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With Israel still reeling from Oct. 7, Jewish educational group steps up its support at star-studded evening in NY

NEW YORK — Ilan Abecassis of Sderot is still reeling from the events of Oct. 7.

That morning, he watched from the window of his home as terrorists in pickup trucks overran his city, gunning down Israelis in the streets and in their homes.

In the ensuing days, he and almost all of Sderot’s other residents were evacuated. Abecassis, along with many others, was sent to Israel’s southern resort city of Eilat.

A teacher and vice principal at the AMIT high school in Sderot, Abecassis barely took a breath before swinging into action. With the help of the AMIT organization, an educational network of nearly 100 schools, youth villages, surrogate family residences and other programs in some 30 Israeli cities, Abecassis moved quickly to lead an alternative school in Eilat for evacuated children.

Following the trauma of Oct. 7, the focus has been largely on evacuees’ emotional, social and mental health.

“Throughout all of this, AMIT has been covering our physical and emotional needs,” Abecassis said. “Principals, teachers, management teams all left their families to come and offer us their support.” 

Abecassis spoke at AMIT’s 2023 National Event in New York on Nov. 20 to recognize the donors who support AMIT’s network of religious Jewish educational institutions. Incorporating academic and technological studies, AMIT institutions have a special focus on children from underprivileged backgrounds and from Israel’s peripheral areas.

“Ninety-nine percent of the aid we received came directly from AMIT,” Abecassis noted in his remarks. “A significant portion of this was thanks to your generous donations.”

AMIT’s Evening of Solidarity with the Children of Israel took place at Manhattan’s Sony Hall and attracted about 250 of AMIT’s major donors and national leaders as well as notable figures such as Gilan Erdan, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations.

Idina Menzel, the Tony Award-winning Jewish actress and singer famous for being the voice of Elsa in Disney’s “Frozen,” was one of several artists and musicians who performed at the event. She sang a rousing rendition of the song “Tree of Life,” written to commemorate the victims of the October 2018 Tree of Live synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Violinist Adda Kridler and pianist Cynthia Meng opened the evening with a musical tribute to AMIT’s founder, Batya Bessie Gottsfeld. Michael Harpaz, the Israeli singer, actor and dancer, emceed the evening.

The high school in Sderot is far from the only AMIT institution directly affected by the tragedy of Oct. 7. All nine public schools in Sderot are under the aegis of AMIT. In the wake of Hamas’s attacks, about 4,300 students at those schools were evacuated — mostly to Eilat and the Dead Sea and with smaller numbers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In addition to the significant regular funds AMIT raises via its annual campaign, since the war began AMIT has generated over $1.5 million in additional funding just for the children of Sderot. It’s being used to fund trauma therapy and a variety of other services to help evacuees from the city.

With over 40,000 students in various schools and institutions around Israel, AMIT is an integral part of Israeli society. Hostage Noa Argamani, the 25-year-old woman who was seen being taken by Hamas terrorists on a motorcycle while being kidnapped at the Nova rave party near Re’im that morning, is a graduate of the AMIT Wasserman High School in Beersheva. 

The Nov. 20 event, which had been scheduled before the war, turned into an opportunity for AMIT donors to express support for the people of Israel – and for each other – in this difficult time.

“This event is to honor all those people who have already made investments in Israel,” AMIT President Shari Safra said. “Although the tone is a little more subdued, the substance of the program is still just as relevant.”

Joyce and Daniel Straus, left, hold aloft a Torah scroll after the dedication announcement of the Gabel & Straus Campus at Kfar Batya, Israel, flanked by AMIT President Shari Safra and AMIT’s executive vice president, Andy Goldsmith. (Abbie Sophia)

Andy Goldsmith, AMIT’s executive vice president, said the evening reflected the seriousness of the crisis in Israel “while providing the opportunity to join together and recognize those who have distinguished themselves with their extraordinary commitment.”

Among those recognized at the event: Joyce and Daniel Straus of Englewood, New Jersey, who officially named the $70 million Gabel & Straus Campus at Kfar Batya; Ellen Spitzer-Kronitz and Emanuel Kronitz, for their support of Tiferet Gur Aryeh Junior College; and Shawna Goodman of the Morris & Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation, for supporting the AMIT Summer Camp program.

In a particularly emotional exchange, Goldsmith presented Joyce and Daniel Straus with a Torah scroll written in Poland more than 100 years ago — “rescued from the ashes of Europe and fully restored to its original glory, much like the Jewish people,” Goldsmith said.

“Joyce and Daniel, you epitomize the finest qualities of the American Jewish community. When the news from Israel is good, you celebrate with pride in her accomplishments and victories,” Goldsmith said. “And when the news is bad or, as now, laced with tragedy, you feel it with every fiber of your being and are moved to respond—in tefila [prayer], in protest, and in action.”

