Uncategorized
Robert Kraft’s $18,003 donation to fundraiser for NFL player who suffered cardiac arrest has symbolic meaning
(JTA) — As the sports world continues to react to NFL player Damar Hamlin’s sudden cardiac arrest during a game on Monday night, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is pitching into a fundraiser campaign — with a donation inspired by his Jewish identity.
Kraft and the Patriots donated $18,003 to an online fundraiser Hamlin had set up that has raised more than $6.3 million as of Wednesday afternoon.
The number 18 holds significance in Judaism — it means “chai,” or life, and Jews often make charitable contributions in multiples of 18. Three is Hamlin’s jersey number.
Robert Kraft and the Patriots add $18,003.
Within the Jewish faith, 18 is “chai” and signifies life. The “3” is Damar Hamlin’s number.
Beautiful gesture. https://t.co/drdrCaCiC6 pic.twitter.com/UOJPwTphRO
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) January 4, 2023
Hamlin, a 24-year-old safety who remains in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after collapsing on the field during the game between his Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, had previously set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a holiday toy drive, with an initial goal of $2,500.
Since the incident, fans and fellow athletes have used Hamlin’s GoFundMe to send financial support to Hamlin and his family.
“If you would like to show your support and contribute to Damar’s community initiatives and his current fight, this is the place to do so,” reads a note on the fundraiser page. “This is the only current fund that is being used by the Hamlin Family.”
A number of athletes and teams have donated money, including NFL stars Tom Brady, Russell Wilson (and his wife, the singer Ciara) and Matthew Stafford. Kraft’s donation is the second-highest of the fundraiser.
Kraft frequently donates to Jewish causes, and earlier this season he funded an advertisement urging NFL fans to “stand up against Jewish hate.”
As the NFL grapples with its latest life-threatening injury, some Jewish fans are questioning whether their football fandom conflicts with their Jewish values. Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the modern non-denominational yeshiva Hadar, voiced his dilemma on his personal Facebook page.
“But maybe, just maybe, watching people physically quite literally destroy each other and themselves for entertainment is… something we should avoid,” he wrote. “Morally as well as religiously.”
—
The post Robert Kraft’s $18,003 donation to fundraiser for NFL player who suffered cardiac arrest has symbolic meaning appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
‘Hamas in a Suit’: Melanie Phillips Says the US Must Stop Treating Qatar as an Honest Broker
British author and journalist Melanie Phillips speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels, Belgium in April 2024. Photo: Nicolas Landemard / Le Pictorium via Reuters Connect
The war against terrorism will never end “until the West stops pretending Qatar is neutral,” according to British author and journalist Melanie Phillips.
The prominent commentator told The Algemeiner that Doha’s patronage of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its influence on Western media and universities are among the many reasons not to trust the Middle Eastern monarchy.
“Qatar is Hamas,” Phillips said in a conversation on the “J100” podcast with host David M. Cohen, the CEO of The Algemeiner. “It sponsors Hamas, it shelters Hamas, it protects Hamas’s leadership.”
Speaking from Jerusalem, Phillips called Qatar’s role “the great unspoken scandal” of modern diplomacy, describing how the regime has bankrolled Hamas while posing as a mediator in negotiations with Israel over the Gaza war.
“You can end this war tonight,” she said, “by doing what should have been done long ago: throw Qatar overboard.”
Negotiations have hit several hurdles in recent weeks to halt the advancement of last month’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire, including the refusal of the terrorist group to disarm in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s pace plan for Gaza.
Despite Qatar’s support for Hamas and far-reaching financial entanglements within American institutions, the US has designated the country as a major non-NATO ally and committed, via executive order, to defend it if attacked.
For Phillips, the danger runs deeper than money or politics. “It’s Hamas in a suit,” she said. “A power that wears respectability while advancing terror by other means.”
Since 2012, Doha has housed Hamas’s political bureau and funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza, often with Western approval. Simultaneously, it has built vast soft-power influence, financing Al Jazeera, sponsoring academic programs on Middle Eastern studies, and endowing think tanks and universities across the West.
That dual role, Phillips argued, has distorted the world’s moral compass. “You cannot be both patron and peacemaker,” she said. “That is moral incoherence masquerading as strategy.”
She connected Qatar’s reach to what she called the “eighth front” of Israel’s war against Iran’s terrorist network including Hamas — the cognitive front, where perception and truth are under siege. By funding educational and media institutions that frame Israel as the aggressor, Phillips said, Doha helps export the same ideological rot that excuses terrorism.
“You cannot build coexistence on a curriculum of hatred,” she warned. “And you cannot defend civilization if you reward the people funding its destruction.”
Cohen noted that Washington’s posture toward Doha remains contradictory. “You can’t confront a sponsor of terror,” he said, “while treating it like an ally at the same time.”
Phillips concluded that lasting peace requires more than military victory — it demands confronting the global enablers that dignify extremism. “If the West continues to pretend Qatar is neutral,” she said, “then Hamas will never truly be defeated.”
The full conversation — “The Eighth Front Is the Mind” — is available now on “J100” via Apple Podcasts, Substack, and YouTube.
Uncategorized
Australia Lists Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard as State Sponsor of Terrorism
Commanders and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Australia has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday, following an intelligence assessment that it had orchestrated attacks against Australia‘s Jewish Community.
Australia in August accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, its first such expulsion since World War II.
Uncategorized
After Meeting Pope, Erdogan Praises His ‘Astute Stance’ on Palestinian Issue
Pope Leo XIV and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan shake hands as they meet at the Presidential Palace, during the pope’s first apostolic journey, in Ankara, Turkey, Nov. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan praised Pope Leo’s stance on the Palestinian issue after meeting him in Ankara on Thursday, and said he hoped his first overseas visit as Catholic leader will benefit humanity at a time of tension and uncertainty.
“We commend [Pope Leo’s] astute stance on the Palestinian issue,” Erdogan said in an address to the pope and political and religious leaders at the presidential library in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Our debt to the Palestinian people is justice, and the foundation of this is to immediately implement the vision of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Similarly, preserving the historic status of Jerusalem is crucial,” Erdogan said.
Pope Leo’s calls for peace and diplomacy regarding the war in Ukraine are also very meaningful, Erdogan said.
In September, Leo met at the Vatican with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and raised the “tragic situation” in Gaza with him.
Turkey has emerged as among the harshest critics of Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.