Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 9, 2017

Everyone knows a guy like Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere), the dogged and doomed schemer of Joseph Cedars latest movie, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.

Norman is that uncle who always wants you to meet someone he assures you will advance your career or hes the guy who never gives you a straight answer when you ask him what he does and always seems to be working some angle.

Norman is the first English-language film by Cedar, the American-born Israeli director of the Oscar-nominated films Beaufort and Footnote. It is anchored by Richard Geres brilliant performance in the title role, which emphasizes the humanity inside the nudnik. The actor brings out the vulnerability and disappointment beneath Normans hyper-confident facade.

Norman is a great character study of this very familiar type. He is a kind of cousin to Clifford Irving, the writer who claimed to have a Howard Hughes memoir, whom Gere portrayed in the fact-based 2006 movie The Hoax. But while Geres Irving seemed intoxicated by his own lies, Norman gets increasingly desperate as the story progresses. He is older and doesnt have much time left to put together that one great deal that will completely reverse his fortunes. He talks about a wife who died and a daughter, but its not clear if these women are or were real. He wanders the city talking on his headset but doesnt seem to have a home; and when hes hungry, he sneaks into a synagogue and eats herring and crackers. The devil is in the details here, from the scraps of paper where Norman scrawls his notes and phone trees to the camel hair coat he keeps spotless.

Youre like a drowning man trying to wave at an ocean liner, his nephew (Michael Sheen) tells him in one of the films key moments.

But Im a good swimmer. Dont forget that, Norman replies.

The way Norman stays afloat for a good chunk of the movie revolves around an encounter with an Israeli politician, Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi). Norman very skillfully stalks the out-of-favor Eshel when the Israeli is in New York at a conference.

At an expensive mens clothing store, Norman insists on treating Eshel to a very pricey pair of shoes, and this creates a bond between them. When Eshel becomes prime minister a few years later, Norman congratulates himself, exulting, For once, I bet on the right horse.

How Norman tries to cash in on his connection to Eshel is a story that is fun and full of twists. These involve connections and deals he tries to make among a diverse group of powerful men, including a blustering, self-important rabbi (Steve Buscemi) of an upscale Manhattan synagogue genius casting and not one but two billionaire financiers (Josh Charles and Harris Yulin). Other members of this uniformly excellent cast include Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dan Stevens, Hank Azaria and Isaach De Bankole from abroad, and Tali Sharon, Neta Riskin and Yehuda Almagor from Israel.

But the key relationship in the movie is the one between Norman and Eshel. It seems to have been inspired, at least superficially, by former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is currently serving a prison term for accepting bribes, and Morris Talansky, the financier whose testimony helped convict him. But Norman and Eshel are very different from their real-life counterparts. Eshel is a sympathetic character at first, down on his luck, and grateful for Normans support and attention. Later, he is intoxicated by his own power, and although he talks about brokering a peace deal, he seems more focused on the fame and honor it will bring than anything else. In short, hes a typical politician, however different he may seem at first.

Ashkenazi, an extraordinary actor, faces a challenge making Eshel interesting and intermittently sympathetic, but he is able to pull it off.

Its a low-key performance, but so masterful that I was disappointed when the character behaved as virtually any politician would under similar circumstances. Like Norman, I wanted to think that Eshel was special.

And, like Eshel, I wanted to think that there was more to Norman than just some guy who uses people until he finds himself out of his depth. Cedar really gets into Normans head, an often uncomfortable place to be. As much as we would like to look down on a guy like Norman, Cedar makes us see ourselves in him. He does this in part by bravura effects that emphasize Normans point of view, such as a scene where Norman reconnects with Eshel at the conference of an AIPAC-like organization, and everyone around them freezes. As Norman suddenly gets the attention and respect he has always craved from the people who are important to him, he visualizes all these acquaintances just as heads because he doesnt see them as real people but merely as sources of approval.

On some level, this can be seen as an allegory about American Jewish-Israeli relations, but it would be a mistake to go too far with that. Both Norman and Eshel see their interactions as a zero-sum game, and perhaps that is the real tragedy to which the title makes reference. But the script is more than just a metaphor for the tensions between American Jews and Israelis.

