JEWISH WORLD

4 JEWISH WORLD • APRIL 1 - 7, 2022 By MENDEL HOROWITZ S torytelling is a central fea- ture of the Passover holiday. The imperative for Jews to retell our history ensures that our children will never forget it. During the Holocaust, tradition- al Passover seder texts were hand- written in ghettos from memory. Survivors illustrated Holocaust- themed Haggadahs in displaced persons camps after the war. “In every generation, they stand above us to destroy us,” laments the tradi- tional narrator, “and the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.” On our Passover table, to accompany the familiar narrative, heirlooms link my children tangi- bly to their past. Incorporating our ancestors’ material objects into our rituals is both an homage to their determination and a prayer for the perpetuation of our children’s through their faith. Ideally, we can meet the bear- able challenges of our times by appreciating how our predecessors confronted the unbearable difficul- ties of theirs. In a time of uncer- tainty and inconvenient isolation, these relics can help to put social distancing in perspective and encourage us to maintain resilience and hope. A s the coronavirus spread in March 2020, my daughter and I transported an heirloom set of Rosenthal china in two overweight carry-ons and one bulging knap- sack on a flight to Israel from New York. Before escaping the carnage of Europe for the United States in 1949, Zaidy Victor and Bubby Bella had the presence of mind to purchase quality German china manufactured in the U.S. Zone. Traumatized in ways I could not imagine, these two refugees made their way to Philadelphia with two young children and enough plates and saucers for a family of 12. Wrapped snugly in bubble-wrap cocoons, the delicate gold-rimmed dishes were making their second transatlantic journey. In honor of the past, we were transporting the relics to a sovereign Jewish state after survivors of genocide salvaged them from a country that had sought their anni- hilation. Symbols of perseverance and desire, the dishes would adorn By ANDREW E. HARROD A ssistant Professor of Afri- cana studies Noura Erakat demands that self-professed progressives share her Israel-hatred, lest they become “Progressive Ex- cept for Palestine” (PEP). She made this point during a March 3 webinar with Marc La- mont Hill. who famously lost his job at CNN for approvingly reciting the BDS mantra “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” and Mitchell Plitnick, whose recent book Except Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics is dedicated to Erakat’s terrorist cousin Ahmed Erekat, killed last June by Israeli border security after committing a car-ramming attack that injured a guard. H ill, a professor of communica- tions at Temple University, and Plitnick, former co-director of the radically anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and former vice president of the equally hostile Israel Foundation for Middle East Peace, joined Erakat on a “book talk” presented by Chicago’s leftist Haymarket Books. Both invoked the tired canard that Israel “racial- ly” oppresses Arabs, both its own citizens and those living in the ter- ritories. Hill absurdly claimed that PEP is just as unacceptable as “Progressive Except for Slavery.” Erakat praised the infamous United Nations World Conference against Racism, held in Durban, Africa in 2001, which quickly degenerated into a hate-fest against Israel. She had a tangential connection to the con- ference, as a resear- cher for a paper deliv- ered there, titled, “The Forgotten ‘ism’: An A r a b - Am e r i c a n Woman’s Perspective on Zionism, Racism, and Sexism.” “Global, grassroots coalitions” went to Durban, she boasted, “intent on holding up the banner that Israel is an apartheid state.” The U.S. Durban delegation, led by America’s first Black Secretary of State, Colin Powell, thought continued on page 24 Are you “Progressive Except for Palestine”? CANDLE LIGHTING continued on page xx 115 Middle Neck Rd. Great Neck, NY 11021 516-594-4000 The award-winning independent Jewish newspaper of Long Island Publisher & editor-in-chief Jerome Wm. Lippman Assistant Editor Jeff Helmreich Features Editor Barbara Weinblatt Travel Editor Tania Grossinger Contributors Douglas M. Bloomfield, Shira Dicker, Lawrence J. Epstein, Marcelle Sussman Fischler, Ezra Goldstein,, Sandy Portnoy, Joseph R. Rackman, Erica Rauzin, Walter Ruby, Lawrence H. 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Local Offices: 1441 President Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213 311 W. 37th Street New York, N.Y. 10018 Passover, COVID, Memory Re ections on yet another restricted seder Ideally, we can meet the bearable challenges of our times by apprecia ing how our survivor predecessors confronted the unbearable dif culties of theirs. A webinar presented by a leftist bookshop stars three popular anti-Zionist academics who let loose a volley of hateful propaganda at the Jewish state. continued on page 24 Victor and Bella Rubinstein, identi ed in the story as “Bubby and Zaide,” emerged from the Holocaust strong and ready to face life in the United States. (Right) China bought by author’s survivor in-laws in Germany are at his seder, to inspire his family. A Sinister PEP Talk ANALYSIS FIRST PERSON Noura Erakat (bottom) and Israel bashers Professor Marc Lamont-Hill (top left) and Mitchell Plitnick, former co-director of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Friday, March 26 Candles 6:56 pm Saturday, March 27 Candles 8:27 pm First Passover Seder Sunday, March 