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The Vibrant Menorah
A giant menorah is lit up to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Christopher Pike.
JNS.org – Does your synagogue have a logo? Is there a symbol used as an emblem on its letterhead and the walls of the shul? Perhaps it’s just the good old-fashioned Magen David. Not all shuls have logos, but in recent years, with corporate branding becoming more popular in business, many have adapted the idea to the synagogue, too.
I remember that when I first joined my own shul—the Sydenham Highlands North Congregation in Johannesburg—back in 1986, I noticed that there was a rather creatively designed menorah that was all over the shul campus. There was a giant brass one over the Aron Kodesh and smaller ones etched onto the glass doors throughout the buildings.
So, when I was looking to have a new letterhead and stationery designed (the old one was very old and tired, probably dating back to the 1940s), I immediately thought of this menorah design as the obvious shul “logo.” There is no shortage of Magen Davids around the shul, but this menorah was unique to Sydenham and, indeed, it went on to become a most recognizable symbol.
This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotecha, begins with instructions to kindle the menorah in the Temple daily. The menorah candelabra had seven lights. Why seven? The Yalkut Shimoni writes that the seven lights on the candelabra in the Temple correspond to the seven days of Creation. For every day of the week, there was a light to illuminate our everyday lives. We need the Godly light to give us insight and inspiration in the challenges of living upright and virtuous lives in a world beset by strange ideas and weird and not-so-wonderful values.
We are taught that the windows in Jerusalem’s Holy Temples of old were constructed differently from most windows. Ordinarily, we use windows to bring the outside light and warmth into the house. But the windows in the Temple were designed for the light of the menorah to shine into the outside world beyond the Temple. “Do I need light?” asked God about the menorah, indicating explicitly that the menorah’s light was intended to cast its glow beyond the holy environs into the outside world that so desperately needs its light and its message.
The seven days of the week represent the different areas, categories and dimensions of life. We need the light of the menorah to illuminate all of them as we plot our course in life. How can we keep all the facets of our lives worthy, noble and honorable while living in a wide, open world with so many conflicting values?
Take science. Without the Godly light showing us the way, science alone can produce Frankensteins, biological weapons, chemical warfare or nuclear technology that, if it falls into the wrong hands, may well threaten the security of the entire world.
What about art? Without a moral guiding light, we have seen pornography on stage in the name of culture and shameless nudity proclaiming the right to “free expression.” Are they uninhibited and artsy or just decadent?
And politics? In many countries around the world, bribery and corruption are so ingrained and common that it’s almost taken for granted. Here in South Africa, it has been called out but, sadly, not yet rooted out.
Nor is medicine immune. Ethics committees notwithstanding, we still have much to worry about when it comes to things like cloning. Will the “Boys from Brazil” become a reality? Sanctity of life issues are far from settled, whether at the beginning or the end of life.
Clearly, there is a pressing need for a higher, guiding light that can illuminate these dark and dangerous moral dilemmas.
The story is told of a fellow who became a master forger of documents. Diplomas, certificates, degrees, whatever you needed this guy could master it. One day, the forger’s daughter needed life-saving surgery. Tragically, she died on the operating table. When he visited the surgeon’s offices, he was shocked to see that the surgeon’s framed medical degree on the wall was one of the forger’s own masterpieces!
We need spiritual guidance in all of life’s endeavors; otherwise, we may face tragic outcomes.
The menorah, a symbol of Divine Light, represents the Godly wisdom and vision for the world to help human creativity develop and thrive without deteriorating into dishonorable, deviant behavior.
May we all see the light of the menorah, be guided by it, and may it illuminate our world.
The post The Vibrant Menorah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks

University of California, Berkeley chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons, testifies at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 15, 2025. Photo: Allison Bailey via Reuters Connect.
The chancellor of University of California, Berkeley described a professor who cheered the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre across southern Israel a “fine scholar” during a congressional hearing held at Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Richard K. Lyons, who assumed the chancellorship in July 2024 issued the unmitigated praise while being questioned by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, which summoned him and the chief administrators of two other major universities to interrogate their handling of the campus antisemitism crisis.
Lyons stumbled into the statement while being questioned by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), who asked Lyons to describe the extent of his relationship and correspondence with Professor Ussama Makdisi, who tweeted in Feb. 2024 that he “could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7.”
“What do you think the professor meant,” McClain asked Lyons, to which the chancellor responded, “I believe it was a celebration of the terrorist attack on October 7.” McClain proceeded to ask if Lyons discussed the tweet with Makdisi or personally reprimanded him, prompting an exchange of remarks which concluded with Lyons’s saying, “He is a fine scholar.”
