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Photographer Irving Schild, former Safe Haven refugee, to speak – SUNY Oswego

Posted By on April 22, 2017

Photographer Irving Schild, a wartime resident of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, will speak as part of SUNY Oswego's Jewish American Heritage appreciation evening starting at 5 p.m. in the Marano Campus Center food and activity court on Monday, April 24 -- the day widely observed as Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"We're pleased to welcome Irving Schild back to Oswego," said Earnest Washington, director of campus life at the college. "We look forward to sharing his remarkable story with the current generation of Oswego students, and with the wider community."

Born in Belgium, Schild left Europe with his family in 1944 when he was 13. For eighteen months, they lived at the fort as part of the group of 981 mostly Jewish refugees admitted to the United States by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and temporarily interned at the facility, also known as Safe Haven.

Remaining in America after the end of World War II, Schild served in the U.S. Marine Corps and trained as a combat photographer. He built a successful career as a commercial photographer, producing work for major publications such as Glamour, Esquire, Life, and -- for over 50 years -- Mad Magazine. He also taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, serving as chair of the photography department.

Free and open to the public, the evening will include music by the Syracuse-based klezmer band, The Wandering Klezmorim, and a sampling of traditional Jewish foods.

Based in Syracuse, The Wandering Klezmorim is a versatile group that plays in the klezmer traditions from Eastern Europe, the Lower East Side and the Middle East. Ken Frieden, professor of Judaic studies at Syracuse University, founded the group in Atlanta. Since then, it has performed concerts and celebrations in Europe, Israel and the Northeast U.S.

In 2017, Holocaust Remembrance Day begins at sunset April 23 and ends the evening of April 24, commemorating the 6 million victims of the Holocaust carried out by the Nazis during World War II. The day occurs on 27 Nisan on the Jewish calendar.

Jewish American Heritage Month appreciation evening is one of the "I am Oz" programs scheduled throughout the academic year, celebrating campus diversity and community.

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Photographer Irving Schild, former Safe Haven refugee, to speak - SUNY Oswego

The Jewish Chronicle – Globe Briefs April 14 – thejewishchronicle.net

Posted By on April 22, 2017

Ohio buys record $61 million in Israel Bonds

The state of Ohio bought a one-day record of $61 million in Israel Bonds.

The largest single government purchase of Israel Bonds, which took place April 3, makes Ohio the largest holder of Israel Bonds with $165 million, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel told the newspaper that the purchase in part was in response to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

First and foremost, we are making this investment because its a good investment for the taxpayers of Ohio, said Mandel, who is Jewish. Second, we are making this investment in an effort to combat the bigotry of the BDS movement. Third, we are making this investment to stand with the only country in the Middle East that shares American values.

In December, the Ohio Legislature passed a law prohibiting the state from contracting with companies that engage in boycotts of Israel. The measure also included language that increased from 1 percent to 2 percent the amount of funds the state treasurer or country treasurers may invest in foreign bonds meeting specified criteria, including Israel Bonds.

Ohio treasurers have been investing in Israel Bonds since 1993, according to the newspaper.

Mandel, who has served as state treasurer since 2011, announced in December that he would run a second time for the Senate.

Israeli firm to provide drinking water from the air

An Israeli company whose technology made a splash at last months AIPAC conference has signed deals to produce drinking water by extracting it from the air in India and Vietnam, two countries that have long faced shortages.

Water Gen inked an agreement with Indias second largest solar company to produce purified water for remote villages in the country. Earlier, the company arranged with the Hanoi government to set up water generators in the Vietnamese capital.

The government of Vietnam greatly esteems the technological developments in Israel, and I hope that the Israeli technology that we supply to Vietnam will significantly help to improve water conditions in the country, Water Gen President Mikhael Mirilashvili said after the signing in Hanoi, according to a statement.

The memoranda of understanding are worth $150 million in total, according to Water Gen, which was founded in 2009 and creates technology that extracts water from the air for use by civilians and soldiers who do not have access to clean sources.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz demonstrated Water Gens technology on stage at AIPACs annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., on March 26. He touted the device, which he said can produce 15-20 liters of drinkable water a day, as a weapon against worldwide water scarcity and the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

There is no weapon more powerful in the fight against BDS than for Israel to develop technologies that the world cannot live without, he told the crowd. You cannot boycott products that you cant live without.

