Free Republic

The impeachment trial of President Trump rolls on, but back in the real world, signs of a different sort of trouble are growing. It now seems clear we are living in a new anti-Semitic moment. From American college campuses to the streets of New York, from the cities of Europe to the Arab countries of the Middle East, reports of anti-Semitism emerge on a daily basis. At Judicial Watch, we have been closely tracking developments. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton announced in May our legal action to shine a light on Arab government support for anti-Semitic activities at American universities....

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, take time to remember the victims, remember the survivors, and remember Carl Lutz, the man responsible for the largest civilian rescue mission of the entire Holocaust.As the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan. 27, victims and survivors will be honored with incredible stories of bravery and sacrifice. This year marks the 75th anniversary of liberation and the end of the Second World War, plus the 125th anniversary of the birth of Carl Lutz, a man whose story remains mostly lost to history. LutzÂ’s actions toward the end of the war make him responsible for...

The blood libel is one of the most hateful and destructive lies launched against the Jewish people over the centuries. While it takes on many different forms, it boils down to the false accusation that the Jews would kidnap and kill a non-Jewish child (or adult), using the victim’s blood for some ritual purpose. In the last week, it has raised its ugly head once again. According to the ADL, “The ‘blood libel’ refers to a centuries-old false allegation that Jews murder Christians – especially Christian children – to use their blood for ritual purposes, such as an ingredient in...

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders launched a campaign video highlighting his Jewish identity and casting President Donald Trump as part of the white nationalist threat. The four-minute video posted Thursday night on Sanders’ Twitter feed, interpolates excerpts from Sanders’ speech last year to J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, with commentary by Joel Rubin, the campaign’s Jewish outreach director. It starts with Sanders’ declaration of pride in being Jewish. “I’m very proud to be Jewish and look forward to becoming the first Jewish president in the history of this country,” Sanders says. During his 2016 run for...

Sometimes even a publication you’ve long admired gets things horribly wrong. In this case, it’s National Review, which just published an incredibly problematic article, “Anti-Semitic Attacks Shine Spotlight on Long-Simmering Tri-State Tensions,” written by Zachary Evans, attempts to explain rising antisemitism in the New York area.It’s a question demanding answers, especially in light of December’s antisemitic attacks in Jersey City, which left three dead at a kosher grocery, and in Monsey, which left four injured and one man facing permanent brain damage and partial paralysis. Instead of contributing to a greater understanding of the issues at hand, however, the...

Gun permit applications surged nearly 1,000 percent in New York’s Jewish community since the December 28, 2019, attack on Hasidic Jews in a rabbi’s home. The Washington Examiner reports that the surge is clear in Rockland County, the very county in which the rabbi’s home was attacked. The Rockland County Clerk’s office reported the “nearly 1,000 percent increase in gun permit applications in the week following the Dec. 28 attack.” Erik Melanson, owner of Rockland County’s Precision Gunsmiths, said, “A lot of people are worried, especially the large Hasidic and Jewish community in Rockland County. I have had rabbis come...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) defended her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel while denouncing the sanctions against Iran when asked by Townhall as she was leaving an anti-war protest outside the Capitol building on Thursday. President Trump announced on Wednesday the U.S. will impose new sanctions on Iran after they launched ballistic missiles at bases in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed. The attack was in retaliation for the U.S. military airstrike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes.

SANTA FE – A prominent member of Temple Beth Shalom says former CIA operative Valerie Plame, contrary to what she recently told an Israeli journalist, is not a member of the Jewish congregation in Santa Fe. Plame, now a New Mexico congressional candidate, continues to draw criticism for retweeting an anti-Semitic article headlined “Jews are Driving America’s Wars” in 2017. But she said in the recent interview that she’s drawn to her own Jewish heritage and that she has joined Temple Beth Shalom. One of her opponents in the race for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House seat in...

In its continuing quest to break new ground in the pursuit of justice, the State of New York now has a new requirement that the accused must be given the victim's name and address. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) defended the new requirement, calling it the fulfillment of the accused's right to confront his accuser. The previous policy of confining this right to the courtroom is too limited. The ability to contact the accuser and witnesses, if any, prior to a trial will make the process fairer and more efficient." "In many cases, victims of crimes are confused and uncertain about...

Former CIA operative and New Mexico congressional candidate Valerie Plame, who continues to draw criticism for retweeting an anti-Semitic article in 2017, says she has joined a Jewish congregation. Plame, in a recent interview with an Israeli journalist, said she is a member of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe, where she has lived for several years. In videotaped portions of the interview now posted online, Plame said she became interested in her family history after having her twin boys in 2000 and discovered that her great-grandfather was a rabbi in Ukraine. “I’ve always been drawn to that aspect of...

