Month: January 2022

Pin it on the Jews

Covid, like plagues before will pass unlike the 2000-year-old persistent plague of antisemitism that defies antidotes

By David E. Kaplan

It was not some low life crazy but a founder and board chair of a Utah tech company Entrata that claimed in an email that the COVID-19 vaccine is part of a genocidal plot by “the Jews” to exterminate people.

David Bateman – who  had to resign his position after his online diatribe attacking the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine  – urged people not to get it as it would lead to the “systematic extermination of billions of people” and ultimately “consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule.”

Bateman’s primary motivation for writing this lethal nonsense was:

“I believe the Jews are behind this.”

When it comes to antisemitism – history always repeats itself. Grotesque caricature reminiscent of the Nazi era depicting the evil Jew as responsible for the global pandemic.

When faced with having to make an apology to safeguard the company’s brand and reputation, Bateman tried to extricate  himself on his Instagram account that he was not blaming “all” Jews who “I have a great love for” but more specifically a Jewish “secret society” for the genocidal conspiracy.

“My beef is with the khabbalist (sic) central banking, secret society Jews.”

To support his diabolical false accusation, he digs even deeper with further horrendous and odious lies:

 “No one is reporting on it, but the Hasidic Jews in the US instituted a law for their people that they are not to be vaccinated for any reason.”

Two decades earlier there were similar style allegations in the Arab media blaming the Jewish state for 9/11 couched in a question as to  why Jews suddenly did not pitch up for work in the Twin Towers that fateful day?

And then a century earlier, a far greater entrepreneur than Bateman disseminated similar notions. That man was Henry Ford and if Bateman was concerned that “no-one was reporting” on Jewish culpability, Ford made sure he was by acquiring in 1918 a struggling newspaper – the Dearborn Independent – to spread his brand of antisemitism.

Inflicted with the same malicious malady as Bateman, Ford believed that Jewish people had “international control over unions, banks and the media”, and that all were out to get him.

Wrong; Ford was out to get the Jews!

If Bateman’s abuse of the covid pandemic to attack Jews in the USA was an isolated incident – it would be partly digestible.

It’s not! It’s rife.

On a Sunday morning in early December 2021, Charles Kaufman, a resident in Austin Texas, found on his doorstep, a few feet away from his expected bundled-up daily newspaper, an unexpected small plastic bag containing some rocks and a folded flyer.

Like David Bateman’s diatribe in Utah, this flyer also blamed Jews for the new surge of the virus. However, this same flyer was not restricted to the recipient’s home state of Texas but has been disseminated across the country appearing on doorsteps  to homes  in the states of California, North Carolina and Maryland. The virus is spreading and we are not talking about covid!

Blame the Jews. The antisemitic flyer Charles Kaufman and many households across America received, blaming Jews for the new surge of COVID-19 (Photo: Courtesy )

“Maybe 100 or so people received it on my street, Jewish and non-Jewish,” said Kaufman.

The flyer was headed: “EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COVID AGENDA IS JEWISH” and goes on to list the names of Jews who although professionally associated with finding the solution to COVID-19, instead targets them for antisemitic abuse – verbal and physical.

In case there is any misunderstanding as to the role model of the flyer’s authors, the red and black logo mimicking a swastika makes it crystal clear.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group responsible, is a “loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism”. Founded in 2020, they also operate a video platform that streams antisemitic content to their thousands of followers.

Ancient Mythology joins Forces with Ancient Virus. Antisemitic ‘Trojan Horse’ caricature suggesting that Jews cunningly introduced COVID-19 into an unsuspecting world. (credit: COURTESY/ADL)

The ADL warns that its “most zealous and visible actors” are in California, Colorado, Florida and New York.

According to the Deputy Regional Director of New York/New Jersey at the Anti-Defamation League, Alex Rosemberg, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a perfect storm for antisemites to blame Jews, reminiscent of the Black Death of the Middle Ages that resulted in the massacre of Jews across Europe.

“It’s either the idea that the Jews generated the virus so that they can then generate the vaccine and create the profit as a result,” said Rosenberg, “or the other aspect of this is extremist groups using symbology from the Holocaust to protest mandates.”

This “duality”, he asserts, has historically been a recurring characteristic throughout history. No matter what side of a crisis, Jews can always be blamed and consequently condemned.

In Search of the Cure! Since he received the virulently antisemitic flyer, Charles Kaufman – seen here at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC – has been working to put together an educational campaign “explaining antisemitism and its various forms.” (Photo: Courtesy )

In the current scenario, “If you are a white supremacist, then Jews are a weak-link group of people that don’t deserve to be a part of general, strong society or on the flip side, if you are more of a left-wing individual, then Jews are this all-powerful group controlling the universe.”

From the bubonic plague to corona, “antisemitism is somehow always,” says Rosemberg, “at the end of the scapegoat route.”

Experiencing Rosemberg’s words first hand is Eli Steinberg an Orthodox Jewish resident of the rapidly growing Orthodox community of Lakewood in New Jersey with its Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva, the largest in the US. “Anything that can be exploited to hate Jews will be used to hate Jews at this point,” says Steinberg.

That “anything” today is covid!

The Writing is on the Wall. Preceding the arrival of covid, “Synagogue of Satan” graffiti was found on the yeshiva building at the Chabad of Staten Island on May 23, 2019. (Staten Island Advance/Shira Stoll)

Many in Steinberg’s community have encountered antisemitism from their neighbours in person and online.

Following the ugly Europe trend, is it any wonder that antisemitism in the USA has shifted from rhetoric to violence!

Is it surprising that US Jews are feeling exposed?

While throughout history, Jews have always found themselves cast as evil villains especially during times of unrest and uncertainty, Chaskel Bennett, an Orthodox Jewish community leader in New York, says, “The latest COVID variant is just a continuing trend of this ugly time,” believing that antisemites are “the proverbial hammer in search of a nail”.

Whether its economic difficulties or a pandemic, “haters will always find any pretext to imprint and disseminate their hateful ideology on the more than willing masses.”

Well now into the twenty-first century, history has shown that while mankind will likely discover vaccines to contain contagious diseases, it is unlikely there will ever be a cure for the ancient plague of antisemitism.

At least today there is a haven – the Jewish state of Israel.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The Israel Brief- 17-20 January 2022

The Israel Brief – 17 January 2022 – Colleyville hostage updates. Attempted stabbing. Honouring MLK. Tu’Bishvat.



