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AS WE GO TO PRESS: TERRORIST ATTACKS IN FRANCE, TUNISIA AND KUWAIT KILL DOZENS ─ Terrorists attacked sites in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, leaving a bloody toll on three continents and prompting new concerns about the spreading influence of jihadists. In France, attackers stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, decapitated one person and tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory. In Tunisia, gunmen opened fire at a beach resort, killing at least 27 people, officials said. At least one of the attackers was killed by security forces. And the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in one of the largest Shiite mosques in Kuwait City during Friday prayers. Local news reports said at least 24 people had been killed and wounded in the assault, which was extraordinary for Kuwait and appeared to be a deliberate attempt to incite strife between Shiites and Sunnis. There was no immediate indication that the attacks had been coordinated. But the three strikes came at roughly the same time, and just days after the Islamic State called for such operations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (New York Times, June 26, 2015)
Iasi Pogrom: June 28 – July 6, 1941: Baruch Cohen, CIJR, June 26, 2015 — The roots of the Iasi Pogrom are deeply connected to the political deterioration of the Romanian pseudo-democracy.
Obama, An Existential Danger to Israel: Sally Zerker, CIJR, June 25, 2015— President Obama is intent on making a bad deal with Iran. Nothing can deter him; not Israel’s unconcealed expressions of outright angst, nor the Gulf Arab states’—Saudi, the UAE, and Qatar—deep distrust of the United States’ build-up of their Shi’ite enemy.
A Bittersweet Retrospective: Irwin Cotler, Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2015 —In my last statement in the House of Commons, I called for the release of four courageous prisoners of conscience, as well as the persecuted leadership of the Baha’i religious community in Iran, on whose behalf I had been acting as international legal counsel.
Israeli Rock Music’s Spiritual New Sound: Yossi Klein Halevi, Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2015 — “Admit me into your inner chamber!” cries a big, bearded man on the stage of the Tel Aviv rock club Zappa.
Passion, Paganini and Zionism: Sarah Hershenson, Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2015 — Concert violinist Adrian Justus is passionate about Paganini.
Holocaust Story: Iasi – A Stain on History, An Ache in My Heart: Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran, Arutz Sheva, Apr. 8, 2014
Obama: The Reluctant Realist: Prof. Steven R. David, BESA, June 7, 2015
The Life and Death of Steven Sotloff, Part 1: Jonathan Zalman., Tablet, June 18, 2015
Wars Are Won by Weapons, But Peace is Won by Ideas: Jonathan Sacks, Times of Israel, June 24, 2015
IASI POGROM: JUNE 28 – JULY 6, 1941
Baruch Cohen
CIJR, June 26, 2015
In Loving Memory of Malca z"l
Zachor! We Must Not Forget!
The roots of the Iasi Pogrom are deeply connected to the political deterioration of the Romanian pseudo-democracy. The pogrom was not accidental, but part of the history of Romanian antisemitism. It did not begin on Duminica Accia ─ Sunday, June 28, 1941 ─ nor even three days earlier when the first killings started, nor on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa hostilities commenced against communist Russia . Nor did it begin on September 6, 1940, when the war criminal Ion Antonescu and his Iron Guard hoards took power. No, the roots of the pogrom originated in a distant past, and only after a long period of hostile and daily antisemitic propaganda and boundless hatred had been directed against the Jewish population.
I lived through an official antisemitic government policy, which had roots way back in 1867 and was deployed for a half-century with unshaken perseverance. It was reflected in antisemitic laws affecting school education, public works, services and all the free professions. It resulted in illegal expulsions, violence, and persecution, as well as in destruction of Jewish homes, shops, synagogues and schools.
It continued with numerus nullus and Numerus valachicus decrees (“limited number”, "access denied [to Jews]") in the government, universities, and professional associations. This state-imposed antisemitic system was the groundwork for the later extermination of the Jewish population. In June and July, 1941, a murderous attack was committed in Iasi, where thousands of victims were destroyed by a violent and unrestrained mob. I lived through these days and they are still alive in my memory.
The crimes committed during, and after, the Iasi Pogrom are proof that the Romanian Iron Guard was a curse for Romania and a return to medieval darkness and hate. Before the Romanian Holocaust was over, 380,000 – 400,000 Jews were murdered in Romanian-controlled areas under the dictatorship of Antonescu.
Zachor! Remember! Remember those years of darkness and destruction , in Romania and across Europe!
(Baruch Cohen, a Romanian Holocaust survivor,
is the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research's Research Chairman.)
OBAMA, AN EXISTENTIAL DANGER TO ISRAEL
Sally Zerker
CIJR, June 25, 2015
President Obama is intent on making a bad deal with Iran. Nothing can deter him; not Israel’s unconcealed expressions of outright angst, nor the Gulf Arab states’—Saudi, the UAE, and Qatar—deep distrust of the United States’ build-up of their Shi’ite enemy.