Anti-Semitic attacks have reached epidemic proportions in the New York metropolitan area. A shooting early last December at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City left several people dead, including two Hasidic Jews. A policeman was also killed by the same shooters nearby. The killers aimed to kill as many Jews as possible before they were struck down. Last Saturday night, five Jewish people were stabbed by a Jew-hater wielding a machete at a Hasidic rabbi’s house in the suburb of Monsey, New York. One of the victims suffered serious head injuries, which has left him in a coma and...

The Manhattan district attorney's office has declined to prosecute a recent anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish subway passenger as a hate crime, according to lawyers representing the victim. Lihi Aharon, an Israeli student riding the New York City subway in December, was attacked by another passenger who cursed at her and yelled "Allahu akbar!" While the attack on Aharon seemed to be motivated by anti-Semitic animus, the Manhattan DA informed lawyers representing Aharon on Thursday that it would not prosecute the case as a hate crime. The incident is one of several recent anti-Semitic attacks around New York City that...

Soros’ War Against the Jews The shame, hatred and megalomania driving the world’s wealthiest anti-Semite. Tue Dec 31, 2019 Daniel Greenfield 5 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. When George Soros hit middle age, he began seeing a shrink. The ruthless financier's problem was that he was burdened with an "oversized" sense of shame over a "guilty secret". That guilty shameful secret which sent Soros to a psychoanalyst was "Jewishness". Soros’ Jewish problem was generational. He grew up in, in his own...

Doesn’t fit the narrative. The Southern Poverty Law Center has remained completely silent about the domestic terror attack against Hasidic Jews, presumably because it was carried out by a non-white person. Grafton E. Thomas entered a a rabbi’s home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City on Saturday night. Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly announced that the stabbings were an act of domestic terrorism “spurred by hate.” Another attack earlier this month on a kosher grocery store in New Jersey was carried out by assailants motivated by black supremacist ideology. Despite...

In the 24 hours since a man attacked a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York, the left is blaming Donald Trump for inciting the kind of antisemitism that led to the crime. Grafton Thomas was arrested for stabbing five people and has been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, but some are targeting Trump. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) blamed Trump and Rudy Giuliani on Twitter, linking to an op-ed he wrote in the Jewish publication Forward, including the false claim that Trump has not condemned extremism. WAPO and the rest of the left media reported on this but they...

After a public uproar, The New York Times has revised a column by Bret Stephens that cited an academic paper co-authored by an anthropologist who has been branded a white nationalist. An editor’s note, appended to the column headlined “The Secrets of Jewish Genius,” says a reference to the 2005 study was removed and that Stephens did not know the author “promoted racist views. “Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors’ views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically,” the note said. “The effect was to leave an impression with many readers that Mr. Stephens...

In Rockland County last night, during a Chanukah celebration at a synagogue a man stormed in with a machete and stabbed at least five victims, who were taken to the hospital. This is the latest in a string of antisemitic attacks in the New York City area, coming in the wake of the tragic killing of four people during an attack on a Jewish grocery store in Jersey City.These two acts of violence this month have brought renewed attention to the sharp uptick in anti Jewish violence that has quietly held New York City in its grip over the past...

SNIP Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Kafka; Albert Einstein and Rosalind Franklin; Benjamin Disraeli and (sigh) Karl Marx — how is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations? The common answer is that Jews are, or tend to be, smart. When it comes to Ashkenazi Jews, it’s true. “Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average I.Q. of any ethnic group for which there are reliable data,” noted one 2005 paper. “During the 20th century, they made up about 3...

New information was released Saturday morning about another anti-Semitic incident in Brooklyn. It follows a series of anti-Semitic attacks this week and an increase in overall hate crimes around the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that acts of hate shouldn’t be belittled or explained away when he toured the Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn on Friday. “We see exactly what’s happening, and we will not accept it,” he said.

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani earlier this week upheld what has become a conservative tradition: attacking billionaire philanthropist George Soros. “Don't tell me I'm anti-Semitic if I oppose him,” Giuliani, a Roman Catholic, said in an interview with New York magazine that quickly went viral. “Soros is hardly a Jew. I'm more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about — he doesn't go to church, he doesn't go to religion — synagogue.” Among those who did tell Giuliani he was, at the least, spreading anti-Semitic propaganda, was Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League....