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Alleging exclusion, Jewish faculty boycott James Madison University’s Holocaust commemoration event
(JTA) — An event that took place at a Virginia university Thursday night to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day was scheduled to feature lectures about the legacies of Auschwitz and the intersection between white supremacy and antisemitism. There was also a planned recitation of a poem and a musical performance.
Not on the docket at James Madison University: support for the event from the school’s Jewish faculty and staff.
Dozens of them announced in an open letter that they would boycott the event, titled “An Evening Conversation on the History and Legacy of the Holocaust,” citing concerns about its appropriateness. Of particular concern, according to multiple people familiar with the situation, was a planned performance by the university’s provost, a pianist, during a segment titled “Music as Refuge in the Holocaust.”
“There was no refuge for those targeted by the ‘Final Solution,’” said the open letter, which was unsigned but said it had the support of “24 of Jewish JMU Faculty, Faculty Emeriti, and Staff.”
The letter, which the school’s student newspaper The Breeze published Thursday morning, said the planning of the Holocaust event had “disrespected and disparaged Jewish individuals, dismissed Jewish participation and failed to reflect the inclusive values that JMU purports to foster.” The letter criticized the university’s decision to invite keynote speakers from other universities and the rabbi of a neighboring community to give a community address, rather than centering James Madison personnel or the local rabbi.
That rabbi, Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner of Beth El Congregation of Harrisonburg, said the event had been planned with little to no input from Jews, and that three Jews who were added to the planning committee late in the process later resigned en masse.
In an interview, Kurtz-Lendner compared the event to “a Martin Luther King observance planned by an entire committee of white people.” He said he was joining the boycott and not encouraging his congregants, who include James Madison professors, to attend. He said the rabbi listed on the original program, from a Reform synagogue about 30 miles away in Staunton, would not attend, either.
“The program looks wholly insensitive,” he said. “Instead of being a commemoration of the Holocaust, it looks like it’s turning into an opportunity for celebration.”
That idea appeared to be rooted in the inclusion of music during the event. Maura Hametz, the Jewish chair of the university’s history department, said she had successfully argued against including instrumental music during last year’s commemoration, citing prohibitions in Jewish tradition against instrumental music in times of mourning.
“Biblically we don’t use instrumental music, as Jews,” to commemorate the Holocaust, she said. “If you use the instruments, it’s a celebration.” The proposal to include a musical interlude, she said, also had a history in “medieval church music, so that doesn’t track with what is good for us.”
The belief that Holocaust commemorations cannot include music is not universally held; some commemorations have featured music written by Jewish composers as acts of resistance or remembrance. International Holocaust Remembrance Day was created by the United Nations in 2005 as a way to mourn all victims of the Holocaust, distinct from Yom HaShoah, the Jewish holiday that takes place in April and was established by the Israeli government to commemorate specifically Jewish Holocaust victims.
Still, Hametz had made the case against music last year, so when she saw that this year’s event was again scheduled to include musical selections, she said, “It did surprise me.” She ultimately decided to boycott the event and sign the open letter.
The boycott was supported by one of the university centers sponsoring the event, the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence. Its director, Taimi Castle, issued a statement to the student newspaper saying the center would “spend time reflecting on how we can support the Jewish community at JMU in addressing the harm caused by these actions.”
A James Madison University spokesperson said Thursday that the event itself was still scheduled to proceed as intended that evening. The university said it had reached out to “a spokesperson for this group” of critics and planned to hold a meeting “to gain further understanding and collectively work on a path forward.”
The episode comes amid broad questions about the role of Jews in efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in universities and workplaces. Jewish critics of the emerging field of diversity, equity and inclusion have charged that antisemitism is not always treated as similarly offensive to racism or homophobia, despite also being rooted in hatred based on identity. The Jewish open letter signers also cited a recent statewide report on antisemitism in Virginia as reason to take their concerns about Jewish representation at the university seriously.
James Madison’s Holocaust Remembrance Day event was sponsored in part by the university’s equity and inclusion office, and the associate provost for inclusive strategies and equity initiatives was scheduled to deliver opening remarks and also moderate a question-and-answer session at the event’s end.
“This event is to create an opportunity for people to learn about the lived experiences of others and honor the Holocaust Remembrance Day through educational and solemn means,” Malika Carter-Hoyt, the school’s vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, said in a statement provided to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The statement did not mention Jews or antisemitism.
Carter-Hoyt said she hadn’t received “any notice about these concerns” prior to the letter.
“I acknowledge the letter and express compassion toward the concerns outlined by faculty,” Carter-Hoyt said. But she also defended the planning and suggested that having Jews on the planning committee had not been a specific university priority.
