REMEMBERING ROBERT WISTRICH Z”L— PASSIONATE SCHOLAR & DEFENDER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

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A Tribute to Robert Wistrich: Revered Teacher and Ferocious Defender of ‘Klal Yisrael': Abraham Cooper, Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2015 — Today we accompany Professor Robert Wistrich to his final resting place on Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot, which literally means “the Mount of Those who are Resting.”

Anti-Semitism and Jewish Destiny: Prof. Robert S. Wistrich, Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2015— There are few topics of more pressing concern today to Jewish communities around the world than the current resurgence of anti-Semitism.

Global Anti-Semitism Continues Escalating: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, May 11, 2015 — This week, the Foreign Ministry and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry are jointly sponsoring the 5th Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Decades-Long — Perhaps Generations-Long — Islamic Reform Project: Jonathan Kay, National Post, May 14, 2015— Brandeis University in Massachusetts showed itself to be gutless and pharisaical this week by revoking an invitation to award the international advocate for women’s rights under Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an honorary degree.

On Topic Links

Anti-Zionism, the Left, and the Islamists in Britain: Prof. Robert S. Wistrich, JCPA, Nov. 1, 2015

'International Community Should Criminalize Double Standards Against Israel as Anti-Semitism': Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2015

Universities Have Become Factories For Reinforcing Opinion: Rex Murphy, National Post, Apr. 12, 2015

Checking Charlie Hebdo’s Privilege: Ross Douthat, New York Times, Apr. 18, 2015

A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT WISTRICH:

REVERED TEACHER AND FEROCIOUS DEFENDER OF ‘KLAL YISRAEL'                                                   

Abraham Cooper                                                 

Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2015

Today we accompany Professor Robert Wistrich to his final resting place on Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot, which literally means “the Mount of Those who are Resting.” But while Robert Wistrich lived there was no rest for this brilliant, kind and soft-spoken professor. He died of a heart attack in Rome earlier this week where he had been about to address the Italian Senate on the renewed scourge of European anti-Semitism.

Wistrich will long be remembered by academics for his prolific work on this issue. His colleagues and friends, myself included, were awed by his incredibly organized mind, brilliant writing, wry wit and especially by his menschlichkeit and openness.

But the Robert Wistrich I came to know and love was first and foremost a ferocious defender of his people. In an era when too many highly placed Jewish academics fail to speak up in defense of the State of Israel, Robert was always on the front line – even when it meant standing alone. He was not only a brilliant wordsmith but also a key strategic thinker whom Jewish activists like myself came to rely upon for guidance and inspiration. Robert, along with Natan Sharansky and Irwin Cotler, was among the key Jewish thinkers who helped formulate the response to vile new threats against Israel’s legitimacy presented at the infamous United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

Wistrich was at his best last week when he delivered a passionate and powerful call to arms at the 5th Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. The Jerusalem Post published his last speech, which confirms a remarkably organized mind. In it, he told 1,000 activists what they needed – not necessarily what they wanted – to hear. He outlined the threats from the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaigns, Islamist Terrorism and what Wistrich labeled the “religion” of “Palestinianism.”

In his final public speech Wistrich also referred to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s new exhibition, The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People With the Holy Land. Professor Wistrich’s genius and human skills were on full display both as the author of the exhibition and as he helped my colleague Dr. Shimon Samuels and I succeed in gaining official UNESCO co-sponsorship. Robert patiently defended his narrative before no less than four “academic reviews” and helped us overcome the formal opposition of 22 Arab states.

The exhibition opened last June at UNESCO headquarters and a few weeks ago at UN headquarters in New York at the delegates’ entrance to the UN General Assembly. The exhibition will soon open at the US Congress and we hope to dedicate its presentation at the Knesset to Professor Wistrich’s memory.

Finally, the integrity and humanity of Robert Wistrich was often taken for granted by those who knew him well, but his impact on people could be profound. We received the following words of condolence and tribute from Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO:

“Professor Wistrich was a man of absolute integrity, guided by deep and abiding belief in the human rights and dignity of every woman and man. His works on Zionism and anti-Semitism…stand, indeed, as powerful references, underpinned by unique lucidity and unparalleled research…Professor Wistrich brought all this to authoring the exhibition of the Simon Wiesenthal Center that was presented at UNESCO in June 2014…UNESCO is proud to have been the first UN agency to organize such an exhibition on the relationship between the Jewish People and the Holy Land, reaffirming the Organization’s role as a universal platform for intellectual cooperation and intercultural dialogue….