Lyon’s comment came after nearly three hours in which the group of university leaders — which included Dr. Robert Groves, president of Georgetown University, and Dr. Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) — offered gaffe-free, deliberately worded answers to the members’ questions to avoid eliciting the kind of public relations ordeal which prematurely ended the tenures of two Ivy League presidents in 2024 following an education committee held in Dec. 2023.
Rep. McClain later criticized Lyons on social media, calling his comment “totally disgraceful.” She added, “Faculty must be held accountable and Jewish students deserve better.”
CUNY chancellor Rodriguez also triggered a rebuke from the committee members in which he was also described as a “disgrace.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, CUNY campuses have been lambasted by critics as some of the most antisemitic institutions of higher education in the United States. Last year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved half a dozen investigations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, one of which involved Jewish students who were pressured into saying that Jews are White people who should be excluded from discussions about social justice.
During Tuesday’s hearing Rodriguez acknowledged that antisemitic incidents continue to disrupt Jewish academic life, disclosing that 84 complaints of antisemitism have been formally reported to CUNY administrators since 2024. 15 were filed in 2025 alone, but CUNY, he said, has published only 18 students for antisemitic conduct. Rodriguez went on to denounce efforts to pressure CUNY into adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, saying, “I have repudiated BDS and I have said there’s no place for BDS at the City University of New York.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) remarked, however, that Rodriguez has allegedly done little to address antisemitism in the CUNY faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which has passed several resolutions endorsing BDS and whose members, according to 2021 ruling rendered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), discriminated against Professor Jeffrey Lax by holding meetings on Shabbat to prevent him and other Jews from attending them.
“The PSC does not speak for the City University of New York,” Rodriquez protested. “We’ve been clear on our commitment against antisemitism and against BDS.”
Later, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose grilling of higher education officials who appear before the committee has created several viral moments, rejected Rodriguez’s responses as disingenuous.
“It’s all words, no action. You have failed the people of New York,” she told the chancellor. “You have failed Jewish students in New York State, and it is a disgrace.”
Following the hearing, The Lawfare Project, legal nonprofit which provides legal services free of charge to Jewish victims of civil rights violations, applauded the education committee for publicizing antisemitism at CUNY.
“I am thankful for the many members of Congress who worked with us to ensure that the deeply disturbing facts about antisemitism at CUNY were brought forward in this hearing,” Lawfare Project litigation director Zipora Reich said in a press release. “While it is deeply frustrating to hear more platitudes and vague promises from CUNY’s leadership, we are encouraged to see federal lawmakers demanding accountability.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Huckabee Calls for Israeli Investigation Into ‘Criminal and Terrorist’ Killing of Palestinian-American in West Bank
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Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations

Miloon Kothari, member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the first report of the Commission. UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré
The Commission of Inquiry (COI), a controversial United Nations commission investigating Israel for nearly five years, has collapsed after all three of its members abruptly resigned days after the United States sanctioned a senior UN official over antisemitism.
Commission chair Navi Pillay resigned on July 8, citing health concerns and scheduling conflicts. Her fellow commissioners, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, followed suit days later. While none of the commissioners directly linked their resignations to the U.S. sanctions, the timing suggests mounting American pressure played a decisive role.
The resignations came just one day before the Trump administration announced sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. Albanese was sanctioned over what the State Department called a “pattern of antisemitic and inflammatory rhetoric.” She had previously claimed that the U.S. was controlled by a “Jewish lobby” and questioned Israel’s right to self-defense. The sanctions bar her from entering the U.S. and freeze any assets under American jurisdiction.
The resignations mark a major victory for critics who have long viewed the inquiry as biased and politically motivated.
Watchdog groups, including Geneva-based UN Watch, celebrated the swift collapse of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), which they say had long operated with an open mandate to target Israel. “This is a watershed moment of accountability,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “The COI was built on bias and sustained by hatred. Its fall is a victory for human rights, not a defeat.”
The COI had faced heavy criticism since its formation in 2021. In July 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari, made comments about the undue influence of a so-called “Jewish lobby” on the media, said the COI would “have to look at issues of settler colonialism.”
“Apartheid itself is a very useful paradigm, so we have a slightly different approach, but we will definitely get to it,” he added.
The Commission was established in 2021 year following the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas group in May. COI is the first UN commission to ever be granted an indefinite period of investigation, which has drawn criticism from the US State Department, members of US Congress, and Jewish leaders across the world.
Following the resignations, Council President Jürg Lauber invited member states to nominate replacements by August 31. However, it is unclear whether the commission will be reconstituted or quietly shelved. UN Watch and other groups have urged the council to disband the COI entirely, calling it irreparably biased.
The post Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.