Rachel Goldberg-Polin honored with Ph.D and gives commencement address at Yeshiva University: “We are not what we say, we are not what we think, and we are not even what we believe. In this life, we are what we do.”

Posted on May 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

KVELLER
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s Commencement Speech Must Be Heard
Lior Zaltzman
May 28, 2025

Last week, on May 22, in New York’s Louis Armstrong Stadium, the city’s Yeshiva University held its graduation ceremony. Its head, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, presented an honorary doctorate to a woman who has become a hero to so many of us since October 7. I’m speaking, of course about Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of the late and great Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed brutally by Hamas along with five others while in captivity. (An award named after Hersh — the Ohr Shel Hersh Award— was also inaugurated at the ceremony.. Her speech for the new graduates contained in it beautiful guidelines for how to live in order to make the world a better place. She started out with gratitude, noting that the root for the Hebrew word for “gratitude/thank you” is also found in the Hebrew word for “Jewish.” She talked about Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, sending to their parents comfort from the heavens and saying that her heart and soul are with them, and that they did everything right. READ MORE

Hear Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s stirring address

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After the DC murders, the time has come to strike down this monstrous antisemitic movement once and for all.

Posted on May 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

NO DELUSIONS, NO DESPAIR
Smash the Free Palestine Nazis
Benjamin Kerstein
Mary 23, 2025

…In some ways, the horrific murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim z”l at a Jewish event in Washington, DC by a Free Palestine Nazi is an exception to the rule. It is explicable in its logic, and its cause can be easily traced. Its cause is Free Palestine Nazism itself: The first full-scale antisemitic movement in the United States since the 1930s, led by the Red-Green Alliance between radical progressives and Islamic supremacists. Its logic is the same as antisemitic murder has always been: the satanic belief in the necessity, the obligation, to kill Jews. This is the logic of everyone from Haman to Hitler, and it remains unchanged since Amalek slaughtered the women and children of the refugees from Pharaoh’s oppression. We know this is true because, like the movement that birthed him, the swine who committed the atrocity said so. But we know more than that: This is not a matter of one’s man guilt. The complicity is vast and collective. READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER After Capital Jewish Museum killings, 33 senators call for $500 million in nonprofit security funding The letter was sent the day following the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees, which prompted calls for more resources to protect Jewish institutions

JOHNSON COUNTY POST Funeral held for Sarah Milgrim, Johnson County native killed in D.C. shooting — ‘She opened new doors’ Family and friends gathered Tuesday to mourn the death of Prairie Village native Sarah Milgrim, less than a week after she was shot and killed outside an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Local rabbis, Jewish leaders and a member of the Israeli embassy gave remarks at Congregation Beth Torah, in Overland Park. The funeral was private but streamed live online….Milgrim grew up in Prairie Village and was involved in Kansas City’s Jewish community. She was remembered for her commitment to Judaism and peacebuilding. Her father told KCUR that part of her job at the embassy involved hosting the families of Oct. 7 hostages when they visited the U.S.

JEWISH INSIDER Hundreds attend funeral outside Jerusalem for Israeli diplomat murdered in D.C. Yaron Lischinsky was laid to rest on Sunday in Beit Zayit, a moshav outside of Jerusalem, after he was killed alongside his partner, Sarah Lynn Milgrim, by a shooter who shouted “Free Palestine” at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday. Hundreds attended the funeral, according to sources present. The funeral was closed to the media at the family’s request. Among those who attended were Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel and Lischinsky’s direct superior at the embassy, Minister-Counselor for Middle East Affairs Noa Ginosar, who accompanied his body to Israel.

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Northbrook: Only adding to the offense, the sign is standing during Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted on May 28, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WGN NEWS
Northbrook residents demand removal of sign featuring Nazi symbol
Jenna Barnes, Ashlyn Wright
May 27, 2025

In downtown Northbrook, a longstanding free speech zone is the focus of a new uproar with some neighbors saying it has now crossed the line into hate speech. “It was terrible. It was just gut wrenching. It was shocking,” Jeff Kaminsky said. A sign at the corner of Shermer Road and Walters Avenue reads ‘Northbrook stands with migrants’ and shows a blue inverted triangle, which is a Nazi symbol. “I live a block away. I can see it if I walk outside my door and come half a block up. I’m very upset by this,” Lisa Beth Gansberg with Friends of United Hatzalah said. READ MORE

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Meanwhile, at Harvard: “Instead of discipline, the students behind an attack that went viral got a fellowship, accolades—and a commencement spotlight”

Posted on May 28, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Attacking Jews at Harvard Doesn’t Just Go Unpunished. It Gets Rewarded.
Johanna Berkman
May 21, 2025