About 1.2 billion people, nearly one-fifth of the worlds population, live in areas of water scarcity, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. More than 75 million of Indias 1.25 billion people lack access to clean water, according to a report last year by Water Aid, a water and sanitation nonprofit. And Vietnam has struggled to provide its 95 million people with water because of contamination, poor infrastructure and heavy agricultural demand.

In India, Water Gen technology is to supply drinking water to remote villages with solar power from Vikar Solar. The Vietnam project is to generate tens of thousands of liters of water a day for the people of Hanoi.

Jewish descendants, says court, can sue Germany for return of Nazi loot

A U.S. court has cleared the way for descendants of Jewish art collectors to sue Germany in the United States over objects allegedly obtained from their ancestors under duress during the Nazi era.

In what lawyers for the complainants are calling a landmark decision, the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled March 31 that claims regarding a collection known as the Guelph Treasure can be filed in a U.S. court.

Three years ago, a German investigative commission found that the original owners of the collection, which the Dresdner Bank purchased on behalf of Hitlers deputy, Hermann Goering, in 1935, were not forced to sell it by the Nazis.

It is the first time that a court has held that Germany can be sued for the return of Nazi-looted art and artifacts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

For several years, heirs to the consortium of Jewish collectors that bought the 82-piece collection in 1929 as an investment have been demanding the return of the portion sold to Goering. They have estimated its value at approximately $227 million.

The collection is on display at Berlins Bode Museum.

Attorneys filed the suit in the United States in February 2015 against Germany and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, one year after the Limbach Commission, the German advisory board for Holocaust-related claims, rejected the plaintiffs contention that the 1935 sale had been forced.

In its ruling, the court rejected the German defendants contention that the Limbach Commission recommendation bars later litigation in a U.S. court. It also agreed with the plaintiffs that the sale may be considered a taking of property in violation of international law.

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The Jewish Chronicle - Globe Briefs April 14 - thejewishchronicle.net

April 19, 2017 | LEV program promotes an affinity for gardening – Your Niskayuna (registration) (blog)

Posted By on April 20, 2017

By Kristin Schultz

Gazette Reporter

It was a full house as nearly 30 participants took a seat and rolled up their sleeves at the Bnai Brith house for the second installment of the Schenectady JCCs LEV program.

Patty OHare of the Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Schenectady County brought terra cotta pots, potting soil, seeds and clippings as she presented on spring plantings at the March 30 session.

Each of the attendees received two pots of dirt and planted their choice of herb, flower seeds or green plant clippings. Each person also received a special container to start growing a vegetable.

Many of those in attendance live onsite in the apartments. Some of your neighbors couldnt be here today, Judy Ben-Ami, the JCCs Jewish cultural and adult programming director, told the audience. You each have two pots. It might be nice to plant one for yourself and the other to give to a neighbor.

With a grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, the JCC started a LEV program. LEV in Hebrew means heart and serves as an acronym for the adult program: Learning, Enrichment, Volunteering. The first event was a cooking demonstration.

At the gardening event, participants learned about the importance of proper timing for starting seeds and transplanting them into the ground. OHare also gave each person a packet of articles and guides.

The enrichment portion of the program came with the socializing and interpersonal interaction.

The weather has been cold with slippery conditions, said Ben-Ami. The residents dont like to get out in the elements, so this provides a place for them to get out and interact.

Participants were engaged in lively discussions as they worked to select their seeds and sow them properly in the containers.

Sowing seeds to give to a neighbor was the volunteering portion of the program.

We want to share the joy with a friend, relative or someone who needs some sunshine in their lives, said Ben-Ami.

Though the program is mostly attended by seniors, it is open to the public, and the gardening event was attended by a mix of JCC members, house residents and community members.

Ben-Amis next scheduled program is on art collages.

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April 19, 2017 | LEV program promotes an affinity for gardening - Your Niskayuna (registration) (blog)

AEPi holds Holocaust remembrance for 24 hours – University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

Posted By on April 20, 2017

A middle-aged man halted his bike on the corner of OHara Street and University Place and asked, What are we never forgetting? to a huddle of students escorted by Pitt Police cars.

About 20 marchers, all dressed in black and clutching small white signs instructing onlookers to Never Forget, hesitated to break their silence. Finally a student in the back, a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi, quickly uttered the Holocaust before following the crowd to the William Pitt Union lawn.