The Israel Brief – 18 January 2022 – Colleyville update. Has Israel reached the Omicron peak? Bennett, Lapid condemn drone attack on Abu Dhabi. Afghan refugees meet Israeli rescuers.



The Israel Brief – 19 January 2022 – Sheikh Jarrah update. Pres Herzog to visit Turkey? CDC travel warning. Aid to Tonga.



The Israel Brief – 20 January 2022 – Texas hostage taking update. Bennett to mediate between Russia and Ukraine? Israel promotes resolution at UN. 80 years since Wannsee.







While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

From Open Windows to Opening Doors

Diplomatic tiptoeing  from Dhaka to Jerusalem

By Adv. Craig Snoyman

I came across an article in this week’s news in which there were suggestions that Bangladesh might open diplomatic relations with Israel.  This reminded me of a recent consultation in which I had occasion to consult with some Bangladeshis or Banglis, as they call themselves. My principal client was not fluent in English and had brought an interpreter with him. After having concluded our legal business the conversation moved to the issue of Israel,  as it almost inevitably seems to do when Muslims and Jews get together.

My clients seemed to see little difference between Jews and Israelis and offended my five-generation South African lineage by asking if I was born in Israel. Banglis were not supporters of Israel, he told me, they supported the Palestinians.  As proud Banglis, they explained just how widely dispersed the Bangli diaspora was and how successful they were. Then from diasporas of the Bangli and Jewish nature, we moved onto the topic of Bangladeshi-Israeli relationship. It started with my principal client telling me that the Banglis did not particularly like the Israelis. And then I received a quick crash course in Bangli history. Originally referred to as East Pakistan, it was separated from West Pakistan by a huge swath of the Indian sub-continent. (interesting fact – he told me that Bangladesh is the most densely populated country on earth – so move over Gaza!) In the early 1970’s, West Pakistan mounted an operation to eliminate the Bengali nationalist movement. This resulted in millions of refugees fleeing into India and to the Bangladeshi war of independence against Pakistan, in which India took part.

Man on a Mission. Lt. Gen. (retd) Jack Farj Rafael (JFR) Jacob was head of the Indian Army’s eastern command during the 1971 India-Pakistan war that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.

It was at this that the interpreter stepped in and introduced a Jewish -Israeli dimension to the history lesson. There was a Jew by the name of General “Farj Jacobjee” ( I  subsequently found out his name was Jack Farj Jacob,  the “jee”  attached to the name as a sign of respect) who was the head of the Indian Army (or something like that) that fought against the Pakistanis on the side of the Bangladeshis. He took his troops and carefully avoided fighting in the little cities and attacked the capital, Dhaka, directly. This surprise strategy resulted in the quick defeat of Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh. The interpreter  continued with more amazing details. The Israelis had been supportive of Bangladesh, while the Palestinians had been supporting Pakistan. The “Israeli woman prime minister” immediately recognised the independent state of Bangladesh, but Bangladesh would not recognise Israel.

Golda Meir (1898-1978) Was an Israeli politician, teacher who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. 

Now with  talks of recognition between Dhaka and Jerusalem, will it be that General Jack Farj Raphael Jacob  may be one of the forgotten men who is instrumental  in advancing the cause of Israeli diplomacy? After all,  how many people still remember the names of  Eddie Jacobson and  Ivan Maisky?

Surprise Support. Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky (1884 – 1975), the Soviet Ambassador to the Court of St James may have been instrumental in influencing Josef Stalin to support a vote at the UN surprising in favour of a Jewish state.

In the desperate times when the Zionists were seeking the independence of Palestine, many people – some now only  vague footnotes to history – strove very hard to make this ideal a reality. One tends to forget that the United States of America was not particularly in favour of the independence of Palestine.  General George Marshall, the great WWII military general, father of the Marshall Plan, and Secretary of State to President Harry S Truman was adamantly opposed to the recognition of a Jewish State. This position was supported by the Foreign Office as well as the CIA. Truman refused to even meet with the Zionist delegation. As Golda Meir states in her biography, it was only because he agreed to meet with his old war-buddy and business partner, Eddie Jacobson, that Truman had a change of heart (it appears that Marshall and the Foreign Office did not) One crucial but relatively unknown meeting resulted in  the USA crucially voted for Israel’s  independence.

Ivan Maisky, Russian ambassador of the Court of St James, may also have been instrumental in obtaining the consent of the virulently anti-Zionist Josef Stalin of the USSR to give a favourable vote.  In trying to gain support, Chaim Weizmann may have suggested that an independent Jewish State would move out the sphere of the detested British to a more socialist outlook, but Maisky seems to have played a part in Stalin’s inexplicable decision so surprisingly announced at the United Nations by Andrei Gromyko. A Jew, and a Russian diplomat, being pushed by Weizmann, Maisky also  visited Palestine and then submitted a secret memorandum to Lenin. While the details still remain unknown, the change of stance by the USSR occurred shortly after the delivery of that memo. Its effect may have impacted the politburo, but it was also strongly felt in the heart of the British Empire  where  Harold Laski, the British socialist leader, later told Ben-Gurion that “I read Maisky’s secret report, and I became a Zionist.”

Missouri Men Making History – Together . Former President Harry S. Truman (left) with Eddie Jacobson (right) in Kansas City, Missouri.

My favourite historian Paul Johnson wrote “in terms both of Soviet and of American policy, Israel slipped into existence through a window that briefly opened, and just as suddenly closed. Once again, timing—or, if one likes, providence—was of the essence.”

In the delicate negotiations that are no doubt going on behind closed doors, one hopes that the late General Jack Farj Raphael Jacob may yet serve proverbially and ‘providentially’ to  hold open another window to reshape history.


Story of Jacob. A file picture from 2015 of Lt Gen JFR Jacob on Israel’s Independence day celebrations. Lt. Gen. (retd) Jack Farj Rafael (JFR) Jacob was one of the most prominent members of India’s relatively small Jewish community, serving as a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army and later as a Governor of two Indian states-Goa and Punjab.




About the writer:

Craig Snoyman is a practising advocate in South Africa.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Ire

Harry Potter star and Gringotts Goblins create an uproar to rival the Dementors

By Rolene Marks

I think we can all agree that over the last two years, the world has gone slightly mad. We are scarcely into the first month of 2022 and I fear it has gone full tilt off its jolly rocker!

