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92NY implodes over cancellation of Israel-critical author event
(JTA) — It took less than four days for 92NY to go from having a packed calendar of literary events and a full team to a depleted schedule and staff resignations.
The dramatic shakeup at the venerable New York Jewish cultural center came after the institution scrapped a planned talk Friday by Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, after Nguyen signed an open letter in the London Review of Books that pushed for “an end to the violence and destruction in Palestine,” accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and condemned “the deliberate killing of civilians” — without denouncing Hamas specifically.
Staff at the 92NY told the press it had made the decision out of concern for its Jewish audience.
Following the decision, which 92NY’s leaders made only hours before Nguyen’s planned talk, a slew of other authors pulled out of its upcoming programming slate. On Tuesday, staff at the center began resigning over the controversy, including poetry center director Sarah Chihaya and senior program coordinator Sophie Herron.
The blowback led the organization to announce Monday it was pausing its current poetry reading series.
The fallout came amid a series of Israel-related clashes at cultural centers and within the arts and entertainment world at large since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Disputes over the attacks and Israel’s retaliation have also spilled into sports, academia, government, tech, business and law.
As Israelis and Palestinians bury their dead, both sides are demanding major institutions pick sides. And for some Jewish institutions, reeling from a Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis and saw 200 others taken hostage, their usual rules of pluralism and commitment to fostering diverse opinions are harder to apply.
“It’s certainly challenging to navigate this moment as a cultural organization (much less a Jewish one) and ensure that we are remaining mission-aligned even in complicated situations,” said Naomi Firestone-Teeter of the Jewish Book Council, which books Jewish authors at JCCs and other venues around the country. “We are hearing from new authors every day who need an outlet to share their experience and ensure our global readership is aware of the pain and suffering in the Jewish community — in Israel and the Diaspora.”
Andrea Grossman, founder and director of the influential Los Angeles literary nonprofit Writers Bloc, recently canceled a planned book talk with the Jewish author Nathan Thrall because Thrall’s new nonfiction book, “A Day In The Life of Abed Salama,” deals critically with Israel’s military occupation.
Released days before Hamas’ attacks and dealing with the aftermath of a 2012 bus explosion in the West Bank, the book has become one of many Israel-related political footballs in the arts arena: American Public Media, a national content distributor for public radio and TV stations, recently told The New York Times it had pulled ads for Thrall’s book, saying they would be “insensitive in light of the human tragedies unfolding.” Thrall has undertaken his book tour alongside his subject, Abed Salama, a Palestinian father of a five-year-old boy who died on the bus in 2012.
“How does one promote a program on this subject to a largely Jewish audience when people on all sides are being bombed, killed and buried? The community is deeply polarized,” Grossman told the Guardian.
Thrall, who lives in Jerusalem, called the cancellations “outrageous.”
“There’s an atmosphere that is wholly intolerant of any expression of sympathy for Palestinians living under occupation, any discussion of the root causes of the conflict,” he told the Guardian. “My book is not a polemic. It’s been praised for showing characters, both Jewish and Palestinian, in an empathetic way.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks at the PEN/Hemingway 2019 Award Ceremony at The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library And Museum on April 7, 2019 in Boston. (Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
Questions of “polarization” and “sensitivity” also seemed to be on the mind of the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair, a major global publishing gathering held last week in Germany. Hundreds of authors and literary professionals objected last week after organizers announced that, owing to “the war started by Hamas,” they would no longer host a prize ceremony for Palestinian author Adania Shibli.
In a statement last week, the fair’s prize affiliate, Litprom, said that it would not hold the ceremony at the Frankfurt fair as planned, “due to the war started by Hamas, under which millions of people in Israel and Palestine are suffering.” Organizers said they planned to hold the event in “a suitable format and setting” at “a later point,” and that they still intended to give it to Shibli, whose novel “Minor Detail,” released in English in 2020, recounts the 1949 gang-rape of a Bedouin Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers.
Shibli’s English-language publisher called the decision “cowardly” and accused the fair of lying about the author’s willingness to agree to the plan.
The cancellation happened only days after the fair’s organizers had vowed on Instagram to “make Jewish and Israeli voices especially visible at the book fair.” Hundreds of authors and publishing industry professionals charged in a letter that organizers had made an inappropriate judgment in “closing out the space for a Palestinian voice.”
