Sunday, March 6, 2022

TRUMP GOES FULL ANTI-SEMITE, UNLOADS ON AMERICAN JEWS IN WILDLY BIGOTED RANT

 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/donald-trump-anti-semitism-jews-israel

In February 2017, asked what the government planned to do about the uptick in threats to Jewish centers and the rise in anti-Semitism since his election, Donald Trump responded, “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.” That claim, like the one he would make a few months later about being “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world,” obviously was and remains not true at all. How do we know? Let’s examine the evidence!

Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story

 https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-and-anti-semitism-a-complex-story

As with most famous people, Henry Ford was complex and had traits and took actions that were laudatory as well as troublesome. The most controversial and least admirable aspect of Ford’s career was his descent into anti-Semitism. Convinced that “bankers” and “the Jews” were responsible for a whole range of things he didn’t like, from the world war to short skirts to jazz music, Ford used his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, to carry on an active anti-Semitic campaign. Between 1920 and 1922 a series of articles denounced all things Jewish. While officially apologizing for the articles in 1927, Ford’s anti-Jewish sentiments ran deep. Seen within the context of the times, they demonstrate the sharp realities and tensions that emerge in societies undergoing profound cultural, economic and political change.

Nazi Collaborator or National Hero? A Test for Lithuania

 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/world/europe/nazi-general-storm-lithuania.html

“They have built up a whole national narrative around fighting Communism that they cannot dismantle,” said Grant Gochin, a South African of Lithuanian descent who has calculated that he lost 100 family members to the Holocaust in Lithuania, dozens of them in territory under Mr. Noreika’s control during the Nazi occupation.

Friday, March 4, 2022

Is halachic status independent of reality?

Sanhedrin (33b)  To explain the terms “innocent” and “righteous” in the verse: “And the innocent and the righteous you shall not slay” (Exodus 23:7), the Sages taught: From where is it derived that with regard to one who is leaving the court having been found liable, and someone said: I have the ability to teach a reason to acquit him, from where is it derived that the court brings the accused back to be judged again? The verse states: The innocent you shall not slay, and the accused may in fact be innocent.

An open letter to Chabad/Lubavitch HQ

 I am sorry to report that we seem to have uncovered a deep fault in the Chabad/Lubavitch worldwide organization. Many of us grew up hearing amazing stories about the great work that Chabad centres do around the world. How they help Jewish travellers in India, provide communities for Jews who would otherwise have none, rescue and de-program misguided Jewish teenagers from cults, set up orphanages in Eastern Europe, etc… The stories are endless and, until now, have created a glowing picture of Chabad as truly being “Hashem’s Army.”


In our campaign to help the twin boys, Benji and Sammy Schlesinger be reunited with their mother, Beth Alexander, after a decade of obstruction by Rabbi Jacob Biderman of the Lauder Chabad Campus in Vienna, Austria, we learned a lot about how the Chabad shlichim (emissaries) work. When we see the massive conferences in New York where the shlichim come together from every corner of the planet, we are encouraged to think of Chabad as one large family under the authority of 770 NYC. Apparently, this is absolutely not the case.

We assumed that informing Chabad/Lubavitch HQ, and other Chabad Rabbis in different places, about how Biderman used his position to help erase their mother from the lives of two little boys who were obviously confused, depressed and suffering, would result in at least some interest from Biderman’s fellow Rabbis as to how he could do such an outright chillul Hashem. We are shocked by what ensued.

We are a group of more than 6000 supporters of Beth. Ordinary people from all walks of life, mostly Jewish but not all, and from all over the world. We only want two innocent Jewish boys to experience the love of their mother before it’s too late and they grow up thinking she doesn’t care about them. We don’t want revenge or money. We just want justice for two children who have no voice in the corrupt and hostile environment of the Lauder Chabad Campus.

We received a number of replies from Chabad Rabbis and/or their wives. We were informed that every Chabad centre is autonomous. Every Chabad Rabbi is responsible for raising his own funds among the community he “serves” and works however he sees fit. Who knew? Many of us learned something we didn’t know before. However, no Rabbi or Rebbetzen wanted to get involved. Not to make a phone call, ask some discrete questions, or interest themselves in any way in the plight of defenceless children.

And yet this was not the most shocking part. Not one reply was honest enough to admit that they don’t want to rock the boat and cross a powerful Rabbi in a rich Chabad community. After all, how many of them are as successful as Biderman in Vienna who has his own K-12 school campus? Instead, we got lectures in how we perhaps don’t know the whole story, there are two sides to every coin, etc...

Believe me, we know the whole story. And even if there was something we don’t know, what could possibly be so heinous as to bar a mother from attending her children’s birthday parties in school? Refusing her any information about their wellbeing or progress? What could Beth Alexander have done that allowed Rabbi Biderman to lie to the courts on behalf of her ex-husband? What sort of a monster would the mother have to be for a Rabbi to break one of the 10 Commandments? One look at the videos on the You Tube Chanel “Help Beth” would reassure anyone that the extreme measures Biderman took to separate the boys from their mother, was unfounded and downright cruel.