“Committee members were selected based on substantive expertise and commitment to the creation of an event that properly marks the occasion,” she wrote. “No one was included or excluded explicitly based on a particular protected characteristic.”
James Madison University, located in Harrisonburg, is a public college with about 21,000 students. About 1,200 of them are Jewish, according to Hillel International, which offers some services on campus but does not have a building or rabbi there. Efforts to reach anyone affiliated with JMU Hillel were unsuccessful. The chapter’s vice president was listed as a participant on the evening’s program, scheduled to read a poem by Primo Levi, an Italian Holocaust survivor.
The school also does not have a Jewish studies department, despite what Hametz said had been extensive lobbying by faculty members to establish one. Alan Berger, who launched Jewish studies departments at Syracuse and Florida Atlantic universities, was billed as a keynote speaker at the event Thursday.
James Madison’s provost Heather Coltman, who was scheduled to play piano at the Holocaust memorial event and also previously worked at Florida Atlantic University, has an uneasy relationship with the school’s faculty. This week the faculty senate sought to condemn her for reportedly retaliating against the authors of a report on transparency at the school.
While there are courses taught on Jewish topics, the lack of a separate department means that Jewish representation on campus is limited, Hametz said.
“There is no spokesperson here for the Jewish community,” she said. “There’s no central voice to say, ‘Hey, why is this happening? How is it possible that you go ahead with a Holocaust event with no Jewish people on the committee?’”
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The post Alleging exclusion, Jewish faculty boycott James Madison University’s Holocaust commemoration event appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Syria Leads World in Improving Freedom, Report Says, Amid Concerns Over Regime’s Jihadist Links
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attends the Ministry of Awqaf conference titled “Unity of Islamic Discourse” at the Conference Palace in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
The same week that an influential survey of global freedom named Syria as the most improved country in the world, Syrian authorities announced a crackdown on alcohol sales in Damascus amid persecution for those failing to fast for a full day during Ramadan.
On Thursday, the nonprofit advocacy group Freedom House released its annual report reviewing the rise and fall of freedom around the world, rating countries based on their political rights and civil liberties. The organization offered a grim overall assessment, noting that freedom had fallen for the 20th consecutive year, with 54 nations declining in 2025. Today only 21 percent of human beings live in countries classified as free, a drop of 46 percent from 20 years ago, according to the report.
“Even as 2026 has brought new opportunities for those living under authoritarian rule from Venezuela to Iran, the last 20 years have been a dark period for global freedom,” Freedom House CEO Jamie Fly said in a statement. “Those who still enjoy the blessings of freedom must do more to counter authoritarianism and provide more effective support for the democratic aspirations of people standing up to repression around the world, or this persistent decline will continue.”
However, one Middle Eastern country in particular stood as a bright spot countering the trend.
“Syria received the world’s largest score improvement for the year, bringing cautious optimism to a region dominated by entrenched authoritarian rule,” the report stated.
Last year, “foreign and independent local media outlets were able to report critically from inside Syria, civil society organizations were able to register and operate more freely, and oppressive Assad-era legal restrictions started to be rolled back,” the report added, referring to long-time Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December 2024.
Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria’s official president after leading the rebel campaign that ousted Assad — whose Iran-backed rule had strained ties with the Arab world during the nearly 14-year Syrian war — in an offensive spearheaded by al-Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate.
Since taking power, al-Sharaa has sought to depict himself as a moderate leader who wants to unify his country and attract foreign investment to rebuild it after years of civil war. Many foreign leaders and experts have been skeptical of him, however, questioning whether he is still a jihadist trying to disguise his extremism.
Incidents of sectarian violence — including the mass killing of pro-Assad Alawites — have deepened fears among minority groups about the rise of Islamist factions and drawn condemnation from global powers currently engaged in discussions on sanctions relief and humanitarian aid.
The US has moved to lift an array of sanctions previously imposed on Syria under Assad. Until recently, al-Sharaa was sanctioned by the US as a foreign terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.
However, Freedom House said it observed significant improvement for the freedom of Syrians, despite major challenges.
Freedom House described how in Syria today, “citizens and a transitional government face profound challenges in erecting a democratic system after more than half a century of dictatorship. The civil war that began in 2011 has devastated public institutions and infrastructure, while sectarian polarization and ongoing violence further complicate efforts to create credible transitional justice mechanisms and introduce the rule of law.”
An example of that sectarianism manifested on Monday evening, when the Damascus governorate announced a number of measures to restrict alcohol sales. The rules will require nightclubs and bars with liquor licenses to convert into cafe licenses. The city will only allow alcohol purchases with sealed bottles from stores in majority Christian places. This conflicts with Syrian law, which does not ban alcohol, as well as human rights treaties signed by Syrian protecting the right to drink alcohol.
