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White House to brief Jewish Congress members as it seeks funding for antisemitism strategy
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top White House officials are meeting with a bipartisan slate of Jewish members of Congress Wednesday as the administration presses for funding for key components of its strategy to combat antisemitism, including efforts on college campuses.
Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish Second Gentleman, who is spearheading implementation of the strategy, will join Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, his top homeland security adviser, in a meeting Wednesday with 15-20 Jewish lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, a White House official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
These officials and others have been routinely briefing Jewish communal leaders on the implementation of the strategy, which Biden unveiled in May and accelerated in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, which launched the war between Israel and the terror group in Gaza. The most recent briefing was on Monday, when many Jewish leaders were in town to attend the White House Hanukkah party.
At the meeting Wednesday, the White House will bring up at least two components of the strategy that require congressional funding that administration insiders have accused Republicans of obstructing in Congress.
“Following the update, they will engage in a discussion about how Congress and the Administration can work together to counter the scourge of antisemitism,” said the official in an email.
One of the issues on the agenda, the official confirmed, is funding for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which handles complaints of bias at federally funded college campuses. Jewish and pro-Israel groups have filed a series of federal complaints alleging that university administrations have not done enough to counter antisemitism on their campuses. Since Oct. 7, the civil rights office has enhanced its efforts to field and address the complaints.
House Republicans have for months sought cuts to the office as they wrestle with the White House to bring down federal spending.
Liberal groups that see the office as a necessary tool to combat bias and discrimination on campuses have pushed back, and their case gained traction in the swirl of antisemitism controversies on campuses since Oct. 7, with Biden administration officials arguing that the office needed to increase its staff to handle the number of complaints.
“Another way to address the scourge of antisemitism on college campuses is to sufficiently fund OCR and the Department of Ed,” Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national public policy group, said in an interview earlier this week.
“And there have been efforts by Republican elected officials and others to cut funding for OCR at a time when its work is crucial,” said Spitalnick, who is among the Jewish leaders who have consulted with the administration on its antisemitism strategy.
Another White House funding request related to the antisemitism strategy is $200 million in extra funds for nonprofit security grants, which help religious institutions harden themselves against potential attackers. That amount would be added to the $360 million currently appropriated for the program. The White House official said that this too would be on the agenda on Wednesday.
That request is part of a $106 billion emergency funding request that includes more than $14 billion in assistance for Israel as it fights with Hamas and more than $61 billion in assistance for Ukraine as it repels Russia’s invasion. The Republican-led House passed the Israel component, conditioning it on cuts to funding for the Internal Revenue Service, a condition the Senate’s Democratic majority says is unacceptable. Republicans also want intensified restrictions on the Mexico border before they even consider the rest of the package.
There are 24 Jewish Democrats and two Jewish Republicans in the House, and eight Jewish Democrats in the Senate. The two Jewish Republicans, Max Miller of Ohio and David Kustoff of Tennessee, may be key bridges to the House Republican leadership. Miller, notably, told Jewish Insider recently that he was furious with Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a Republican, for attaching conditions to the Israel funding.
At the meeting with the members of Congress, the White House official said, the Biden team will review its achievements in implementing its antisemitism strategy, including consolidating Education Department protections for victims of religious bigotry; training on identifying antisemitism and Islamophobia across a number of executive agencies; providing training on anti-religious bigotry to students in the agriculture and health sectors; and updating and distributing an FBI hate crimes threat response guide.
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The post White House to brief Jewish Congress members as it seeks funding for antisemitism strategy appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel Begins Leadership of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan speaks to the European Jewish Association symposium audience in the Conference Center of Hilton hotel in Krakow, Poland on Jan. 22, 2024. Photo: Dominika Zarzycka/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Israel this week assumed the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries dedicated to combating antisemitism and promoting Holocaust research and education.
Dani Dayan — chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem — will represent the Jewish state as chair of IHRA.
“We are at a crossroads of generations, and the responsibility of preserving the memory and sharing the stories of the Holocaust will soon rest solely on our shoulders. The voices of victims and survivors demand that we honor their legacy by standing firm against Holocaust denial, distortion, and hatred,” Dayan said in a statement. “In a world witnessing a dramatic rise in antisemitism and grappling with the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies, our obligation to historical truth has never been more critical.”
Israel’s presidency of IHRA began on Monday and will run through February 2026.
“The antisemitism that resulted in the Holocaust has not been eradicated from the world. On the contrary, over the past year and a half, we have witnessed it intensifying dramatically, targeting both the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Israeli Foreign Minister Giden Sa’ar added in his own statement, referring to the historic surge in antisemitic incidents around the world since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.