Now we know that Rabbi Jacob Biderman decided to follow the money because caring for the welfare of two children in his care above his own personal success, would not get him his school, would not pay his personal expenses, would not provide a house for his family to live in, and – most shockingly – would not necessarily gain him the respect and standing among the other shlichim who can only dream of the resources Biderman has at his disposal. But at what cost? According to Jacob Biderman, destroying the lives of one Jewish family is not a high price for the Jewish world to pay.

This is the problem with Chabad/Lubavitch. They hide behind the good name of the organization that is based on the righteous work of some of its members, whilst in reality, it’s every man for himself. And if one Rabbi threatens the good name that brings in the money worldwide, all they want is to hush it up.

But perhaps I am being too harsh. Many of us suspect that the reason they harp on about two sides to every story, etc… is that it absolves them from dealing with the uncomfortable thought that some Rabbis among them are corrupt. For some Rabbis, like Jacob Biderman, the money might be their top priority. That their beloved Chabad might be supporting “Rabbis” who are not worthy of the name, may be too hard to contemplate. Better to make excuses and not open that potential Pandora’s box.

Now we understand that Chabad is not Hashem’s Army at all. It is a loose collection of communities run by individuals with no accountability to the organization whose erstwhile good name they can exploit should they so wish. From now on it must be known that Chabad just means Jewish, and like, the whole of Am Yisrael, there are good and bad souls among them.

As such Chabad no longer means anything. Your Rebbe must be turning in his grave.

 

Rachel Selby
Jerusalem

Open Letter To Jacob Biderman : WE SIMPLY WILL NOT STOP NOR WILL WE GO AWAY




info@lauderchabad.at
biderman@lauderchabad.at

 

Rabbi Biderman,

https://helpbeth.org/lauder-chabad-statement-on-facebook-1st-march-2022/

Lauder Chabad Campus: “The Perfect harmony between Austrian formal education and Jewish teaching of the heart and spirit” (as written on their Facebook page) I’d like to know, is that the same “heart and spirit” of the twin boys you’ve stripped of seeing their mother for 10 years?

Is this the same “heart and spirit” that you’ve blatantly stopped a mother from attending every parents’ evening, every concert and birthday party since they were in the Kindergarten? Is this the same “heart and spirit” that despite a mother recording that one of her children was deliberately ramming himself against a wall in an act of self-harm, Rabbi Biderman testified in Court that both twins were ‘thriving with their father’. Is this the same “heart and spirit” that you wrongfully reported Beth Alexander to be mentally ill – despite knowing full well that this was a lie?

You may succeed to continue to pull the wool over the eyes of innocent families who may think by sending their beloved children to your school will be a good choice but we hope they’ll think again once they’ve read and learned what lies beneath your fake veneer ‘to grow up with joy and confidence’. Together with the Austrian courts, you have been culpable in damaging these poor children.

One doesn’t need to be a psychologist to know the mental damage these children will have suffered as a direct result of their treatment of which you are in part hugely responsible, having withheld them from being with their mother. The boys have been and continue to be used as pawns throughout this ghastly 10-year episode and I wonder, did anyone stop to think and ask them what they wanted? Granted if you ask them now – I believe they’ve been so heavily brainwashed in favour of their father – but you tell me: which child do you know who would ever elect to be without their mother?

A final note to the entire Lauder Chabad establishment: You may think it unnecessary for your names and school to be brandished across social media – but you’ve not seen anything yet! There are several thousands of us from all over the world in support of Beth and we are not going anywhere. In fact, we are just growing in numbers and support. We are fully supported by Chabad in our local communities with whom we’ve all raised your behaviour and coercion. Our local Chabad Rabbis are quite frankly sickened and ashamed by your involvement.

I/ we will continue to knock on your door; we shall continue to make so much noise; we simply will NOT stop, nor will we go away until there’s an independent investigation and only once Beth has been reunited with her boys. You may think that it’s a little ‘unnecessary’ for the several thousand of us from all over the world, to have taken to social media – but you just wait. This is only the very beginning. Karma will prevail.

 

Sarah Callis



#ReunitingBethWithHerBoys #helpbeth

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Ukraine Forces Reportedly Kill Russia General Andrei Sukhovetsky in Blow to Invading Army

 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-sukhovetsky-conflict-1684441

A top Russian military figure has been killed in the war in Ukraine according to local news outlets citing a social media post by his colleague.

Ukrainian news outlets were reporting that Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District, had been killed on Wednesday.

Media outlets cited a post on VKontakte announcing the death, written by Sergei Chipilev, a deputy of the Russian veterans group, Combat Brotherhood.