The We Walk to Remember event, hosted for the first time at Pitt by AEPi, began at Trees Hall at 9 a.m. The event was performed in collaboration with BNai BRith Internationals Unto Every Person There is A Name program to commemorate the Holocaust. It began as a silent walk to the William Pitt Union patio and continued as a 24-hour name-reading of Holocaust victims that will continue until 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

After the walk commenced Tuesday, sophomore Gabriel Kaufman, a finance and marketing major, stood at a podium on the patio, faced the Cathedral and officially broke the silence.

How do you count to six million? Kaufman said. The crowd was spreading out, putting up black and silver signs against anti-Semitism and hanging a blue and gold AEPi flag on the patio.

Each of us has a name given by the mountains and given by our walls, he continued, transitioning into the name-reading part of the event.

He then started reading a list of the names, ages and birthplaces of Holocaust victims. Anyone who wished to read could go up to the podium on the patio and continue the reading for as long as they desired.

Ill take a pause so you can envision what they did with their lives, because they are more than just names, Kaufman said.

After Kaufman, other AEPi brothers and supporters took the stand to read, sometimes pausing between names to add a comment about about their own experiences with anti-Semitism.

Andrew Zale, a sophomore molecular biology student and AEPis former president, said he wants this event to become a tradition at Pitt.

As a Jewish fraternity, we all knew people in the Holocaust, Zale said. It was really an all-encompassing tragedy. I think that people forget just passing on the street every day what big impact the Holocaust has had.

This year, the name reading falls on the last day of Passover. Kaufman said it was fitting, since the last day of Passover symbolizes the freeing of Jewish slaves from Egypt. Since many give up technology during this time, however, he said there will be a greater turnout in the future if they change the date to be around Passover but not during it.

Kaufman said the event is essential to remind people of the dangers of exclusion, especially because he was personally affected by prejudice this year. Vandals knocked down grave stones and desecrated the cemetery that his grandparents are buried in Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery near St. Louis earlier this year.

Chesed Shel Emeth was one of several Jewish cemeteries targeted by vandals throughout the country. According to the FBI, anti-Semitism motivated more than half of the 1,402 anti-religious hate crimes in 2015. In 2017, a wave of more than 100 bomb threats have been directed at Jewish centers and schools.

Ethan Silver, a sophomore chemical engineering student who is the secretary and philanthropy chair for AEPi, has also experienced anti-Semitism very close to his family. Silver said events like the walk are an important part of maintaining history.

People were staring [at us], he said, referring to the successful march. [It] prevents people from pretending this didnt happen.

Throughout the day, visitors from other campus organizations, such as Alpha Epsilon Phi and Alpha Delta Pi, took time to stop by the William Pitt Union patio and express their support during the name-reading.

Gabriel Fruitman waited for his turn to read as twilight set in. The sophomore chemical engineering major and AEPi brother said he was there to support the values his fraternity espouses and to send a message against anti-Semitism.

Its important that we dont stop standing up for ourselves and against those who arent sensitive to the past, he said. Im doing this next year, for sure.

Behind him, a fellow AEPi member continued reading names as the sun sank further down.

Syoma Matz, Boris Mayev, Olina Mednik he read.

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AEPi holds Holocaust remembrance for 24 hours - University of Pittsburgh The Pitt News

OKC interfaith group to host luncheon focused on diversity – NewsOK.com

Posted By on April 20, 2017

From Staff Reports Published: April 19, 2017 5:00 AM CDT Updated: April 19, 2017 5:00 AM CDT

The Dialogue Institute will host a luncheon featuring two distinguished speakers at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Raindrop Turkish House, 4444 N Classen.

Ori Soltes, Ph.D., and Emre Celik, president of the Rumi Forum will speak on the topic "A Nation of Immigrants: Why Diversity Matters."

Celik, a native Australian, lives in Washington, D.C. He leads the Rumi Forum, an organization dedicated to social harmony, intercultural and interfaith dialogue issues covering themes of pluralism, social cohesion, democracy and peace building.

Soltes teaches at Georgetown University across a range of disciplines, from art history and theology to philosophy and political history. He is the former director of the B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum.

Cost is $15.

For more information or to RSVP, call 702-0222, email okc@thedialoginstitute.org or go to https://goo.gl/RVqvbX.

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OKC interfaith group to host luncheon focused on diversity - NewsOK.com

How will Trump’s budget cuts affect Jewish agencies? – Jweekly.com

Posted By on April 20, 2017

What will be the impact on the Jewish community of the proposed 2018 federal budget, officially known as the America First: A Budget Blueprint To Make America Great Again?

