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Ye suspended again from Twitter after posting swastika following pro-Hitler Infowars appearance
(JTA) — Two weeks after returning from a suspension over his tweets threatening Jews, Kanye West has been booted from Twitter again — this time after posting a picture of a swastika.
West, the rapper and designer who now goes by Ye, tweeted the swastika shortly after wrapping a three-hour-long appearance on Infowars, the streaming show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in which he repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler, said he loved Nazis and denied that the Holocaust happened as it did.
The picture that Ye posted — and that he and his children had been photographed wearing on shirts — was not the straightforward Nazi logo but instead a swastika inside a Star of David, a mashup of symbols associated with Raelism, a movement that believes that aliens created humanity. He indicated that it would be his presidential campaign’s logo.
“I tried my best,” Musk tweeted late Thursday night in reply to a user urging him to help Ye. “Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
Musk, who is known to be vindictive toward his personal detractors, said he was not penalizing Ye for posting an unflattering picture of him. “This is fine,” Musk posted below the picture before Ye’s account was disabled and emphasizing the point in another tweet.
Musk did not comment on Ye’s Infowars appearance, which captivated news consumers as information about it was shared widely in real time Thursday afternoon. Ye’s appearance on the show, which came a week after he dined with former President Donald Trump and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, drew sharp criticism from Jewish leaders, hate watchdogs and others alarmed by his sustained and mostly unchallenged praise for Hitler.
“There is nothing to like about Nazis or Hitler, the architect of the mass murder of 6 million Jews,” the Jewish Federations of North America tweeted in a statement. “Unfortunately, Ye’s latest comments continue to amplify antisemitism and hatred, the breeding grounds for physical violence against the Jewish people. It’s time for those with big platforms who give him a stage to realize they are complicit.”
“Conservatives who have mistakenly indulged Kanye West must make it clear that he is a pariah,” leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition said in a statement that alluded to but did not name Trump. “Enough is enough.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted that Ye’s comments “are not just vile and offensive: they put Jews in danger.” He followed up with a tweeted directed to Musk, whose behavior since acquiring Twitter in October led the ADL to call for a boycott by advertisers: “Is this someone you still want to warmly welcome back to the platform? Jews right now need allies, not enablers.”
Amid the uproar over Ye’s Infowars appearance, an account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee deleted a tweet that had come to represent commitment by a portion of the party to far-right ideas. “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” read the tweet, which was posted Oct. 6, as West first drew criticism for unveiling a “White Lives Matter” shirt at a Paris fashion show. In the months since, Trump has launched his presidential campaign and dined with Holocaust deniers, Musk has eviscerated Twitter and Ye has leaned into antisemitism, but the tweet had remained online.
Also on Thursday, the social media platform Parler announced that Ye’s proposal to purchase it had been canceled. A spokesperson said Ye and Parler “mutually agreed” earlier this month not to move forward with the acquisition, which Ye had vowed after being suspended from Twitter. Parler is popular among conservatives whose ideas have violated Twitter’s rules, and Ye said he would preservative as a place for right-wing views. After his suspension from Twitter Thursday night, he posted to Truth Social, the platform owned by Trump, who has not posted to Twitter since Musk restored his account.
Ye’s indefinite Twitter suspension marks the first removal of a high-profile user restored by Musk as part of his vow to allow most speech on the platform. It generated criticism from free-speech absolutists on the platform and elsewhere who had believed him to share their views unconditionally.
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UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools
(JTA) — The U.K. has adopted sweeping measures to combat antisemitism in English schools, prompting pushback from the country’s largest teachers’ union.
The move came after a new government-commissioned review found that three in five Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism in English schools. The most common incidents were jokes, stereotypes and comments about Jewish people. About half of respondents who witnessed or experienced antisemitism said the incidents were not reported, most often because they did not think they would be taken seriously.
The government on Wednesday accepted 27 recommendations from the report, including dedicated antisemitism training for leaders and staff, improved recording of antisemitic incidents and moves to build a better understanding of Jewish life, identity and contemporary antisemitism.
The government commissioned the report following a spate of high-profile attacks on Jews in Britain, including an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year that left two men dead.