Russia’s Next Target for Intimidation Could Be Israel

 https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/russia-next-target-for-intimidation-could-be-israel

There is little doubt that fateful events in Ukraine have turned over the chess board in the Middle East, as elsewhere. While risks for Israel are bound to increase, it will need—now more than ever—firm American support and a confident U.S. policy in the Middle East. A new American deal with Iran, which remains America’s regional priority even during the war in Ukraine, seems unlikely to provide those assurances.

Tucker Carlson On Russian TV Again for Guest Comments Against Ukraine

 https://www.newsweek.com/carlson-makes-russian-state-tv-again-guest-comments-against-ukraine-1684345

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was featured on Russian state TV once again after Kremlin speakers told Ukraine to listen to Fox's pro-Russia talking points and surrender to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin-funded media outlets ran translated clips from Fox News' conversation between Carlson and retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor, who has consistently urged Ukraine to retreat and give in to Putin. Russian TV ran the clips pushing Kremlin propaganda.

Macgregor, who previously supported Russia's annexation of Crimea, also said that Putin is being "demonized" by the U.S. and firmly opposes America's involvement in the conflict.


Why Three Republicans Voted Against House Resolution Standing With Ukraine

 https://www.newsweek.com/why-three-republicans-voted-against-house-resolution-standing-ukraine-1684351

The final tally on Wednesday was a near-unanimous vote of 426-3, with the House passing the resolution despite three "no" votes from Representatives Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). The trio have not released official statements on their votes, however, heavy criticism was quickly aimed at all three, with some politicians chastising them for voting against a resolution that received nearly complete bipartisan support.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Putin withstood sanctions before. The West came back with a better plan.

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/02/united-states-russia-sanctions-00012849

The last time Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, U.S. sanctions tipped the Russian economy into recession. This time, the Americans and their European allies have leveled penalties that could lead to a full-on economic collapse.

Meanwhile, though the measures have sent shockwaves through Russia’s economy, it’s not yet clear what short-term relief they might bring to Ukraine.

“At this point, it’s not saving lives in Ukraine, but it is a huge show of unity across the world with the exception of a few important countries, especially China,” said Crebo-Rediker, now an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It shows that behavior like this is not acceptable, and there are consequences.

Why Didn’t Putin Invade Under Trump? It Wasn’t Personal.

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/02/putin-invade-ukraine-trump-00012897

Far from deterring Putin, Trump did the opposite. Thanks to Trump, Putin was able to take advantage of a period of apparent detente during which Trump actually pursued Putin’s own policies of weakening NATO and democracy and destabilizing the West — leaving Putin free to prepare his war against the free people of Ukraine and their democratically elected government.

United Nations General Assembly condemns Russian invasion of Ukraine 141-5

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-699136

The United Nations voted to condemn Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine 141-5, with 35 abstentions. Israel voted in favor.

Praying to Angels?

Sanhedrin (44b) Rabbi Yoḥanan says: The verse should be understood in a slightly different manner: A person should always pray for mercy that all heavenly beings should strengthen his power of prayer, and that he should have no enemies causing him trouble in Heaven above. 

Rashi (Sanhedrin 44b) לעולם יבקש אדם רחמים שיהו הכל מאמצים את כחו - שיסייעוהו מלאכי השרת לבקש רחמים ושלא יהו לו מסטינים מלמעלה והכי משמע היערוך שועך אם באתה לערוך שועך כזאת תערכהו לא בצר שלא יהו לך צרים ושהכל יהו במאמצי כחך:

Rashshash (Sanhedrin 44b) גמרא לעולם יבקש אדם רחמים שיהו הכל מאמצין א"כ כו'. ועי' פירש"י. ומזה יש ללמד זכות על פזמון דמלאכי רחמים וכו' חלו נא פני אל וכו' ונוסח מכניסי רחמים הכניסו כו' וכיוצא באלו אשר רבים גמגמו עליהם. אך י"ל דהכא דוקא ביחיד וכמו דמחלק הש"ס בסוטה (לג) ועי' באחרונים באו"ח ס"ס ק"א:


Yerushalmi (Brachos chapter 9:1) Rebbi Judan said in his own name. Flesh and blood has a protector. If someone is in trouble, he does not enter the protector’s place suddenly but rather stands at his door and calls his slave or familiar and that one will say: the man X is standing at the door of your courtyard. Maybe he will make him enter, maybe he will let him stand. But the Holy One, praise to Him, is not like this: If a human is in trouble, he should cry neither to Michael nor to Gabriel, rather he should cry to Me and I shall answer him immediately; that is what is written (Joel 3:5): “Every one who calls on. The sentence is slightly ambiguous; one could also translate “who invokes the Name”; that is the meaning given to the verse in the next paragraph. the name of the Eternal will escape.”