William Daroff, the Jewish Federations of North Americas senior vice president for public policy, estimates that federation-affiliated agencies in this country receive more than $10 billion per year. The funds are mainly Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to Jewish hospitals, nursing homes and family service agencies. Daroff cautioned that this figure is a guesstimate of sorts, based on a survey conducted about a decade ago.

Jewish social service agencies, in fact, receive federal funds for an array of activities, including counseling services, job training, senior adult housing and programming, food assistance and childcare. A 2002 JTAstory on the fiscal impact of proposed budget cuts during the Bush administration noted that San Franciscos Jewish Vocational Service received $2.3 million of its $5.5 million operating budget from federal, state and local governments.

More recently, a statement by Bnai Brith International noted that a proposed 13.2 percent cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development envisioned by the 2018 budget would adversely affect the 38 buildings with 8,000 residents in the Bnai Brith network.

Federal budget cuts also target various cultural and educational programs. Jewish agencies that receive federal monies in these areas including after-school enrichment programs, film festivals or arts education may find their grants reduced or eliminated.

Jewish cultural organizations throughout the country would be severely and negatively affected by the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts. These agencies fund programs in every pocket of America: San Franciscos Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival in Georgia, the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre in New York, Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly in Massachusetts, the Jewish Arts Foundation of Palm Beach in Florida, the Maine Jewish Film Festival, the Oklahoma Israel Exchange, RUACH in Wisconsin, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Illinois, the Jewish Community Center of Washington, DC., the Irene Kaufmann Center/JCC in Pittsburgh. The list is endless.

Jews are major supporters of local theater companies, art museums, symphony orchestras and public broadcasting stations, many of which are likely to be affected by budgetary cuts. So, we will see Jews stepping up to increase their support of these cultural and educational institutions?

The reductions will also affect United States foreign policy interests, as the State Departments financial capacity to provide foreign aid and underwrite other grant programs is likely to be reduced or eliminated. These resources have been central to strengthening U.S. influence in many regions. Israel policy-makers and Jewish leaders have described these proposed cuts as detrimental to long-term American and Israeli interests in the Middle East and Africa.

The proposed draconian cuts in areas vital to executing U.S. foreign policy could adversely affect our national security interests by potentially creating more pressure on the American military while essential diplomacy is being undermined, said David Harris, the American Jewish Committees CEO. Deep cuts to the State Department, including in key educational and cultural exchange programs, will severely harm Americas ability to assert our interests and values abroad.

Summarizing the overall impact of such proposed cuts, the Reform Movements Religious Action Center offered the following assessment: The budgets drastic reduction in funding for critical human needs, environmental protection and international aid programs abdicate the federal governments responsibility to the American people it serves and others worldwide who depend on U.S. leadership.

No doubt, the interplay between the Jewish community and the federal government has expanded over time, making agencies and programs of our communal institutions increasingly dependent on federal and state resources to support these key safety net activities. Similarly, the connections between public arts funding and the institutions of the Jewish community have likewise expanded over time. In the wake of these proposals, some of these key resources and partnerships will no longer be available.

Confronting similar budget cuts, some institutions in the past have opted to close their doors. While this option is seen as the last stance, in some settings it may represent the only viable pathway.

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How will Trump's budget cuts affect Jewish agencies? - Jweekly.com

NATIONAL MONUMENTS Jewish leaders urge Trump to preserve Bears Ears – E&E News

Posted By on April 20, 2017

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Jennifer Yachnin, E&E News reporter

Jewish groups have voiced their support for maintaining Bears Ears National Monument. Photo by Tim Peterson, courtesy of Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.

A coalition of Jewish activists is the latest group to urge President Trump to retain the Bears Ears National Monument designation, asserting that the southeast Utah site could be a "cautionary tale about the fragility of current protections" for public lands.

In a letter to Trump today, the leaders of seven organizations asked the president not to rescind the national monument status President Obama bestowed on the 1.35-million-acre site in late December.

"Stewardship of our national parks, monuments and other public lands and preservation of our historic and cultural heritage is an important part of our moral responsibility as caretakers of God's creation for the next generation," says the letter.

It's signed by Jewish Council for Public Affairs President and CEO David Bernstein, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life Chairman and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Hebrew College Rabbinical School Rector Rabbi Art Green, National Religious Partnership for the Environment Chairman and Rabbi Steve Gutow, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Director and Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, and Hazon CEO Nigel Savage.

