Podczas najważniejszych świąt wierni powinni czuć się bezpiecznie, ale zachować czujność

MIKE WAGENHEIM
tłumaczenie: google.com

Rada dotycząca bezpieczeństwa wewnętrznego: Podczas najważniejszych świąt wierni powinni czuć się bezpiecznie, ale zachować czujność.

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„Żaden członek jakiejkolwiek społeczności nie powinien się niepokoić, gdy udaje się wyznawać swoją wiarę” – mówi Samantha Vinograd, zastępca sekretarza ds. zwalczania terroryzmu i zapobiegania zagrożeniom w Departamencie Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego Stanów Zjednoczonych.

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Brama z gwiazdą Dawida. Źródło: Shutterstock/Peter Ekvall.

Samantha Vinograd, zastępca sekretarza ds. zwalczania terroryzmu i zapobiegania zagrożeniom w Departamencie Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego Stanów Zjednoczonych. Źródło: DHS Zdjęcie: Applebaum za pośrednictwem Wikimedia Commons.

Rząd federalny ściśle współpracuje ze współpracownikami na wszystkich szczeblach w Stanach Zjednoczonych i za granicą, „aby zapewnić członkom społeczności żydowskiej możliwość bezpiecznego obchodzenia Wielkich Świąt” – Samantha Vinograd, zastępca sekretarza ds. zwalczania terroryzmu i zapobiegania zagrożeniom w Departamencie USA Departamentu Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, powiedział JNS.

Obejmuje to przeglądanie dostępnych informacji wywiadowczych w celu jak najwcześniejszego wykrycia zagrożeń i dzielenie się informacjami z partnerami, „w tym z odpowiednimi urzędnikami w społeczności wyznaniowej” – powiedziała Vinograd, która jest Żydówką i córką ocalałej z Holokaustu.

W maju administracja Bidena przedstawiła pierwszą krajową strategię zwalczania antysemityzmu. Strategia ta ma na celu promowanie podejścia obejmującego całe społeczeństwo, oprócz podejścia obejmującego cały rząd, w zwalczaniu nienawiści do Żydów.

Według Winogradu Departament Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego „szybko wdraża” narodową strategię od czasu jej wprowadzenia.

„Sesje słuchania”

W zeszłym tygodniu Vinograd rozmawiała ze społecznościami żydowskimi i innymi wyznaniami na Brooklynie w stanie Nowy Jork i wysłuchała ich obaw i zaleceń, podobnie jak to miało miejsce podczas podobnych wydarzeń w całym kraju, powiedziała JNS.

„Bierzemy udział w tych sesjach odsłuchowych” – powiedziała. „Dostosowujemy nasze szkolenia jako wydział, aby mieć pewność, że odpowiednio uwzględniają wszelkie uprzedzenia lub potencjalną dyskryminację”.

Departament publikuje broszury informacyjne, „które mówią o ochronie członków wspólnoty religijnej” – powiedział Vinograd, zauważając, że Departament Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego planuje wkrótce rozpocząć tydzień akcji, których celem będzie ochrona domów modlitwy.

Winograd stwierdził, że wydział „dosłownie” organizuje wszystkie swoje zasoby. Ma także na celu edukację społeczeństwa na temat dostępnych zasobów, w tym dotacji na bezpieczeństwo w celu zabezpieczenia obiektów sakralnych przed napastnikami, szkoleń dla specjalistów ds. bezpieczeństwa i innych członków społeczności wyznaniowych na wypadek ataku oraz ocen bezpieczeństwa obiektów kultu religijnego.

„Szereg incydentów typu swatting”

„Każdy Amerykanin, niezależnie od tego, czy jest Żydem, czy nie, ma obowiązek zabrać głos, jeśli widzi przypadki potencjalnej uprzedzeń, dyskryminacji lub potencjalnego zagrożenia” – powiedział JNS Vinograd.

Według Vinograda Departament Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego działa w „środowisku zwiększonego zagrożenia”, a krajobraz zagrożeń terrorystycznych jest „niezwykle dynamiczny” pod względem ewolucji grup stosujących przemoc oraz ich motywacji i taktyki.

„Jesteśmy świadkami szeregu incydentów swattingu, fałszywych gróźb podłożenia bomby, a także prób nękania, zastraszania, a także ataków fizycznych, niestety, na szereg celów, które są postrzegane na przykład jako związane z wiarą żydowską, ” powiedziała. „Nieważne, czy to prawda, czy wyobrażenie”. (Swatting oznacza zgłaszanie fałszywych zagrożeń w celu skierowania dużej liczby personelu ratunkowego na miejsce zdarzenia).

Departament opiera się na swoich silnych partnerstwach, „aby gromadzić i rozpowszechniać informacje wywiadowcze oraz reagować, jeśli uznamy, że może dojść do incydentu”, zarówno podczas Wielkich Świąt, jak i przez cały rok, powiedział Vinograd.

