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Officials Investigate Suspected Arson Outside Jewish Museum of Maryland and Baltimore Synagogue
Scorch marks found outside the Jewish Museum of Maryland on Aug. 5, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
US federal and Baltimore City officials have teamed up to investigate a suspected arson attack that took place on Sunday night outside the Jewish Museum of Maryland and its neighbor, the B’nai Israel Synagogue, which, according to its website, is the only remaining active synagogue in the East Baltimore/downtown area.
“We are in the very early stages of the investigation,” Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge told Baltimore’s FOX45 News on Wednesday. “Through the course of the investigation, officers will be able to determine if the incident will be investigated as a hate crime.”
The Maryland Republican Jewish Council said that on Monday, a worker from the construction crew renovating the Jewish Museum of Maryland discovered scorch marks on the ground outside the museum. Surveillance camera footage showed that on Sunday night, a person pulled up to the museum in a vehicle, put something on the ground outside the museum’s gate, set the item on fire, and then left in the vehicle.
The museum is located between two historic synagogues on Baltimore’s Lloyd Street: the B’nai Israel Congregation and the Lloyd Street Synagogue. The latter opened in 1845, making it the oldest synagogue in Maryland and the third oldest standing synagogue in the US. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The fire was set outside of the Jewish Museum of Maryland but also right next to the B’nai Israel Synagogue, which reportedly shares a security gate to the south of the museum.
David Folderauer, the director of security for the Baltimore Jewish Council, told FOX45 News the fire caused “minor damage” that “should not impact the renovations” at the museum, which has been closed for the past year. Folderauer added that while the motive for the suspected arson attack remains unclear, “this can only be viewed as antisemitism.”
The Maryland Republican Jewish Council released a statement on Wednesday condemning the arson attack. The council’s treasurer, Andrew Koch, has been a member of B’nai Israel Congregation for over 10 years.
“I’m very disturbed and outraged that someone deliberately set something on fire outside my religious home and the Jewish Museum of Maryland, which highlights the rich Jewish history of downtown and East Baltimore,” said Koch, who is also the treasurer on B’nai Israel’s Board of Trustees. “It’s blatant that this was an attempt to intimidate the small Jewish community of downtown Baltimore.”
Koch further said in a Facebook post: “This case of arson was without a doubt antisemitic in nature. It was a hate crime … The virulet [sic] hatred towards Jews that has exploded off the charts in the US since last October has now reached my synagogue, which is the only remaining active synagogue in downtown Baltimore.”
The Baltimore Police Department said that its ongoing investigation will determine whether authorities will pursue the incident as a hate crime.
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Court injunction at Vancouver Island University ends the campus encampment trend (for now)
A Supreme Court of British Columbia justice in Vancouver issued an injunction to Vancouver Island University on Aug. 15 to remove a pro-Palestinian encampment, the last of its kind at a Canadian university, from its campus in Nanaimo within 72 hours, or by Aug, 18 at 9:30 a.m. PDT. Jewish organizations were pleased by the […]
The post Court injunction at Vancouver Island University ends the campus encampment trend (for now) appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Token Ethnic President’: Pro-Hamas Crowd Launches Racist Verbal Assault on Black Americans Over Harris Support
Anti-Zionist TikTok user calls African Americans “disgusting” for supporting Kamala Harris. Photo: Screenshot
Anti-Zionist activists recently launched a barrage of racist attacks against African Americans on social media, triggering an exchange of insults as well as arguments over the Arab world’s role in enslaving Black Africans.
“Black people also wear a uniform and get on a plane and come to our countries and kill us!” one influencer said in a compilation of TikTok posts shared by pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig. “You vote the same f—king melanated f—king people to government that sign papers to kill us. I don’t want to hear it anymore!”
“Keep Palestinians names out of your f—king mouths when you’re trying to defend your decision for voting for Kamala,” another said, referring to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who is Black.
TikTok user “Dan1ahan” charged that Black Americans “switched up 180 on Palestinians and people who are Palestinian activists the second we have a Black woman running for office,” describing the alleged betrayal as “disgusting.” Touching on the upcoming US presidential election, one Arab woman said all Black people want is a “token ethnic president” in office.
Black TikTok influencers descended on the platform in droves to denounce the comments, with several announcing that they intended not only to remove Gaza-related content from their profiles but also to cease engaging in anti-Zionist activity entirely. The conversation escalated in subsequent posts, touching on the continuance of Black slavery in the Arab world and what young woman called “voracious racism” against African Americans.
“What’s even crazier is that earlier people were like, oh these are bots, no — this is how people really feel. And she made a video that’s a real human being that feels exactly that way,” an African American woman said. “These are people who feel like they are entitled to the support of Black people no matter what, that they get to push us around and tell us who the hell we get to vote for if we support them … They’ve lost their minds.”
An African American male said, “Why don’t we talk about the Arab slave trade? And keep in mind that the Arabs have enslaved more Black people than the Europeans combined.” Another African American woman accused Arabs of not denouncing slavery in Antebellum America.
