Chicago is one of the few remaining cities that does not have a Jewish high school. For now.

Posted on August 3, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JTA
An effort is underway to launch a Jewish high school in Chicago, where antisemitism concerns run high
Grace Gilson
August 7, 2025

Chicago has many hallmarks of a thriving Jewish community: dozens of synagogues of every denomination, a range of kosher restaurants and bakeries and one of the largest Jewish federations in the country. But locals have long lamented one big gap: a Jewish high school within the city limits. Now, a parent-led initiative to open one in Chicago is gaining steam, with a building under contract, the city’s Jewish federation engaged, and buzz growing among families. The goal is to launch in 2027, giving graduates of the city’s three non-Orthodox Jewish day schools a local choice beyond public and secular private schools. The effort comes as both public and private high schools in the city have drawn allegations of antisemitism. READ MORE

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DePaul Professor Kwall: “We need our houses of worship to be a refuge from strife and political discord, and not a source of such conflict”

Posted on August 2, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
Pulpits and Politics Do Not Mix
Roberta “Bobbi” Kwall
July 22, 2025

…Until earlier this month, all clergy in this country had a reason to avoid wading into politics given that a ban on political activity by tax-exempt non-profits had been in existence for decades. But on July 8, the I.R.S. interpreted this ban to allow clergy and houses of worship to endorse political candidates. According to the I.R.S., political endorsements by houses of worship are distinct from campaigning activity and more like a private, “family discussion concerning candidates.” But just because clergy can now endorse candidates does not mean that they should. To its credit, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center has already condemned this ruling, urging its reversal.  We all know how polarized politics has seeped into way too many of our cherished spaces, resulting in unhealable rifts among both families and friends. In too many settings, both professional and personal, the most dominant political perspective dominates the discourse, resulting in what I call a “silencing phenomenon” that impacts those with minority views. READ MORE

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“Arab Declaration, also signed by EU and over a dozen countries, urges terror group to give up Gaza rule, free hostages; calls on Israel to end war, agree to Palestinian state, ‘right of return’”

Posted on July 31, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
In 1st, entire Arab League condemns Oct. 7, urges Hamas to disarm, at 2-state confab
Jacob Magid
July 30, 2025

Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip. Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM British officials slam recognition of Palestinian state A delegation of former UK ministers and parliamentarians visiting Israel has criticized British policy. In a conversation with Israel Hayom, they said, “This won’t bring us closer to a two-state solution and won’t ease the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

FOX NEWS Mark Levin torches UK leader Starmer, details why he’s ‘sick and tired’ of Europe’s lectures to Israel U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer entered Mark Levin’s crosshairs Wednesday after making demands of Israel and threatening to recognize a Palestinian state unless the former agrees to a ceasefire and takes “substantive steps” to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza…“If they had had their way, Israel already would have surrendered to Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. These guys [European leaders] don’t know how to fight a war, they don’t know how to defend their own people, they have open immigration, their countries have been taken over… They have no rational policy at all for Israel to defend itself and protect itself.”

ISRAEL HAYOM More European countries join campaign against Israel Sweden and Portugal join other EU members in the growing diplomatic momentum against Israel, where numerous countries are expected to announce their recognition of a Palestinian state in September.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | 1 Comment

“It is historically indisputable, the modern Palestinian Arab national identity did not coalesce as a desire to build an independent nation but rather to prevent the existence of one: the Jewish State of Israel”

Posted on July 31, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
Macron’s Dangerous Delusion — Recognition of a Palestinian State Will Lead to More War & Terror
Micha Danzig
July 28, 2025

French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent announcement that France will move to recognize a so-called “Palestinian state,” headed by the kleptocracy known as the Palestinian Authority, is not only morally indefensible — it’s also strategically foolish, historically blind and deeply corrosive to the prospects of real peace. It is a gift to terrorism, an insult to international law, a betrayal of France’s own long-standing commitment to “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and democracy itself. Let’s be clear: There is no historical, legal or ethical justification for rewarding the Palestinian Authority (PA) — a regime neck-deep in corruption, antisemitism and incitement to violence — with statehood. Macron’s decision signals to the world that terrorism, rejectionism and the glorification of murder can achieve diplomatic rewards. READ MORE

JNS France held secret meeting with Hamas in 2020 Paris has been carrying out “secret contacts” with Hamas at least since October 2020, when a high-ranking French intelligence official met two with senior Hamas figures in Doha, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Saturday. The meeting, initiated by the French, came to Israel’s knowledge through a document captured by the IDF in Gaza, which provided a detailed report on the meeting. On Oct. 16, 2020, the No. 3 in French intelligence met with Hamas senior officials Moussa Abu Marzouk and Khaled Mashaal, respectively the former and current chairman of Hamas’s so-called political bureau.

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How many wars can you count where the attacked country is expected to feed the civilians in the country that did the attacking? I’ll wait while you compile the list.

Posted on July 30, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Is Gaza Starving? Searching for the Truth in an Information War.
Matti Friedman
July 27, 2025

…It’s impossible to know how many Palestinians have been killed in these [aid delivery] incidents, because Hamas numbers are part of the group’s information war. But my friends serving nearby told me that there have been fatalities in multiple incidents, and that poor Israeli planning is partly to blame. One friend, a committed and capable officer, told me despondently that the distribution effort “isn’t working and can’t work.” It’s not that they’re not trying. The army simply doesn’t have the ability to run orderly food distribution in a hostile and war-ravaged territory that has devolved, to a large extent, into the rule of gangs and clans. READ MORE

SPENCER GARD John Spencer: Israel’s Aid to Gaza Is Historically Unprecedented But there is another truth that must be acknowledged. One that is rarely said out loud, despite being plain and provable: There is no historical precedent for a military providing the level of direct aid to an enemy population that Israel has provided to Gaza.