Aby zachować czujność, wspólnoty religijne powinny jak najszybciej zwrócić się o pomoc, gdy zobaczą osobę, która może zmierzać na ścieżkę przemocy. Mimo to rząd nie może „aresztować wyjścia z problemu” – zauważył Winograd. Ponadto, dodała, wielu z tych, którzy zagrażają społeczności żydowskiej, potrzebuje pomocy klinicznej, zanim ich retoryka zacznie działać.

Winograd zachęca innych Żydów, aby w okresie świątecznym poczuli się pewniej.

„Kiedy w sobotę pójdę z córką do synagogi, poczuję się bezpiecznie dzięki niesamowitej pracy, jaką wykonują oddani urzędnicy państwowi w całym kraju” – powiedziała JNS.

‘Catastrophic’: Top German Official Combating Antisemitism Attacks Decision to Allow Bavarian Deputy PM to Remain in Office

Ben Cohen

Election posters in the German state of Bavaria promoting deputy premier Hubert Aiwanger, who is accused of writing an antisemitic leaflet demeaning the Holocaust while a schoolboy. Photo: Reuters/Frank Hoermann

The German federal government’s top official tasked with combating antisemitism has strongly criticized the decision of Bavaria’s prime minister to allow his deputy — accused of authoring and distributing a leaflet demeaning the Holocaust while a schoolboy — to remain in office.

Felix Klein — the federal government’s commissioner for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism — warned that the decision of Markus Söder, the prime minister of the southern state of Bavaria, to permit his deputy Hubert Aiwanger to stay in his post could result in “catastrophic consequences” for the ongoing tasks of combating Jew-hatred and commemorating the Holocaust.

“After Prime Minister Söder’s decision to leave Mr. Aiwanger in office, the Bavarian state government should not return to the political agenda,” Klein told German media outlets on Monday. “The matter has damaged the fight against antisemitism in our country.”

A report in the the Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) news outlet ten days ago claimed that Aiwanger was behind a typewritten leaflet mocking the Holocaust distributed at the Burkhart Gymnasium in the town of Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg in 1987, when he was 17. According to the SZ, members of staff and former students at the school confirmed that Aiwanger had been summoned before a school disciplinary committee over the leaflet and was sanctioned as a result.

The leaflet parodied national history competitions through demeaning references to the Holocaust. For example, the “prize” for the best answer to the question “Who is the greatest traitor to the fatherland?” was “a complimentary flight through the chimney at Auschwitz.”

Similar “prizes” were offered for answers to other questions, among them a “lifelong stay in a mass grave,” “a free shot in the back of the neck,” “a ticket … to the entertainment quarter Auschwitz,” and a “night’s stay in the Gestapo cellar, then a trip to Dachau.”

Aiwanger furiously denied being the author of the leaflet, for which his brother Helmut later claimed responsibility. However, Jewish leaders and German politicians across the spectrum were unimpressed by his denial, pointing to the presence of copies of the leaflet in his school bag. As the scandal intensified, former schoolmates of Aiwanger’s gave interviews in which they accused the deputy prime minister, now 52, of delivering Hitler salutes, imitating Hitler’s speeches, and cracking antisemitic and racist jokes.

At a hastily organized press conference on Sunday, Söder — who faces state parliamentary elections on Oct. 8 — confirmed that he had opted against firing Aiwanger.

“I know not everyone will like my decision, and others will have residual doubts. But I stress again, this result is the outcome of a fair and orderly process,” he said.

Söder nonetheless criticized Aiwanger for his handling of the controversy.

“To first dispute everything, then partly admit some things, some of the contradictions, this has not increased his credibility in the past week,” Söder said. However, given that the leaflet was published 35 years ago, that there was no evidence of Hubert Aiwanger’s authorship, and that Aiwanger had not made any antisemitic statements since then, “in my opinion, dismissal from office would not be proportionate,” he said.

“Late, and in my view not too late, there was a clear apology and clear distancing of himself from the comments. This was right and necessary,” he added.

Separately, Aiwanger told the newspaper Bild that he saw “no reason whatsoever to resign or to be released from office.”

Klein countered by saying that Aiwanger should have resigned because of “insufficient information about his connection to the antisemitic hate leaflet and his statement that the Shoah was used here for party political purposes.” Last week, Aiwanger complained that the scandal was “now being used in a political campaign against me and my party.”

Klein expressed concern that the scandal would allow party political considerations to compromise the struggle against antisemitism and the commemoration of the Holocaust. In 2022, the German authorities registered about 2,500 antisemitic incidents — including a record number that involved extreme violence.