The letter also calls on Trump to protect other monuments previously created under the Antiquities Act, the 1906 law that allows presidents to declare protections for areas of historic and scientific interest.

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"Such places supply blessings of sustenance, provide critical habitat, and offer us natural space for prayer, spiritual renewal, and awe," the letter says. "In addition, many of these monuments celebrate cultural diversity, a key hallmark of our great nation."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) and the state's all-GOP congressional delegation, including House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, have voiced support for repealing the monument's status. Bishop has argued that Trump could do so, or at least repeal a significant portion of the monument, using the Antiquities Act.

Conservationists have countered that argument, saying that the act does not give a commander in chief the ability to undo a monument's status. No president has sought to do so to date, although the boundaries of sites including the former Olympic National Monument have been altered.

The Jewish leaders argue in their letter that abolishing the Bears Ears monument would serve as a "cautionary tale about the fragility of current protections on our public lands."

"You put forth in your Inaugural Address the need for unity, stating that we share one heart and one home. This sentiment is truly manifest in the diversity of our public lands parks, monuments, and living classrooms that showcase the variety of stories that unite us," the letter says.

Trump has not commented on whether he will repeal the Bears Ears site, but a former member of Trump's Energy Department transition team said earlier this month he expects the president to issue a new executive order targeting the Antiquities Act (E&E News PM, April 4).

The White House routinely directs questions on the Bears Ears site to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who has previously vowed to visit Utah and the monument but has not yet scheduled travel to the state.

In recent weeks, proponents of public lands have peppered Trump and Zinke with letters urging the retention of Bears Ears, including Democratic senators, the Next 100 Coalition and the Conservation for Economic Growth Coalition. The Center for Western Priorities also launched an ad campaign (Greenwire, April 12).

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Coal companies yesterday said last week's federal court decision vacating U.S. EPA's rule exempting livestock producers from certain pollution reporting requirements boosts their job loss claims against the agency.

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NATIONAL MONUMENTS Jewish leaders urge Trump to preserve Bears Ears - E&E News

A menu inspired by heritage and tradition – Gourmet Traveller Magazine Australia

Posted By on April 20, 2017

Adam Wolfers, former head chef of Sydney restaurants Yellow and Monopole, is taking over the kitchen at Casoni in Darlinghurst this month. From 19 April until 14 May he'll offer a vegetable-focused menu infused with the flavours of his Jewish heritage. Traditional honey cake will be lifted with a wattle-honeycomb butter, celeriac will be slow-cooked in clay and served with bush tomato, almond and malawach (a flaky fried bread of Yemen), while dry-aged salt beef fat will coat roasted carrots and radicchio. Ahead of his pop-up, he gives us an insight into how he's approaching the menu.

Has your heritage shaped the way you cook, Adam? My family history is filled with cooking and food, and so are my memories. My mother's grandfather owned a kosher restaurant in Vienna before World War II and fled to London to open one there before emigrating with his family to Australia in the 1950s. I remember food being such an important part of our family meals on Friday nights and during Jewish festivals, especially Passover. My grandmother used to have six pots on the stove, vegetables roasting in the oven and pastries being rolled out all at once. She was such a hard worker in the kitchen and made sure that everyone was well-fed. Her recipes will play a large part in my menu at Casoni.

Honey cake with wattle-honeycomb butter.

Where do you go in Sydneyto find the flavours you grew up with? Most of the Jewish food I eat is at home or at my parents' house, butsome of my favourite spots around Sydney include Grandma Moses (formerly of Rose Bay and now in Kensington) where you can get challah, boiled bagels and many different pastries, Lox, Stock & Barrelin Bondi, as well as the Israeli flavours of Kepos St Kitchen in Redfern.

How will you incorporate Jewish flavours into your menu at Casoni? There'll be a pumpkin version of a classic potato latke (a specialty of Hanukkah) with goat's cheese and sorrel. I've also modernised the traditional honey cake, which is usually eaten to celebrate the Jewish New Year, by adding a wattle-honeycomb butter. Because of the restrictions in kosher cooking, vegetables are given great importance, and I'll translate that by serving them in creative ways and cooking them using non-traditional techniques, inspired by my work with Brent Savage.The menu will be a lot of fun.

Adam Wolfers will serve his menu at Casoni from 19 April to 14 May.

