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Joe Biden to rabbis facing security threats, on Rosh Hashanah call: ‘I have your back’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Speaking after dozens of synagogues were targeted by false bombs threats, President Joe Biden offered rabbis assurances ahead of the High Holidays that he is committed to Jewish security.
“This month, as you attend a shul for the High Holidays. I know you’re concerned about security,” Biden told 1,200 rabbis from all major denominations who signed on for a traditional pre-holiday phone call Thursday evening. “As your president. I want to make clear to you and to all your congregations I have your back. I am committed to the safety of the Jewish people.”
At least 50 synagogues have been targeted in recent months by fake bomb threats that unleash police response, often at times when the congregations are streaming services online. Security experts are concerned that calls on the holidays, when sanctuaries are packed, could trigger panic.
This pre-holiday call, a tradition dating to at least the George W. Bush administration, was organized by rabbinical umbrella groups representing Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist denominations. It tasted over an hour, although Biden did not stay for questions, of which four were asked, each by a rabbi of a different denomination.
For the first time on such a call, Biden and a top White House official, Neera Tanden, the director of the Domestic Policy Council, gave a progress report on the strategy to combat antisemitism Biden unveiled in May.
“My administration has already started aggressively implementing,” he said. “We published security guides for synagogues across the country. We launched a national campaign to combat antisemitism at school colleges and universities. We delivered trainings on religious workplace accommodations and so much more.”
Tanden, speaking later in the call, added detail. Agencies have a May 2024 deadline to complete their assigned tasks, she said. “More than two dozen agencies are producing deliverables,” she said.
She mentioned as examples:
A letter from Department of Housing and Urban Development “to 200 federally funded housing programs asking them to identify an antisemitism in housing.”
Research and projects on antisemitism solicited by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The resource guides for houses of worship, published by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security.
Letters from the Department of Education to schools and universities reminding them of their obligation under the 1964 civil rights act to address discrimination claims, with references to more recent enhancements under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump that extend the protections to Jews.
“There’s been a rising concern on campus [about] antisemitism and the strategy really propels passion on the part of the Department of Ed’s Office of Civil Rights to really be aggressive, as aggressive on antisemitism as we are when we look at and investigate other issues of discrimination,” she said.
Tanden appeared to be addressing concerns that the Biden administration would focus particularly on right-wing antisemitism; a number off Jewish organizations have said that the alleged harassment of Jewish students on campuses, which they say often comes from left wing and pro-Palestinian groups, should also be a priority.
Biden took no questions, but his remarks were redolent of a 2024 reelection campaign likely against his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Biden once again said he was prompted to run for president because of the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Trump’s failure to unequivocally condemn it. He also referred to controversies over the effort by conservative groups and parents to remove books from schools and libraries that they deem inappropriate, including some books about the Holocaust and racism.
“Books are being banned, if you can believe that in the United States of America, books are being banned in our schools and history is being erased,” he said.
He mentioned his nomination earlier this month of Jack Lew, a former Treasury secretary, to be ambassador to Israel. “I’m so proud to continue our support [of Israel] by nominating Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew, to be ambassador,” he said.
Biden included a pledge of support for Israel in the call and did not mention his tense relationship with the current government over its efforts to overhaul Israel’s court system and over its expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
“I want to reaffirm America’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state,” he said. “My support for Israel’s security remains long standing and unwavering, including its right to defend itself against attacks.”
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Rescued Hamas Hostage Noa Argamani References Coachella While Urging Public to Visit Nova Exhibit
Noa Argamani attends the TIME100 gala, celebrating the magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, in New York City, US, April 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Noa Argamani urged the public on Thursday night to visit the Nova Festival exhibit commemorating the Hamas terrorist attack at the music event on Oct. 7, 2o23, while also calling for the release of the remaining hostages being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The 27-year-old, who is featured in the 2025 TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, attended the 19th annual TIME100 Gala on Thursday night in New York City. During a red carpet interview with TIME, she spoke about her emotional visit to the exhibit “Nova: Oct. 7 6:29 AM, The Moment Music Stood Still” months earlier when it was open in New York City. The large-scale traveling exhibit about the Nova attack recently opened in Toronto after successful runs in Tel Aviv, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.
Argamani was abducted by Hamas terrorists during their deadly rampage at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. She was held captive in Gaza for 245 days until she was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces during a heroic operation in June 2024.