Among the signatories were the Man Booker Prize finalist Sarah Bernstein, who is Jewish, and the Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, whose most recent novel “The Books Of Jacob” is a deep dive into Jewish history.
PEN America, the literary and free speech nonprofit, weighed in on the Nguyen and Thrall controversies in a statement also noting “events canceled or postponed due to security concerns, including Jewish cultural events in Sweden; an exhibition of Hebrew manuscripts in Australia; and The Witness Palestine 2023 Festival in Rochester, New York.”
PEN was founded, its statement said, “on the idea that writers could play a role in preventing future wars; that when governments are locked in conflict, writers and literature can provide comfort, a bridge to empathy across divides, even a roadmap toward the faraway horizon of understanding. At a moment of great anguish, we urge the literary community to double down on that essential potential.”
The 92NY in particular has sought to operate as both a major nonsectarian cultural institution and an organization proud of its roots in the Jewish community. Formerly known as the 92nd Street Y, the institution recently rebranded itself to emphasize its outsized role in the general New York City cultural community, while also making some hires and programming moves to make its Jewish connections more explicit.
“92NY is a Jewish institution that has always welcomed people with diverse viewpoints to our stage,” 92NY said in a statement. “The brutal October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel and the continued holding of hostages, including senior citizens and young children, has absolutely devastated the community. As a Jewish organization we believe the responsible course of action right now is to take some time to determine how best to use our platform and support the entire 92NY community, so we made the difficult decision to postpone the October 20th event.”
But while its leadership seemed to want to put the Nyugen’s event on hold until it could figure out how to orient itself in the wake of Hamas’ attacks, some writers who pulled out of events there saw darker motives. The critic Andrea Long Chu called the group a “pro-war nonprofit.”
“I have no regrets about anything I have said or done in regards to Palestine, Israel, or the occupation and war,” he wrote on Instagram.
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The post 92NY implodes over cancellation of Israel-critical author event appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Senate Confirms Thomas Barrack as Ambassador to Turkey Amid Concern Over Ankara’s Hamas Support
Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Donald Trump who chaired the former president’s inaugural fund, exits following a not guilty verdict at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, US, Nov. 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed Thomas Barrack, a private equity leader and long-time supporter of President Donald Trump, as the new US ambassador to Turkey, a country which has had a tumultuous relationship with Washington in recent years despite their shared membership in the NATO alliance.
Barrack’s confirmation passed with a 60-36 vote, largely supported by Republican senators, who control 53 out of the Senate’s 100 seats.
In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month, Barrack highlighted Turkey’s strategic significance as a US ally and emphasized Ankara’s position within NATO.
“Sitting at the most strategic crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Turkey’s NATO contributions are numerous,” he told lawmakers.
While speaking to committee members, he underscored the strength and size of Turkey’s military, the second largest in NATO.
Barrack’s confirmation comes as Turkey has continued to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and be one of the world’s most vocal critics of Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East, amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Turkey has long hosted senior Hamas officials, such as Marwan Muhammad Abu Ras, who in recent months has spread pro-terrorist propaganda in speeches and on the country’s state-controlled media outlets.
“The Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas] are at the forefront of the war and the jihad. … You must support the Qassam Brigades — with your prayers, your wealth, your politics, your weapons, with everything you have, you must support the Qassam Brigades,” Abu Ras said during a rally in southeastern Turkey earlier this month, according to the Nordic Research and Monitoring Network.
Several Hamas leaders have established residence in Turkey, often accompanied by their families. Some have acquired Turkish citizenship and passports, integrating further into the country. Many have even invested heavily in the real estate sector and now operate multi-million-dollar businesses. In addition to their commercial activities, these individuals remain actively involved in fundraising efforts that support Hamas’s international network.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been one of the most vocal anti-Israel voices during the Gaza war. In February, for example he demanded that Israel pay reparations “for the harm it inflicted through its aggressive actions in Gaza.”
Last year, Erdogan made an explicit threat to invade Israel, leading Israel’s foreign minister to call on NATO to expel Turkey. Ankara also called on the United Nations to use force if it can’t stop Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.
Turkey has reportedly blocked cooperation between NATO and Israel since October 2023 because of the war in Gaza and said the alliance should not engage with Israel as a partner until the conflict ends.
Last year, Ankara also ceased all exports and imports to and from Israel, citing the “humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories as the reason.
Erdogan has frequently defended Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters” against what he described as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He and other Turkish leaders have repeatedly compared Israel with Nazi Germany and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler
The day after Barrack’s confirmation, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) released a report arguing that the Trump administration should keep Turkey out of the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program, calling the country a “potentially threatening regional power” and citing Ankara’s extensive ties to Hamas.
“The United States must carefully consider whether Turkey, a rising, and potentially threatening, regional power led by the authoritarian, pro-Hamas, neo-Ottoman President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, can be trusted with this advanced jet,” the report stated.
JINSA noted Turkey’s decision to acquire the Russian S-400 air and missile defense system, despite repeated warnings from US officials. Washington ultimately blocked Turkey from procuring and producing the F-35 as a result. Ankara has sought to be readmitted into the program, and the Trump administration has reportedly been working on a deal to sell Turkey the jets if it relinquishes the S-400.
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Harvard Releases Long Awaited Antisemitism Task Force Report — and an Apology From the University’s President
Harvard University president Alan Garber attending the 373rd Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University has released its long anticipated report on campus antisemitism and along with it an apology from interim president Alan Garber which acknowledged that school officials failed in key ways to address the hatred to which Jewish students were subjected following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The over 300-page document, released on Tuesday, provides a complete account of antisemitic incidents which transpired on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s (PSC) endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon which depicted Jews as murderers of people of color — and said that one source of the problem is the institution’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups. It also issued recommendations for improving Jewish life on campus going forward.
“I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community. The grave, extensive impact of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on campus,” Garber said in the statement that accompanied the report. “Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry. We will continue to provide for the safety and security of all members of our community and safeguard their freedom from harassment. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the university is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained, and contested in the spirt of seeking truth; where argument proceeds without sacrificing dignity; and where mutual respect is the norm.”
The committee charged with writing the report — the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias — said that Harvard should enact a slew of reforms to achieve Garber’s hopes for the institution. It recommended reforming admissions to foster an “environment where each student is in genuine community with people with whom one may disagree”; using pre-orientation programs as a time for preparing new Harvard students for the immensity of being selected for membership in an elite institution of higher learning; reforming “time and place” policies which govern expression and peaceful assembly; and requiring offices charged with investigating complaints of discrimination to appoint an official who specializes in antisemitism and anti-Zionist bias.
“It is clear to the task force that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely,” the report continued. “We urge Harvard’s leadership, including the president, provost, deans, faculties, and offices of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging to become champions in the fight against antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias — first at Harvard, and then as a model for institutions of higher learning everywhere.”
Further recommending that Harvard empower members of the task force to monitor the university’s implementation of its proposed policies, the report added, “We further call on Harvard’s leaders to combat, with equal resolve, all other forms of prejudice and intolerance, including anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias. This charge is made with particular urgency to those schools that operate in deeply politicized fields, such as medicine, public health, and education.”
Harvard’s report on campus antisemitism comes as the university prepares for a protracted legal battle with the Trump administration over the federal government’s impounding billions of dollars of taxpayer funds previously awarded to it, a measure imposed on the institution after it rejected policy suggestions proposed by the Trump administration to make it, according to the government, more meritocratic and less welcoming to left-wing extremists and antisemites. Throughout this conflict, US President Donald Trump has denounced the university as a betrayer of American values.
“Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart,” Trump said, writing on Truth Social on Thursday. “The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER and HATE [sic]. It is truly horrific. Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all ‘American Apple Pie.’ Harvard is a threat to democracy.”
Harvard has since taken steps towards meeting the Trump administration halfway, including by releasing the antisemitism report as was demanded of it on April 21. In March, it paused a partnership with a higher education institution located in the West Bank. On Thursday, just days after suing the Trump administration to stop its sequestration of federal funds, it moved to relocate disciplinary processes to the office of the president — a Trump administration demand. Most notably, Harvard has defunded segregated graduation ceremonies it has held for decades to legitimate a strain of identity politics which rejects racial integration and the shared destiny of the American people. Conservatives have argued for years that Harvard’s embrace of identity politics contributed to antisemitism on the campus.
More remains to be seen from the university, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, a group formed amid the post-Oct. 7 antisemitic outrages, said on Wednesday, writing on X.