28 Candles 8:28 pm Second Passover Seder Friday, April 2 Shabbat Candles 7:04 pm For Shabbat and 7th Day Passover Saturday Night, April 3rd Light Candles 8:35 pm For Sunday 8th Day Passover Sunday, April 4 Passover ends 8:40 pm Friday, April 1 Ca les 7:03 pm Shabbat ends 8:03 pm Friday, April 8 Candles 7:10 pm Shabbat ends 8:11 pm ICHA BILEWICZ L isten to what the Kr m- lin say . Just listen! Now the same words [Nazi te minology] are being used again, the Fi al Solution, but now it is directed at us!” declare V lo- dymyr Z lensky in his public ad- dress to the Knesset. In his appeal to Israeli society, the Ukrainian president made explicit compari- sons between today’s Russia and Nazi Germany. Although controversial to many Israelis, it is hard to deny that for many Eastern European Jews, re- cent Kremlin propaganda reminds them of the darkest episodes of our history. And Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has achieved that ignominy even without specifical- ly mentioning “Jews,” “Zionists” the “special military op ration,” as the invasion is euph m sti al- ly lab lled in state propaganda. The speech is remarkable for the motifs he used - tropes that were commonly used in anti-Semitic rhetoric in the Soviet era, and that legitimized anti-Semitic violence. or “cosmopolitans.” Back on March 16, Putin went on te evision to discuss th in- vasion of Ukraine. His address, h wever, di not focus on exter- nal enemies. Instead, he pointed to an alleged vast conspiracy in the homeland - a key threat to The enemies of Russia “ ill certainly be counting on the ‘fifth column,’ n traitors to the nation,” otherwise known as “scum,” said Putin in his addr ss. This statement is almost n exact copy of Pol- ish commun st leader Władyslaw Go ułka’s speech from 1967 that preceded the regime’s anti-Jewish purge in Poland. That purge also originated in a hunt for alleged trait rs who op- posed the Soviet-supported “op- eration” against Israel (which had just won a victory over the Sovi- et-backed Arab states in the Six Day War). “We cannot ignore the people who, when facing a threat to world peace and Poland’s security and peaceful operation, take the side of the aggressors, the havoc-wreck- ers and the imperialists. We do not want to have a fifth column in our utin Goes After Th Jews A fth column, he said, is betraying Rus ia. Who might they be? Putin says that “globalists” – one of several classic code words for Jews he’s used - are ha pering his attempt to defeat Ukraine, worrying Russia Jews. ANALYSI continued on page 31 CANDLE LIGHTING By DANIEL GREENFIELD P resident Joe Biden’s am- bassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, appeared at a pro- BDS group’s webinar co-hosted by its CEO, who had described Israel as an “oppressive regime” and told its audience that the real problem with the Palestinian Authority funding terrorism is that “it gives the ‘haters’ an excuse not to sup- po t the PA ased on the gument that it is ‘paying for people who killed Jews.’” He lso to d the anti-Is a l group, which had che red the Ben & Jerry’s boy ott, that “your agen- da is where my heart is.” At this rate, Nide will be hug- ging and kissing Hamas leaders by the end of the year. Expectations for Nides were al- ready pretty low when the Biden administration announced that it had picked Obama’s former deputy secretary of state as its ambassador to Israel. bassador. He had also vocally op- posed efforts t defund UNRWA and stop subsidizing the terror ref- ugee industry. He has also served on the board of the International Rescue Committee, which has re- peatedly attacked Israel. J Street, the anti-Israel pressure group, welcomed Nides’s nomina- tion and announced that it “looked forward to working” with him. Other anti-Israel groups, including Hillary Clinton was going to make Nides her chief of staff, but she never made it to the White House, losing to Donald Trump in 2016, and Nides had to settle for being Biden’s bully in Jerusalem while his wife, who is a VP at CNN, stays on in Washington D.C. Nides’ main qualification for the job had been yelling “You don’t want to f***ing defund UNESCO” at a former Israeli am- the Israel Policy Forum and Amer- icans for Peace Now echoed the sentiments. It didn’t take long for Nides to justify their faith in his hostility to the Jewish State. Early on, Nides announced that he wanted to open an occupation consulate to the terrorists in Jeru- salem, over the opposition of the Israeli government, and that he would not visit those parts of Is- rael wrongly described as “settle- ments” because th y are claimed by Islamic ter orists. “I absolutely will not,” he replied. That was an even mo e xtr me position tha the one adopted by Obama’s ambassador, Dan Sha- piro, who had privately visited homes in th se areas wh re many Americans live. Nides did, however, meet with Mansour Abbas, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s United Arab List, which played a key role in removing Netanyahu from office and replacing him with a leftist co- alition government. An Enemy In Jerusalem Meet Thomas Nides, Joe Biden’s Ambassador to Israel In a webinar meeting with BDS supporters, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Nides called Israeli settlement growth ‘infuriating’ and backed a divided Jerusalem. Thomas Nides, ally of anti-Zionists, arrives at his swearing-in ceremony as am- bassador to Israel at the President’s House in Jerusalem, Dec. 5, 2021. Vladimir Putin’s speeches on his war on Ukraine have included Soviet-style anti-Semitic tropes. PERSPECTIVE continued on page 26 “