“You may rest assured that, inspired by the resounding example set by Professor Wistrich, I am determined that UNESCO redouble its efforts in these directions, at a time when mutual understanding and respect has never been so important.” Yehei Zichro Baruch!                                               

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ANTI-SEMITISM AND JEWISH DESTINY                                                                      

Prof. Robert S. Wistrich                                                                                                

Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2015

There are few topics of more pressing concern today to Jewish communities around the world than the current resurgence of anti-Semitism. Thus, there could have been no more appropriate time for the 5th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism to meet than last week in Jerusalem. It was a large and impressive gathering of participants from all over the world, initiated by the Foreign Ministry, together with its Diaspora Affairs Department.

In my own remarks to the conference I emphasized the need to free ourselves from certain outdated myths. My first point was that even today, Jews in Israel and the Diaspora are fixated on the dangers of far-right traditional anti-Semitism – whether racist, religious or nationalist. While neo-fascism has not altogether disappeared, it is in most cases a secondary threat.

Second, there is an illusory belief that more Holocaust education and memorialization can serve as an effective antidote to contemporary anti-Semitism. This notion, shared by many governments and well-meaning liberal gentiles, is quite unfounded. On the contrary, today “Holocaust inversion” (the perverse transformation of Jews into Nazis and Muslims into victimized “Jews”) all-too-often becomes a weapon with which to pillory Israel and denigrate the Jewish people. Hence the approach to this entire subject requires considerable rethinking, updating and fine-tuning.

Third, we must recognize much more clearly than before that since 1975 (with the passing of the scandalous UN resolution condemning Zionism as racism) hatred of Israel has increasingly mutated into the chief vector for the “new” anti-Semitism. By libeling the Jewish state as “racist,” “Nazi,” “apartheid” and founded from its inception on “ethnic cleansing,” its enemies have turned Zionism into a synonym for criminality and a term of pure opprobrium. Hence, every Jew (or non- Jew) who supports the totally “illegitimate” or immoral “Zionist entity” is thereby complicit in a cosmic evil.

Fourth, today’s anti-Semitism is a product of a new civic religion that could be termed “Palestinianism.” The official Palestinian narrative seeks to supplant Israel with a judenrein Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. In the case of Hamas, this intent is absolutely explicit. With Fatah, it is partly veiled for tactical reasons. But when it comes to the Palestinian ideology and the millions around the world who support it, virtually all actions of self-defense by Israel are instantly classified as “genocide,” demonized and treated as part of a sinister Jewish-imperialist conspiracy. Not surprisingly, then, pro-Palestine demonstrations, beginning in the summer of 2014, were often accompanied by ugly chants of “Death to the Jews” and anti-Semitic incidents.

My fifth point is closely related to this reality. Since the turn of the 21st century, anti-Semitism has undergone a process of growing “Islamicization,” linked to the terrorist holy war against Jews and other non-Muslims with its truly lethal consequences. Yet most debates skirt around the issues of Iran and radical Islam.

However, if we do not confront the prime danger posed by radical Islamist and genocidal anti-Semitism, how can our common struggle hope to succeed? One of the symptoms of this vain policy of appeasement pursued by America and Europe is the almost Pavlovian reflex after every terrorist, anti-Semitic outrage to immediately disconnect it from any link to Islam. Of course, Islamist is not identical with Islam, only a minority of Muslim believers support terrorism, and stigmatization is wrong. Equally, we must empower moderate Muslims wherever we can.

But denial does not work. Levels of anti-Semitism among Muslims clearly remain the highest in the world, and the horrific consequences of jihadi movements like Islamic State for all minorities are impossible to ignore. Nothing can be gained by sweeping this threat under the carpet. The Islamists are the spearhead of current anti-Semitism, aided and abetted by the moral relativism of all-too-many naive Western liberals.

My sixth observation relates to the need for Israelis and Diaspora Jews to rediscover, redefine and reassess their Jewish identity, core Jewish values and the depth of their own connection to the Land of Israel as well as to their historic heritage. I was privileged to have authored two years ago the exhibition “People, Book, Land – The 3,500-Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land” for the bold project initiated by the Simon Wiesenthal Center together with UNESCO. Against all the odds and in the face of predictable opposition, it opened at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in June 2014.

In April 2015, the exhibit was even shown at UN Headquarters in New York, and it will soon come to Israel. This is not merely a historical exercise, for it shows the extraordinary tenacity, cultural vitality, spirituality, and metaphysical as well as physical bonds of Jews and Judaism to the Land of Israel. None of this was intended, it should be emphasized, to negate the historical presence and significance of Christianity and Islam in this land. But it sets the record straight.