The regulations also limit the locations of alcohol vendors, banning them from operating 75 meters from houses of worship and schools with only three months to comply. One unnamed bar owner told The Arab Weekly that he had anticipated the change and would close in response. He noted that he had seen a decline in his customers since the rise of l-Sharaa’s government last year. Other restaurants have reportedly adapted to the change by taking alcohol off of menus or shifting to serving drinks in teacups.
Syria’s leaders have opposed religious freedom in other ways recently, with The Arab Weekly citing reports of arrests and firings for those who break Ramadan fasts early.
Freedom House researchers offered additional insights into the depths of authoritarianism around the world and its hot spots. The states with the heaviest drop in rankings last year were Guinea-Bissau (−8), Tanzania (−7), Burkina Faso, (−5), Madagascar (−5), and El Salvador (−5).
The countries which received the worst overall scores were South Sudan (0), Sudan (1), and Turkmenistan (1) on the organization’s 100-point scale.
Iran saw a fall by one point, reaching a score of 10 total points, with Freedom House explaining that authorities arrested more than 21,000 people “as part of a crackdown on alleged espionage and collaboration following the regime’s 12-day war with Israel in June” and that the regime had expelled “some 1.8 million Afghan migrants and refugees without regard for their basic rights.”
Russia and China maintained their scores of 12 and 9, respectively, with Freedom House stating that “Russian authorities took further steps to suppress antiwar speech and independent journalism, while Chinese officials cracked down on small but multiplying protests.”
The report noted numerous military coups in Africa, identifying nine since 2019 with Madagascar the most recent.
“Mali provides just one example of the lasting damage done by military coups. Conditions in several countries, including Burkina Faso and Niger, continued to deteriorate in 2025 after a wave of military coups beginning in 2019 toppled governments across the Sahel and West Africa,” the report stated. “In both countries, freedom continued to decline in the years following the coups, as the junta leaders acted unilaterally to consolidate power and used increasingly violent methods to suppress dissent.”
In Burkina Faso, the military indefinitely suspended elections, while in Niger the junta dissolved all political parties.
“We continue to see that the desire for freedom is universal,” said Yana Gorokhovskaia, who co-authored the report and works as Freedom House’s research director. “From Belarus to Zimbabwe, people around the world are taking great personal risks to stand up and defend their fundamental rights.”
Gorokhovskaia said that to reverse the global decline in freedom, “democratic governments and societies must demonstrate their solidarity with those seeking freedom, in part through funding and diplomatic support for frontline human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations.”
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College Republicans Chapter Sues University of Florida for Deactivating Group Over Nazi Salutes
Members of University of Florida’s College Republicans chapter. Photo: Screenshot
The University of Florida’s College Republicans chapter has teamed up with a local far-right lawyer to sue the school for closing the student club after learning that two of its leaders photographed themselves pantomiming the Nazi salute.
“The University of Florida punitively deactivated and shut down the [University of Florida College Republicans] in response to alleged viewpoints expressed by a member … and in an effort to silence the club and chill its future free speech,” said the lawyer, Anthony Sabatini, who was seemingly enlisted to defend the student club’s right to support Nazism. “No university policy, rule, or law provides UF a lawful basis for the deactivation. We are seeking an emergency preliminary injunction.”
Sabatini is an alumnus of the University of Florida and was once a “Lincoln Fellow” selected by the Claremont Institute, a think tank in California known for its rejection of the so-called “east coast” wing of the conservative movement and advocacy of “post-liberalism.” Sabatini’s social media activity includes reposts of material by Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter, as well as his denouncing Republicans such as US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and White House chief of staff Susan Wiles as “piece[s] of s–t.” He has also endorsed James Fishback, a candidate for governor of Florida who built his reputation by criticizing Israel and refusing to condemn antisemitic podcaster Nicholas Fuentes.
On March 8, Sabatini tweeted, “I hated Mark Levin before it was cool,” an allusion to the Jewish political commentator’s feuds with far-right provocateurs who have attempted to foster suspicion around his membership in the conservative movement.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the University of Florida said last week it would shutter its College Republicans chapter at the request of the Florida Federation of College Republicans (FFCR), which disbanded the group.
Since then, members of the student club have alleged that the Florida Federation lacks jurisdiction over the organization, insisting that it is registered with the College Republicans of America group. There are several contending “College Republican” groups, including the original College Republican National Committee founded in 1892, College Republicans United, the National Federation of College Republicans (NFCR), and College Republicans.