Casoni, 371-373 Bourke St, Darlinghurst, NSW, 0449 516 798, casoni.com.au/popup/

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A menu inspired by heritage and tradition - Gourmet Traveller Magazine Australia

In Atlanta’s suburbs and exurbs, a Jewish candidate gives Democrats hope – Jewish Post

Posted By on April 20, 2017

Editors note: Democrat Jon Ossoff will face Republican Karen Handel in the June 20 runoff election. Ossoff won 48.1% of the vote April 18; Handel won 19.78%

WASHINGTON (JTA) One candidate has the endorsement of a civil rights giant. Another boasts that he changes his oil in his pickup truck. A third coached soccer at the local community center.

Its politics as usual in Georgia, except that these three candidates among the 18 running in the special election on April 18 in Georgias 6th Congressional District are Jewish.

The election is a jungle, or blanket, primary, an open race in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, face off against one another in a June 20 runoff barring the unlikely event that one candidate tops 50 percent.

Race figures prominently in this election in the Atlanta suburbs, as does traditional values (another candidate is prominent in the right-to-life movement). But all politics is local attracting jobs to the district and improving mass transit are major campaign themes.

The election is atypical, however, in two ways: Democrats see it as their first opportunity to wound President Donald Trump, and the presence of the Jewish candidates, notably Jon Ossoff, a Democrat attracting national media attention as the likeliest to pull off an upset.

That one-sixth of the candidates are Jewish in the 6th is something of an anomaly, said Steve Oppenheimer, a businessman who backs Ossoff.

What are we, 2 percent nationwide? asked Oppenheimer, who has served on the national boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Hillel. If we were twice that here and that may be a stretch we [Jewish voters] are not going to be the swing vote.

Not that Ossoff, a scholarly and serious 30-year-old, is reluctant to chat about his Jewish upbringing if he is asked.

I was bar mitzvahed at The Temple, which is a Reform synagogue, he told JTA, somewhat didactically. My Jewish upbringing imbued me with certain values, a commitment to justice and peace.

Ossoff is perhaps best known as a muckraking documentary filmmakerwho once was an intern to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. and now is being endorsed by the civil rights giant. (Ossoff was later an aide on national security policy to another Georgia Democrat, Hank Johnson, who also has endorsed him.)

That biography and Trumps surprisingly poor performance in November in a district that for decades has been solidly Republican has propelled Ossoff to the front of thediverse pack of candidates. A poll commissioned by zpolitics, a website tracking politics in Georgia, had him at 41 percent on Monday, while his closest two contenders, both Republicans, are tied at 16.

Tom Price, the previous incumbent, won the district by more than 20 points in November, but Trump beat Clinton in the district by barely a percentage point. Trump tapped Price to be his health secretary, and Trumps poor performance led Democrats to smell blood. (Ossoffs slogan? Make Trump furious.)

Ossoff, youthful and personable, soon emerged as a national Democratic favorite, and a fundraising drive led by the liberal website Daily Kos, among other factors, has made him the candidate to beat, with $3 million reportedly in his campaign coffers. The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have deployed resources to his campaign.

That, in turn, has led to coverage in the national media, including front-page treatment in The New York Times and profiles in the New Yorker, Esquire and the Los Angeles Times.

Every one of those treatments includes a requisite skeptical note from impartial observers of Georgias politics: Ossoff, they say, is gobbling up Democratic support, and likely will place on April 18, but the notion that he can win in the runoff in the historically red district is far-fetched.

Typical of the pundits is Kerwin Swint of Kennesaw State University, who on Feb. 27 told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a Democrat could conceivably sneak into the runoff, but that Democrat would almost surely lose the runoff. The numbers just arent there yet.

Democrats, giddy at Ossoffs surge in the polls, believe the numbers are coming in. Ossoff says hes running to win outright on April 18, although that tends to get even his supporters eyes rolling.

Sheri Labovitz, a longtime Democratic activist, has not formally endorsed Ossoff among the five Democrats running, but she believes he has momentum.

Hes got a machinery working with him that has some very good research, hes got bodies knocking on doors every day and every weekend, she said. If you can turn your voters out, youve got a great shot.

And Labovitz said Jewish interest is unexpectedly strong. She expected perhaps 30 people to show up last month at a salon she organized for Jewish Democratic women that featured Ossoff and two other candidates: Ron Slotin, a former state senator who also is Jewish, and Sally Harrell, a former state representative who has since withdrawn. Instead, 200 people packed the room.

Ossoff said he was wowed by the turnout.

Jewish women are leading a lot of the political engagement in the community, he told JTA.

