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Shellfish dumped on UC Berkeley’s Jewish fraternity house on first Shabbat of semester
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Local police are investigating after a Jewish fraternity at the University of California, Berkeley, reported finding hundreds of shellfish dumped across its property.
The shellfish were also thrown through a window at Berkeley’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, in what the fraternity is calling “an act of antisemitism vandalism.”
“We go outside, we saw crayfish had been thrown all over our deck, all over the side driveway, through the windows into someone’s room and scattered all around the backyard,” said Jadon Gershon-Friedberg, a Berkeley senior and the AEPi chapter president, who lives in the fraternity house. A fraternity brother had noticed a half-dozen people with a bucket approach the house just before 1 a.m., he said.
Gershon-Friedberg and other fraternity brothers immediately checked around neighboring fraternity houses to see whether shellfish had been dumped on their property too. They believe theirs was the only target.
“We realized this is more than just a prank,” Gershon-Friedberg said.
Given that the perpetrators used shellfish, a food forbidden under the laws of keeping kosher, and that they targeted the Jewish fraternity on the first Shabbat of the school year, AEPi considers the incident to be antisemitic, according to a statement released Sunday. “This incident was undoubtedly deliberate, aimed at intimidating our chapter,” AEPi’s statement said.
The vandalism comes two weeks after AEPi’s national office launched a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League. Under the partnership, the fraternity’s umbrella organization will hire a staffer to train members across its 150 chapters to respond to antisemitism and advocate for Israel. AEPi was founded more than a century ago after Jews were excluded from a New York University fraternity, and in a statement, AEPi CEO Rob Derdiger said chapter members are “on the front lines of this battle on college campuses.”
After the shellfish were discovered, Gershon-Friedberg called 911 and said officers arrived at the house quickly. He said he filed police reports with both the city and campus police departments and hopes they will investigate the vandalism as a hate crime. The Berkeley Police Department confirmed that the incident is under investigation, but didn’t specify whether it’s being investigated as a hate crime. Campus police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When the sun rose on Saturday, Gershon-Friedberg saw the full extent of the mess, which left a strong, fishy odor in and around the house.
“We found claws by the side of the house and by the door. We found a fish tail and head in someone’s room,” he said. “It was absolutely disgusting.”
AEPi’s national office paid for a cleaning crew to clear away the shellfish and pressure-wash the deck that morning.
Gershon-Friedberg and Jon Pierce, a former AEPi International president who now serves as the fraternity’s spokesperson, both said the fraternity plans to use the incident to help Berkeley students understand what antisemitism looks like and how to ensure the safety of Jews on campus and more broadly.
“Maybe this is a crime of ignorance as much as a crime of hate,” Pierce said.
Gershon-Friedberg also sent a letter to the school’s administration detailing what happened.
“We are saddened and dismayed by what appears to be a hateful incident of antisemitism targeting the members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity,” Dan Mogulof, a UC Berkeley spokesperson, said in a statement.
“The campus administration has a long-standing and unwavering commitment to confronting antisemitism, and its expression, as we do with all forms of bias, discrimination, and hatred,” Mogulof added. In response to the incident, UC Berkeley’s vice chancellors of equity and inclusion and of student affairs are offering their support to fraternity members and other Jews on campus, Mogulof said.
“An investigation is underway,” he said, “and we will, as always, ensure there are appropriate consequences if laws, campus policies, and/or the Student Code of Conduct are found to have been violated.”
There are 20 students who live at the AEPi house, and 25 students total in the chapter. The fraternity has eight students who keep kosher, according to Gershon-Friedberg.
“Everyone is still a little shaken up,” Gershon-Friedberg said. “This is our home.”
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The post Shellfish dumped on UC Berkeley’s Jewish fraternity house on first Shabbat of semester appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Helicopter Carrying Iran’s President Raisi Crashes in Mountains
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a meeting with the cabinet in Tehran, Iran, January 19, 2023. Photo: Presidential Website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog on the way back from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan, an Iranian official told Reuters.
The official said the lives of Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were “at risk following the helicopter crash.”
“We are still hopeful but information coming from the crash site is very concerning,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The bad weather was complicating rescue efforts, the state news agency IRNA reported.
State TV stopped all its regular programming to show prayers being held for Raisi across the country and, in a corner of the screen, live coverage of rescue teams searching the mountainous area on foot in heavy fog.
The 63-year-old was elected president at the second attempt in 2021, and since taking office has ordered a tightening of morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and pushed hard in nuclear talks with world powers.
In Iran’s dual political system, split between the clerical establishment and the government, it is the supreme leader rather than the president who has the final say on all major policies.
But many see Raisi as a strong contender to succeed his 85-year-old mentor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has strongly endorsed Raisi’s main policies.
Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi told state TV only that one of the helicopters in a group of three had come down hard, and that authorities were awaiting further details.
Raisi had been at the Azerbaijani border to inaugurate the Qiz-Qalaisi Dam, a joint project.
The post Helicopter Carrying Iran’s President Raisi Crashes in Mountains first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Despite Polls, Biden Aides Insist Anti-Israel Campus Protests Will Not Hurt Reelection Bid
Demonstrators take part in an anti-Israel demonstration at the Columbia University campus, in New York City, US, Feb. 2, 2024. REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
Several top White House aides say they are confident protests across U.S. college campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza will not translate into significantly fewer votes for Joe Biden in November’s election, despite polls showing many Democrats are deeply unhappy about the U.S. president’s policy on the war.
The White House optimism on the issue, which is shared by many in the Biden campaign, runs contrary to dire warnings from some Democratic strategists and youth organizers who warn misjudging the situation could cost Biden dearly in a tight race with Republican rival Donald Trump.