The Kfar Batya campus is a 10-acre educational site under construction in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana that is designed to incubate ideas and level the playing field for children from Israel’s social and geographic periphery. The campus’s name recognizes Stefanie and Jack Gabel, the parents of Joyce Straus, and Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus, parents of Daniel Straus. Its naming represents the largest donation in AMIT’s 98-year history. The campaign to fund the brand-new campus is still underway.

“We wanted to give this gift in honor and memory of our parents, to benefit AMIT and the state of Israel,” said Joyce Straus. “We hope that this will inspire others with the ability to give, to make a significant investment in AMIT and Israel’s future.”

The Gabels, Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the United States in 1949, rebuilt their lives in Queens, New York. While still in her teens, Gwendolyn Straus joined AMIT — then known as the Mizrahi Women’s Organization of America — and was a lifelong Zionist. Joyce Straus, a longtime AMIT board member and officer, is AMIT’s former chair and its current vice president for financial resource development.

Founded in 1925, AMIT largely was a women’s organization until recently. In 2019, Alex Luxenberg of Great Neck, New York, became one of the first three men to join AMIT’s board in its nearly 100-year history. Luxenberg has been involved with AMIT for about 15 years and currently serves as AMIT’s vice president of marketing.

As the Nov. 20 gala event wound down and board members bade each other goodbye, some were careful to note that it was only “l’hitraaot” — see you later. Several board members will be joining an upcoming three-day support mission to Israel that begins on Dec. 4.


The post With Israel still reeling from Oct. 7, Jewish educational group steps up its support at star-studded evening in NY appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Yale University Students Abort Anti-Israel Encampment Attempts After Warning From Officials

Illustrative: Yale University students at the corner of Grove and College Streets in New Haven, Connecticut, US, April 22, 2024. Photo: Melanie Stengel via Reuters Connect.

Yalies4Palestine attempted to establish a so-called “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Beinecke Plaza section of Yale University’s campus on Tuesday evening, prompting a quick disciplinary response from the administration.

The students were told in no uncertain terms that refusing to discontinue the activity by an 11 pm deadline set by administrators would result in disciplinary sanctions, according to a report by the Yale Daily News. Prior to that, they obstructed Jewish students’ right to walk through campus, according to videos posted to social media by a Jewish student at Yale.

Such action blocking Jews from parts of campus elsewhere has triggered a lawsuit in which the US Justice Department recently filed a statement of interest.

“The group’s activities violated Yale’s time, place, and manner polices,” a university spokesperson told the News when asked about the incident. “University officials clearly articulated Yale’s policies and the consequences of violating them.”

The students eventually left after Yale’s assistant vice president for university life, Pilar Montalvo, walked through the area distributing cards containing a message which implored students to “Please stop your current action immediately. If you do not, you may risk university disciplinary action and/or arrest” and a QR code for a webpage which explains Yale’s policies on expression and free assembly.

The cards triggered a paranoiac fit, the News reported. Upon receiving them, the students became suspicious that the QR code could be used to track and identity those who participated in the unauthorized protest. “Do not scan the QR code!” they began to chant. They left the area soon after, the paper added, clearing the way for public safety officers to photograph and remove the tents they had attempted to pitch.

According to the News, the protest was triggered by an upcoming off-campus event at which Israel’s controversial national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — who has called for annexing the West Bank and the emigration of Gaza’s residents — will be hosted by Shabtai, a student group not formally recognized by the university.

Writing to The Algemeiner in a message titled “Yale Maintains Calm Campus and Takes Disciplinary Action,” the university took credit for preventing a style of protest that could have lasted for weeks and upended the campus during final exams. It also confirmed that disciplinary sanctions have already been meted out to several students who participated in Tuesday’s unauthorized demonstration despite having been punished for committing the same infraction in the past.

“University officials articulated Yale’s policies and the consequences of violating them and actively cleared the area, which has remained clear since that time,” a spokesperson wrote. “During the interaction, staff identified students who had been warned or disciplined in previous incidents that violated university policy. Those students have received written notice today that they are subject to immediate disciplinary action.”

The most severe sanction handed down is the revocation of Yalies4Palestine’s status as a registered student organization, which proscribes their holding events on campus indefinitely. Additionally, the group will no longer enjoy access to funds that subsidize club activities and is deprived entirely of the privilege of assembling on university property. A string of transgressions precipitated the action, Yale said in Wednesday’s statement, noting that the group had been forewarned on Monday that it had exhausted the university’s tolerance for its misconduct.

“Concerns have been raised about disturbing antisemitic conduct at the gathering,” the statement continued. “The university is investigating those concerns, as harassment and discrimination are antithetical to learning and scholarship. Yale condemns antisemitism and will hold those who violate our policies accountable through our disciplinary processes.”