In the year and a half since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, there have been so many alarming incidents on college campuses aimed at Jews. Many stick out for their grotesque imagery, for their outrageous slanders, and for their Soviet-style tactics. But the incident that I remember most vividly is the one that took place at Harvard University less than two weeks after Hamas invaded Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 more. No one was physically injured that day. But the fact remained that the incident was wildly beyond the pale: a group of Harvard students surrounding another student, an Israeli named Yoav Segev, repeatedly screaming “Shame!” in his face, blocking his path, and forcing him to leave a part of campus that he was entitled to be in just as much as they were. READ MORE

JNS Student speaker accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ at MIT graduation Clad in a red keffiyeh, Megha Vemuri, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s class of 2025, addressed graduates at the school’s commencement on Thursday. “You showed the world that MIT wants a free Palestine,” she said.

JPOST Two Harvard students who assaulted Jewish peer receive honors, $65,000 fellowship One of two Harvard students who assaulted a Jewish classmate during an anti-Israel protest in October 2023 has been appointed as class marshal by Harvard Divinity School at the upcoming graduation ceremony. This comes just three weeks after the other assailant was awarded a $65,000 Harvard Law School fellowship to work at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Harvard Law Review website says its $65,000 fellowship goes to recent Harvard Law School graduates “with a demonstrated interest in serving the public interest through their work and scholarship.”

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European governments and broadcasters tried to turn a song contest into a show trial. The public voted for Israel anyway.

Posted on May 28, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Crowd Knew Better
Itxu Díaz
May 27, 2025

The Eurovision Song Contest just wrapped up one of its most controversial editions, which revealed a stark disconnect between European audiences and their governments. For the third year in a row, Israel received more popular votes than those awarded by the national juries. While viewers this year voted overwhelmingly for Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, European bureaucrats went to comical lengths to exclude and efface the Israeli contestant, resulting in her second-place finish. The now-familiar Eurovision vitriol toward Israel began even before the contest, when public broadcasters from six participating countries pushed to exclude Israel from the event, comparing it to Russia as an aggressor state. Then, after Raphael’s song, “New Day Will Rise,” received the most votes from audiences, the Spanish Broadcasting Authority (RTVE) demanded a reassessment of the voting system. READ MORE

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Free 30-minute film about the forced 1493 deportation of Jewish children from Portugal a reminder of how Europe has often treated their Jews

Posted on May 25, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
‘The 2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children’ connects hostages across time
May 25, 2025

…The film tells the story of Jewish children—aged eight and under—who were seized in 1493 by order of King João II of Portugal. Their families, who had fled Spain following the 1492 expulsion of Jews, were unable to pay the exorbitant ransom demanded by the Portuguese crown. As punishment, the children were forcibly taken from their parents and deported to the remote and uninhabited island of São Tomé, some 7,500 kilometers from their homes. “When we hear European leaders rewarding terrorism and encouraging the killing of Jews and Israelis everywhere, it becomes imperative to remember what European Jewish life has been like for centuries,” said Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Oporto Jewish community. READ MORE

TO VIEW 2000 Kidnapped Jewish Children CLICK HERE

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“Today’s war dresses itself in “progressive” language, legal briefs, and diplomatic forums — but which remains, at its core, a war against the Jews”

Posted on May 24, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FUTURE OF JEWISH
What Hitler saw in Évian, Hamas sees in Paris.
Bob Goldberg
May 24, 2025

In January 1942, some 15 Nazi bureaucrats met at a lakeside villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. There were no slogans, no shouting — just clipped speech, memoranda, and a logistical blueprint for the Final Solution. The annihilation of the Jewish People wasn’t argued. It was scheduled. Eighty-three years later, the same cold, clinical mindset has returned — not in Berlin, but in Paris and New York, under the banners of “diplomacy” and “humanitarian” concern. In June 2025, two back-to-back international conferences— one in Paris (June 11th to 13th), and another chaired by France and Saudi Arabia at the United Nations in New York (June 16th to June 18) — will set a new administrative order in motion. Their shared goal? To engineer the dismantling of the Jewish state through law, public relations, and process. READ MORE

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Mandelbaum: “America is short of weaponry, evidence of which is the difficulty it has experienced in equipping Ukraine with the rockets and artillery shells it needs to stave off the Russian onslaught. The American military also has too few ships and planes, and many of those it has are decades old”

Posted on May 24, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM STRATEGIC TRIBUNE
Where is the Military-Industrial Complex Now That We Really Need It?
Michael Mandelbaum
May 2025