“We spend our money with you,” she said. “We stand in solidarity with you, and you keep asking for more, and more, and more, and it’s never enough.”
This is not the first time that anti-Zionists have hurled racist abuse and expletives at Black Americans while denigrating their accomplishments and status as full citizens of the United States.
In April, an anti-Zionist student group at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC staged an unprecedented protest of a talk by US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the university’s Elliot School of International Affairs.
“Zionist imperial puppet,” “imperial and blackface,” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” were among the chants yelled by members of the Student Coalition for Palestine (GWSCP) outside the building — a clamoring which could be heard throughout the Elliot School. Thomas-Greenfield was at GWU to speak at an event held to encourage Black youth to pursue careers in foreign affairs. GWSCP protested her appearance because she had vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign against Hamas following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.
In a pamphlet distributed to everyone who showed up to the event, the students accused Greenfield of being a “puppet,” alluding to the fact that she is a Black woman holding a distinguished presidential appointment. GWSCP seemed to suggest that the color of Greenfield’s skin excluded the possibility that she is an agent of her own destiny.
“For as long as we have been here, we have resisted these systems of oppression, but the United States of Amerikkka [sic] has always used Black bodies as puppets to carry out repression and dissent,” the pamphlet said. It also compared Greenfield to Black enslaved persons who had been assigned, against their will, to work as overseers of other enslaved persons on cotton plantations.
Later, according to GWU’s official student newspaper, the group encircled Dean of Student Affairs Colette Coleman, an African American woman, outside the building. One member of the group began “clapping in her face” while others screamed that she should resign.
That same month, at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, anti-Zionists occupying an administrative building verbally abused a Black officer, whom they accused of betraying his racial identity. “Shame on you!” they shouted at him. Someone else said, “You are Black in America, and you’re not standing with the marginalized people of the world. What does that make you?”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Token Ethnic President’: Pro-Hamas Crowd Launches Racist Verbal Assault on Black Americans Over Harris Support first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Vows to Deport Hamas Supporters During ‘Stop Antisemitism’ Event, Unveils New Initiative for Jewish Voters
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, April 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Former US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign supporters of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas if he’s re-elected to the White House during an event centered on anti-Jewish hate on Thursday.
While speaking at the “Stop Antisemitism” event in New Jersey, the Republican presidential nominee vowed to remove pro-Hamas activists from the United States.
“We will deport the foreign jihad sympathizers, and we will deport them very quickly. And Hamas supporters will be gone,” Trump said. “If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don’t want you in our country. We really don’t want you in our country.”
Trump also promised to ban refugees from Hamas-ruled Gaza, arguing that they would pose a terror threat to the US. He also vowed to arrest anti-Israel agitators who engage in vandalism or violent acts.
“I will ban refugee settlements from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will arrest the pro-Hamas thugs who vandalize federal property and make life very difficult in this country for a lot of people,” Trump continued.
Republican lawmakers have raised alarm bells at the prospect of resettling refugees from Gaza, the Palestinian enclave bordering Israel to the south. Last month, six Republican senators sent a letter to US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, requesting an increase of security measures along the northern border in response to Canada accepting an influx of refugees from Gaza. The senators wrote that they were “deeply concerned” that Gazan refugees could sneak into the United States.
In the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people throughout southern Israel, Republicans have scrambled to secure more support from Jewish voters, sensing growing tensions between Democrats and the traditionally-liberal voting bloc.
In an attempt to lure more Jewish voters, Trump’s campaign announced the launch of “Jewish Voices for Trump” this week. The Republican nominee’s campaign described the initiative as “a coalition of thought leaders, business trailblazers, former administration officials, authors, influencers, and those within the Jewish community.”
“While the world has fallen into chaos with [US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala] Harris, President Trump’s Abraham Accords chartered new territory in regional stability, not just for Israel, but for the world. With President Trump we knew we had a White House that stood with Israel, and a president who defended the Jewish people,” the group’s mission statement read.
Though Democrats largely voiced support for Israel’s defensive military operations against Hamas in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, high-profile liberal politicians have gradually expressed more criticism against the Jewish state. Prominent Democratic lawmakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) suggested that Israel’s war in Gaza could be tantamount to a “genocide.” A group of 30 House Democrats sent a letter to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging them to “reconsider” arms shipments to Israel and arguing that the Jewish state has not taken proper precautions to preserve civilian life while targeting Hamas.
Recent polling indicates that Jewish voters may be shifting to Trump in record-breaking numbers, suggesting that the former president’s overtures could be working. Jewish voters prefer Harris over Trump by a margin of 52.7 percent to 45.9 percent, according to the survey conducted by pollster Richard Baris.
The post Trump Vows to Deport Hamas Supporters During ‘Stop Antisemitism’ Event, Unveils New Initiative for Jewish Voters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.