“Because I was at the Nova music festival and a lot of my friends were murdered, it was really difficult for me to come [to the exhibit] and see what happened to them,” Argamani said. “Because I carry a lot. I know my story and the story of my friends who have been murdered in captivity. It was too much to handle. Too much to carry.”
Nevertheless, she encouraged every person to visit the exhibit, before mentioning another major music event – the recent Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. She said about the exhibit: “I think it’s something everybody should [visit] because, as you saw what happened now in Coachella, these kids, I’m part of them, I come to the Nova music festival just to have fun, to dance, to enjoy my life … it’s definitely a pure situation. A party for peace and love.”
During the second weekend of Coachella earlier this month, the Irish rap trio Kneecap performed and at the end of their set, they projected three screens that featured anti-Israel messages. “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” said one such message, followed by, “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” A third screen displayed the text: “F–k Israel. Free Palestine.” Also during the performance, band member Mo Chara talked about Palestinians being “bombed from the … skies with nowhere to go.” The band additionally led the audience to chant, “Free, free Palestine.”
On Thursday night, Argamani suggested that music festivals, like Coachella and Nova, should not get political. She said, “It’s important for people to come visit the exhibition and see that we just want to have fun. We’re not armed, we’re not political. We don’t get right [wing] or left [wing], we all just want to have fun. That’s the main idea of those festivals.”
When asked how she is dealing with the trauma of the Oct. 7 attack and her captivity, Argamani said, “It’s really hard for me because my partner is still in captivity.” Argamani’s boyfriend, Avinatan Or, was also taken hostage at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists. He recently turned 32, his second birthday in captivity, and is one of 24 Hamas hostages whom Israel believes is still alive.
“I never saw him in captivity,” Argamani said about Or. “I asked about him everywhere I went, but they didn’t tell me nothing. I didn’t know if he’s alive or just kidnapped … I didn’t want to know the answer because it was too much for me.”
“But until Avinatan will come home, and all those 59 [remaining] hostages will come back, I will not heal,” she concluded. “I will push forward, and I will fight as much as I can so everybody will come back home.”
The post Rescued Hamas Hostage Noa Argamani References Coachella While Urging Public to Visit Nova Exhibit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Authority’s Abbas Falsely Claims Ancient Jewish Temples Were in Yemen, Not Jerusalem
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas falsely claimed in a speech on Wednesday that the first and second ancient Jewish temples were in Yemen, not Jerusalem.
“[Israel] is trying to change the historical and legal status of the Islamic and Christian holy places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Abbas said while speaking at the 32nd Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council meeting in Ramallah. “[The Al-Aqsa Mosque] is the target of the most hideous plot by the occupation. They spread incitement for its destruction, and the building of a Jewish temple in its place.”
Abbas continued, making his central false claim: “In the Noble Quran – and I believe that also in other divine books – it says that the [First and Second] Temples were in Yemen,” he said. “People who like reading about religion can check it out.”
Abbas’s comments about Yemen were flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which reported on and translated his remarks.
“[The Jews say:] ‘This is ours and that was ours, and this is where Solomon’s Temple was,’” Abbas added. “I am telling you, a large part of history is falsified. People who read the Quran know this.”
However, Abbas’s claims are contradicted by significant historical and archeological sources, which suggest two temples did stand in Jerusalem — one of which was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians and the second of which was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.
Eric Cline, who is a professor of classical and ancient near Eastern studies and of anthropology at The George Washington University — as well as Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute — points out further problems with the claim there were never Jewish temples in Jerusalem:
The earliest Moslem rulers appear to have called the city Iliya, a variation on its Roman name of Aelia. Over the centuries the name gradually changed to Madinat Bayt al-Maqdis (“City of the Holy House”) or simply Bayt al-Maqdis (the “Holy House”), similar to the Hebrew designation of the Temple (and sometimes the city and indeed the whole country) as Beit ha-Miqdash (the “House of the Sanctuary”). As Professor Moshe Gil has pointed out, the Arabic name Bayt al-Maqdis “was applied to the Temple Mount, to the city [of Jerusalem] as a whole, and — frequently — to all of Palestine.” Eventually the name for Jerusalem was further shortened to al-Maqdis and then finally became simply al-Quds (“the Holy,” probably borrowed from or related to the similar Hebrew ha-Qodesh), by which name the city is still known in the Arabic-speaking world today.