I never thought Harry Potter movie stars or Goblins would ever make their way into my writing repertoire; but here we are. Far from it being the stuff of fantasy, a series of extraordinary events have occurred in the last few weeks that beggars closer inspection and debate. We need to don our own metaphorical sorting hats to sift through what is genuine antisemitism – and what are desperate for attention social justice posts driven by naiveté and agendas rather than knowledge.

The year had barely got off to a start when news broke that Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies shared a post in solidarity with the Palestinians on her Instagram page to her 64 million followers. This immediately resulted in an uproar on social media and a pile on between supporters on both sides. The verbal smack downs could put a Womping Willow to shame!

From Screen to Scream. An uproar on social media followed Emma Watson’s shift from the labyrinths of  Hogwarts into the quagmire of the Middle East with an Instagram posting to her 64 million followers.

Now let me be very clear – there is nothing wrong with showing solidarity with the Palestinians. Most Israelis want our neighbours to have better leadership and living conditions and nowhere in the post was there any anti-Israel sentiment expressed. It must also be made clear that Watson “sold” her Instagram feed to an unnamed “feminist collective”. Watson is a vocal supporter of feminist issues; but the reasons for the uproar are pretty simple – but can have quite destructive consequences.

The post in question contained the strapline “Solidarity is a Verb” – (well, actually it is a noun) but grammatical error aside, the meaning behind it was very clear. Don’t just talk about solidarity – demonstrate it by being activists.

You don’t need to be a wizard to figure out why famous celebrity muggles are jumping on to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict bandwagon.

Being seen to be “activists” on social media drives up their credibility as “social justice warriors” and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is well known enough to offer them high returns on very little investment. In other words, no in-depth knowledge about the facts and complexities of this decades old conflict need be known to raise the ire of their followers, who themselves have little, if any knowledge.

Get Real.  The Israel-Palestine debate is confusing enough without the social media rants of  ‘graduates’ from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

If genuine concern was a factor, we would be exhausted with images of virtually all conflicts in the world.

Celebrities with massive followings have a responsibility to those followers. Unless they are well versed in the nuances and complexities of the conflict, they would be better served to not engage in this kind of activity. They could use their incredible platforms to talk about solutions or engage in constructive and productive dialogue but instead, the kind of activity seen by the likes of Watson, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo and others; only sows more division and hate that sometimes results in dire consequences. Over this past weekend, a dangerous hostage situation at a synagogue in Texas was just one more example of the consequences of the spreading of hate and misinformation. I did notice that the usual protagonists like Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon and other Hollywood experts on the Middle East had nothing to say about the Texas synagogue hostage situation. Reeks of hypocrisy.

If we thought that we had enough of Harry Potter shenanigans, we were wrong.

The year started with a drubbing for Harry Potter author and creator, JK Rowling.

Former late night talk show host turned podcaster, Jon Stewart, who is Jewish made the following comments on a recent podcast talking about the Harry Potter movies:

“It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘Holy s**t, she did not, in a wizarding world, just throw Jews in there to run the f*****g underground bank.”

Stewart also implied the story deliberately stereotyped Jews, saying:

JK Rowling was like, ‘can we get these guys to run our bank? It’s a wizarding world, we can ride dragons, you can have a pet owl, but who should run the bank? Jews.’

The comments referred to the portrayal of the Goblins who run Gringott’s Bank for Wizards. It is important to note that JK Rowling neither directed nor designed the production of her movies; or described what Gringott’s Goblins specifically look like in her books. Now I know that for many, the Goblins look like horrific, antisemitic stereotypes straight out of the pages of Der Sturmer circa 1933; and we are still portrayed like this today; but it certainly was not Rowling’s intentions at all.

This has many asking the question if the portrayal of the Goblins was intentionally focused to look like Jews- or is there so much internalized antisemitism that people view Jews as Goblins.

One example of a tweet supporting the UK Jewish community from JK Rowling

In fact, JK Rowling has been a vocal advocate against antisemitism, when few, if any high profile figures have been. JK Rowling was extremely supportive to British Jewry during the horrific period when the UK Labour party openly engaged in antisemitism. The author took to social media platform Twitter to express her outrage at Labour party members supporting then-leader, Jeremy Corbyn; and showed her solidarity with a community that felt an increasing sense of fear.

To allege that Rowling would do anything antisemitic is preposterous so what could be the reason behind this latest attempt to “cancel” this hugely successful author?

Rowling has expressed very strong views about her belief in biological gender. It is important to note that she has also advocated for the rights of the transgender community but it hasn’t stopped many, including Harry Potter movie stars, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint  publicly distancing themselves from Rowling and accusing her of being a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). Talk about casting an invisibility spell! One does wonder what kind of careers they would have had without the massive movie franchise…..

Rowling wrote a lengthy explanation in this essay:

J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues

This latest attempt to cancel Rowling by the Wokerati is not just worrying because it has created false accusations of antisemitism; but also because it seems if one charge is not enough, the purveyors of cancel culture will just keep reaching for others until something sticks and the target is rendered canceled. What is particularly interesting is that the UK left-leaning publication, The Guardian, published a poll asking readers to vote who they thought the most influential person of 2021 was. The answer was overwhelmingly JK Rowling. The Guardian responded by removing the poll quicker than the flick of a wand and the chant of “Evanesco”!*

It is dangerous when opposing activists use Jews and the accusation of antisemitism as the proverbial political football to try and cancel the other, in this particular case, JK Rowling for her views on biological gender.

The Write Stuff. The year started with a drubbing on social media for Harry Potter author JK Rowling who has been a vocal advocate against antisemitism in the UK.  (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The Emma Watson and JK Rowling scenarios are interesting studies in how we perceive and react to antisemitism. No doubt there will be many reading this article who will vehemently disagree with me and that is absolutely welcome.

It is my opinion that we have to be careful not to use the label of antisemitism so liberally for then everything is antisemitic and the veracity of true hate crimes goes unnoticed or unchallenged.

Sometimes goblins are just goblins. When it comes to antisemitism, it is better to examine closely than to sip irresponsibly from the goblet of ire.

*In preparation for this article, the author spent far too much time reading about Harry Potter spells.