There is a great deal of dialogue in the film, much of which is over the phone, which Cedar tries to enliven by using a split screen, showing the two people talking as if they were in a room together. It can be demanding to follow Normans deals through all these conversations, and there are some scenes late in the film that drag. But Normans epic quest to make a success out of his life soon gets back on track, and a brief expression on Geres face reminds us that we are rooting for Norman, in spite of all his duplicity and how wary we are of the real Normans in our lives.

This is Cedars fifth feature film, and it brings to the foreground a theme that has been present in all of his movies: identity and what it means to be an insider and/or an outsider. In the movie Campfire, he examined the tension between a religious/nationalist identity and the freedom afforded by the larger world, through a portrait of an observant woman who became an outsider in her own community after she lost her husband.

Footnote was the story of an aging scholar who longs, in spite of his uncompromising nature, to be embraced by the establishment (exemplified by being awarded the Israel Prize); and his much more engaging and politically astute son (played by Lior Ashkenazi), who has all the honors in the world, except the full respect of his father. The widow and the father are rigidly honest and have to come to terms with not getting the approval they seek, with not being true insiders.

Norman, on the other hand, is all compromise, all wheeling and dealing, but he remains the quintessential outsider. The tension comes from whether he will make the deal of his dreams and win on his own terms or crash and burn, and what that crash will teach him if it comes.

But who Norman becomes is open to debate. Its the art of the deal that Cedar makes with the audience that Norman remains unknowable. In spite of his affability, Norman keeps his true self hidden. Cedars refusal to give us any easy answers is what makes this film memorable and, ultimately, moving and real.

NORMAN Directed by Joseph Cedar With Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Steve Buscemi, Dan Stevens, Charlotte Gainsbourg Running time: 117 minutes In English and Hebrew.

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Being Norman Oppenheimer - Jerusalem Post Israel News

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Posted By richards on March 9, 2017

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Posted By richards on March 9, 2017

Posted: Mar. 9, 2017 12:01 am

PATERSON -- As it does about every seven years, the custom of eating corned beef on St. Patrick's Day comes up against the Roman Catholic law of fasting (no meat) on Fridays during Lent.

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of the Diocese of Paterson, which includes Sussex, Passaic and Morris counties, has issued a letter of dispensation "from the laws and abstinence" to all Roman Catholics living in, or visiting, the diocese on St. Patrick's Day.

In his letter, issued last month, the bishop added the dispensation "is given with the strong recommendation that the faithful honor both Saint Patrick and this holy season of Lent by some special work of charity or exercise of piety in place of abstinence."

Not all bishops will issue the dispensation, and some who have are advising their parishioners to exercise moderation and temperance in the celebrations of the Irish patron saint's birthday. And, in one case, the bishop of Omaha substituted Saturday, March 18, to abstain from meat, rather than Friday, March 17.

The meal of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes is not traditional Irish, but an American tradition for those of Irish ancestry. In Ireland, the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal would likely include pork or lamb, according to Smithsonian.com.

In Irish tradition, cows were sacred and only the very rich or Irish royalty would eat beef, and that was usually because the cow had become old or sick and had to be killed.

When the English conquered Ireland, there was plenty of land to raise cattle and ship them to England, where beef was the main meat in the diet. When importing live cattle was banned in England, the Smithsonian reports, the cattle were slaughtered in Ireland, the meat packed in salt, then shipped to England.

Much of the cattle raised in Colonial America was also salted with crystals the size of a kernel of corn and shipped to England.

When the potato famine struck Ireland in 1845, about 1 million Irish died and another million immigrated to America.

Being poor, many Irish settled into neighborhoods adjacent to Jewish neighborhoods, and it was the Jewish tradition of salting beef that the Irish adopted, buying their meat from kosher butcher shops.

That kosher beef has a milder, less salty taste than the English version, and the Jews often cooked the beef with potatoes and cabbage.

The Irish in America celebrated St. Patrick's Day as a part of their heritage and included parades, feasting and celebrating, while the Irish, until the latter part of the 20th century, still considered the day to be a religious holiday.

In fact, it wasn't until American tourists began visiting Ireland in the past half-century that Irish pubs were allowed to be open on such a religious holiday.

Bruce A. Scruton can also be contacted on Twitter: @brucescrutonNJH or by phone: 973-383-1224.

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Bishop: Meat's OK on St. Patrick's Day - New Jersey Herald

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Posted By richards on March 9, 2017

By Jeff Martin

Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) Amid a surge of bomb threats and vandalism at Jewish institutions nationwide, members of Atlantas Jewish community have felt a familiar wave of apprehension about what may come next.

