Israel to redirect aliyah efforts from former Soviet Union countries to Western nations, such as France and the United States

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Shifting gears, aliyah ministry to focus efforts on Western Jewry
Ariel Kahana
May 31, 2023

Israel is changing course and refocusing aliyah efforts from former Soviet Union countries to Western nations, such as France and the United States, Israel Hayom has learned. Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer has recommended the redistribution of the budget, which will see funds meant to promote aliyah from the former Soviet bloc slashed almost in half, from 8 to 4.5 million dollars. The newly available funds will be directed to encourage aliyah first and foremost from France. A senior ministry official explained to Israel Hayom that there was simply no need to encourage aliyah from Eastern Europe, as the Ukraine war led to a mass migration to Israel. READ MORE

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CUNY commencement speech demonizes Israel and the crowd cheers

NEW YORK POST
CUNY Law Dean applauds student’s ‘hate speech’ against Israel, NYPD, and military
Carl Campanile
May 30, 2023

CUNY Law School’s dean came under fire Tuesday when video emerged of her clapping at a graduate’s incendiary May 12 commencement address that the public university’s trustees belatedly labeled “hate speech.” “Everyone was applauding on the stage. The dean applauded,” Jeffey Lax, a professor who is co-founder of the pro-Jewish Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY, said of Dean Sudha Setty and others…In her address, Mohammed blasted the NYPD “fascist” and accused Israel of indiscriminately murdering Palestinians… The outrage over CUNY Law’s commence activities last year is one of the reasons the City Council had held a hearing about Jewish students’ complaints of anti-Semitism at the university’s 25 campuses. READ MORE

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“Jews have a special interest in stopping Soros due to his funding of groups that “have spread antisemitic lies about the state of Israel,” citing BDS movement and J Street”

DAILY SIGNAL
‘George Soros Is a Destructive Civilizational Force,’ Co-Founder of ‘Jews Against Soros’ Says
Virginia Allen and Samantha Aschieris
June 01, 2023

Two conservative activists on Wednesday launched “Jews Against Soros,” a Jewish coalition against leftist billionaire George Soros. The leaders of the coalition—Josh Hammer, the senior editor-at-large of Newsweek, and Will Scharf, a candidate for attorney general of Missouri—say opposing Soros is not antisemitic. “George Soros is a destructive civilizational force in America, Israel, his native Hungary, and throughout the West more generally,” Hammer told The Daily Signal in a statement. “Far too many elected officials who criticize his dastardly influence, and perhaps especially his sprawling network of “progressive prosecutors,” are dishonestly tarred as “antisemites” for doing so. “Enough. This gaslighting must end, and we hope to help do so,” Hammer said. READ MORE

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A recent essay touting a “one-state” approach to Israel-Palestinian issues is more about eliminating the world’s only Jewish state than offering real solutions to complex regional problems

WASHINGTON INSTITUTE
The No-State Solution
Robert Satloff
May 31, 2023

Foreign Affairs should be congratulated for publishing this breathtakingly tendentious essay by Michael Barnett, Nathan Brown, Marc Lynch, and Shibley Telhami because it exposes the authors’ pseudo-academic argument as little more than political advocacy. Why is this advocacy and not scholarship? Because in its eagerness to market the catchphrase “one-state reality,” it … avoids inconvenient facts, such as the impressive advance of Arab Israelis within Israeli society in recent decades and the rejection of the “apartheid” label by many leading Arab figures on both sides of the Green Line…Because it disparages the state of Israel’s democracy, which is older than those of about half the countries in the European Union, and makes only passing reference to the remarkable vitality of the country’s civil society, underscored by the huge nationwide protests against proposed judicial reforms that began in early 2023. And because, without a single reference to Hezbollah missiles, Hamas rockets, or a potential Iranian nuclear bomb, it leaves the unsuspecting reader to wonder whether Israel’s neighbors are Andorra, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland. READ MORE

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Jews stand up for Israel at Roger Waters concert, the venue site of 1938 Kristallnacht beatings

JPOST
Jewish protestors raise Israeli flag, sing at Roger Waters Frankfurt concert
May 29, 2023