The United Nations Is Giving the Names of Uyghur Dissidents to China

By  Josh Feldman

(Article appears courtesy of Newsweek)

The Chinese government’s violent oppression of the primarily Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang is no longer a secret. From forced sterilization of Uyghur women to the internment of millions in prison camps to the eradication and destruction of religious institutions, the Chinese Communist Party’s actions against the Uyghurs have been deemed worthy of the name genocide to many in the human rights community.

The ethnic Uighur population used to be the majority in China’s Xinjiang region

Many – but not all!

The United Nations, the very institution created to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,” is assisting China in its violent efforts to wipe out the Uyghurs by helping the CCP cover its tracks. These were the findings of a recent report in Le Monde about the efforts of UN human rights officer-turned whistleblower Emma Reilly. Reilly claims that prior to every UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in recent years, China has requested the names of Uyghur and other Chinese dissidents who were scheduled to speak. And despite this being explicitly forbidden by the UN’s own rules, the UN, according to Reilly, has made it a practice to share this information with Chinese authorities, who use it to harass the dissidents’ families who are still based in China.

It’s one thing for China to try to cover up its genocide; China boasts a long history of reprisals against human rights activists, Uyghurs included. But it’s quite another thing for the body charged with protecting human rights to lend them a hand.

Reilly says she first discovered the practice in 2013, when China’s Geneva delegation requested confirmation that certain “anti-government Chinese separatists” were set to speak at the Human Rights Council. Listed individuals included, among others, Dolkun Isa, current president of the World Uyghur Congress.

Le Monde reports that Reilly suggested that the request be rejected, just as the UN had rejected Turkish demands regarding Kurdish activists. But leaked emails appear to show Reilly’s superior, Eric Tistounet, head of the Human Rights Council Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), advising staffers that the names be shared with China because the meeting was public, and delaying sharing the names would merely “exacerbate the Chinese mistrust against us.”

The Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang.

The UN in fact confirmed Reilly’s allegations in 2017, when the OHCHR acknowledged that it confirms attendees’ names with Chinese authorities who “regularly ask the UN Human Rights Office… whether particular NGO delegates are attending the forthcoming session.” So too, did a 2019 UN tribunal confirm “the practice of providing names of human rights defenders to the Chinese delegation.”

But while the UN has at times acknowledged this indefensible practice, it has simultaneously provided contradictory statements denying it. When asked about the allegations in March 2017, Tistounet dismissed them as “extreme right-wing” propaganda—a mere month after the OHCHR’s admission that it did currently confirm Uyghur activists’ names with China. Two months later, in a letter sent to UN Watch, the OHCHR asserted that it “does not confirm the names of individual activists accredited to attend UN Human Rights Council sessions to any State, and has not done so since at least 2015.”

China is accused of committing genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

Then, in an August 2017 letter to Human Rights Watch, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein acknowledged that the UN “often receives communications from… China” with a list of individuals who the Chinese claim “represent possible threats to the United Nations.” Once UN security services determine the allegations are baseless, wrote Al Hussein, China is informed that its concerns are unfounded, and “no other information is transmitted to the State.” A UN judge, however, rejected Al Hussein’s assertions in 2020, stating that in 2017, the “OHCHR misrepresented the practice of giving names to a Member State’s delegation to ‘Human Rights Watch.”

Alarmingly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is aware of the allegations; in 2018, his office ordered Al Hussein to “resolve” the dispute with Reilly, Le Monde revealed. And yet, since objecting to the practice in 2013, Reilly says she has been ostracized and “publicly defamed,” her career “left in tatters.” And despite being recognized as a whistleblower in 2020, she was fired the day after the Le Monde story’s publication.

What Reilly’s reports reveal is that the UN is more concerned with appeasing China than with combatting the Chinese-led Uyghur genocide. China, meanwhile, continues to retaliate against Uyghur activists. In a 2019 witness statement regarding the OHCHR sharing his name with China, a Uyghur dissident, Dolkun Isa, revealed that he didn’t know where his 90-year-old father was, or if he was even alive. His mother died in a Chinese detention center in 2018, aged 78.

Shockingly, world leaders are also aware of the practice. In 2019, UN Watch Executive Director, Hillel Neuer, sent letters to the Geneva delegations of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, France, Germany, and Sweden, detailing instances of Chinese dissidents’ names (some of whom are citizens of Western nations) being shared by the UN. Citing China’s history of retaliating against human rights activists, Neuer explained that “providing China or any other government with names of dissidents accredited to attend UN sessions in advance of the sessions is harmful and potentially life-threatening to dissidents and their families, particularly family members still in China.”

Satellite images show rapid construction of camps in Xinjiang, like this one near Dabancheng. Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls “re-education camps”, and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.

Not one country responded to Neuer!

Dutch parliament too, is well-aware. In a January 2019 letter to Dutch lawmakers, Foreign Minister Stef Blok noted both the OHCHR and UN Ethics Office’s admissions that the UN hands Chinese authorities “lists of names” of Chinese dissidents set to speak at the UNHRC. World leaders, however, have refused to confront this abomination.

For years and with total impunity, UN officials have aided China in committing one of the greatest human rights atrocities of our generation. It’s high time for world leaders to press the UN for answers and bring those responsible for such an abject betrayal of the UN’s guiding principles to justice.

History won’t judge them kindly for turning a blind eye.






About the writer:

Josh Feldman is an Australian freelance writer. His work has appeared in leading American, Israeli, Australian, and international publications, including Newsweek, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Jerusalem Post, the Age, and the Forward. Twitter: @joshrfeldman







While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 16 January 2021

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape

Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond

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What’s happening in Israel today?  See from every Monday – Thursday LotL’s “The Israel Brief” broadcasts and on our Facebook page and  YouTube by seasoned TV & radio broadcaster, Rolene Marks familiar to Chai FM listeners in South Africa and millions of American listeners to the News/Talk/Sports radio station  WINA, broadcasting out of Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Articles

(1)

May you Live Long and be Prosecuted

By Efraim Zuroff

“Me, never!” Chilling moment when aging suspected Nazi death squad guard Wahler denies his presence at mass executions.

Despite the mass murderous role played by the Einsatzgruppen in the Holocaust, relatively few of those who carried out the killings were brought to justice. At 100, Herbert Wahler has outlived other Germans listed as members of the genocidal Einsatzgruppe C. His age should not shield him from accountability.