Still, Labovitz is reserving judgment on a final call until she sees which of the 11 Republicans in the raceemerges to compete with Ossoff.

Its a gerrymandered district, she said. Can a Democrat make the runoff? I really think so. Can a Democrat win? I would like to think so.

The two Republicans who are ahead in polls would provide a sharp contrast with Ossoff.

Karen Handel earned national notoriety in 2012 when, while she was vice president at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a charity that combats breast cancer, cut off its relationship with Planned Parenthood.

In the ensuing controversy Komen, which was founded by a well-known Jewish Republican philanthropist, Nancy Brinker, who named it after her late sister, reinstated the relationship with the reproductive rights and womens health group. Handel then left the organization, becoming something of a hero for abortion opponents.

Bob Gray, a former council member in the town of Johns Creek, has an ad that opens with Trump pledging to drain the swamp. It fades to Gray, in overalls, draining a swamp literally to the twang of blues chords on an acoustic guitar.

Republican ads target Ossoff as an interloper in a conservative redoubt. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a national Republican political action committee, uncovered video from his days at Georgetown University wielding a light saber as a bare-chested Han Solo and extolling the virtues of beer.

Not ready, the ad said.

Ossoff says the attack on him by a national superPAC is a signal of how serious his bid is. His current incarnation clean cut, well turned out and soft spoken, and the CEO of a documentary film company that delves into cutting-edge issues like corruption in Africa and the mistreatment of women by Islamist terrorists deflects bids to portray him as unripe.

Ossoff is more sensitive to charges that he is a carpetbagger; he lives just outside the district boundaries. That gets him testy.

My significant other is a medical student at Emory and she needs to walk to work, he said.

Casting him as an outsider resonates with some voters in a mixed rural-suburban district. Jere Wood, the mayor of Roswell, a town in the district, told the New Yorker earlier this month that Ossoffs name alone would alienate voters.

If you just say Ossoff, some folks are gonna think, Is he Muslim? Is he Lebanese? Is he Indian? Wood said.

Ossoff likely would enjoy the jab; he wears his progressive badge with pride. He turned up at Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on the Saturday night that Trumps first executive order banning refugees and other travelers from Muslim-majority countries went into effect, and identifies with them as a matter of heritage.

American Jews all share that immigrant story, he said, and that perspective hardens my resolve to fight for an open and optimistic vision of our country where if you work hard you can get ahead, where we welcome those who come here to build the country.

Ossoff also signals familiarity with the Middle East. His campaign biography notes that when he was at Georgetown, he studied under Michael Oren, the historian and former Israeli ambassador to Washington. Oppenheimer, Ossoffs backer, says as a congressional aide the candidate helped draft Iran sanctions, but also is quick to note that Ossoff had left the job by the time Democrats were backing the Iran nuclear deal that so riled AIPAC.

He was not involved in the deal President Obama made, Oppenheimer said with emphasis.

If Ossoff and his backers are right and distaste for Trump and hard-line conservatism threatens to turn this district blue, then David Abroms would be a formidable adversary in the runoff. But this Jewish Republican is not registering in the polls, finishing next to last among the eight candidates named in the zpolitics poll with under 2 percent of the vote.

Abroms, 33, avoids mentioning Trump in his campaigning. He focuses instead on his business converting vehicles to running on natural gas and how he hopes to bring to Washington his ideas of energy independence from the Middle East.

A lot of wealth goes overseas to the Middle East to people who dont like us very much, it hampers our national security, it hampers Israels national security, he said in an interview.

Abroms, who interned for former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, now the U.S. attorney general, is relaxed with both his Southern and Jewish heritages.

I consider myself a paradox, he said. Im a Jewish accountant, but I drive my pickup truck and I do my oil changes, and I listen to country music.

Slotin is another moderate albeit a Democrat who likely wont make the cut. The zpolitics poll, with 625 respondents and a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, had him just ahead of Abroms at 3 percent. A state senator in the 1990s who ran unsuccessfully against Cynthia McKinney for Congress McKinney went on to become one of the bodys most strident Israel critics he is reviving his slogan from that era, Votin Slotin, and campaigning on bipartisanship and bringing jobs to the district.

Slotin, 54, is an executive headhunter who once owned the Atlantic Jewish Life magazine and coached soccer at a local JCC. He touts his role aspart of the government team that crafted tax credits that brought TV and movie production into the state.