Because all of that, and worse, has happened in the city before.

Six decades ago, during the turmoil of the civil rights era, 50 sticks of dynamite blasted a ragged hole in Atlantas largest synagogue. A generation earlier, in 1915, Jewish businessman Leo Frank was lynched during a wave of anti-Semitism.

Some fear that history is once again arcing toward the viperous climate that set the stage for the earlier violence.

Its heartbreaking to see the attacks and threats and desecration of Jewish cemeteries in recent days, said playwright Jimmy Maize, whose play The Temple Bombing is on stage this month at Atlantas Alliance Theatre. I have to say that writing this play feels too much like history repeating itself.

His play, which addresses anti-Semitism, fear and courage through the drama of the 1958 explosion, was inspired by a book by Atlanta author Melissa Fay Greene.

We learned over several decades the power of hate speech, Greene said. It can lead to people being harmed and killed.

This past weekend, more than 100 headstones were discovered toppled or damaged at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. In New York, a Rochester cemetery was targeted this week in the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents around the county. Cemetery officials said Thursday at least a dozen grave markers were desecrated.

Jewish community centers and schools in several states also have been targets of recent bomb scares.

On Friday, federal officials said a 31-year-old man is a suspect in at least eight of the threats made against Jewish institutions nationwide, and a bomb threat to New Yorks Anti-Defamation League.

Atlanta has played a prominent role in American Jewish life since the late 1800s. Jewish immigrants began some of its most successful businesses, according to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life.

Atlanta was at the forefront of the new, industrial South, and many of its factories were Jewish-owned, said Jeremy Katz, archives director at Atlantas William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.

Jewish businessmen gained respect and became community leaders. But their success also led to anti-Semitism from Southerners who felt left behind by the changing economy, said Stuart Rockoff, the former historian for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life.

There was this push and pull, and it was kind of a powder keg that ignited with the Leo Frank case, Katz said. Before the Frank case, Jews were fairly accepted in the community because social lines were drawn by color of skin rather than religion, so Jews really flourished in the South.

Everything changed on a spring day in 1913, when 13-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan was found strangled in the cellar of Atlantas National Pencil Company. Frank, the factorys manager, was arrested and put on trial. As newspaper articles inflamed anti-Semitic passions in and around Atlanta, he was convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Gov. John Slaton, convinced Frank was innocent, commuted his sentence to life in prison. In August 1915, a mob snatched Frank from the state prison in Milledgeville and drove him to Marietta, where Phagan had lived, and hanged him from an oak tree.

The Leo Frank case showed that Jews were not immune from that type of violence and discrimination, Rockoff said.

In the following years, many Jews didnt speak of the Frank case.

But by the late 1940s, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild at The Temple in Atlanta had begun speaking out against racial injustice in Atlanta, said his son, William Rothschild. Some believe that made the synagogue a target for extremists.

The bomb exploded about 3:30 a.m. Oct. 12, 1958. A few hours later, during Sunday morning classes, there would have been hundreds of children in the building, said Peter Berg, now senior rabbi at The Temple. But the children hadnt yet arrived, and no one was injured.

I remember feeling emptiness, recalls Carol Zaban Cooper of Atlanta, who was 14 when her synagogue was bombed, and went on to become active with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. I felt hollow, numb.

Alfred Uhry, author of the play and movie Driving Miss Daisy, attended The Temple as a child and had just moved to New York when it was bombed. He recalls the horror of seeing a photo of the destruction in The New York Times.

It showed a side of the building blown off, and I had gone to Sunday school there, Uhry said.

A bombing suspects first trial ended with a hung jury and the second with an acquittal.

Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield said every political rabble-rouser is the godfather of these cross burners and dynamiters who sneak about in the dark and give a bad name to the South.

Atlanta Constitution editor Ralph McGill called it a harvest of hate. One day after the blast he wrote, It is the harvest of defiance of courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the part of many southern politicians.

To be sure, none said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school, he added in the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial. But let it be understood that when leadership in high places in any degree fails to support constituted authority, it opens the gate to all those who wish to take law into their own hands.

Racial hatred put everyone in danger, McGill wrote.

When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.