May you Live Long and be Prosecuted

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(2)

The Danger of Desmond

A Light Unto his Nation – a Dark Side to Jews

By David E. Kaplan

‘Lost’ in Thought. Having remarked “Gas chambers made for a neater death” –  what was Tutu thinking at Yad Vashem.

The recently departed Archbishop Desmond Tutu  was a shining example of a fighter against injustice. And here lies the conundrum! How are we to relate to the legacies of legends who have contributed significantly to mankind but have revealed themselves unapologetic antisemites?

The Danger of Desmond

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(3)

The BBC – on the Frontier of Antisemitic Bias

Written by Lay of the Land UK correspondent

BBC Bias. The majority of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s handling of antisemitism complaints.

Since its founding in 1922, the BBC has faced accusations of antisemitism. If during the Nazi era it declined to adequately expose the horrors of the Holocaust with the ‘defence’ that Jews were “not reliable reporters”, in November 2021 it reported on a mob attack on a bus with Jewish passengers in London as having been “provoked”!

The BBC – on the Frontier of Antisemitic Bias

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(4)

Bnei and Bnot Mitzvah and the Quest for Meaning

By Richelle Budd Caplan

Not Forgotten. A Bar Mitzvah boy in the USA today, shares the experience with his European peer denied in the Shoah.

What was it like to be a Jewish boy turning 13 or a Jewish girl turning 12 during the Holocaust unable to truly celebrate their Jewish rite of passage? Yad Vashem has launched a twinning bar/bat mitzvah program providing young Jews today with an extraordinary experience of connecting with Jewish children who were tragically denied the experience of a bar/bat mitzvah during the Holocaust. 

Bnei and Bnot Mitzvah and the Quest for Meaning

(Click on the blue title)






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The Israel Brief- 10-13 January 2022

The Israel Brief – 10 January 2022 – Travel resource, Omicron update. Culture Secretary warns BBC. Bipartisan caucus to promote Abraham Accords. Aura Herzog passes away.




The Israel Brief – 11 January 2022 – Lapid tests positive. PA summon Dutch envoy. Israel donates to Afghan refugees. Killer dolphins eliminate Hamas naval commandos?



The Israel Brief – 12 January 2022 – Protests at tree planting. Corona ward for kids. Is agricultural cooperation responsible for warming ties between Israel and Indonesia? NYPD arrest culprit in hate crime.



The Israel Brief – 13 January 2022 – 2 Soldiers killed. Shin Bet arrest 5 for assisting Iranian operative. Could Israel normalise with Libya? World leaders send condolences to President Herzog.







While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The BBC – on the Frontier of Antisemitic Bias

Written by Lay of the Land UK correspondent

The BBC has a long history of alleged antisemitism which the state broadcaster, has denied and covered-up, since its founding in 1922. Over the years, the BBC has come under criticism for many of their reports which have included but is not restricted to; bias when it comes to reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more recently false reporting on the Chanukah attack which took place on the 29th November 2021 and will be explained in detail further on in this article. In its tally of the top anti-Semites of 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre ranked the BBC at number three – just behind terror organisation, Hamas and Iran.

Broadcaster’s Bias. In the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s ‘Antisemitic Barometer’, it was revealed that two thirds of British Jews are deeply concerned by the BBC’s coverage of matters of Jewish concern, and 55% by its handling of antisemitism complaints.

The BBC’s history with accusations of antisemitism goes back decades. In 1993, the British morning daily, The Independent, reported on research on how antisemitism in the higher ranks of the Foreign Office and the BBC during the Second World War led to a policy which suppressed news about Germany’s attempt to exterminate European Jews.

Starting from 1933, the BBC had reportedly declined to adequately cover the Holocaust component of Nazism. The explanation from the top was that Jews were:

 “not reliable reporters”.

During World War II, the BBC collaborated with the Foreign Office, to maintain control of propaganda and information to the British public. The Foreign Office’s Victor Cavendish Bentinck, cast doubt on the Holocaust. Bentick was quoted as saying:

“I think we weaken our case against the Germans by publicly giving credence to atrocity [propaganda] stories for which we have no evidence.” (27/8/1944).

Truth Denier. Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, who chaired during WWII,  the Joint Intelligence Committee  covering all the civilian and military intelligence services, cast doubt on reports that were received regarding the Nazi genocide of the Jews. He deplored Jewish information about atrocities, writing: “I feel certain that we are making a mistake in giving credence to this gas chamber story.”

British Foreign Office official, Roger Allen, stated: “It is true that there have been references to the use of gas chambers in other reports; but these references have usually, if not always, been equally vague, and since they have concerned the extermination of Jews, have usually emanated from Jewish sources.”

Roger Allan later followed this with the statement:

“Personally I have never really understood the advantage of the gas chamber over the simpler machine-gun, or the equally simple starvation method.”

Mistrusted Jewish Reports. Roger Allen was another British Foreign Office official during WWII, who suspected the authenticity of any information about the Holocaust if the source of that information was from Jews.

Antisemitism and the Holocaust, had become ‘forbidden topics’ within the BBC by 1942. BBC Director, G R Barnes, complained about an interview which strayed into forbidden territory by discussing antisemitism: “Personally I don’t want to touch the subject, except by implication in talks on other subjects.” (9/2/1943) The BBC which held a monopoly over British news, would effectively censor information about the Holocaust and antisemitism in the UK.

The modern State of Israel was established in 1948 and the United Kingdom officially recognised the country in 1950. This began an anti-Israel bias of the BBC’s coverage that has persisted to this day. The way it framed the narrative in its reportage, revealed a reshaped antisemitism shifting from a distaste of Jews to an antipathy of the country of the Jews – Israel!

.The BBC has come under frequent condemnation for antisemitic reporting regarding Israel.  BBC journalist, Tala Halawa was recently exposed by media watchdog, HonestReporting for tweeting about Israel using hashtags “more #Nazi than #Hitler” “#HitlerWasRight”. She was dismissed.

BBC Blames Victims. For the BBC – the Jews had it coming. A man making a Nazi salute as part of a group of people accosting Jews on a Chabad bus as they celebrated Hanukkah in London, November 28, 2021, which the BBC falsely reported was ‘provoked’ by the Jewish passengers. (Screen capture: Twitter)

In early 2020, Orla Guerin, the BBC’s international correspondent, made an offensive reference at the end of an interview with Holocaust survivor, Rena Quint ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

At the end of the interview, which included images of Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, Guerin said:

“In Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names, images of the dead. Young soldiers troop in to share in the binding tragedy of the Jewish people. The state of Israel is now a regional power. For decades, it has occupied Palestinian territories. But some here will always see their nation through the prism of persecution and survival.”