Yale University has ample cause to claim credit for quelling the would-be encampment and punishing those who were involved in it. The Trump administration has been impounding federal funds previously appropriated to universities that allow pro-Hamas demonstrations and promote excessive “wokeness.”

In March, it cancelled $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a measure that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money. Princeton University saw $210 million of its federal grants and funding suspended too, prompting its president, Christopher Eisgruber to say the institution is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.” Brown University’s federal funding is also reportedly at risk due to its alleged failing to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.

Most recently, the Trump administration cancelled $2.26 billion in federal funding for Harvard University following the institution’s refusal to agree to a wishlist of reforms that Republican lawmakers have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Contained in a letter shared by interim Harvard president Alan Garber, the policies called for included “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [DEI initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implored Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”

Harvard is now suing the administration in federal court to halt its sequestering of grants and contracts paid for by the American taxpayer. However, resolving the complaint could take months, and any money confiscated from Yale before a ruling in that case is rendered could cause catastrophic levels of harm that lead to hiring freezes, job cuts, and unsustainable borrowing, a measure to which several universities, including Harvard, have resorted to cover budget shortfalls.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Yale University Students Abort Anti-Israel Encampment Attempts After Warning From Officials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Abbas Calls Hamas ‘Sons of Dogs,’ Pushes for Palestinian Authority Control Over Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Hamas “sons of dogs,” while urging the terrorist group to release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and bring an end to the war.

“The first priority is to stop the war of extermination in Gaza. It must be stopped – hundreds are being killed every day,” Abbas said in a televised speech at the Palestinian Authority’s Central Council on Wednesday.

“We are facing grave danger that could lead to a new catastrophe — a Nakba,” he continued. Many Palestinians and anti-Israel activists use the term “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

During his speech, Abbas pressed Hamas to cede control of the war-torn enclave to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and give up its arms — a demand his ruling Fatah party has reiterated in efforts to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under what it describes as “a single national authority.”

“Hamas must transfer control of Gaza and its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, and transform into a political party,” Abbas said.

However, Hamas has previously rejected calls to disarm — a key condition in ceasefire negotiations with Israel and the United States — dismissing them as “impossible conditions” and a red line the terrorist group insists it will not cross.

“Any truce lacking real guarantees for halting the war, achieving full withdrawal, lifting the blockade, and beginning reconstruction will be a political trap,” Hamas said in a statement last week.

Hamas violently eliminated Fatah, its Palestinian opposition, in a brief conflict in 2007, when the terrorist group took full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.

In his speech, Abbas once again denounced Hamas for negotiating with the United States, accusing the group of “undermining Palestinian unity” — a criticism the PA has voiced before.

He also condemned what he described as Israel’s actions to uproot Gaza’s residents from their homes, calling it a “new Nakba.”

“We reject this. It’s an inseparable part of our land — what’s happening in Gaza is also happening in Jenin, everywhere,” Abbas said, seemingly referring to Israeli counterterrorism operations in the West Bank.

Israeli leaders have said they support voluntary emigration from Gaza for those who wish to leave but not forced displacement.

Abbas delivered his speech during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is expected to announce a successor, addressing international concerns about the PA’s ability to govern the enclave during reconstruction efforts.

“Our vision for achieving peace in the Middle East is based on ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state,” Abbas said during his remarks.

He added that the PA’s goals are “returning the hostages, lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza, stopping the displacement of our people in coordination with Arab countries, and defending the ‘Palestinian cause.’”

This is not the first time the PA has attempted to publicly separate itself from Hamas while simultaneously pursuing Palestinian reconciliation talks. However, PA officials have been regularly rationalizing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel and in some cases even denying it took place or falsely claiming Israeli forces carried out the onslaught that started the Gaza war.

The PA, which has been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also long maintained a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis, leading critics to question whether the PA can effectively govern Gaza.

Abbas’s remarks came as Egyptian and Qatari mediators continued working to restore the January ceasefire agreement, which had halted fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month.

The BBC reported this week that mediators from Egypt and Qatar presented a new framework to both parties, which included a five-to-seven-year truce, an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held in the enclave, and the release of an undisclosed number of Palestinian detainees.

The latest round of talks in Cairo last week aimed at salvaging the ceasefire and freeing Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough.

Hamas said it would no longer agree to interim deals, but rather called for a “comprehensive package negotiation” to secure the release of all remaining hostages in its custody in exchange for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the reconstruction of the enclave.

“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners [hostages],” Khalil Al-Hayya, the terrorist group’s Gaza chief who leads its negotiating team, said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to facilitate hostage releases and potentially start indirect talks to end the war, but Hamas has already rejected one of its conditions — that it lay down its weapons.

The Palestinian terrorist group released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on Jan. 19. In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive in Gaza, after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.

Israeli officials have said that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. However, Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war.