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In Atlanta, anti-Semitism is viewed through lens of history - Birmingham Times

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Posted By admin on March 9, 2017

Posted: Mar. 9, 2017 12:01 am

PATERSON -- As it does about every seven years, the custom of eating corned beef on St. Patrick's Day comes up against the Roman Catholic law of fasting (no meat) on Fridays during Lent.

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of the Diocese of Paterson, which includes Sussex, Passaic and Morris counties, has issued a letter of dispensation "from the laws and abstinence" to all Roman Catholics living in, or visiting, the diocese on St. Patrick's Day.

In his letter, issued last month, the bishop added the dispensation "is given with the strong recommendation that the faithful honor both Saint Patrick and this holy season of Lent by some special work of charity or exercise of piety in place of abstinence."

Not all bishops will issue the dispensation, and some who have are advising their parishioners to exercise moderation and temperance in the celebrations of the Irish patron saint's birthday. And, in one case, the bishop of Omaha substituted Saturday, March 18, to abstain from meat, rather than Friday, March 17.

The meal of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes is not traditional Irish, but an American tradition for those of Irish ancestry. In Ireland, the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal would likely include pork or lamb, according to Smithsonian.com.

In Irish tradition, cows were sacred and only the very rich or Irish royalty would eat beef, and that was usually because the cow had become old or sick and had to be killed.

When the English conquered Ireland, there was plenty of land to raise cattle and ship them to England, where beef was the main meat in the diet. When importing live cattle was banned in England, the Smithsonian reports, the cattle were slaughtered in Ireland, the meat packed in salt, then shipped to England.

Much of the cattle raised in Colonial America was also salted with crystals the size of a kernel of corn and shipped to England.

When the potato famine struck Ireland in 1845, about 1 million Irish died and another million immigrated to America.

Being poor, many Irish settled into neighborhoods adjacent to Jewish neighborhoods, and it was the Jewish tradition of salting beef that the Irish adopted, buying their meat from kosher butcher shops.

That kosher beef has a milder, less salty taste than the English version, and the Jews often cooked the beef with potatoes and cabbage.

The Irish in America celebrated St. Patrick's Day as a part of their heritage and included parades, feasting and celebrating, while the Irish, until the latter part of the 20th century, still considered the day to be a religious holiday.

In fact, it wasn't until American tourists began visiting Ireland in the past half-century that Irish pubs were allowed to be open on such a religious holiday.

Bruce A. Scruton can also be contacted on Twitter: @brucescrutonNJH or by phone: 973-383-1224.

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Bishop: Meat's OK on St. Patrick's Day - New Jersey Herald

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Posted By admin on March 9, 2017

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MURRAY HILL, Manhattan Continuing an "unprecedented" swarm of anti-Semitic incidents sweeping the nation this year, numerous Jewish centers received bomb threats across the countryTuesday, including theAnti-Defamation League's headquartersin Manhattan which was targeted for the second time in less than two weeks, officials said.

The NYPD responds to reports of a bomb threat at the Anti-Defamation League in Manhattan on March 7, 2017. (Aliza Chasan / PIX11)

Five threats were made to New York City Jewish facilities Tuesday, including a bomb threat made to the ADL's Manhattan headquarters, NYPDDepartment Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a news conference.

This is the second time the Manhattan office has received a bomb threat in less than two weeks.

Four ADL offices in all were targeted New York, Atlanta, Boston, and Washington D.C., according toADL New York Regional Director Evan Bernstein.

Six Jewish Community Centers and three day schools were also targeted Tuesday, Bernstein said, adding the locations included New York, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, and Toronto.

This is not normal, we will not be deterred or intimidated, Bernstein said,

Locally, JCC's in Brighton and Dewitt were targeted, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted.

Tuesday's incidents are just the latest in a wave of anti-Semitic acts so far this year.

Federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 not include the ones mentioned above in addition to a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries, the Associated Press reports.

The Jewish community has reason to be fearful, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

We have not seen anything like this in many years; this level of hatred directed against the Jewish community, this many threats. So were really in an unprecedented moment, de Blasio said.

People were evacuated from the Anti-Defamation League in Manhattan on March 7, 2017. (Aliza Chasan / PIX11)

Even before the most recent threats were made, the mayor, NYPD officialsand Jewish community leadersalready planned to meet Tuesday to discuss the rise of anti-Semitic acts.