“The new antisemites attack Israel’s right to exist and its right to defend itself,” Sa’ar continued. “It is our duty not only to remember the Holocaust but also to ensure the existence of the Jewish state, which serves as the guarantee of Jewish continuity for generations to come, while also preserving and passing on the memory of the Holocaust to future generations.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed Israel as the new president of IHRA.
“Today the United States warmly welcomes the start of Israel’s year-long presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which is committed to supporting accurate Holocaust commemoration, education, and research,” Rubio said in a press statement. “We also congratulate the United Kingdom on its completion of a highly successful presidency.”
Rubio added, “The United States will partner with Israel during its IHRA presidency to defend the memory and historical fact of the Holocaust and fight the toxic spread of Holocaust denial and distortion and all other forms of antisemitism.”
The top American diplomat warned of an aggressive US response to the ongoing rise in antisemitism.
“Holocaust distortion, a shocking form of antisemitism, has proliferated and the poison of antisemitism continues to spread,” Rubio said. “We see it in violent attacks on Jews, defacement of Holocaust memorials, and dangerous rhetoric in universities and international organizations. President Trump and I have made the United States’ position unmistakably clear: the United States will confront antisemitism with determination and resolve.”
Israel will be taking over IHRA’s presidency from the United Kingdom, which headed the organization for the past year with Lord Eric Pickles serving as chair.
“The aim was to bring out the best in the IHRA, engender confidence in difficult times, and, above all, strengthen the organization,” Pickles said at a handover ceremony in Jerusalem. “Those of us who attended the poignant 80th anniversary ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau in January know that we will never see the like again.”
Pickles added that “10 years from now, at the 90th anniversary, it is unlikely there will be Holocaust survivors to speak. We are now the custodians of their memory. We must remember and tell the truth.”
Recent Legislative Efforts Regarding the IHRA Antisemitism Definition
IHRA adopted a “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and it is now used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations. Dozens of US states have also formally adopted it through law or executive action.
In recent months, several additional measures have been taken to expand the definition’s usage.
Last month, for example, Australia’s 39 universities announced that the IHRA working definition of antisemitism would be used in assessing antisemitism on campus. The country has seen a string of antisemitic crimes which authorities suspect foreign actors of masterminding.
On Feb. 20, US Sens. Katie Britt (R-AL), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced the Antisemitism Awareness Act to implement the definition in the US Department of Education.
“We cannot allow antisemitism to fester in our schools, on our college campuses, or anywhere in our society. This legislation would give the Department of Education the tools to hold students and institutions accountable,” Britt said at the time. “Any American educational institution authorizing, facilitating, or otherwise supporting pro-terrorism activities should lose every cent of federal funding and subsidization.”
On Feb. 26, the Missouri House of Representatives Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee heard the case for a bill to use the IHRA definition at the state’s schools.
Two weeks earlier, the Kansas House Committee on Education received a presentation on a bill to codify the definition for the state’s schools.
On Feb. 3, the Nebraska Legislature Education Committee conducted a hearing for a bill also seeking to implement the IHRA definition in schools.
In late January, state representatives and community members met at the New Jersey statehouse to speak out in support of a bill for the state to adopt the IHRA definition. The legislation’s primary sponsor, Assemblyman Gary Schaer, said that “today we have an opportunity to do something truly profound — pass bipartisan legislation that will protect a religious minority.”
To resolve two lawsuits, Harvard agreed to implement the IHRA definition and to release an annual report for the next five years documenting responses to violations of Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In January, Oklahoma State Rep. John Waldron, a Democrat elected in Tulsa, put forward legislation to use the IHRA definition in the state’s guide for employees assessing bigotry.
On Jan. 26, the student government of Rutgers University voted down a measure to embrace the definition.
Days earlier, Ireland announced its embrace of the IHRA definition, despite the Irish government’s harsh criticism of Israel and amid a surge of antisemitism in the country.
In December 2024, a group of 24 Israeli colleges announced plans to use the IHRA definition.
The post Israel Begins Leadership of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Hamas Hostage Emily Damari Undergoes Hand Surgery for Injury Sustained During Oct. 7 Attack
Former hostage Emily Damari is reunited with her mother, on Jan. 19, 2025. Credit: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit.
Former hostage Emily Damari underwent surgery in Israel last week for a hand injury inflicted upon her by Hamas terrorists when she was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, and in a chilling post on Instagram, she shared details about the inadequate medical care she received during her captivity.
The 28-year-old – who lost her two middle fingers while being taken captive during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks – said on Monday she takes pride in her disability and also shared photos from the surgical room at Sheba Medical Center’s Department of Hand Surgery, where she had her procedure this week. Remembering her time in captivity, she talked about being transported by Hamas to the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip for a different kind of “surgery.”