Jewish protestors interrupted Roger Waters’ concert in Frankfurt on Sunday with Israeli flags and by singing “Am Israel Chai” (the people of Israel live), according to a video posted by Twitter user Jewish Defense Network. The video shows one protestor rushing onto the stage with an Israeli flag as security guards rush to stop him. Meanwhile, in the audience, a group of spectators raise Israeli flags and sing. This protest was carried out after reports that Jewish groups had planned to hold a memorial ceremony at the venue before the performance in protest of Waters’ antisemitism. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Pro-Israel stage protester says Roger Waters’ guards threatened to break his neck Marcel L., who rushed stage with Jewish state’s flag at Frankfurt show, alleges violence by security; singer says act was ‘unnerving,’ as German police probe him for antisemitism

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“This is the Biden administration’s betrayal of Jews in a nutshell”

JNS
Biden’s antisemitism strategy fails to condemn BDS, includes CAIR
Daniel Greenfield
May 28, 2023

There were many expectations for Biden’s “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” among the usual organizational types, but anyone with common sense could have seen this coming a mile away. The “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” fails to address Muslim and leftist antisemitism. It briefly delves into campus antisemitism but does not address its source, has a single throwaway line about the attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York City and gives the pro-Israel IHRA definition of antisemitism nearly equal billing with the Nexus anti-Israel one. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA ZOA slams Biden’s inclusion of ‘dangerous’ antisemitism definitions in nation action plan Zionist Organization of America also decries strategy’s lack of calling out Islamists and other antisemites endangering US Jewish community

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“The Kingdom’s China-brokered renewal of ties with Iran has strained its relations with Israel and may have weakened Riyadh’s appetite for normalization”

ARAB NEWS
High time for a ‘Hajj Express’ for Israeli Muslims
Mark Dubowitz and Tzvi Kahn
May 24, 2023

With the Hajj being only a month away, Saudi Arabia has a chance to take the high road with Israeli Muslims and sidestep the obstacles in their efforts to normalize relations. Riyadh is hereby called upon, for the first time, to allow direct flights for Muslim pilgrims from Israel…After all, Qatar admitted direct flights from Tel Aviv for World Cup fans. Surely Saudi Arabia can be no less accommodating for the Muslims who make up 18 percent of Israel’s population. READ MORE

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Debates surrounding the pandemic continue to rely on false narratives about Haredim

TABLET MAG
How Religious Jews Became Official Scapegoats of COVID Policy
Moshe Krakowski
May 29, 2023

Dr. Anthony Fauci became famous early on in the pandemic for his dedication to lockdowns and masking. For many, this made him a hero—and anyone who questioned or defied these measures a villain. Perhaps no one in the country became greater COVID pariahs than religious Jews. “Just drove through Hasidic Williamsburg. Saw at least 250 people, and not a *single* person was wearing a mask,” New York Times reporter Eliza Shapiro tweeted in outrage in May 2020. But rhetoric about COVID has changed. Officials who once advocated for harsh restrictions are quietly seeking to distance themselves from their earlier positions. READ MORE

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Tower of David in Jerusalem is also an ancient fortress, telling stories of the Hasmonean Kingdom, Byzantine period, and early Islamic period of the Middle Ages

I24NEWS
Tower of David Museum to reopen as Jerusalem’s official museum
Erica Jackson
May 29, 2023

After over ten years of planning and three years of construction, the famous Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem is reopening to the public on June 1 as the holy city’s official museum. “The new museum tells the secrets of this city – how Jerusalem, a small city in the hills of Judea, became so important city for so many people from all over the world,” Eilat Lieber, director and chief curator of the museum, told i24NEWS. But the Tower of David in Jerusalem isn’t just a museum – it’s an ancient fortress. The strategic location tells the story of the biblical Hasmonean Kingdom, the Roman and Byzantine periods, and the early Islamic period through the Middle Ages. READ MORE

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Celebrity Highland Parker rips into Chicago as they increasingly ignore criminals

DAILY CALLER
‘Cops Have To Be Able To Chase’: Maher, Famous Rocker Rip Into Chicago Over Restrictions On Police
Brianna Lyman
May 26, 2023

Comedian and podcast host Bill Maher and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan tore into Chicago over its restrictions on police. Chicago police officers are no longer permitted to chase people on foot if they are fleeing from crimes they’ve committed if they are minor offenses. Maher noted that several of his old friends from Chicago feel the city is now “very unsafe.” “Just to add a little bit of teeth to what I’m saying, I know a lot of Chicago Police Department people,” Corgan said. “So these are the people that are dealing with it everyday. And they’re like, ‘this is fucked up.’ They’re telling me that.” READ MORE

Billy’s comments about Chicago begin at 57:40

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