Jewish leaders and a former BBC executive criticised the report as antisemitic. The former executive said he had been careful not to criticise the BBC since leaving almost five years prior, knowing the amount of unfair criticism it often receives, but that in this case he could not stay silent.

“Orla Guerin’s report on the Holocaust and forthcoming 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz should be widely condemned,” he said. “The attempt to link the horrors of the Holocaust to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply offensive and upsetting. It was unnecessary, insensitive and particularly ugly in the days before Holocaust Memorial Day. Adding insult to injury, the report uses pictures of Holocaust victims in Yad Vashem during the sequence in which this link is made. This is inexplicably and unjustifiably offensive.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) made a formal complaint to the BBC, and threatened to refer the matter to Ofcom, which regulates the corporation. The CAA said Orla Guerin’s report fell within the international definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by the British government, which includes “drawing comparisons between Israeli policy and the Nazis”.

Uproar in the House. UK culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, has questioned the BBC’s complaints process in an escalating row over the broadcaster’s reporting of an antisemitic attack in London.

The BBC denied the accusation. “The brief reference in our Holocaust report to Israel’s position today did not imply any comparison between the two and nor would we want one to be drawn from our coverage,” said a spokeswoman.

There have been numerous other accusations over the years but perhaps one of the most vociferous areas of concern has been coverage of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. This even prompted a report  commissioned by the BBC in 2004 to investigate allegations that their coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is biased.

The man at the centre was Malcolm Balen. Balen was a senior editorial adviser at BBC, and he analysed hundreds of hours of television and radio material, from television. He focused on specific details like  words and phrases that journalists used in their reporting, as well as the corresponding footage in stories related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The results were damning. What is very concerning is that the BBC buried the report and today there is a growing chorus for it to be made public. 

Recently, the broadcaster came under intense condemnation after the attack on a bus in Oxford Street, London, which the BBC falsely reported that Jewish youth on board had used anti-Muslim slurs, which had motivated them to attack the bus. Those on board the bus were heard speaking Hebrew, to call for help after being attacked. The BBC article drew wide condemnation from Jews and sympathetic Muslims, including the group “Muslims Against antisemitism”.

The reporter who covered the Oxford Street incident, Senior Journalist Harry Farley remains  – with the support of the BBC -unrepentant.

A Rabbi who broadcast with the BBC for 30 years resigned recently citing antisemitism as the reason for his resignation. In this YouTube clips, he explains more:

The BBC has systematically and falsely reported on the plight of Jews and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.  The BBC has gone to great lengths to deny and cover up its action, but they can no longer be denied. The BBC must be held accountable for its actions.









While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Bnei and Bnot Mitzvah and the Quest for Meaning

By Richelle Budd Caplan

Yad Vashem

As a mother, I know first-hand about the special bond between siblings. Although they are ultimately individuals with different personalities, they remain linked in a meaningful way that is often difficult to describe in words – especially when they have developed their own form of communication that others in their orbit are not privy to comprehend.

(Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

Developing meaningful links, whether between siblings or friends, is an important part of childhood and maturation. Over the years, a number of international barmitzvah programs have been initiated in an effort to cultivate meaningful connections among Jewish people. For instance, the well-known Jewish social action project in the 1970s and 1980s to bar/bat mitzvah with your “twin” in the Former Soviet Union. These twinning ceremonies at the time acknowledged that not all Jewish children were free to celebrate their coming of age and raised awareness about the “Jewish refuseniks” behind the Iron Curtain. Some of these Jewish youngsters even wore bracelets engraved with the names of the refuseniks who were in Soviet jails, such as Ida Nudel; Yuli Edelstein; Anatoly Sharansky (who we know as Natan Sharansky) and others. Following the massive exodus of Soviet Jewry approximately thirty years ago, breaking these bracelets had special meaning for those who had bonded with them on their respective wrists.

Yad Vashem has launched a unique twinning bar/bat mitzvah program that has been successful in providing scores of young people with a memorable experience by connecting with Jewish children who were unable to have a bar/bat mitzvah during the Holocaust. Although this twinning program has been successfully undertaken, some families have concerns.

Jalen Schlosberg receives a certificate from Cynthia Wroclawski, Manager of the Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project, during his Bar Mitzvah celebration, at the Synagogue in Yad Vashem Jerusalem (Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

Recently a Hebrew school teacher who attended a professional development seminar in Yad Vashem related that one of her pupils who was enrolled in this twinning program wanted to discontinue his participation because his parents were concerned that it was too depressing. In the eyes of his parents, their child’s time would be better spent playing sports. This example is not unique, unfortunately.

On the basis of recent surveys, a significant number of millennials and Gen Z are unable to name a single German Nazi concentration camp or ghetto. This lack of knowledge severs yet another bond between the Jewish people and the younger generations. Yet, despite this concern, and perhaps because of it, some Jewish parents still want their children around bar/bat mitzvah age to learn about the Holocaust.

So how can we convince families that the study of the Holocaust will not traumatize or depress their children? How do we encourage young adults that this subject matter can imbue their lives with meaning, especially by learning about the many stories of courage and sacrifice made by “their people” during the Holocaust?

(Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

Every generation has often modified celebrations of rites of passage in Jewish tradition depending on the circumstances of the given place and time – especially in periods of danger and persecution. Emphasizing how Jewish families sought to celebrate and observe Jewish rituals and holidays, despite great risk, can encourage young people to connect with their history. After all, many Jewish youngsters who lost their families and communities struggled to maintain traditional customs and never had a bar/bat mitzvah ceremony during the Holocaust. In the words of Itzhak Reznik, “My parents were religious, but by the time I turned thirteen, I didn’t know I was supposed to be celebrating. All I wanted to do was survive.”  The lack of food, religious articles, and places of worship made it extremely difficult to celebrate festivals and ceremonies.

(Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

For example, Tomi Reichental was born in 1935 in Piestany, Slovakia. He and his family were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. On 18 December  1944, it was Tomi’s brother’s thirteenth birthday. Tomi remembers that “the small stove in the corner of the room had wood burning in it. Mysteriously, several potatoes appeared which were sliced and put on the stove to bake.” He recalls that a family friend entered the room, carrying a piece of black bread that had been cut in slices, spread with margarine and layered to resemble a cream cake. According to Tomi, their friend saved her rations for at least two days which meant that she went hungry to give some happiness to his family. He states that, “The gloom lifted and celebratory humor ensued with mazel tov wishes, embraces, kisses and well-wishing from friends. This is how my brother crossed from childhood to adulthood.” Tomi, along with his mother, aunt and brother, survived the Holocaust, and moved to Ireland after the war.

A Survivor’s Testimony. Tomi Reichental addressing students about the Holocaust.

Bilha Shefer was born in Germany in 1932, and after Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, escaped with her family to the Netherlands, where they were eventually deported to the Westerbork transit camp. From Westerbork, they were sent to Bergen-Belsen and eventually released via a one-time prisoner exchange in which Jews were exchanged for German Templers. 

Upon arriving in Bergen-Belsen, Bilha remembers that her mother gathered the family and pulled out a jar of strawberry jam that she liked. According to Bilha, everyone was surprised by this rare treasure. Bilha’s mother proudly proclaimed: “Mazal Tov – it’s your bat mitzvah, your birthday.”  Bilha’s mother had hidden the jar in her bag throughout their journey in order to celebrate Bilha’s bat mitzvah.

Yosef “Tommy” Lapid‘s bar mitzvah took place during the height of the Nazi occupation of Budapest.

Tommy recalls how a perfume bottle was broken to mark his bar mitzvah, thrown to the ground by his mother in an act of resistance, to preserve the integrity of her family: harkening back to a more refined past and to hold fast to the humanity that had been stripped away from them. Surviving the Shoah with his mother, Tommy would later, following a successful career in journalism, serve as Israel’s Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister. His son, Yair Lapid is today Alternate Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Tommy Lapid reporting from the trial of Adolph  Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961

Ultimately, most teenage Holocaust victims never had an opportunity to celebrate their bar/bat mitzvah. Some Holocaust survivors have had special bar mitzvah ceremonies in their golden years at the Western Wall or in neighborhood synagogues as part of their need to find closure and celebrate this rite of passage as part of their Jewish identity.

For example, Yaacov Wexler, a member of Yad Vashem’s staff, had his bar mitzvah in Yad Vashem’s synagogue. Wexler, a baby at the time that he was rescued by Polish Catholic parents, decided to return to the Jewish people over a decade ago and live in Israel. Wexler’s bar mitzvah was celebrated in the presence of another young Polish-Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust – Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council. Bar/bat mitzvah children may be encouraged to learn about the story of Yaacov Wexler, a Holocaust survivor who decided to reconnect to his Jewish roots.

(Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

Robert Powell‘s mother escaped Nazi persecution in Europe, keeping her Jewish identity a secret to her US-born children. At the age of sixty-five, Robert decided to have a bar mitzvah ceremony after he discovered his family roots.  In Robert’s words, my ancestors had a “determination to keep alive our Jewish heritage. Our legacy. Our Jewishness. It only remains for me to honor them by living fully and openly…”

Bar/bat mitzvah programs can provide an opportunity to embark on a personal, meaningful journey. For instance, a few years ago, a Jewish family in the New York area turned to Yad Vashem to mark their daughter’s bat mitzvah by twinning with a Holocaust victim. The bat mitzvah girl requested to know more about her twin’s family. After examining the Pages of Testimony, the family asked Yad Vashem to connect them with the twin’s surviving relatives in Israel. As a result, the two families became close. Since the Israeli family had a son studying in the United States, the bat mitzvah girl invited him to attend her celebration. He did. Entering the event hall, he saw a beautifully framed certificate featuring his aunt’s name. In her speech, the bat mitzvah girl told her guests the story of her adopted twin, and how this Page of Testimony enhanced her bat mitzvah preparations. Through Yad Vashem’s twinning program, this Jewish American family not only fostered a connection with a Holocaust victim but also developed a direct relationship with an Israeli family.

(Courtesy of Yad Vashem)

Yad Vashem hopes that its twinning program will further encourage bar/bat mitzvah aged youths to learn more about the vibrant tapestry of Jewish life before the Holocaust and become inspired by Holocaust survivors’ stories of resilience. This educational process can have a positive impact on bar/bat mitzvah children who are building their “Jewish bedrock”, committing themselves to Jewish continuity and embarking on a life-long quest for meaning.




About the writer:

Richelle Budd Caplan

Living in Israel since 1993, Richelle Budd Caplan is Director of International Relations and Projects of the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem. A graduate of Brandeis University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with many articles on Holocaust education widely published, Caplan is an active member of the Israeli delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and has developed Holocaust-related projects with numerous international organizations and institutions.








While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The Danger of Desmond

A Light Unto his Nation – a Dark Side to Jews

By David E. Kaplan

The recent passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa  presents a conundrum  – how could someone deservedly so loved and respected, referred to as “a moral compass” and the “conscience of the nation” be an antisemite?

It would seem unthinkable!

The Good and the Bad. The beloved late Archbishop Desmond Tutu internationally respected for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist also caused concern for his negative attitude to Jews.  

Tutu is only another in a long lineup of outstanding personalities who having contributed superlatively to making the world a better place but nevertheless expose this “other side”, this “dark side” – of antisemitism.

So how should Jews come to terms and relate to the legacies of legends?

To this day, Israelis  have a problem with the “genius” German composer Richard Wagner, who while revolutionising the course of music in the 19th century, remains controversial in the Jewish state not only because of his virulent antisemitism but the suggested impact of that hatred. Hitler’s favourite composer, the Fuhrer found Wagner’s music and world view – his antisemitism –  inspirational, begging the question:

What role did Wagner play in the cultural evolution towards the genocidal ‘Final solution’?

Struck a Chord. Hitler’s favourite composer, Richard Wagner, whose music and musings inspired the Nazi Fuhrer.

Jews are left with the question:

Can we separate the man from his art?

What of the Impressionists, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edward Degas, who were both vocal about their antisemitism and at the time of the Dreyfus affair, were proud to stand and be counted in the anti-Dreyfus camp? Less nuanced than Renoir, Degas’ hatred was so deep-rooted that that he once threw a model out of his studio, screaming at her that she was Jewish – she was in fact Protestant!  During the Dreyfus affair, Degas ended relationships with Jewish friends, including Ludovich Halevy, who had been like family to him.