They appeared side-by-side at a news conference to discuss the meeting as news broke of threats made to the ADL.

"This is a very troubling reality," de Blasio said. "This is a moment when forces of hate have been unleashed."

The mayor urged anyone witnessing an act of hate or physical attack to immediately call 911; anyone who suspects they may have information about something that has occured is directed to call 311.

The ADL began tweeting about the ongoing situation at about 10:15 a.m., saying "multiple" bomb threats were made.

Employees at the Manhattan office were evacuated voluntarily, and told they could re-enter the building around 11:30 a.m.

Last week, police made an arrest in connection with a bomb threat made at the Manhattan ADL office on Feb. 22.

We are working with law enforcement officials to determine if it is connected to similar threats against Jewish institutions across the country,ADLs CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

This is not the first time that ADL has been targeted, and it will not deter us in our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and hate against people of all races and religions.

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Anti-Defamation League receives multiple bomb threats | New ...

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Posted By admin on March 9, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) The Anti-Defamation League and several Jewish community centers across the country got a new round of bomb threats Tuesday, adding to the scores they have been plagued with since January.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was at a Jewish Community Center on Staten Island to denounce previous threats when he learned of the new ones.

This is a moment in time, in history, where forces of hate have been unleashed, de Blasio said. It is exceedingly unsettling.

Federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 and a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries. Over the course of Monday evening and Tuesday, there were eight emailed or phoned-in bomb threats in six states plus Ontario, the JCC Association of North America said.

Also Tuesday, two suburban Jewish community centers in upstate New York were shut down when someone phoned in bomb threats, authorities said. The Jewish Community Center in the Milwaukee suburb of Whitefish Bay was closed for almost two hours. A Jewish community center in Portland, Oregon, received a bomb threat, too.

In Providence, Rhode Island, an administrator at the Jewish Community Day School, attached to a synagogue, received a threat Tuesday morning alleging there was a shooter with an assault rifle on the roof of the building, police said. Police and a K-9 team swept the building; no one was found.

Chicago Jewish Day School on the citys north side was evacuated for a few hours.

In New York, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said there were five threats made, including to the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, which also received threats to its offices in Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. The ADL said threats were also made in Florida and Maryland.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he shared President Donald Trumps hope that the threats subside.

We denounce these latest anti-Semitic and hateful threats in the strongest terms. It is incredibly saddening that I have to continue to share these disturbing reports with you, he said. As long as they do continue, we will continue to condemn them and look at ways in which we can stop them.

On Friday, Missouri resident Juan Thompson was arrested on a cyberstalking charge and accused of making at least eight of the threats nationwide, including one to the ADL. Authorities said Thompson was trying to harass and frame his ex-girlfriend by pinning the threats on her.

A criminal complaint said Thompson started making threats Jan. 28. He claimed on Twitter that his ex-girlfriend was behind the calls. Thompson is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in St. Louis for a hearing to determine if he should remain detained pending trial.

Authorities are looking for other suspects in the threats.

___

Associated Press writers Chris Carola in Albany, New York and Kiley Armstrong in New York contributed to this report.

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Anti-Defamation League, Jewish centers get more threats | The ...

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Posted By simmons on March 9, 2017

Four Anti-Defamation League offices, including one on Piedmont Road in Buckhead, received bomb threats Tuesday, the nonprofits CEO said.

The Atlanta, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., offices received threatening telephone calls on the same day a school and four Jewish Community Centers were targeted in a new round of nationwide threats.

This is not normal, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement posted on Twitter. We will not be deterred or intimidated.

There has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents reported across the nation in recent months. Since early January, there have been 121 other incidents, including bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and Jewish schools and the toppling of dozens of headstones in Missouri, the ADL said.

The Atlanta threat was on a loop repeating 'there is bomb' several times, police spokeswoman Officer Lisa Bender said.

The office was evacuated by ADL staff.

Building personnel and APD officers conducted a sweep of the building and did not locate any suspicious items, Bender said. Homeland Security responded and obtained information for follow-up investigation.

Greenblatt called on President Donald Trumpto take concrete steps to catch those threatening the Jewish community, a sentiment echoed by 100 senators who asked the administration Tuesday to offer help to Jewish Community Centers and other Jewish institutions, according to Politico.

The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and advocate for justice, was one of seven organizations that endorsed the senators bipartisan plea, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are investigating possible civil rights violations in connection with the threats.