Those opposed to the deal are not ‘hysterical’ as Secretary of State John Kerry contended recently. It’s very easy to see how rational are those who object to the provisions of the P5+1 negotiations underway with Iran. Even Obama has admitted that it would be possible for Iran to make a bomb in a matter of days under the terms of the agreement, because Iran will be allowed to keep its entire nuclear infrastructure operational, including scientific research and testing. He has also conceded that sanctions could be lifted immediately as the Ayatollah demands, but he maintains that this compromise doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters, he claims, is that the sanctions could be repeated immediately if Iran is found cheating. But everyone knows this is impossible. Additionally, he is offering Iran $30-$50 billion signing bonus, (from the frozen Iranian assets), which will give Iran the kind of economic thrust to carry out and expand its nefarious aggressive terrorist schemes not only against Israel, but also against Sunni Muslims as well. Fourthly, his overall ambition, which he has stated, is that Iran ultimately become “a very successful regional power”.
This is the same Iran whose official Iranian policy is that “the destruction of Israel is not negotiable”, as recently expressed by the head of its religious-based militia, again endorsing this undeviating threat to destroy Israel, repeated from every Iranian leader since this regime has been in power. This is the same Iran that funds and arms Hezbollah and Hamas with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, fired at and directed at Israeli civilians, from both the north and the south of the country. This is the same Iran who now has taken over four capitals in adjoining Arab countries. This is the same Iran who is in partnership with Russia operating the civil war in Syria, which is continuing to use chemical weapons, despite Obama’s slighted “red line”. This is the same Iran about which the renowned international civil rights lawyer, Irwin Cotler, says about this P5+1 deal, that it has “sanitized the Iranian regime’s massive domestic repression”, where some 900 prisoners of conscience and political prisoners continue to languish in Iranian jails, many subject to torture and under threat of execution.
There is no question that with the completion of the P5+1 deal, Iran’s hegemony over the Middle East will increase, and will continue destabilizing the region with its tactics and power. Undoubtedly too, the deal will underscore the struggle between Shi’ites and Sunnis, making it almost inevitable that Saudi Arabia and Egypt will accelerate acquisition of nuclear weapons. Already, purchases from Pakistan are rumored to be in the works. Does this not indicate the possibility in the future of a nuclear apocalypse?
So, the big question is why does Obama want to gamble with this potentially horrible outcome? It doesn’t make sense. I know he has in mind his legacy, but does he really want a legacy that could include nuclear war? And is he so indifferent to feelings for America that it is irrelevant to him that, to this day and always, Iranians scream ‘death to America’ at every opportunity? It’s a conundrum; how to explain the contradiction and risks of Obama’s policy on Iran! For me the answer lies in perceiving who the real Obama is.
When we first were exposed to this young politician, we had no idea who Barack Obama was. Many commentators recognized that before he became president, Obama never ‘made’ anything, not a physical thing, not a company, not an organization, not even an article when he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, nothing. But I think he did make one thing; he created the mythic figure Barack Hussein Obama. What we know about this person is only what he has told us about himself, through an autobiography, written when he was just 33 years old . He was “lucky” in this respect that he had no mother, father or even grandfather alive when he went public with his invention. And his grandmother was dying at the time he was running for president. So there were no authoritative figures that could be broached or even be seen to evaluate his narratives. Furthermore, there are no existing family members evident in his life now. He does have a half-sister in the US, and possibly half-brothers from Africa. But neither you nor I nor anyone else has ever seen them as part of his entourage or in any family role. And either he had no childhood friends to be interviewed, or if they exist, they’ve chosen silence on the subject, as has indeed the press…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
[Sally Zerker is a CIJR Academic Fellow]
Irwin Cotler
Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2015
In my last statement in the House of Commons, I called for the release of four courageous prisoners of conscience, as well as the persecuted leadership of the Baha’i religious community in Iran, on whose behalf I had been acting as international legal counsel. The prisoners of conscience are: Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, Venezuelan democratic opposition leader Leopoldo López; Iranian freedom-of-religion advocate Ayatollah Hossein Boroujerdi; and Mauritanian anti-slavery advocate Biram Dah Abeid. We say to each of these courageous prisoners of conscience that they are not alone. We stand in solidarity with them, their cause is our cause, and we will not relent until their liberty is secured.
