Jan 8 Notes and video of interview with Richard Hirschhaut of the American Jewish
Committee
This is a direct link to the interview conducted by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg, Hollywood Temple Beth El
Introduction
AJC recently issued a poll, showing a rising number of Jews
concerned about anti-Semitism. Conversely, the survey was denounced as
exaggeration by an op-ed writer for the Jewish Forward .
Are we suffering from " Gevalt" or" Head in the
Sand" syndromes?
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Hirschhaut is chief strategist and principal spokesperson
in advancing AJC’s global advocacy mission in Southern
California. AJC is considered the “dean of American Jewish
organizations.” He has been involved for over 30 years in civil
rights, humanitarian, and Jewish communal advocacy, serving in senior
professional roles across the U.S. with the Anti-Defamation League, Illinois
Holocaust Museum and Education Center, American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee, and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center.
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1)
Just a few weeks ago, after we planned on this Shabbat
program, Rosa Rosenberg was so kind as to loan me a copy of People Love Dead
Jews by Dana Horn. It talks about the trend to fetishize the Jews of the
past, while ignoring the threats to Jews of the present. Its title is
reminiscent of another work, by another
famous Jewish author, Cynthia Ozyck, ALL THE WORLD WANTS
THE JEWS DEAD( NOVEMBER 1974
Esquire). The theme is so very much the same—the people of
Israel were almost destroyed in the Yom Kippur war, yet that bothered no one,
especially not the United Nations, which went on to label Zionism as racism.
Then , I see this report of a faculty member at the
respected University of Maryland, who was canned for being outspokenly Jewish:
Filed in the US District Court
of Maryland, the suit, alleging a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, said that Dr. Melissa Landa — a professor at the College of
Education for ten years before the university declined to renew her contract in
2017 — was subjected to “a series of actions designed to alienate, humiliate,
and ultimately terminate” her after she began speaking out against
antisemitism. ( https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/01/07/former-university-of-maryland-professor-alleges-discrimination-firing-for-expressing-jewish-faith-in-civil-rights-lawsuit/?fbclid=IwAR3lbyVXIIKPeHcyLEHlDJn1KxHFt4dyuRYSNRkTCLjuUFPWHhbYtABTGjk )
So now we have the new poll, about Jews reporting attacks.
Please explain what this recent poll by the AJC is about?
The report goes on to document actual physical attacks not
just snide remarks on Instagram? Who is attacking? why is it not given much
coverage in the news? Is it true that people love only dead Jews? Are we
paranoid? Or do we have our head in the sand?
Response:
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This is the week before Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day. I
moved us up a week so as to put Tu B Shvat into our next week’s agenda.
At one time, both Jews and black Americans were in the same
boat and rowed together. W E B Du Bois, an African American, was an example of
that cooperation. He was a brilliant young scholar, educated at Harvard, and
infused by the same anti-Jewish sentiments of his fellow Harvard alums. Studying at the University of Berlin in the
1890s, Du Bois absorbed the volkisch German nationalism of his teacher,
Heinrich von Treitschke, who said: “The Jews are our misfortune.”
But, as he began to create the
NAACP, he found so much support from major Jewish leaders that he broke from
the anti-Semitism he had absorbed as a young man. Holding up the Jewish people
as a “tremendous force for good and uplift,” he reciprocated Jewish support by
putting the NAACP on record against The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion. He condemned
antisemitism in Poland and Hungary, as well as in Germany….Du Bois remained
steadfast in denouncing Hitler’s war against the Jews and
supporting Zionism
https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/03/05/when-an-african-american-hero-tried-to-stop-the-holocaust/
We are understandably concerned, now, that, as in the
1960’s and 70’s, there were those in struggle for Black advancement who turned
against Jews, notably, Louis Farrakhan.
I fear that we find people in the anti-Zionist camp
intentionally seeking to drive a wedge between us. For example, this on Nov. 27
by Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the Council
on American Islamic Relations. “But I also want us to pay attention to the
polite Zionists. The ones that say, ‘Let’s just break bread together.’ They are
not your friends,” she said. As examples, she cited the ADL, Jewish
Federations, Hillels and “Zionist synagogues.” She also repeated an
unsupported claim, one that circulates among some activist groups, that “police
officers in the United States who kill unarmed black men, women and children
are trained by the Israeli military.” https://www.jweekly.com/2021/12/13/adl-spars-with-cair-over-local-muslim-leaders-remarks-on-polite-zionists/
Her position is straight from the platform of the American
Muslims for Palestine https://www.ampalestine.org/educate/publications/amps-report-working-zionist-organizations
That lie has been a staple diet of many resolutions proposed
against cooperation between police here in the US and Israel for training
purposes.
This just one example of people trying to drive a wedge
between our communities—
Since the AJC was attacked by this speaker from CAIR and by
the AMP, what is your take on this- how serious the impact, what are you doing
to counter it.?
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Response
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