Several aides told Reuters they are advising Biden to remain above the fray, rather than directly engage with the relatively small groups of protesters on college campuses, arguing their numbers are too insignificant to harm the president’s reelection campaign.
Faced with a choice between Biden and Trump in November, many officials remain confident even Democrats who oppose U.S. policy will choose Biden. Reuters interviewed nearly a dozen top White House officials in recent days, but only two expressed concern about the impact of the protests and Biden’s handling of the issue.
The issue returns to the spotlight Sunday, when Biden makes the commencement address at Morehouse College, over some objections by students and faculty, and a warning from the college’s president that the ceremony will stop if there are protests.
Most officials Reuters spoke to said they believe housing costs and inflation were the issues top of mind for young voters, not the war in Gaza, pointing to a recent Harvard poll that ranks Israel/Palestine 15th on a list of issues, after taxes, gun violence and jobs. Several aides refer to the protesters as “activists” rather than students.
Asked for comment on the issue, White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden understands this is a painful moment for many communities and is listening. He has said too many civilians have died in the “heartbreaking” conflict and that more must be done to prevent the loss of innocent lives, Bates added.
Biden and Trump are nearly tied in national polls, and Trump has the edge in the battleground states that will decide the election, multiple recent polls show. On economic issues like inflation, Trump scores higher with voters overall than Biden.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Democrats deeply divided over Biden’s handling of both the war in Gaza and the U.S. campus protests against it, with 44% of registered Democrats disapproving of Biden’s handling of the crisis, and 51% of his handling of the protests.
Young voters still favor Biden, but support has dropped significantly since 2020, polls show. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans aged 18-29 favored Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure if anyone would get their vote.
Two White House officials Reuters spoke to emphasized Biden’s support among young voters is not where it was in 2020 and said they worry the administration is not taking the drop seriously enough.
With the war in Gaza now in its seventh month, US support for Israel’s government could weigh heavily on the presidential election in November, they said
“There is almost a level of defiance when it comes to some of the president’s closest advisers on this issue,” said a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the matter, who did not wish to be named. “They think the best approach is to simply steer clear and let it pass.”
BIDEN SPEAKS CAUTIOUSLY
Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at more than 60 colleges and universities this year, disrupted Biden’s events around the country, pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote “uncommitted” and divided the Democratic party.
Biden, who is known for saying what he thinks, even when it’s not politically beneficial, has been cautious on the issue of protests over Gaza. He spoke in early May on the importance of following the law, while defending free speech and later on addressed the threat of antisemitism on college campuses.
Both times, he mostly avoided the issue that has sparked the protests – how young Americans feel about his support for Israel. But he also said bluntly that protests will not change his Middle East policy.
Groups organizing the protests say that a recent halt to some weapons to Israel was too little too late, and are planning fresh demonstrations, though the summer break may quieten action on campuses.
Michele Weindling, political director of the climate-focused youth group the Sunrise Movement, said “young people are incredibly disillusioned, they are angry at the way the president has treated this conflict.”
“A huge risk right now is that young voters will completely stay out of the electoral system this November, or deliberately vote against Biden out of anger,” Weindling said.
That has the potential to cost Biden dearly, given 61% of the more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 that voted in the 2020 general election voted Democratic, a Tufts University research group found. The youth turnout was up 11 points from 2016.
GAZA NOT A TOP ISSUE
Republicans both overwhelmingly disapprove of the protests and Biden’s handling of the war, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published this week shows. Some Republicans have called for him to send National Guard troops on to campuses.
But until a day before Biden delivered his first speech on the protests on May 2, he remained unsure he needed to address the issue, two officials said. Biden asked his team to put together “something rudimentary,” so he could edit and change it, which he did that evening, one of the officials said.
He did not make the final decision to speak until the morning, after violence broke out on the UCLA campus, the official added.
The Harvard youth poll showing Israel/Gaza is low on youth concerns is being circulated at internal meetings at the campaign and the White House and is in line with private data the White House has seen, the first official said.
The president doesn’t speak about every issue in the news, on purpose, another White House official said. It “doesn’t always happen, no matter what kind of news it is, whether it’s the news of the day or the week or the month,” he said.
The post Despite Polls, Biden Aides Insist Anti-Israel Campus Protests Will Not Hurt Reelection Bid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Confirms Air Strike Killed Senior Hamas Terrorist Azmi Abu Daqa
An Israel Air Force F-15 fighter jet escorts an American B-1b heavy bomber through Israeli airspace, on October 30, 2021. Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that a senior Hamas terrorist, Azmi Abu Daqa, was killed in an airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Saturday.
Abu Daqa was an operative in Hamas’ Procurement Department, involved in smuggling weapons and terror funds into the Gaza Strip.
The targeted airstrike, guided by precise IDF intelligence, is part of a broader campaign against Hamas operatives.
The IDF spokesperson stated, “Aircraft of the Air Force, under the intelligence direction of the Intelligence Wing and the Southern Command, attacked and killed Azmi Abu Daqa, a leading figure in the Hamas Procurement Department, promoting the transfer of weapons and funds intended for terrorism in the Gaza Strip.”
In addition to Abu Daqa, the IAF struck dozens of terror targets over the past day.
These strikes included the elimination of two tactical-level Hamas commanders who were preparing to attack IDF troops in the Rafah area. These commanders were identified and targeted by the 215th Fire Brigade.
Furthermore, the IAF announced the successful strike on a senior Islamic Jihad operative last night. The targeted individual was the Head of Logistics for the Rafah Brigade in Islamic Jihad, responsible for preparing operations against IDF ground troops in the region.
The post IDF Confirms Air Strike Killed Senior Hamas Terrorist Azmi Abu Daqa first appeared on Algemeiner.com.