iconic singer Amy Winehouse has been removed.
The offending symbol was placed on the statue over the weekend, following the arrest of twelve people during pro-Hamas protests in central London. The statue of Winehouse is located in north London’s Camden Market, a popular destination for tourists and locals alike.
Winehouse, whose 2006 classic release “Back in Black” was one of the best-selling albums in UK history, was born into a Jewish family in London and regularly wore her Star of David necklace. She died tragically in 2011 after a long battle with substance abuse.
The first image of the defaced statue was published on X/Twitter by Etan Smallman, a London-based reporter.
“London 2024. Where a Star of David can’t be displayed (even on a statue of a dead singer) without being covered with a Palestinian flag,” he commented alongside.
When one respondent answered that “Amy would be happy with the Palestinian flag too,” Smallman retorted: “Do you make a habit of channelling the spirit of dead musicians? Or just Jewish ones?”
Other respondents described the vandalism as “gross” and “disgraceful,” with one person asking, “how low can people go?”
In a statement, the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) argued that the vandalism was an accurate reflection of the adversarial atmosphere faced by British Jews since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel.
“So much for the “this is just criticism of Israel” excuse we hear so often from antisemites who are too cowardly or ignorant to admit what they are,” the CAA said in a statement.
“Right now, 69 percent of British Jews say that they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism. When even a statue of a Jewish person can’t get away with it, is that any surprise?” it asked.
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Shoah Museum in Rome Acquires Another Defaced Mural of Holocaust Survivor
Edith Bruck, in white, attends the unveiling event for the AleXsandro Palombo mural “The Star of David” at the Shoah Museum in Rome, Italy, on April 7, 2025. Photo: Ariel Nacamulli
The Shoah Museum in Rome unveiled on Monday a second Holocaust-related mural that was recreated and acquired by the institution after being defaced by antisemitic vandals in Milan earlier this year.
The mural, titled “The Star of David,” depicts Italian-Hungarian Holocaust survivor, writer, and poet Edith Bruck, and was created by Italian contemporary artist aleXsandro Palombo. The artwork shows Bruck dressed in striped concentration camp prisoner uniform with an Israeli flag draped over her shoulders. Palombo debuted the mural in Milan in January, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, but mere days after its unveiling, the large blue Star of David on the Israeli flag was scrapped off by vandals and Bruck’s face with later defaced. Palombo has since recreated the mural, and it is now in display at the Shoah Museum.
In the original mural, Bruck stood under the words “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”), which is the phrase featured on the main gate at the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. Palombo also named the artwork after the slogan, but he left out the wording when recreating the mural for the Holocaust museum and has renamed the artwork “The Star of David.”
Bruck attended the mural’s unveiling ceremony on Monday at the Shoah Museum. The event was also attended by Israeli Ambassador to Italy Jonathan Peled; Victor Fadlun, president of the Jewish Community of Rome; and Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
“The mural must live precisely because it was vandalized, and so it will live, and everything related to memory and what I have personally experienced must live,” Bruck said. “After they defaced it, it will finally live, it will live because it has returned to Rome, where I live.”
The artwork has been added to the museum’s permanent collection and it stands beside another of Palombo’s Holocaust-related murals – titled “Anti-Semitism, History Repeating” – which was acquired by the Shoah Museum in January after it was defaced three times. That mural depicted two Auschwitz survivors — Italian Senate member for life Liliana Segre and Italian author Sami Modiano. The two murals are now displayed in front of the Portico d’Ottavia outside the Casina dei Vallati, which is in the ancient Jewish Ghetto of Rome and currently home to the Shoah Museum.
Palombo has had several of his Holocaust-related murals vandalized in antisemitic attacks, including one that features Bruck, Segre and Modiano together.
“After the despicable defacement in Milan, welcoming today aleXsandro Palombo’s mural at the Museum of the Shoah Foundation is an act of resistance and responsibility,” said Mario Venezia, president of the Shoah Museum Foundation. “Edith Bruck, like Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, has dedicated her life to dialogue and testimony, speaking to thousands of young people and engaging with institutions. Today, we are here to reiterate that memory cannot be erased, neither by paint nor by the hatred of those who attempt to rewrite history. We will continue to defend it, to honor the survivors and for all new generations who believe in the value of knowledge and respect.”
“Edith Bruck came to the inauguration of aleXsandro Palombo’s work to show that we have no intention of accepting these forms of violence, responding in a peaceful, non-violent way,” added Venezia. “It’s important because her gesture is a civil response to an act of vandalism. We have Edith with us, and we will always have her in our hearts and minds.”
The post Shoah Museum in Rome Acquires Another Defaced Mural of Holocaust Survivor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Yeshiva University Baseball Team Ends 100-Game Losing Streak With Victory Over Bronx’s Lehman College
Yeshiva University David H. Zysman Hall. Photo: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia Commons
The baseball team of Yeshiva University in New York City on Tuesday night snapped a 100-game losing streak dating back to 2022 when it beat Bronx’s Lehman College in a doubleheader.