My final reflection flows from this experience. I believe that in an age of Jewish empowerment, living in a sovereign and democratic Israeli state, we can and must first clarify for ourselves our vocation, raison d’être, moral priorities, and the deeper meaning of our near-miraculous return to the historic homeland. This is the other side of the coin in our essential and relentless fight against anti-Semitism. As we celebrate Jerusalem Day let us be worthy of the scriptural promise that “the Torah will come forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Here, in the beating heart of the Jewish nation, where its body and soul come together in the City of Peace, we must be true to the national and universal vision of our biblical prophets. Anti-Semitism, the long shadow which has for so long accompanied our bi-millennial Diasporic tribulations, and nearly 70 years of renewed statehood, is neither “eternal” nor must it prevent Jews from fulfilling their ultimate destiny to one day become a “light unto the nations.” 

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GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM CONTINUES ESCALATING                                                                                     

Isi Leibler                                                                                                           

Candidly Speaking, May 11, 2015

This week, the Foreign Ministry and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry are jointly sponsoring the 5th Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. It will be opened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a host of prominent global leaders will participate and passionately condemn anti-Semitism. It will also be a gathering of activists from all over the world who will hear depressing reports of the growth of anti-Semitism in all countries and pleas for intensified action to curb the venomous hatred.

Unfortunately, aside from some limited media coverage and making participants “feel good,” this conference will be a mere talk fest with negligible impact. The world’s oldest hatred has reached surrealistic levels. Whereas most Western governments are inclined to condemn anti-Semitism, on a popular level the situation is terrifying and even worse than in the 1930s when at least liberals and the political Left spoke up for the Jews. Today they are frequently at the vanguard of the Jew-baiters.

The fusion of traditional anti-Semitism and its more current expression — demonization of the Jewish state — is rampant in most countries other than the U.S., Canada and Australia, although even there, it has emerged as a poisonous force on campuses. In most of Europe, the continent drenched with Jewish blood during the Holocaust, opinion polls indicate that almost half the population regard Israel as a greater threat to world peace than Iran and North Korea, equate Jews with Nazis, and believe that Israelis are seeking to commit genocide against the Palestinians. In this context, the upsurge of increasingly violent anti-Semitic incidents is hardly surprising. Jewish schools, synagogues and even kosher supermarkets require security protection, even the employment of military forces. Many Jews fear wearing kippot or Jewish symbols in public.

After returning from their murderous sprees in the killing fields of the Middle East, jihadists — who include second-generation homegrown Muslims and converts from comfortable middle class origins — view Jews as principal targets for assassination. Governments are loath to confront the issue of Islamic extremism or even identify the enemy because of the growing power of the Muslim vote. They seem more concerned to condemn “Islamophobia” rather than anti-Semitism, despite the fact that it is synagogues and Jewish schools rather than mosques and Islamic schools that are threatened by terrorists.

Despite the babble about an obligation for Jews to remain in Europe and fight anti-Semitism, the situation will only deteriorate. While understanding the discomfort of European leaders should there be a mass exodus of Jews from their countries, one must still ask why we should be encouraged to live in societies in which we are detested and considered pariahs? Especially so, recognizing the demographic increase of Muslims around them and knowing that public opinion is more hostile against the Jews than are governments.

We should challenge the absurdity of those who consider it inappropriate for Jews to make aliyah because of anti-Semitism. Of course, we would prefer to live in a world where Jews are accepted and respected and only come to Israel out of idealistic motivations. But surely it is common sense and incumbent on us to encourage Jews confronted with anti-Semitism to make aliyah. Jews will remain in Europe. But they will become a diminishing minority as many realize that they do not wish to raise their children in a society that makes them ashamed of being Jews. We should encourage those who can to make aliyah and must seek to provide them with livelihoods. Some may be unwilling to make the move but at least they should be encouraged to send their children.

Ironically, increased aliyah will strengthen the Jewish identity of those remaining and help them to retain their Jewish dignity and self-respect. None of this should detract from our obligation to combat anti-Semitism both because, as mankind’s oldest hatred, it is intrinsically evil and also because it impinges on the global foreign policies towards Israel.

While the most extreme manifestations of Jew-hatred now originate from Islamic sources, their efforts have coalesced with longstanding conventional anti-Semitic forces, which were dormant but have now been resurrected. We are thus confronted with a witch’s brew of the contemporary genocidal Islamic extremist anti-Semitism, the political Left and many liberals who project Israel as the new Satan, and traditional radical right-wing elements, all engaged in frenzied attacks on the Jewish state which is employed as a surrogate to demonic hatred of individual Jews…

[To Reade the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]                                                                         

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AYAAN HIRSI ALI’S DECADES-LONG — PERHAPS                                 

GENERATIONS-LONG — ISLAMIC REFORM PROJECT

Jonathan Kay                                  

National Post, May 14, 2015

Ayaan Hirsi Ali isn’t one to wax sentimental about her mother. “She wanted us to live only according to ‘pure Islam,’ ” the famous Muslim apostate writes — “which to her meant no singing or dancing, no laughter or joy.” I highlighted that line in my copy of Ali’s new book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now — not just because it’s a stinging thing for an author to say about her own mom, but because this single sentence neatly encapsulates everything the Somali-Dutch-American scholar hates about her childhood faith.