The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence, and will ensure this matter is investigated in a fair, thorough and impartial manner, said Stephen Emmett, the spokesman for the FBIs Atlanta field office.

She said her bruises still sting a day after she said a woman punched her in face repeatedly. http://www.accessatlanta.com

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Atlanta Anti-Defamation League office receives bomb threat - Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Posted By admin on March 9, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) The Anti-Defamation League and several Jewish community centers across the country got a new round of bomb threats Tuesday, adding to the scores they have been plagued with since January.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was at a Jewish Community Center on Staten Island to denounce previous threats when he learned of the new ones.

"This is a moment in time, in history, where forces of hate have been unleashed," de Blasio said. "It is exceedingly unsettling."

Federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 and a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries. Over the course of Monday evening and Tuesday, there were eight emailed or phoned-in bomb threats in six states plus Ontario, the JCC Association of North America said.

Also Tuesday, two suburban Jewish community centers in upstate New York were shut down when someone phoned in bomb threats, authorities said. The Jewish Community Center in the Milwaukee suburb of Whitefish Bay was closed for almost two hours. A Jewish community center in Portland, Oregon, received a bomb threat, too.

In Providence, Rhode Island, an administrator at the Jewish Community Day School, attached to a synagogue, received a threat Tuesday morning alleging there was a shooter with an assault rifle on the roof of the building, police said. Police and a K-9 team swept the building; no one was found.

Chicago Jewish Day School on the city's north side was evacuated for a few hours.

In New York, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said there were five threats made, including to the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, which also received threats to its offices in Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C. The ADL said threats were also made in Florida and Maryland.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he shared President Donald Trump's hope that the threats subside.

"We denounce these latest anti-Semitic and hateful threats in the strongest terms. It is incredibly saddening that I have to continue to share these disturbing reports with you," he said. "As long as they do continue, we will continue to condemn them and look at ways in which we can stop them."

On Friday, Missouri resident Juan Thompson was arrested on a cyberstalking charge and accused of making at least eight of the threats nationwide, including one to the ADL. Authorities said Thompson was trying to harass and frame his ex-girlfriend by pinning the threats on her.

A criminal complaint said Thompson started making threats Jan. 28. He claimed on Twitter that his ex-girlfriend was behind the calls. Thompson is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in St. Louis for a hearing to determine if he should remain detained pending trial.

Authorities are looking for other suspects in the threats.

___

Associated Press writers Chris Carola in Albany, New York and Kiley Armstrong in New York contributed to this report.

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Anti-Defamation League, Jewish centers report more threats - Pueblo Chieftain

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Posted By simmons on March 9, 2017

'We are deeply invested in fighting scourge of BDS and delegitimization. This law doesnt help,' Anti-Defamation League says.

The Anti-Defamation League slammed Israels new travel banon Wednesday and said the legislation will cause more harm than good in the battle against boycotts targeting Israel.

The new law, approved by Knesset on Monday, will deny entry into Israel to foreign nationals openly calling for boycotts against Israel and its settlements in the West Bank.

"We are deeply invested in fighting scourge of BDS and delegitimization. This law doesnt help," the organization tweeted, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. "Israels democracy, pluralism, open society serve as best defense against BDS. New law harms rather than helps."

>> Get all updates on Israel, BDS and the Jewish World:Download our free App, andSubscribe>>

The ADL's tweet and a statement published on Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee point out that the bill is opposed not only by Jewish groups clearly affiliated with the left-wing, such as J Street, but also by more centrist organizations. The AJC, like the ADL, said that while it was fully committed to battling BDS, it did not view the bill approved on Monday by the Knesset as helpful in that regard.

Other Jewish-American organizations that have spoken out against the new bill so far include the New Israel Fund, whose leadership strongly denounced the bill.

J Street, a leading leftist Jewish group, said in a statement that it was "alarmed" by the legislation and that "there are strong supporters and friends of Israel who participate in or advocate for targeted boycotts of the settlement enterprise beyond the Green Line, motivated by a desire to oppose the occupation and support the two-state solution."

The ban would apply not just to people who call for boycotts against Israel, but also to those who call for boycotts of any Israeli institution or any area under its control i.e., the settlements.

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ADL Slams Israel's Travel Ban: 'New Law Harms' Fight Against BDS - Haaretz

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