The report’s author, Sir David Bell, the vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland and former chief inspector of schools in England, recommended addressing antisemitism distinctly from other forms of racism. He argued that antisemitism was a “uniquely complex” problem because of intertwined racial and religious dimensions, since Jewish identity can encompass both an ethnicity and a religion, along with expressions of prejudice that hold all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.
The government will also encourage English schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The definition is supported by many mainstream Jewish organizations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the U.K., but critics say that it conflates some forms of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell called Bell’s review a “generational moment” and said that “implementation is now my priority.”
However, the National Education Union, the largest union representing teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and support staff in the United Kingdom and Europe, raised concerns on Wednesday about recommending the IHRA definition for schools. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement that the definition “risks deepening the problem rather than tackling it, and actively undermining efforts to confront antisemitism.”
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza, leaving teachers with uncertainty when they need clarity,” said Kebede. He cited a risk that “children who cannot critically explore issues through classroom discussion will instead seek their answers in online and unsafe groups.”
Kebede also encouraged Britain’s Department for Education to strengthen guidance on all forms of racism, not only antisemitism, saying that 65% of teachers report they have not received any antiracism training in the past year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization for British Jewish communities, celebrated the antisemitism report and the government’s adoption of its proposed measures. The group specifically praised the report’s “clear recommendations that schools and local authorities follow government guidelines by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism.”
“We remain concerned about undue external influence on schools driven by narrow political agendas, and tendentious materials seeping into schools and increasing disharmony, and we will continue to press for vigilance against this,” said the Board of Deputies.
The post UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools appeared first on The Forward.
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Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan
(New York Jewish Week) — An Orthodox Jewish man is in stable condition after being stabbed on Wednesday evening in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible antisemitic attack, and Manhattan Shomrim — the Jewish community watch group — has asked people to share footage as police search for the suspect. No arrests have been made.
The victim was identified by police as a 26-year-old man, and Orthodox Jewish outlet COLLive identified him as a resident of Crown Heights, the neighborhood that is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday after the man was stabbed in the back with “an unknown sharp object” on 47th Street near Fifth Avenue. ABC7 reported that the victim told investigators he believed he was stabbed with a needle or syringe.
According to the Chabad website, which published an interview with the victim, he is a recently ordained Hasidic rabbi named Joseph, who commutes to Midtown each day to wrap tefillin with Jewish merchants. The attacker, Joseph told the website, was a woman who seemed to be following him prior to the stabbing.
The attack comes as Jewish New Yorkers have been targeted in more than half of the hate crimes committed in New York City this year, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
In July, an assailant stabbed two men on the Upper West Side, including one who was leaving a synagogue, while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was charged with committing hate crimes.
Louis Keene contributed reporting.
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VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish
דער ירושלימער יוטוב־שטערן וועלוול קירשנבוים האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש פֿון אַ פּרעכטיקן וויזיט, וואָס ער האָט געמאַכט אין מאַראָקאָ. עס באַגלייט אים זײַן חבֿר אַבֿרהם פּרץ.
אינעם ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי קירשנבוים דאַוונט שחרית מיט די אָרטיקע ייִדן און באַזוכט אַ גוט אָפּגעהיטענעם בית־עולם, וווּ עס ליגן באַערדיקט גרויסע צדיקים ווי למשל הרבֿ חיים בן עתר (1696–1743), באַקאַנט ווי דער „אור החיים“. „מענטשן מיינען, אַז נאָר אין אייראָפּע זענען דאָ קבֿרים פֿון צדיקים!“ זאָגט קירשנבוים.
מיר זעען אַ גרויסע, שיינע שיל מיט אַ פֿײַנער אַרכיטעקטור אין קאַזאַבלאַנקאַ; דעם גרויסן אַראַבישן שוק, וווּ קירשנבוים קויפֿט זיך אײַן מלבושים פּונקט ווי די מאַראָקאַנער גייען אָנגעטאָן. ער באַוווּנדערט אויך די שיינע טיי־גלעזער און טשײַניקן, וואָס מע פֿאַרקויפֿט דאָרט, און באַקענט זיך מיט אַ ייִדישן סוחר וואָס האַנדלט מיט זילבער און גאָלד, פּונקט אַזוי ווי זײַן טאַטע און זיידע האָבן געטאָן פֿאַר דור־דורות.
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