‘Blood Thirsty Baby Killers’: Extremist Anti-Israel Activism Surging on US College Campuses, New Report Finds

Dion J. Pierre

Protesters outside Harvard’s convocation, September 4, 2023, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alex Bernat

Anti-Israel activists on US college campuses embraced a strategy of vilifying Zionists and supporting terrorism against the Jewish state during the 2022-2023 academic school year, according to a new report.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish civil rights group, on Wednesday released the latest version of its annual report tracking anti-Israel activism on US campuses. The report tallied 665 campus anti-Israel incidents during the 2022-2023 academic year — nearly double the number of incidents from the prior school year.

While not all the incidents were necessarily antisemitic, many were antisemitic “in intent or in effect,” according to the report, which added that they collectively “contribute to a more hostile campus environment” for Jewish students.

“Every year, young Jewish people go to college with the hope that their Jewish identities, including their connection to the Jewish state, will be welcome on campus,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “This sense of community is increasingly at risk as concerning anti-Israel incidents increase. University leaders must respond effectively to this hatred so that Jewish students feel safe.”

The report cited several examples of anti-Israel activism harming Jews on campus. In one such instance, Georgetown University co-sponsored a conference featuring British academic David Miller, who Bristol University fired as a professor for harassing Jewish students. He has accused the “Zionist movement” of “grooming Jewish kids.”

In another case cited by the ADL report, Harvard University’s Palestine Solidarity Committee erected a so-called “apartheid wall.” Separately, during a City University of New York (CUNY) Law School commencement speech, a graduate demonized Israel and charged that Jewish money determines the positions taken by administrators on Israel.

Support for terrorism was also common on college campuses. According to the report, the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) expressed on at least 10 occasions admiration for Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terror group. She is known for previously hijacking two planes.

Other SJP chapters at the University of Texas, Dallas, New York University Law School, and the University of Massachusetts posted violent images containing PLFP’s logo and guns. In January, the University of Chicago’s SJP chapter honored Khairy Alqam — who murdered seven Israeli civilians exiting a synagogue in Jerusalem — in a collage titled “Honoring the Martyrs.”

“Many expressions of support for violence/terror were accompanied by the slogan that ‘[armed] resistance is justified when the people are occupied,’ which is often used by activists to promote all violence against Israel, even against civilians, which they argue is a noble cause in the anti-colonial struggled, despite Jews (like Palestinians) being native and indigenous to the land,” the report states, noting that classical antisemitic tropes are also used to attack the Jewish state.

In April, for example, an unknown person wrote “You blood thirsty baby killers” on a flyer promoting an Israel Independence Day party at Pomona College.

Philanthropic support for the pro-Palestinian campus movement can be substantial, the ADL noted, citing a $20,000 donation that the Sparkplug Foundation, a left-wing nonprofit organization, granted SJP in 2022. Other organizations have also provided money and even logistical resources such as American Muslims for Palestine and Palestine Legal, which is generously funded by Tides Foundation, a pioneer in activist investment.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, a growing alignment of large, left-leaning philanthropic organizations with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is fueling the latter’s growth on American college campuses.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a left-wing anti-Israel organization that promotes the BDS movement, has received $480,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation whose endowment is valued at $1.27 billion, since 2017, according to a report by the higher education nonprofit National Association of Scholars in April. Meanwhile, the Tides Foundations has given the group $75,000 since 2019. Between 2014 and 2015 alone, JVP brought in over half a million dollars in grants.

ADL’s report comes amid a nationwide surge in antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the US, a problem that it and other organizations have closely tracked, flagging a significant increase in displays of both traditional antisemitism — discrimination against Jews based on religion or race — and anti-Zionism targeting Jewish students over their support for Israel.

Just last week, a student and anti-Israel activist at Harvard University interrupted a convocation ceremony held by the school, shouting at Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, “Here’s the real truth — Harvard supports, upholds, and invests in Israeli apartheid, and the oppression of Palestinians!”

Another Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania, is scheduled to host an event this month featuring a gamut of anti-Zionist activists who have promoted antisemitic tropes and called for violence against Israel.

Speakers listed on the event’s itinerary include Islamic University of Gaza professor Refaat Alareer, who said in 2018, “Are most Jews evil? Of course they are.” Another listed speaker, Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, previously said during an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”

Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, is also a scheduled speaker. In recent years he has made comments about “Jewish power” and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. In May, during a concert held in Berlin, he performed in what looked like a Nazi SS officer uniform. A projection that played during the concert also compared Holocaust victim Anne Frank to Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh — who was accidentally shot and killed last year while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank — and the show was deemed as “deeply offensive to Jewish people.”

The surge in anti-Israel activism on campus has seemingly contributed to the growing alarm that Jewish students are feeling about antisemitism. A striking 57 percent of Jewish students reported witnessing or experiencing an act of antisemitism either on campus or in the general public, according to a recent survey conducted by market research firm Ipsos and released by the World Jewish Congress and Jewish on Campus, a nonprofit organization. Meanwhile, 84 percent of the students said they fear that antisemitism in the US poses a threat to the country.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.