…The term “military-industrial complex” entered the American political lexicon as a danger, as Eisenhower intended, but also, to some, as an established fact of American public life that led to self-perpetuating and unduly high expenditures on defense. The end of the Cold War demonstrated that a permanent and powerful military-industrial complex did not, in fact, exist. The share of US gross domestic product devoted to defense fell by half, from six percent in the 1980s to three percent in the late 1990s. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States faced no aggressive, well-armed adversary and thus had no need of a defense establishment of Cold-War dimensions. Now, however, it does. READ MORE

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INVITE OpenDor Media Chicago event

Posted on May 23, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

OpenDor Media invites you…
When: Sunday June 8, 7pm
Where: North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie IL

You are invited to join OpenDor Media for our first-ever LIVE Unpacking Israeli History show with Noam Weissman. For this event, Noam is welcoming special guest, Dr. Michael Oren, bestselling author, historian, and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., who also served as a Member of Knesset and Deputy Minister for Diplomacy, to unpack some of the most pressing questions around Israeli history, identity, and the future.

We’ve seen firsthand how equipping people with the truth of our shared history sparks positive change and fosters open, meaningful conversation. Partner with us to inspire the next generation by joining us for this event and our exclusive VIP pre-show reception.

Click here for more information

Click here for tickets
Click “unlock” and use code “UIHCHI” before selecting your seats for 20% off tickets

Click here to donate to OpenDor Media

YOUTUBE Welcome to Unpacked!

At Unpacked, we make content that explores big questions and dissect complex topics. You’ll get all the information you need to easily navigate through these complicated issues and develop informed opinions about Israel and Judaism.

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Yaron Lischinsky was murdered Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., by an anti-Israel militant. I knew him. Let me tell you who he was.

Posted on May 22, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FDD
My Friend Yaron
Mariam Wahba
May 22, 2025

I first met Yaron Lischinsky almost two years ago, at McCormick & Schmick’s steakhouse on K Street in Washington, D.C. I was new to the city and looking for new friends when we connected on X. I ordered a gin and tonic. He got nothing. In typical Washington intro-meetings fashion, we began that awkward dance of “So what do you do?” I launched into the usual spiel about my work covering the Middle East for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. But soon enough, the conversation veered, sharply and inevitably, toward my favorite subject: Christians in the Middle East, a community we were both members of…We often talked about how strange and wonderful it must be to live in Jerusalem as a Christian, something he knew intimately and I still dream of. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Bari Weiss: Welcome to the Global Intifada Sarah Milgrim was a Jew raised in Kansas who began working at the embassy in November 2023—a month after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023. She had two master’s degrees—one in international studies from American University, and a second in natural resources and sustainable Development from the United Nations University for Peace. Sarah was an idealist: she volunteered with Tech2Peace, which supports entrepreneurship between young Palestinians and Israelis...That Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim happened to be at an event about delivering  humanitarian relief across the region, including to Palestinians in Gaza, was of no concern to the alleged murderer. He was there to “free Palestine”—the slogan he shouted after he executed them.

ISRAEL HAYOM DC shooter manifesto revealed An American blogger on Thursday published the final letter written by Elias Rodriguez, a far-left activist who carried out the deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Washington, killing two employees of the Israeli Embassy. The blogger, Ken Klippenstein, claims that the signature and timestamp on the document indicate its authenticity. Other experts who chose to share the excerpt also believe it to be an original document. In a lengthy, impassioned, and ideologically charged text, Rodriguez, a radical leftist from Chicago, claimed that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip, and in particular, American support for Israeli operations, had driven him to commit the terrorist attack…In the letter’s closing paragraph, Rodriguez justified his actions, writing: “Those of us against the genocide take satisfaction in arguing that the perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Domestic terror is the inevitable next step for Hamas sympathizers For the past 19 months, angry mobs have taken over college campuses and the streets of major American cities. These demonstrations, tent encampments and building takeovers have not just been expressions of opposition to Israel’s efforts to eradicate the Hamas terrorists who led the Palestinian Arab assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They have also often been indicative of the protesters’ support for Hamas and the embrace of terrorist goals, as well as their antisemitism—something that was made obvious by the way they have targeted Jews during the course of their “activism.” Yet rather than being isolated and widely condemned, these pro-Hamas activists and demonstrators have been cheered by many in the media and even rationalized by former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as their party’s left-wing leaders, who spoke of them as idealists who “deserved to be heard” and validated…

NEW YORK POST DC Jewish Museum suspected terrorist Elias Rodriguez fired nearly 2 dozen shots as gunned-down victim tried to crawl away The suspected terrorist who opened fire on two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC, unleashed nearly two dozen rounds at the soon-to-be-engaged couple — with victim Sarah Milgrim attempting to crawl away after collapsing to the ground, according to sources and court documents…The Chicago native leaned over the bullet-riddled couple and continued firing, then followed Milgrim as she made a desperate attempt to escape, shooting her again.

Posted in Chicago, Islam, Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment