Survivors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel will be visiting churches across the US this weekend to tell their stories as a way to mark Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, known as Yom HaShoah.

On Sunday, the survivors will travel to churches from New York to California. Eagles’ Wings, a pro-Israel organization, is partnering with the Moral Hearts Alliance and various Jewish communities to make the initiative happen.

“We view this ‘Solidarity Sunday’ as a sacred responsibility,” Bishop Robert Stearns of Eagles’ Wings said in a statement. “Isaiah 63:9 says, ‘In all their affliction, God was afflicted.’ God identifies with the suffering of the Jewish people, and as the Christian community, we must feel their suffering, too.”

On Oct. 7, Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas invaded Israel from neighboring Gaza, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 253 others as hostages. It was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Mounting evidence has documented Hamas’ systematic use of torture and sexual violence, including mass rape, against the Israeli people during the onslaught.

“We are proud to partner with Eagles’ Wings on Solidarity Sunday to shine a light on the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 and to build deep and lasting alliances across religions based on our shared values,” a Moral Hearts Alliance spokesperson said in a statement. “We share a commitment to support Israel and combat antisemitism in all of its forms.”

According to a press release for Sunday’s church visits, the Oct. 7 survivors’ stories include “a grandmother who hid from her Gazan neighbors with her three grandchildren, a Nova Music Festival survivor who barely escaped the scene and then returned the next day to serve in his reserve army unit, an Israeli official whose family member is still being held hostage in Gaza,” and other such incidents.

“Evil must no longer be able to hide in the shadows of silence, in the terrorist tunnels of Gaza, or behind the propaganda of Israel’s enemies,” Stearns said. “These brave Israelis will expose what they have suffered at the hands of Hamas.”

“Hitler’s antisemitism has taken a new form today through Hamas and its supporters,” he added.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Kehliath Jeshurun in Manhattan called “Solidarity Sunday” a “truly a sacred day” in a statement. “Christians and Jews will join their hearts together in support of Israel, at a time when Israel needs it most,” he continued. “Solidarity Sunday is a true fulfillment of Psalm 133:1: ‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!’”

Yom HaShoah begins on Sunday evening and will be observed by much of the Jewish world on Monday.

The post Oct. 7 Survivors to Visit Churches Across America for Holocaust Remembrance Day first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Anti-Israel protesters who occupied an academic building at Columbia University had signs that read “death to America” and “death to Israel,” a New York City Police Department (NYPD) official said on Friday.

“Pencils, books, laptops — those are the tools of students and what you expect to find on a college campus,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry wrote on X/Twitter. “However, when the NYPD entered Hamilton Hall — which encampment protesters took over — to remove the occupiers, it found “gas masks, ear plugs, helmets, goggles, tape, hammers, knives, ropes, and a book on TERRORISM [sic].”

Additionally, the NYPD found a poster that read “death to America,” “death to Israel,” and “long live the intifada” — the last of which refers to a violent Palestinian uprising.

“Continue to peacefully and lawfully protest,” the deputy commissioner emphasized, “but know that if you engage in illegal conduct, the NYPD will hold you responsible and hold you accountable — someone has to.”

Pencils, books, laptops, those are the tools of students and what you expect to find on a college campus. But here’s what the NYPD found in Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after we were able to arrest the protestors and agitators for commandeering and barricading themselves… pic.twitter.com/EKQV6nJySu

— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 3, 2024

In a statement to reporters a day earlier, Daughtry drew attention to the broader trends driving the activity seen on college campuses across the country. “Somebody is radicalizing our students,” he said. “We will find out who that is.”

Meanwhile, Chief of Patrol John Chell said it was particularly notable to observe the “complete hatred for Israel that was being spewed and the hatred for the NYPD being spewed by the youth of this school.” He described it as “upsetting as a father and as New York City people.”

While speaking with reporters, NYPD officials said the materials were found during a raid at New York University and the New School, not Columbia. But Friday’s post said it was from Columbia.

“Somebody is radicalizing out students” Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz spoke after NYU and New School raid this morning, “we will find out who that is”. Chief of Patrol John Chell showed literature found inside the New School ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ after it was… pic.twitter.com/LObfkp5Vmd

— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) May 3, 2024

These revelations by the NYPD came amid a wave of anti-Israel protests on university campuses, many of which have featured students removing the American flag and replacing it with Palestinian flags. At The George Washington University, employees cut the rope to the flag pole in the middle of the night after demonstrators hoisted a huge Palestinian flag and defaced a statue of George Washington. On Friday, reportedly with the support of the school, a massive American flag was unfurled on a building right next to the encampment.

BREAKING: Large American flag has just been unfurled at George Washington University pic.twitter.com/GNW6PFe9et

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) May 3, 2024

For over two weeks, university students have been amassing in the hundreds at a growing number of schools, taking over sections of campuses by setting up “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” and refusing to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.

After American flags were taken down on a campus in New York City and the NYPD put it back up, Mayor Eric Adams said, “It’s despicable that schools would allow another country’s flag to fly in our country.”

“Blame me for being proud to be an American,” he added. “We’re not surrendering our way of life to anyone.”

The post ‘Somebody Is Radicalizing Our Students’: NYPD Finds Weapons, ‘Death to America’ Poster in Pro-Hamas Encampment first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is set to join House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in inviting Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address a joint session of the US Congress less than two months after Schumer called for the Israeli premier’s ouster from office.

“He intends to join the invitation; the timing is being worked out,” a Schumer spokesperson told The Hill.

Johnson reportedly sent Schumer a draft invitation last month but had not received a response.

Schumer’s decision to greenlight Netanyahu’s address came after the lawmaker called for new elections in Israel to replace the prime minister during a March 14 speech on the Senate floor.

Schumer, ​​the highest-ranking Jewish US elected official, accused Netanyahu of aligning himself with “extremists” and condemned his approach to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“It has become clear to me the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7,” Schumer said, noting the date when Hamas terrorists invaded the Jewish state from Gaza and started the conflict.

In response, Netanyahu called Schumer’s remarks “totally inappropriate.”

“It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something the Israeli public does on its own,” Netanyahu said on CNN.

Schumer’s decision to support the invitation to Netanyahu sparked a wave of backlash from progressive politicians and activists.

Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner condemned the invitation in a post on X/Twitter, writing, “Netanyahu should not be welcomed to Congress. How shameful.”

Matt Stoller, a progressive political pundit and writer, called Schumer’s decision “incoherent.”

“You can’t give a major address on Netanyahu and then immediately backtrack,” Stoller said on X.

Cenk Uygur, founder of the left-wing media outlet The Young Turks, similarly denounced Schumer’s decision.

“After pretending to be tough on him, Schumer is now inviting Netanyahu to speak to Congress,” the commentator posted on social media. “After he’s slaughtered 25,000 women and children, our politicians give him $17 billion, pass laws making it illegal to criticize his government, and invite him to lecture us. Disgusting.”

In the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel — in which the Palestinian terror group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others as hostages — Democratic politicians have grown increasingly critical of the Israeli military response in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas.

In February, a group of Democratic lawmakers from 12 states sent a letter to US President Joe Biden calling for a “ceasefire” in Gaza. The following month, several Senate Democrats penned a letter demanding that Biden stop US military assistance to Israel.

A growing number of prominent Democrats have also made recent statements calling to condition Washington’s military aid to Israel and even suggesting the Jewish state is committing genocide.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said in April that there was “ample evidence” that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Weeks later, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called on Netanyahu to “resign.” She also signed onto a recent letter from several House Democrats urging the Biden administration to halt further arms transfers to the Jewish state.

Polling suggests that the Democratic Party’s voter base has started to sour on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Sixty-three percent of Democrats believe that Israel has “gone too far” in its military campaign following the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, according to an AP-NORC poll from January. Meanwhile, 49 percent of Democrats believe that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.

Amid the mounting pressure from his own party, Biden has threatened to pull back US support for Israel, citing the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Hamas terrorists embed themselves within the civilian population and use civilian sites — such as hospitals — to house their command and operation centers.

Corey Walker is a journalist based in Washington, DC.

The post Schumer to Join Invite for Netanyahu Address to US Congress After Calling for Israeli Leader’s Ouster first appeared on Algemeiner.com.