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Reports from inside Iran reveal that the regime and its supporters have reportedly raised more than $40 million in a crowdfunding campaign to murder Trump

Posted on July 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
‘Bring the Head of Trump’: Iran Must Be Stopped
Majid Rafizadeh
July 26, 2025

Iran’s regime has crossed a line that no sovereign state has ever crossed before: it openly called for the assassination of a sitting president of the United States. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, one of the most powerful clerics in Iran’s theocratic system, has issued an official fatwa — a religious decree — calling for the murder of President Donald J. Trump. It did not come from some fringe radical hiding in a cave. It came directly from the top of Iran’s religious and political hierarchy. This is equivalent to a declaration of war. What makes the fatwa even more outrageous is that the regime is not just issuing threats—it has been raising money, publicly — to pay for Trump’s murder. It is not a joke. It is a direct, state-sanctioned call to eliminate America’s leader. READ MORE

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“Ben Rhodes, Tommy Vietor shaped the story of the Iran nuclear deal. Now they’re trying to turn Democrats away from Israel”

Posted on July 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Former Obama staffers turned podcasters reemerge to lead anti-Israel chorus
Danielle Cohen-Kanik
July 29, 2025

Former Obama administration officials Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor took to social media over the weekend to attack Israel and slam the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, asking how it’s possible to “trust Democrats to fight for anything” if they take money from the pro-Israel lobby group. The anti-Israel activism from the Democratic influencers is a public example of the intense lobbying taking place in party circles and how progressive foreign policy officials such as Rhodes who have long been deeply critical of Israel are pushing to turn humanitarian concerns in Gaza into a more permanent split between the Democratic Party and Israel. READ MORE

NEWSWEEK Full List of Senators Who Voted To Block Israel Arms Deal A majority of Democratic senators voted in support of Senator Bernie Sanders’ resolution to block an arms deal to Israel as public opinion shifts amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who has been critical of Israel, introduced two resolutions the Senate voted on Wednesday. Although both failed to receive majority support, they received record support from Senate Democrats. One resolution that would block the sale of assault rifles to Israel received support from 27 Democrats, while one to block the sale of more than $675 million in arms sales received support from 24 Democrats.

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An obsession with the Jewish state has replaced rationality by lethal propaganda.

Posted on July 29, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The worldwide frenzy against Israel
Melanie Phillips
July 24, 2025

…This propaganda onslaught consists of three major libels: that the IDF is deliberately killing Gazans queueing for food, that Israel is starving Gazans to death, and that “settler violence” against Arabs is increasing in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. All three claims seek to turn Israel from being the target and victim of genocidal attack into a murderous criminal entity that doesn’t deserve to survive. It’s a propaganda onslaught mounted by Hamas acting in concert with its allies in the United Nations and the entire global humanitarian establishment, pumped out through a media megaphone and parroted by politicians who are either malevolent or clueless. READ MORE

JNS Jonathan Tobin: Anti-Israel virtue-signaling on Gaza is immoral The avalanche of anti-Israel propaganda as a result of a flurry of reports of alleged starvation in the Gaza Strip is starting to overwhelm even the most stalwart supporters of the Jewish state…What’s more, others—whether religious groups like the Reform movement, prestigious liberal journalists like The New Yorker’s David Remnick or secular comics like the Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart (who used his show to platform the anti-Zionist Jewish journalist Peter Beinart, who believes in Israel’s elimination) or Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin, are loudly asserting that Israel has betrayed Jewish values in fighting its defensive war against Hamas.

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“Numerous Northwestern faculty members who claim not to know any Zionist Jews are, in a sense, telling the truth—their own discriminatory practices ensure they never encounter them”

Posted on July 28, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
Saving Northwestern University From Itself
Scott A. Shay
July 30, 2025

Reports suggest the U.S. Department of Education is negotiating with Northwestern University to resolve allegations of antisemitism in exchange for the release of suspended federal grants. In my book, Conspiracy U: A Case Study, I detailed the systemic antisemitism and abandonment of academic standards at Northwestern long before these issues became widely recognized. This problem has deep roots; as late as 1970, Northwestern was the last major American university to abandon its quota system for Jewish applicants.  For real change to occur, any settlement must go far beyond a fine…The number of Jewish students at Northwestern has been plummeting as they feel increasingly unwelcome; some Jewish high schools that once sent numerous applicants now send none. Conversely, anti-Jewish activism appears to have become a “plus” for admission. READ MORE

JPOST University presidents return from Auschwitz with a pledge to combat campus antisemitism International March of the Living University Presidents mission equipped academic leaders with historical context and moral clarity amid growing campus antisemitism. Over the past two years, International March of the Living — a global Holocaust education and remembrance organization — brought more than 15 university presidents, representing more than 125 institutions of higher education, from North America and Europe to Poland for a weeklong educational journey.

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Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, thanked Washington for its “moral support and leadership” and said that “singling out Israel and politicization by member states must end, in this and all professional UN agencies”

Posted on July 27, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Trump Pulls US Out of UN Cultural Agency UNESCO for Second Time
Reuters and Algemeiner Staff
July 22, 2025

President Donald Trump has decided to pull the United States out of the “woke” and “divisive” UN culture and education agency UNESCO, the White House said on Tuesday, repeating a move he took in his first term that was reversed by Joe Biden…White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said UNESCO “supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for.” The State Department accused UNESCO of supporting “a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.” It said its decision to admit the Palestinians as a member state was “highly problematic, contrary to US policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric.” READ MORE

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