RSS
How Jew-Hatred Hides Behind a Mask of Anti-Zionism
On February 2, 2024, a student came across a public memorial shrine at the Toronto Metropolitan University campus that falsely accused Israel of genocide.
One sign, meant to honor a Palestinian journalist, read in big black letters: “Call it what it is. GENOCIDE”.
But there is no genocide taking place in Gaza — not by a long shot. Israel is taking steps unprecedented in the history of warfare to minimize civilian casualties, including actively providing warning in advance, sending troops into danger to avoid civilian casualties, and more — even as Israel faces Hamas, a jihadist terrorist organization that uses its own people as human shields and targets Israeli civilians.
Unfortunately, in this war, truth has taken a backseat to ideology.
After a few hours, the signs and the shrine were taken down by campus security, but it represented a microcosm of just how much pro-Palestinian messaging is actually anti-Israel propaganda.
Numerous students have printed out “Bring Them Home” posters for the Israeli hostages, only to see them ripped down and replaced by stickers that say “End Israeli Apartheid, Free Palestine.” Aside from the fact that Israel isn’t an apartheid state, this shows that many “pro-Palestinian” students refuse to acknowledge the humanity of Israelis at all.
In the eyes of some, Israelis are no longer human — even those being kept in the hellhole dungeons of Hamas, guilty of no crime besides being Jewish. These actions are not driven by criticism of Israel, but by opposition to seeing Jews as people at all.
Like many universities, Toronto Metropolitan University is a reflection of the multicultural, diverse Canadian society, but this diversity does not ensure freedom from discrimination or prejudice, nor has it created a marketplace of ideas.
Toronto Metropolitan University has witnessed a spike in antisemitism, often masquerading as anti-Zionism, due to the current political atmosphere in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Decades of insipid lies have slanted and distorted views about the State of Israel. The criticism of policies from the Israeli government is often motivated by — or turns into — anti-Zionism, and the denial of the right of Jews to live in their ancestral homeland.
Additionally, the increase of social media and Internet platforms has made the spread of hate and lies much more successful. At Toronto Metropolitan University, stances, attitudes and perceptions of students and faculty have been influenced by this online extremism, and have led to hostile, dangerous action.
Universities are supposed to be safe spaces that commemorate diversity, individuality, thought, and culture; but the vast amount of antisemitism and attacks on Jews are making college campuses an unsafe space for Jews.
Those who strive to create inclusive societies and safe spaces must take an active role against antisemitic views and actions. Students who support social equality and basic human rights must understand how significant it is to advocate against antisemitism, and to support equality and pride for all people.
Antisemitism begins with the Jews, but rarely ends with them. The hateful and intolerant ideology of Hamas, like ISIS, targets anyone — even Muslims — who refuse to fall into line.
By taking a stand, students have the opportunity to show their support for the Jewish community and their devotion to combating prejudice in all its forms. For those truly committed to social justice, the responsibility lies in fostering an environment where truth, dialogue, and mutual respect prevail over misinformation, shutting down ideas, and bigotry. This is what leads to a truly inclusive academic community. Only collective effort and vigilance can help Toronto Metropolitan University become a model of unity and acceptance for all.
Madison Johnson is a social work student at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The post How Jew-Hatred Hides Behind a Mask of Anti-Zionism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Vancouver police raid a home linked to the director of Samidoun—which is now a terrorist entity in Canada
Vancouver police arrested and released one person at the home of Charlotte Kates, director of the terror group Samidoun, in a dramatic raid on Nov. 14. The raid was conducted […]
The post Vancouver police raid a home linked to the director of Samidoun—which is now a terrorist entity in Canada appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Trump Won A Majority of Votes In Heavily-Jewish New York City Precincts, Election Data Claims
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center in Rome, Georgia, US, March 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer
President-elect Donald Trump won an overwhelming majority of the votes in New York City (NYC) precincts that were at least a quarter Jewish, according to a data analysis by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), a prominent Washington DC-based political group.
RJC presented data on Friday affirming the notion that Trump won a higher proportion of the NYC Jewish vote than in previous elections, potentially signaling an ideological shift in the traditionally-liberal voting bloc. According to RJC data, Trump received the “overwhelming” majority of votes in precincts with a Jewish population of at least 25%.
Trump’s 2024 performance among Jews in NYC seems to mark a substantial improvement over the 2020 and 2016 elections, contests in which the president-elect struggled to make inroads among Jewish voters.
Voting data from the 2024 election also indicate that there was a significant shift among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. President-elect Trump also enjoyed greater success in heavily-Jewish enclaves of deep-blue cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, according to data compiled by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Los Angeles Times, respectively.
Trump’s increased success among Jewish voters in the Big Apple comes amid simmering anger over surging antisemitism across the country.
In the year following the Hamas slaughter of roughly 1200 people throughout southern Israel, college campuses have become embroiled in an unrelenting onslaught of protests opposing the Jewish state. Moreover, many Jews have expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, suggesting that the president has not been a firm ally of the Jewish state.
Over the past year, NYC has been ravaged with raucous, often-violent anti-Israel demonstrations and an unrelenting spate of antisemitic hate crimes.
Columbia University, one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the world, became a poster-child for the anti-Israel campus movement, erecting encampments and holding protests calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Many NYC public schools came embroiled in scandal after teachers presented students with lesson plans that accused Israel of committing “apartheid” and “genocide” against the Palestinians.
Though most national Democrats continue to express support for Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas terrorists, some figures in the party have, over the past year, adopted a more adversarial posture toward the Jewish state, often citing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a key reason.
High-profile Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) have suggested that Israel has perpetrated a “genocide” against Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign targeting terrorists since the Oct. 7 atrocities. Earlier this year, a group of dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, urging him to “reconsider” approving offensive arms shipments to Israel.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. While courting Jewish voters, Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them once he retains office in January.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
The post Trump Won A Majority of Votes In Heavily-Jewish New York City Precincts, Election Data Claims first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Attempted Robbery of Jewish Man in Brooklyn Puts Orthodox Community on Edge
Screenshot of masked men who attempted to rob Jewish man in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on Thursday. Photo: Screenshot
The Jewish community in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York was the target of another attack on Thursday evening, as three men attempted to rob a Hasidic man after stalking him through the neighborhood.
Footage of the incident was shared on X/Twitter by Yaacov Behrman, liaison of Chabad Headquarters and founder of the Jewish Future Alliance (JFA) nonprofit. It shows the men, whose faces were concealed by hoods and ski masks, chasing the man into the street and through the neighborhood after attempting to accost him.
No arrests have been made.
“He doesn’t give in easily, and I don’t think they got anything,” Behrman tweeted. “The Jewish Future Alliance is deeply concerned not only about the increase in crime but also the fact that, once again, the perpetrators were wearing masks. We need to reinstate mask laws.”
The explosion of an antisemitic hate crime spree in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn has set the Orthodox Jewish community on edge in recent weeks.
Last Tuesday, two men beat a middle-aged Hasidic man after he refused to surrender his cell phone in compliance with what appears to have been an attempted robbery. According to multiple accounts, the assailants were two Black teenagers.
That incident was the third time in eight days that an Orthodox resident of Crown Heights was targeted for violence and humiliation. Before then, an African American male smacked a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was commuting to school on his bike in the heavily neighborhood, which is heavily Jewish, and less than a week earlier, an assailant slashed a visibly Jewish man in the face.
Most recently, a masked man was caught on video approaching a visibly Jewish father walking with his two sons and grabbing one of the children in broad daylight. He was unable to secure possession of the child, whose father fought back immediately and did not let go of his son. Police later identified the man as Stephan Stowe, 28 — a suspect gang member with an extensive criminal history which includes 33 prior arrests — and charged arrested him attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.
In each case, the suspect was allegedly a Black male, a pattern of conduct which continues to strain Black-Jewish relations across the Five Boroughs.
Black-on-Jewish crime is a social issue which has been studied before. In 2022, a report published by Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) showed that Orthodox Jews were the minority group most victimized by hate crimes in New York City and that 69 percent of their assailants were African American. Seventy-seven percent of the incidents took place taking in predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Of all assaults that prompted criminal proceedings, just two resulted in convictions.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” AAA founder and former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D) told The Algemeiner. “Shouldn’t there be a plan for how we’re going to deal with it? What’s the answer? Education? We’ve been educating everybody forever for God’s sake, and things are just getting worse.”
The problem has become acute in recent years. In July 2023, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli Yeshiva student, who was identifiably Orthodox and visiting New York City for the summer holiday, was stabbed with a screwdriver by one of two men who attacked him after asking whether he was Jewish and had any money. The other punched him in the face. Earlier that year, 10- and 12-year-olds were attacked on Albany Avenue by four African American teens.
According to a report issued in August by New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crimes in New York City last year. The report added that throughout the state, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Attempted Robbery of Jewish Man in Brooklyn Puts Orthodox Community on Edge first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login