Beneath and Beyond. Belying his ugly antisemitism, the unquestionable beauty of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Two Sisters (On the Terrace)’, 1881

The works of Renoir and Degas are wondrous; their impact on pushing the boundaries of late 19th century French art incomparable.

Should Jews boycott appreciating their art?

True Colours. Edgar Degas’ ‘Dancers at the Barre: Point and Counterpoint’  captures on canvas his understanding and passion for ballet. Just the opposite was his attitude to Jews who he despised and proudly stood at the time in the anti-Dreyfus camp during the infamous trial that exposed French antisemitism.

Platform of Popularity

Is there a more iconic American motor car than the Ford and yet its fonder was a notorious antisemite. Has it stopped anyone from buying a Ford vehicle?

Sitting around a campfire in 1919, a friend of Henry Ford records him addressing their group of fellow campers raging that:

 “all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists…The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy…”

Fueling Antisemitism. The iconic American automobile engineer and manufacturer Henry Ford – known for changing the auto industry but also for using his immense power and influence to vilify Jewish people – poses in the driver’s seat of his latest model, outside the Ford factory in Detroit, Michigan, c. 1905.

In other words, the Jews are responsible for all the country’s ills.

That same year, Ford began publishing a series of articles that claimed of “a vast Jewish conspiracy” that “was infecting America”. The famed industrialist would then then go on to bound the articles into four volumes titled “The International Jew” and distributed half a million copies. As passionate a car-maker, he was as passionate in his hate for Jews.

As one of the most famous men in America, Henry Ford legitimised ideas that otherwise may have been given little authority.

Archbishop Tutu joins this list of impressive influencers in the impact they can have in creating negative mindsets against Jews. The reverence Tutu justly deserved in his struggle against Apartheid and his subsequent role in facilitating national reconciliation through his adept chairmanship of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, provided him a platform and a protection when it came to his vocal attacks on Jews.

This is what made him dangerous in life and no less today in death. In paying tribute to the celebrated esteemed icon, eulogies in the media and online, spared no effort to exploit this ‘heavenly’ masqueraded opportunity to convey the Archbishop’s animus towards the ‘collective Jew’ –  Jewish state of Israel.

Cognisant of the danger of a Tutu protected by his international acclaim and popularity, Jay Nordlinger – a senior editor of National Review and author of a ‘Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize’ – wrote in 2014: 

“The most harmful of them [Nobel Laureates] is Desmond Tutu: because he is a South African hero who  for decades  has peddled the lie that Israel is an “apartheid state”. Coming from him, it is more harmful than from (the countless) others.”

The accusation of being an antisemite did nor seem to bother the Archbishop. Whenever so questioned, Tutu would flippantly respond with his two preferred stock answers:

  • “Tough luck” 

or

  • “My dentist’s name is Dr. Cohen”

There is however one major difference between the mindset of a Wagner, Renoir, Degas and Ford and that of Archbishop Tutu – the intervening  Shoah!

Lost in Thought. From the man who said “The gas chambers made for a neater death” begs the question what was Archbishop Tutu truly thinking on his visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, on 26 December 1989 (AFP)

It is doubtful that the nineteenth and early twenty century antisemites could have foreseen the Holocaust or predicted the impact of their animus in contributing to what was to follow. Tutu, on the other hand, had the benefit of hindsight and still could be so insensitive that on a visit in 1989 to Israel’s Holocaust memorial  – Yad Vashem – to say that the Nazis ought to be forgiven for their crimes to the Jewish people. Two thirds of European Jewry were wiped out in a methodic mass murder and at the memorial to their memory all the Archbishop could say was:

“We pray for those who made it happen, forgive them and help us to forgive them, and help us so that we, in our turn, will not make others suffer.”

This, he said, was his “message” to the Israeli children and grandchildren of the murdered!

Where were the archbishop’s  prayers for the  six million victims, including 1.5 million murdered children?

Tutu’s behaviour baffled no less a fellow Nobel Peace Laurette, Elie Wiesel who said:

 “For anyone in Jerusalem, at Yad Vashem, to speak about forgiveness would be, in my view, a disturbing lack of sensitivity toward the Jewish victims and their survivors. I hope that was not the intention of Bishop Tutu.”

Clearly it was “the intention” otherwise how else do you explain Tutu saying that “The gas chambers made for a neater death” than Apartheid’s resettlement policies?

And for those who rush to ‘explain’ Tutu’s fulminations against Jews as ‘a perfectly understandable’ default position of viewing all perceived problems in the world through a South African lens, how do you excuse Tutu declaring back in 1984,that:

 “The Jews thought they had a monopoly on G-d” or his other insensitive observations:

  • “Jews … think they have cornered the market on suffering”
  • that Jews are “quick to yell ‘antisemitism”
  •  that Jews display “an arrogance of power – because Jews have such a strong lobby in the United States.”

Tutu draws close to the antisemitic thinking of  Henry Ford when he expressed in April 2002 that:

“People are scared in [America] to say wrong is wrong, because the Jewish lobby is powerful, very powerful. Well, so what? Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin were all powerful, but, in the end, they bit the dust.”

Tutu did not talk here of an Israeli but a “Jewish” lobby and longingly predicts that in the end, the implied devious and “powerful, very powerful, ” Jewish power brokers will be crushed like their kindred spirits – Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. In the age-old tradition of antisemitic diatribe, what a despicable construct from the Archbishop designed to sow suspicion and foster hatred of Jews. All the worse in that the ‘voice’ behind this venom enjoyed the ‘moral’ authority of the South African Anglican church.

Written Proof. A letter written by Hitler’s favourite composer Richard Wagner in April 1869 to philosopher Edouard Schuré warning about “corrosive” Jewish influence on culture was auctioned in Jerusalem for $34,000.
Wagner wrote in this letter that Jewish assimilation into French society meant that it was harder to see that “corroding influence of the Jewish spirit on modern culture”.

Whichever way one tries to decipher these disturbing words, Tutu comes out “in his own words” an antisemite.

Beneath the beloved veneer of South Africa’s archbishop resided an unabashed enemy of the Jews and there lies the conundrum:

When famous personages, who contribute to mankind are acclaimed by an appreciative populace and then use their platform of popularity to turn on the Jews, are they to be revered or reviled?


While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).