To Ali, the pathologies of Islamist societies aren’t just reflected in exhortations to jihadi violence and the excoriations of infidels. They also are manifest in the relentlessly dour, cloistered, stony-faced texture of day-to-day life. “Every punishment at school or at home seemed to be laced with threats of hellfire and pleas for death or destruction: may you suffer this disease or that, and may you burn in hell,” she writes. “When my mother spoke of ‘hellfire,’ she would point to the flaming brazier in our kitchen and tell me, ‘You think this fire is hot? Now think about hell, where the fire is far, far hotter and will devour you.’ ”

Since 9/11, Western intellectuals have put forward a variety of complex theories to explain the social backwardness and misogyny of the Muslim world. But by Ali’s account, a lot of it can be explained by the simple and relentless messaging that Muslims get as children: do right by Allah, or spend eternity roasting in his fire pits. This is Ali’s third book. In Infidel (2006), she detailed her upbringing in East Africa and Saudi Arabia, and her flight to The Netherlands, where she became a politician and activist. In Nomad: From Islam To America (2010), she struck the pose of militant anti-Islamist culture warrior, arguing that her old religion is beyond redemption.

Now, five years later, she believes that there may in fact be signs of hope. She calls Heretic an “optimistic” book — notwithstanding the depressing catalogue of Islamic-inspired violence it contains. “Seven months after I published Nomad came the start of the Arab Spring,” she writes. “I watched four national governments fall — Egypt’s twice — and protests or uprisings occur in 14 other nations, and I thought simply: I was wrong. Ordinary Muslims are ready for change.”

Ali’s analysis begins with the idea that conventionally minded Muslims typically can be divided into two groups — “Mecca Muslims” and “Medina Muslims.” These names correspond to the ancient cities (now in Saudi Arabia) where the Prophet Muhammad first rose to prominence. The teachings attributed to Muhammad during his time in Mecca generally are more peaceful in tone. But years later, after he had fled to Medina and become a ruthless desert warlord, his teachings increasingly became streaked with themes of violence and forcible submission. One example is the infamous Sword verse from Sura 9, which exhorts, in part: “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [of war].”

Ali believes that Medina Muslims — who refer to Jews and Christians as “pigs and monkeys,” and applaud the mob-slaughter of children who accidentally deface the Koran — are largely immune to rational intellectual discourse. “They are not the intended audience for this book,” she writes. “They are the reason for writing it.” Rather, her argument is aimed at Mecca Muslims, who pray five times a day, perform the Hajj, give zakat, fast during Ramadan, and preach the oneness of Allah, but who are opposed to the nihilistic violence that the Islamic State and similar groups perform in Allah’s name.

Ali is not the first author to call for a Muslim “reformation.” But her manifesto is unusually detailed, identifying a group of specific precepts that must be “repudiated and nullified” before Islam can become a humane faith. These include: The conceptualization of Mohammed as a “semi-divine” superman; The obsession with the delights and torments of life beyond the grave; The encroachment of Islam into every aspect of human life through the institution of shariah; and The imperative to wage jihad…

[To Reade the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]             

Contents

On Topic

Anti-Zionism, the Left, and the Islamists in Britain: Prof. Robert S. Wistrich, JCPA, Nov. 1, 2015—My topic concerns primarily the United Kingdom, and two important, even major facets of the contemporary incitement against Israel and the Jewish people, which are increasingly visible in British society.

'International Community Should Criminalize Double Standards Against Israel as Anti-Semitism': Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, May 12, 2015—The international community should criminalize anti-Semitism and establish a multilateral body to monitor it, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs legal adviser Amb. Alan Baker asserted on Monday in the text of a draft international convention being promoted by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Universities Have Become Factories For Reinforcing Opinion: Rex Murphy, National Post, Apr. 12, 2015—Brandeis University in Massachusetts showed itself to be gutless and pharisaical this week by revoking an invitation to award the international advocate for women’s rights under Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an honorary degree.

Checking Charlie Hebdo’s Privilege: Ross Douthat, New York Times, Apr. 18, 2015 —A living cartoonist lecturing his murdered peers makes for a curious spectacle, but that’s what transpired at journalism’s George Polk Awards a week ago.