The Lehman Lightning team came into Tuesday night’s game at Naimoli Family Baseball Complex in New Jersey with its own 42-game losing streak going back to 2023. YU and Lehman College had the two longest losing streaks in college baseball heading into their showdown.
Lehman was the first to end its losing streak when it won the first game of the night 7-6 with extra innings, which pushed YU’s losing streak from 99 to 100 games. The Maccabees held a 5-4 lead in the top of the fifth inning but ultimately lost to their rivals.
However, the Washington Heights Jewish school came back to put a stop to their streak, and a 0-18 all-time record against Lehman, with a 9-5 victory in the second game of the night. The pitcher who closed out the game, Noah Steinmetz, is the younger brother of Orthodox Jewish Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jacob Steinmetz and son of YU’s basketball coach Elliot Steinmetz.
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY WINS! The 100 game losing streak is snapped! pic.twitter.com/vBMCF5pS8o
— Michael Clair (@michaelsclair) April 8, 2025
Only two players on the current roster of the YU Maccabees have ever been on the field before for a win, according to Major League Baseball (MLB). Lehman’s head coach, Chris Delgado, has never led his team to a victory and was a player on the Lehman roster the last time the baseball team won a game, MLB.com noted,
“I really appreciate [the fans who came out],” Delgado reportedly said. “The cold weather was not our best friend today, for the fans and for the players. It’s definitely a sense of relief, and I feel happy for this side and for Yeshiva as well. It’s a long time coming. I feel like it was a successful day for both programs and something both programs needed to be able to move forward from the failures in the past.”
The post Yeshiva University Baseball Team Ends 100-Game Losing Streak With Victory Over Bronx’s Lehman College first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian State Media Boosts Tucker Carlson’s Comments Opposing US Military Action, Condemning ‘Neocons’
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
Iranian state media boosted recent comments from controversial political commentator Tucker Carlson that suggested an American military confrontation with Iran would be “suicidal” for the US.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of the state of Iran, published an article on Tuesday highlighting Carlson’s comments, in which the far-right podcast host and media personality warned the US against prosecuting a “destructive” war with Iran. Carlson cautioned that the US would surely “lose” any military confrontation with the Islamist regime and blamed unspecified “neocons” for suggesting federal lawmakers adopt a more aggressive posture toward Tehran.
“Whatever you think of tariffs, it’s clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran. We can’t afford it. Thousands of Americans would die. We’d lose the war that follows,” Carlson posted on social media.
Carlson then blamed a potential war with Iran on “unrelenting pressure from neocons,” referring to so-called neoconservatives in the US who believe in a more aggressive US foreign and military policy. He also blasted federal officials for allegedly pushing for “”with Iran” and said they are “not an ally of the United States, but an enemy.”
The former Fox News host did not note in his social media post that US officials have long accused Iran of clandestinely pursuing nuclear weapons — a charge denied by Tehran — and labeled the Middle Eastern power as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
Tuesday was not the first time that Carlson lambasted US foreign policy toward Iran and its terrorist proxies in the Middle East.
In January 2024, he condemned American military action against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen as the “next step toward full scale war with Iran, which the foreign policy ghouls in Washington have been fantasizing about for decades.”
In December 2024, Carlson asked on X/Twitter, “Which government has killed more Americans: Iran or Mexico?” in an apparent attempt to advocate a tougher posture against illegal immigration into the US.
Carlson criticized his former employer, Fox News, in March, posting that the network was “softening up the base for a war” with Iran.
Beyond Iran, Carlson has sparked controversy over the past year for spreading misinformation regarding Jewish history and Israel. In September 2024, Carlson drew outrage for platforming Holocaust revisionist and self-described historian Darryl Cooper. During their discussion on his podcast, Cooper appeared to downplay the Holocaust, argued that the US was on the “wrong side” of World War II, and suggested that the slaughter of six million Jews in concentration camps was “humane” because the Nazis did not have food to feed the “prisoners of war.”
In December, Carlson invited economist Jeffrey Sachs onto his podcast for a lengthy interview in which both men gave credence to the antisemitic idea that Israel “controls” US foreign policy, among other controversial comments. During the interview, Sachs floated the notion that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s recently toppled regime was largely harmless and that the US opposed the authoritarian ruler “on behalf of Israel.” Sachs argued that American foreign policy hawks and the Israeli government have embarked on a joint mission to “remake the Middle East.”
Carlson has also criticized Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of “blowing up churches and killing Christians.” He lambasted American Christian political leaders for “not being more critical of the destruction in Gaza.”
The post Iranian State Media Boosts Tucker Carlson’s Comments Opposing US Military Action, Condemning ‘Neocons’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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