Regardless of the outcome of the legal dispute, the incident marked the second time this month that conservative youth were publicly outed for indulging Nazism and the white supremacist movement.
Earlier this month, leaked texts revealed dozens of antisemitic and racist texts exchanged by young Republicans in Miami-Dade County, Florida, some of which fantasized about engaging in onanism in an all-white country.
As first reported by The Miami Herald, the group chat, created on WhatsApp, was described by its members as “Nazi heaven” for the daily barrage of extremist comments contributed to it. Individuals affiliated with the Miami-Dade Country Republicans, Turning Point USA, and College Republicans casually said “ni—er,” denounced women as “whores,” and spoke rapturously about Adolf Hitler.
Dariel Gonzalez, according to the Herald, was one of the chat’s most prolific contributors, bandying about comments regarding “color professors” and telling members that “You can f–k all the k—kes you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
The group chat’s exposure comes at a time when, according to recent polling, young Republicans have increasingly embraced antisemitism and conspiracy theories.
Right-wing antisemitism is surging in popularity among conservative youth, seemingly in part due to the influence of online commentators such as Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, and Tucker Carlson.
In September, a conservative magazine at Harvard University published an opinion piece which bore likeness to key tenets of Nazi doctrine, as first articulated in 1925 in Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, and later in a blitzkrieg of speeches he delivered throughout the Nazi era to justify his genocide of European Jews.
Written by David F.X. Army, the article chillingly echoed a January 1939 Reichstag speech in which Hitler portended mass killings of Jews as the outcome of Germany’s inexorable march toward war with France and Great Britain. Whereas Hitler said, “France to the French, England to the English, America to the Americans, and Germany to the Germans,” Army wrote, “Germany belongs to the Germans, France to the French, Britain to the British, America to the Americans.”
Army also called for the adoption of notions of “blood, soil, language, and love of one’s own” in response to concerns over large-scale migration of Muslims into Europe.
In Nazi ideology, “blood and soil,” or Blut und Boden, encapsulated the party’s belief in eugenics and racial purity; the German “Aryans’” right to expand into Eastern Europe to amass new Lebensraum, or “living space”; and the transformation of the German peasantry into an agricultural class which stood in contrasts to Jews, many of whom lived in cities.
Meanwhile, antisemitic hate crimes have spiked to record levels across the US.
In January, Stephen Pittman, 19, allegedly ignited a catastrophic fire which decimated the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi. After being arrested, Pittman confessed and told US federal investigators that he targeted the institution over its “Jewish ties,” according to court filings.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘I’m alive!’: Netanyahu speaks in-person amid ongoing online rumors claiming he’s dead
“I am alive — and you are all witnesses,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, opening a rare in-person news conference with foreign reporters in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu was addressing a viral online rumor that he had been killed in an Iranian missile strike on March 8. The false claims gained traction after a Sunday press conference in which he appeared via Zoom, taking questions from Israeli journalists without disclosing his location amid ongoing Iranian ballistic missile attacks and following the assassination of senior regime figures.
The low-quality video he later posted on X fueled further speculation, as some users pointed to what they claimed was a six-fingered hand as evidence that it had been AI-generated to conceal his death.
In an effort to put the rumors to rest, Netanyahu released a video of himself ordering coffee on the outskirts of Jerusalem. But the clip took on a life of its own online. Much of the attention shifted to the barista, a young woman behind the counter whose warm smile went viral.
“I have got to ask you a question the entire internet is dying to hear the answer on: Is Benjamin Netanyahu dead?” media personality Mehdi Hasan asked Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an interview on Wednesday. Van Hollen, a fierce Netanyahu critic, was unequivocal. “No,” he said. “He is not dead.”
Netanyahu at start of press conference with foreign press:
“First of all, I just want to say I’m alive — and you’re all witnesses.” pic.twitter.com/B1ogphOTTD
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) March 19, 2026
Netanyahu’s appearance on Thursday was not only meant to show proof of life. It was also an attempt to counter criticism from some in the MAGA movement that Israel dragged the U.S. into an endless war with Tehran, and as U.S public opinion is turning against the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran.
On Tuesday, a senior intelligence official resigned to protest the administration’s approach. Joe Kent, who had been director of the federal National Counterterrorism Center, claimed that Israeli officials had used lies to convince President Donald Trump to start the war.
The isolationist wing of the conservative movement — associated with antisemitic influencers like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes — amplified those claims, adding further conspiracy theories, including claiming Israeli involvement in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year.
“Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” Netanyahu asked rhetorically. “Come on. President Trump always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America, and may I add, what is also good for future generations.”
The post ‘I’m alive!’: Netanyahu speaks in-person amid ongoing online rumors claiming he’s dead appeared first on The Forward.