The post Abbas Calls Hamas ‘Sons of Dogs,’ Pushes for Palestinian Authority Control Over Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Global Antisemitic Incidents Decreased in 2024 From Post-Oct. 7 Surge but Remain Alarmingly High, New Study Finds

A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect

Antisemitic incidents worldwide decreased in 2024 following the record surge that followed the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but they remain significantly higher than levels recorded prior to the attack, according to a new report published on Wednesday.

Just hours before the start of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday night, Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, in collaboration with the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights, and Justice, released its Annual Antisemitism Worldwide Report, which focuses on anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2024.

“Antisemitism is not just a problem of the past or a fringe issue,” said Professor Uriya Shavit, the report’s editor. “It is a mirror to our societies. And in 2024, that reflection is still deeply troubling.”

The 160-page study revealed that anti-Jewish hatred, which spiked in the wake of the Hamas onslaught, continues to persist across continents a year and a half into the ongoing Gaza conflict.

“Contrary to popular belief, the report’s findings indicate that the wave of antisemitism did not steadily intensify due to the war in Gaza and the humanitarian disaster there,” Shavit said. “The peak was in October-December 2023, and a year later, a sharp decline in the number of incidents was noted almost everywhere.”

“The sad truth is that antisemitism reared its head at the moment when the Jewish state appeared weaker than ever and under existential threat,” he continued.

Australia saw the most significant rise in anti-Jewish incidents, with 1,713 recorded in 2024, compared to 1,200 in 2023 and 490 in 2022.

Despite the sharp surge in anti-Jewish hate following the Oct. 7 attacks, Australia recorded 478 incidents between October and December 2024, a notable drop from the 827 incidents reported during the same period in 2023.

A rise in antisemitism compared to pre-war norms continued into this year. In February, for example, Australia experienced a scandal in which two nurses were caught on video vowing to kill Israeli patients, prompting outrage from authorities. After the video went viral, both nurses were suspended and permanently barred from employment within the New South Wales state health system. They were later charged with crimes.

The United States also saw notable increases in anti-Jewish incidents, especially in cities like Chicago, Denver, and Austin. The Anti-Defamation League released its own report on Tuesday showing that antisemitism in the US surged to break “all previous annual records” in 2024, with the civil rights group recording 9,354 antisemitic incidents last year.

In New York, the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, police recorded 344 antisemitic hate crimes in 2024, up from 325 in 2023 and 264 in 2022. Last month, Jews were the targets of more hate crimes than any other group, according to police data.

However, between October and December 2024, New York saw 68 antisemitic incidents, a sharp decline from the 159 incidents recorded in the same months of 2023.

Canada recorded a record-breaking 6,219 anti-Jewish incidents in 2024, up from 5,791 the previous year. Although members of the Jewish community make up less than 1 percent of the country’s population, they were targeted in one-fifth of all hate crimes.

“Around the world, levels of antisemitism remain significantly higher compared to the period before Oct. 7,” Shavit said in a statement.

In Europe, Italy experienced a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate, with 877 incidents reported in 2024 — nearly double the 454 recorded in 2023.

Switzerland and Spain both saw a rise in antisemitic activity in 2024. For example, nearly 2,000 antisemitic incidents were reported in French-speaking Switzerland last year — an increase of 90 percent from 2023. The German-, Italian-, and Romansh-speaking regions recorded a 43 percent rise compared to 2023 and a staggering 287 percent increase compared to 2022.

One of the most notorious recent cases was the Zurich attempted murder, in which an Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed and left with life-threatening injuries by a Swiss teenager, an Islamic State supporter of Tunisian origin.

On the other hand, France reported an overall decline in antisemitic incidents in 2024, but there was a concerning rise in physical assaults. The total number of antisemitic outrages last year was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.

Last week, a Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in Villeurbanne, a city in eastern France that is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community. In another egregious attack that garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb last year. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.

In the United Kingdom, 3,528 antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2024, down from 4,103 in 2023 and 1,662 in 2022. The country also saw a sharp decline in October, with 310 incidents reported in 2024, compared to 1,389 in the same month of 2023.

Despite recording an 18 percent drop in anti-Jewish hate crimes from the previous year’s all-time high, the UK still experienced its second worst year for antisemitism in 2024.

In Germany, 5,177 antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2024, down from 5,671 in 2023 and 2,811 in 2022. During the October-December period, 671 incidents were reported in 2024, a significant decrease from 3,163 in the same period of 2023.

In South America, both Argentina and Brazil experienced increased antisemitic activity in 2024. For example, Argentina saw a 44 percent rise in reported anti-Jewish hate crimes compared to the previous year.

The post Global Antisemitic Incidents Decreased in 2024 From Post-Oct. 7 Surge but Remain Alarmingly High, New Study Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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