“We appreciate the report’s identification of 3 problematic academic frameworks fueling campus antisemitism: denying Jewish connection to our ancestral homeland, embracing a distorted settler-colonialism framework, and refusing to recognize Jews as a historically vulnerable group,” the group said. “We now await concrete action plans from deans and meaningful implementation from President Garber, particularly regarding oversight of academic programs, accountability measures, and clear responsibility with metrics and public reporting.”
It added, “We remain concerned that the report retreats to comfortable academic parlance about ‘balance’ and ‘constructive dialogue’ in the face of factually incorrect narratives. Let’s hope Harvard isn’t burying a serious problem in the spectacle of academia.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard Releases Long Awaited Antisemitism Task Force Report — and an Apology From the University’s President first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Argentina Releases Trove of Documents Detailing Nazi War Criminals’ Activities After World War II
Argentina’s President Javier Milei attends a commemoration event ahead of the anniversary of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Martin Cassarini
The Argentine government has released nearly 2,000 previously classified secret service documents detailing the arrival of hundreds of Nazi war criminals who escaped to the country following the collapse of Nazi Germany during World War II.
“Starting today, anyone can access and download these documents,” Argentina’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on X.
Previously declassified in 1992 under a decree by then-Argentine President Carlos Menem, the documents could only be accessed in a specially designated room at Argentina’s National Archives (AGN).
On Monday, government officials announced the completion of restoration and digitization work, making more than 1,850 reports and nearly 1,300 previously classified decrees accessible online. These documents shed light on the activities of prominent Nazi war criminals who took refuge in Argentina after World War II, including Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann and the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele.
El Archivo General de la Nación hizo públicos documentos desclasificados sobre actividades nazis en Argentina y decretos presidenciales secretos.
Gracias a un extenso trabajo de restauración y digitalización, ahora podés acceder a más de 1850 informes y casi 1300 decretos… pic.twitter.com/4Ijs7fGqk0
— Vicejefatura de Gabinete del Interior (@vicejefaturaint) April 28, 2025
The published records show, for example, how Mengele — who was a physician and Nazi SS officer, nicknamed the “Angel of Death” for his inhumane medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz — entered Argentina in 1949 under the name Gregor Helmut and lived undisturbed in the country for decades.
Walter Kutschmann, a former Nazi official, also evaded justice for nearly 40 years. Despite being denounced to authorities in 1975, the records released by AGN show that he was not arrested until 1985. Instead, under his false identity, he worked in a hardware store, then as a taxi driver, and later as a purchasing director for the Argentine branch of the Osram lighting firm.
According to the previously classified documents, it is estimated that more than 10,000 Nazis used so-called “ratlines” to flee Germany as the Axis powers collapsed, with around half of them believed to have sought refuge in Argentina — known for its reluctance to grant extradition requests.
Titled “Documentation on Nazi Presence in Argentina,” these files include intelligence reports, photographs, and police records, compiling the results of investigations by federal authorities and the country’s leading intelligence agency from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Las autoridades de Argentina han revelado más de 1.850 documentos secretos sobre nazis de alto rango que huyeron a Sudamérica después del Holocausto !!!
Entre ellos: Josef Mengele, Walter Kochmann y Eduard Roschmann.
Gracias Milei !!! pic.twitter.com/I0Q0Iy7ax8
— Isaac (@isaacrrr7) April 29, 2025
Argentine President Javier Milei ordered the records to be released and digitized following a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center — a California-based Jewish human rights organization — and a meeting with its representatives in Buenos Aires earlier this year. The organization is currently investigating ties between Swiss bank Credit Suisse and Nazi Germany.
“We commend the release of declassified archives to the public,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Latin American office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Since taking office over a year ago, Milei has been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters, strengthening bilateral relations to unprecedented levels and in the process breaking with decades of Argentine foreign policy tradition to firmly align with Jerusalem and Washington.
Milei, who won Argentina’s November 2023 presidential election, has also been outspoken in his support and appreciation for Judaism. His presidency has come amid an economic crisis, soaring inflation, and longstanding corruption scandals that have burdened the country.
The Latin American leader will visit Israel in June, where he is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jewish State against terrorism and antisemitism. He is also scheduled to address the Israeli parliament and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In February 2024, on his first international trip as president, Milei visited Israel in a show of wartime solidarity and reiterated his pledge to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem. During his visit, he also traveled to Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Negev, where Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped several Israelis from their homes, including the Bibas family, on Oct. 7, 2023.
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