“‘Hi, I’m Dr. Hamas,’ that’s what the doctor at Shifa told me before the ‘surgery,’” Damari recalled. “Seventeen months have passed since then, and now the moment I’ve been waiting for has arrived — the real surgery, at Sheba Medical Center.”
“Today, after 17 months, my moment has arrived — to replace Shifa with Sheba and finally receive proper treatment,” she wrote. “I have come to terms with my injury, truly. I know there is still recovery ahead, but this time, I am surrounded by family and friends I love, and that’s what matters. I am proud of my scars, and with them, I will triumph.”
A British-Israeli dual citizen, Damari was one of three civilian hostages released from Hamas captivity in mid-January as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization. She was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Her two middle fingers had been shot off by Hamas-led terrorists during the Oct. 7 attacks and she was also shot in the leg. In her Instagram post on Monday, she talked about the procedure she had at the Shifa hospital in Gaza the same day as her abduction.
“I remember sitting in Shifa on October 7th, looking at a small window there, feeling my hand shattered and my leg shot from the bullet that hit Choocha, my beloved dog, the most precious thing I had for 11 years,” she added. “In all the chaos, I didn’t even have time to process it. After all, I was kidnapped to Gaza along with two good friends, my neighbor was murdered, I left my mother, my brother, his wife, and their daughters behind — who knew what would happen to them.”
“Then that moment came — they took me into the operating room, with a corpse in front of me,” she added. “I saw the blue sky, which should have been gray on such a day. I prayed to God to protect me. And then I woke up to Dr. Hamas informing me that I no longer had two fingers, and that the wound on my leg remained open with four stitches instead of sixteen.”
Damari concluded her Instagram by quoting a Hebrew Psalm which means in English: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” She also thanked the “incredible” doctors at Sheba Medical Center who treated her as well as the “amazing team of nurses.”
In a post on X, Damari shared a photo of herself after her recent hand surgery, showing off her two new fingers. In the caption, she again talked about “embracing” her scars, saying, “to me they represent freedom, hope, and strength.”
“I thank G-d, the IDF, and everyone who fought to give me my life back. Now let’s bring all the hostages home,” she said.
The post Former Hamas Hostage Emily Damari Undergoes Hand Surgery for Injury Sustained During Oct. 7 Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Reveals Eurovision 2025 Song Titled ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to Be Performed by Yuval Raphael
Israel’s representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the deadly Oct. 7 2023, attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel’s south, holds an Israeli flag in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on Jan. 23, 2025. Photo: “The Rising Star,” Channel Keshet 12/Handout via REUTERS
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 announced on Monday that Israel’s song for the 69th Eurovision Song Contest is titled “New Day Will Rise,” which will be performed in the international singing competition by Yuval Raphael.
The track will feature lyrics in three languages – English, Hebrew, and French. Raphael, 24, performed songs in all three languages while competing on the Israeli singing competition “HaKochav Haba” (“Rising Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Ra’anana native won the 11th season of the Israeli competition that began in November and ended in mid-January. She will represent her home country in this year’s Eurovision, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, in May. Raphael lived as a child with her family in Switzerland for three years and she is fluent in French.
Renowned Israeli songwriter Keren Peles wrote the lyrics and melody for “New Day Will Rise.” The musical arrangement and production were done by Tomer Biran, and the French translation was provided by Tamir Hitman. Kan 11 will debut the full song on Sunday during a special broadcast.
Raphael is a survivor of the Hamas-led terrorist attack at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. She hid in a roadside bomb shelter near the site of the musical festival and laid beneath dead bodies of victims, pretending to be dead for several hours, until she was rescued. She talked about her experience during the massacre in a speech given before the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Similar to last year, there are already efforts to boycott Israel’s participation in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, because of the country’s military actions during its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip who orchestrated the deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Slovenian public broadcaster RTVSLO has asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision context, to expel Israel from this year’s competition, and the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE said last week that its board of directors will discuss whether it will urge the EBU to do the same.
In the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place during the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s representative Eden Golan finished in fifth place with the song “Hurricane,” despite facing death threats, being booed on stage by anti-Israel protesters, and having a jury member refuse to give her points because of his personal dislike for Israel. Golan said she was forced to wear a disguise outside her hotel during the competition in Malmo, Sweden, because of the threats she received from those who opposed Israel’s participation in the contest. One of Golan’s fellow competitors in the Eurovision admitted that she received “so much hate” during the contest.
In 2023, Israeli singer Noa Kirel finished third in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Unicorn.” The last time Israel won the Eurovision was in 2018 with Israeli singer Netta Barzilai and her song “Toy.”
The post Israel Reveals Eurovision 2025 Song Titled ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to Be Performed by Yuval Raphael first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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