I recall fondly my first-ever visit to, and encounter with, the Canadian Parliament. It was 1951. I was 11 years old. My late father took me to visit the House of Commons. He looked up at the House and said, “Son, this is the Parliament of Canada. This is vox populi, the voice of the people.” Today, such sentiments might invite a certain cynical rejoinder, particularly as one observes the sometimes cacophony of question period or the toxicity in the political arena. Certainly and fortunately, I still retain that great respect and reverence for this institution, which I regard as the centerpiece of our democracy, the cradle, the nurturer for the pursuit of justice.
In this, I am reminded and, indeed, inspired by another set of teachings on the pursuit of justice from my late parents, of blessed memory. For it is my father who taught me before I could understand the profundity of his words. As he put it, “The pursuit of justice is equal to all the other commandments combined.” As he said, “This, you must teach unto your children.” But it was my mother who, when she heard my father say this, would say to me, “If you want to pursue justice, you have to understand, you have to feel the injustice about you. You have to go in and about your community and beyond, and feel the injustice and combat the injustice. Otherwise, the pursuit of justice remains a theoretical construct.”
As a result of my parents’ teachings, I got involved in the two great human rights struggles of the second half of the 20th century, the struggle for human rights in the former Soviet Union and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. And I got involved with those who were the faces and voices of those struggles, and the defense of the political prisoners Anatoly Sharansky in the former Soviet Union and Nelson Mandela in South Africa. I got involved in the struggle for peace in the Middle East because as my mother, an authentic peace advocate, would say, “The struggle for peace is bound up in the pursuit of justice.” That same teaching about justice also underpinned my work as minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, as well as my work as an MP.
Indeed, when I was first sworn in as minister, I said at the time that I would be guided in my work by one overarching principle, the pursuit of justice – and I had my father’s teachings in my mind – and within that, the promotion and protection of equality, of equality not just as a centerpiece of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms but as an organizing principle for the building of a just society, and for the promotion and protection of human dignity, for the building of a society that was not only just but one that was also compassionate and humane.
These were my guiding principles during almost 16 years that I spent as the member for Mount Royal, a great riding, a rainbow riding, where I grew up and where I have lived for almost 60 years. Mount Royal is a riding that I love living in…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
ISRAELI ROCK MUSIC’S SPIRITUAL NEW SOUND
Yossi Klein Halevi
Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2015
“Admit me into your inner chamber!” cries a big, bearded man on the stage of the Tel Aviv rock club Zappa. But Shai Tsabari’s longing isn’t focused on some elusive human lover—he’s talking about God. In the audience, secular young men with tattoos and religious young women in modest kerchiefs close their eyes and sway together, as if Zappa were a synagogue. Mr. Tsabari is part of a growing movement of Israeli rock musicians who are turning to Judaism for inspiration, fusing tradition with contemporary Israel to find a voice that is both Middle Eastern and Jewish.
Mr. Tsabari, whose family came from Yemen, sings songs that are part prayer, part dance music. Impelled largely by musicians of Mizrahi origin—Israeli Jews from the Muslim world, who form half of Israel’s Jewish population of over six million (another 1.7 million Israelis are Arab)—Hebrew music is being transformed from the longtime carrier of a secular ethos into a force for restoring Judaism to Israeli culture.
Israel’s founders were European-born socialists who hoped to create a “new Jew”—one who relied not on God but on his own efforts for salvation. The Hebrew music created by this Zionist revolution celebrated patriotism and love of the land of Israel, largely shunning religious themes. Even as Israeli music began, in the 1960s, to reflect Israelis’ shift from collective identity in a rigidly controlled socialist society to greater individualism in a consumerist economy, spiritual search remained largely taboo.
Israeli music—and Israeli society—began changing after the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians faltered and then collapsed in 2000. As Palestinian suicide bombers exploded on buses and in cafes, Israelis’ trust in their society’s solidity was shaken. “There’s no one to rely on,” read one popular bumper sticker, “except our Father in Heaven.”
The suicide bombings of the early 2000s have been replaced by periodic terrorist rocket attacks and repeated conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, leaving Israelis feeling besieged. Alongside the resultant hawkish turn in Israeli politics (which helped re-elect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March) has come the growing popularity of spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation. And, increasingly, of Judaism: According to a 2010 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, 70% of Israeli Jews now fast on Yom Kippur—in a country whose founding socialist pioneers often treated the Day of Atonement as an ordinary workday.
Musicians are defining this new Israeli spiritualism. In 2007, rocker Meir Banai’s stunning album “Hear My Cry” offered soft, almost reluctant rock versions of Yom Kippur prayers of Jews from Muslim countries, using traditional melodies as the starting point for his own compositions—and won the equivalent of Israel’s Grammy award for the best composer. In 2009, the hard rocker Berry Sakharof released a groundbreaking album called “Red Lips,” a meditation on mortality whose complex Hebrew lyrics were written by the 11th-century Spanish Jewish poet Solomon ibn Gvirol. The themes of vulnerability and judgment resonated in a country under siege, and both albums became runaway hits.