What I bring to the district is stronger against any Republican candidate than what [Ossoff] brings to the district, he said.

The zpolitics poll suggests that might be true: A question asking for a second choice indicative of how the runoff might play out had Slotin by far the leader with 34 percent, while Ossoff got 5.6 percent.

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Globe Briefs April 14 – thejewishchronicle.net

Posted By on April 20, 2017

Ohio buys record $61 million in Israel Bonds

The state of Ohio bought a one-day record of $61 million in Israel Bonds.

The largest single government purchase of Israel Bonds, which took place April 3, makes Ohio the largest holder of Israel Bonds with $165 million, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel told the newspaper that the purchase in part was in response to the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

First and foremost, we are making this investment because its a good investment for the taxpayers of Ohio, said Mandel, who is Jewish. Second, we are making this investment in an effort to combat the bigotry of the BDS movement. Third, we are making this investment to stand with the only country in the Middle East that shares American values.

In December, the Ohio Legislature passed a law prohibiting the state from contracting with companies that engage in boycotts of Israel. The measure also included language that increased from 1 percent to 2 percent the amount of funds the state treasurer or country treasurers may invest in foreign bonds meeting specified criteria, including Israel Bonds.

Ohio treasurers have been investing in Israel Bonds since 1993, according to the newspaper.

Mandel, who has served as state treasurer since 2011, announced in December that he would run a second time for the Senate.

Israeli firm to provide drinking water from the air

An Israeli company whose technology made a splash at last months AIPAC conference has signed deals to produce drinking water by extracting it from the air in India and Vietnam, two countries that have long faced shortages.

Water Gen inked an agreement with Indias second largest solar company to produce purified water for remote villages in the country. Earlier, the company arranged with the Hanoi government to set up water generators in the Vietnamese capital.

The government of Vietnam greatly esteems the technological developments in Israel, and I hope that the Israeli technology that we supply to Vietnam will significantly help to improve water conditions in the country, Water Gen President Mikhael Mirilashvili said after the signing in Hanoi, according to a statement.

The memoranda of understanding are worth $150 million in total, according to Water Gen, which was founded in 2009 and creates technology that extracts water from the air for use by civilians and soldiers who do not have access to clean sources.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz demonstrated Water Gens technology on stage at AIPACs annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., on March 26. He touted the device, which he said can produce 15-20 liters of drinkable water a day, as a weapon against worldwide water scarcity and the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

There is no weapon more powerful in the fight against BDS than for Israel to develop technologies that the world cannot live without, he told the crowd. You cannot boycott products that you cant live without.

About 1.2 billion people, nearly one-fifth of the worlds population, live in areas of water scarcity, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. More than 75 million of Indias 1.25 billion people lack access to clean water, according to a report last year by Water Aid, a water and sanitation nonprofit. And Vietnam has struggled to provide its 95 million people with water because of contamination, poor infrastructure and heavy agricultural demand.

In India, Water Gen technology is to supply drinking water to remote villages with solar power from Vikar Solar. The Vietnam project is to generate tens of thousands of liters of water a day for the people of Hanoi.

Jewish descendants, says court, can sue Germany for return of Nazi loot

A U.S. court has cleared the way for descendants of Jewish art collectors to sue Germany in the United States over objects allegedly obtained from their ancestors under duress during the Nazi era.

In what lawyers for the complainants are calling a landmark decision, the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled March 31 that claims regarding a collection known as the Guelph Treasure can be filed in a U.S. court.

Three years ago, a German investigative commission found that the original owners of the collection, which the Dresdner Bank purchased on behalf of Hitlers deputy, Hermann Goering, in 1935, were not forced to sell it by the Nazis.

It is the first time that a court has held that Germany can be sued for the return of Nazi-looted art and artifacts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

For several years, heirs to the consortium of Jewish collectors that bought the 82-piece collection in 1929 as an investment have been demanding the return of the portion sold to Goering. They have estimated its value at approximately $227 million.

The collection is on display at Berlins Bode Museum.

Attorneys filed the suit in the United States in February 2015 against Germany and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, one year after the Limbach Commission, the German advisory board for Holocaust-related claims, rejected the plaintiffs contention that the 1935 sale had been forced.

In its ruling, the court rejected the German defendants contention that the Limbach Commission recommendation bars later litigation in a U.S. court. It also agreed with the plaintiffs that the sale may be considered a taking of property in violation of international law.

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Globe Briefs April 14 - thejewishchronicle.net


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