Nonetheless, Abbas is not the first Palestinian leader to have claimed that Jews do not have a historical connection to Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular, Cline points out. During the failed Camp David peace summit in 2000, former PLO President Yasser Arafat reportedly said, “The Temple didn’t exist in Jerusalem, it existed in Nablus … There is nothing there [i.e., no trace of a temple on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism].” He then repeated the claim to the French President later in the year, saying, “But the ruins of the Temple don’t exist! Our studies show that these are actually Greek and Roman ruins.”
Then, in January 2001, Ekrima Sabri, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying: “There are no historical artifacts that belong to the Jews on the Temple Mount.” He also reportedly said: “There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place [the Temple Mount] in the past. In the whole city, there is not a single stone indicating Jewish history.”
Experts have noted these claims have the aim of painting the Jewish presence in the land of Israel as illegitimate and not connected to history. However, the first recorded reference to the people of Israel is in the Merneptah Stele, which dates back to 1209 BCE, further undermining the point Abbas and others try to make.
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Jewish Groups Blast Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for Wearing Keffiyeh During Arab Heritage Event
Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago, speaks during Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, US, Aug. 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson donned a Palestinian keffiyeh this week to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month, drawing outrage from Jewish organizations in the Windy City.
The Chicago mayor’s office held a celebration on Tuesday acknowledging the contributions and culture of Arab Americans. The event featured various members of the Arab American community, including the controversial Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Following the event, CAIR posted a photo on Instagram showing Johnson smiling while sporting a keffiyeh — a traditional Arab headdress which has been repurposed after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel as a symbol of support for the Palestinian cause.
“Happy Arab Heritage Month! CAIR-Chicago sends our thanks to [Johnson] for hosting our community. It was a pleasure celebrating and highlighting the vast mosaic of Arab Heritage!” CAIR’s chapter in Chicago posted.
The Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA), a group which advocates on behalf of the city’s Jewish community, lambasted Johnson’s conduct as “outrageous” and “moral bankruptcy.”
“For the mayor of Chicago to stand there — cloaked in a symbol now synonymous with Jewish bloodshed, flanked by an organization that justifies it — is more than tone-deaf. It’s a betrayal,” CJA said in a statement. “It tells Jewish Chicagoans: your pain doesn’t matter. Your dead don’t count. Your safety is negotiable.”
CAIR responded by blasting CJA as a “hate group committed to the erasure of Palestinian identity” and argued that the Jewish advocacy group seeks “to normalize anti-Palestinian hatred necessary to justify the Israeli genocide against them.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that CAIR “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad expressed public support for the Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 Jews and abduction of 250 others.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” he said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November 2023. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) chief government affairs officer Lisa Katz also posted a statement calling Johnson’s public display of the keffyeh “painful.”
“While the keffiyeh is a traditional Middle Eastern garment with cultural significance, in recent decades it has often been used as a political symbol — particularly by extremist groups that promote violence against the Jewish people and seek the destruction of the State of Israel,” the group wrote.
“We understand that Mayor Johnson may not have intended to cause harm, but at a time of historic antisemitic threat levels, including in Chicago, symbols matter. Their public use, especially by elected officials, carries weight and meaning,” she continued
Johnson, one of the most progressive mayors in the United States, has suffered a deteriorating relationship with Chicago’s Jewish community. He sparked fury in January 2024 when he cast the tie-breaking vote affirming the city council’s resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. In April 2024, Jewish community leaders rejected a meeting on antisemitism with Johnson, claiming that the mayor has not demonstrated “a modicum of empathy for the Jewish community.” In August 2024, Johnson criticized Israel’s military operations against Hamas as “genocidal.”
“What’s happening right now is not only egregious; it is genocidal,” Johnson said in an interview with progressive outlet Mother Jones last summer.
Days later, the progressive mayor refused to backtrack or clarify his denunciation of Israel, arguing that his words reflected the egalitarian values of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“You can condemn terrorism and call for peace. It’s actually very customary within our tradition here in Chicago. Dr. King called for that,” Johnson said.
Johnson also came under fire in October 2024 for issuing a statement on the shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man in his city that refused to acknowledge his Jewish identity.
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