Since then, this trend—fusing devotional music with rock—has become perhaps the most creative force in Israeli music. In recent months, collaborations among leading musicians have produced albums featuring the songs of Eastern European Jewish mysticism, the prayer poems of Libyan Jews, religious hymns sung by European Jews during the Holocaust and several versions of Yemenite prayer…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
Sarah Hershenson
Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2015
Concert violinist Adrian Justus is passionate about Paganini. On Saturday evening, June 27, he will perform Paganini’s Concerto No. 1 and La Campanella and Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy with the Solani Rishon Lezion Orchestra at the Einav Center in Tel Aviv. “Paganini was the ultimate violinist,” says Justus. “He played and wrote everything the violinist can do. His music is a joy to play and a pleasure for the listener to hear.”
Justus has been performing since he was a young boy in Mexico. He has won prizes at many prestigious competitions, such as the Gold Medal at the Henryk Szerying International Violin Competition. A tall, graceful, soft-spoken violinist, he was described by the critic of the Japan Times as a violinist who could produce more passion with a few strokes of his bow than most of us could in a lifetime. “Music is more than reproducing the notes printed on the sheet music,” Justus points out. “The violin is an instrument of communication. Its vibrations touch the heart and speak to the soul.”
Justus was born in Mexico City in 1970. His grandfather, a well known dermatologist from Hungary, and his grandmother were attending the 1939 World Science Fair in New York City when Hitler sealed Hungary’s borders. It was illegal for them to stay in the US, and Mexico was the country that welcomed them. The family remained in Mexico.
Adrian’s father, who is president of the World Organization for Orthodontists, was Adrian’s first violin teacher. “My next teacher,” says Justus, “Robert Vazka, taught me that it is the hand that holds the bow that has limitless capabilities. It produces different sounds, colors and effects and is the key to virtuosity. Every day, I play Paganini caprices, which are the showpiece of bowing possibilities, in addition to Bach and scales.”
Today, Israel is Justus’s home base. Eighteen years ago, he made aliya from Mexico. After weighing the pros and cons, Zionism won out. “My parents and family are still in Mexico. Now I am married to Orly Marcowitz (who is a musicians’ representative), and we are blessed to have a son who is three years old and loves music and the theater.”
When Justus is on tour, he thinks of himself as an ambassador for the State of Israel. “I was not required to join the IDF, and through my music I feel that I am doing something for the country. I love this country very much, and I am not afraid to speak up and explain the issues that confront us. In most instances, people thank me for giving them more information,” he says.
“People are people, and communication is the key,” he adds. “A turning point in my life was when I was a teenager on a music program in Japan. The young Japanese musicians did not know very much English. We learned to communicate through our music,” he recounts. “All violins,” he points out, “are constructed of hard and soft woods, which come from various places in the world. There is a saying that ‘It is one world, and the world is round.’ The violin vibrates and speaks to the soul. The tonality of the individual cultures might be different, but the vibrations are the same.”
Justus will perform on the Guarnerius del Gesu (1744), on loan from the Juvi Cultural Foundation at his concert in Tel Aviv. “This violin,” he says, “is famous for its brilliant sound, perfect for Paganini.”
CIJR Wishes All Our Friends & Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!
Holocaust Story: Iasi – A Stain on History, An Ache in My Heart: Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran, Arutz Sheva, Apr. 8, 2014 —My late father was a special man – scholarly, pious, wise. A man whose eyes spoke of understandings unfathomable to me when I was young and whose strength and full impressiveness only come into clearest focus as I myself have gotten older.
Obama: The Reluctant Realist: Prof. Steven R. David, BESA, June 7, 2015 —In this provocative study, Prof. Steven David of Johns Hopkins argues that, contrary to the assertion that Barack Obama’s foreign policy lacks direction or ideological basis, the president’s foreign policy can be explained as adhering very closely to traditional realist theory.
The Life and Death of Steven Sotloff, Part 1: Jonathan Zalman., Tablet, June 18, 2015—On July 15, 2013, Steven Sotloff arrived in Israel, a place he once called home. He planned on spending a week there, beginning with the wedding of his former roommate Benny Scholder, before heading off to report from Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and wherever else his vagabond reporting career might take him in the region.
Wars Are Won by Weapons, But Peace is Won by Ideas: Jonathan Sacks, Times of Israel, June 24, 2015 —I was with the great scholar of Islam, Prof Bernard Lewis in 2003 when someone asked him to predict what would happen in Iraq. His reply was memorable. He said, I am a historian, therefore I only make predictions about the past. What is more, I am a retired historian, so even my past is passé.
