LITHUANIANS STILL DENY PARTICIPATION IN THE HOLOCAUST

We should not allow the Baltic country to whitewash and distort their complicity in the murder of over 95% of its Jews.

By Dr. Efraim Zuroff

(*First published in JNS)

The large majority of readers of the Oct. 2 and Oct. 6 JNS articles on the events marking Lithuanian Holocaust Memorial Day were likely convinced that the Baltic country is doing an excellent job of commemorating the destruction of its Jewish community.

Familiar Faces. Lithuanian militiamen not German Nazis, round up Jewish women in Kovno, Lithuania, June -July 1941.

That is a consoling thought, but nothing could be further from the truth. It downplays the very significant role played by local collaborators in the annihilation of Lithuanian Jews; the more than 5,000 German, Austrian and French Jews deported to Lithuania to be murdered by Lithuanians; and the approximate 20,000 Belarussian Jews shot near their homes by the men of the 12th Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion.

Deadly Neighbors. Lithuanian collaborators, possibly friends, colleagues or neighbors, guard Jews before their execution in Ponary, outside Vilna in Lithuania in June – July 1941.

Moreover, since it regained its independence in 1990, Lithuania has played a major role in promoting the dangerous phenomenon called “Holocaust distortion”, which is currently rampant throughout post-communist Eastern Europe. For those unacquainted with the term, it refers to the rewriting of the narrative of the Holocaust to achieve four goals:

  • Hide completely or seriously minimize the role played in the Holocaust by local collaborators. On this issue, it is extremely important to note that only in Eastern Europe did collaboration with Nazi Germany include participation in the systematic mass murder of Jews.
  • Promote the canard that communist and Nazi crimes are equivalent and officially categorize the former as genocide. This has serious repercussions because, if it is accepted, antisemites can portray “Jewish communists” as perpetrators of genocide against the peoples of Eastern Europe. And if everyone is equally guilty, no one can be accused.
  • Allow the glorification of individuals who fought the Soviets after World War II as national heroes, even if they collaborated with the Nazis and participated in the Holocaust.
  • Establish an International Memorial Day for All Victims of Totalitarian Crimes on Aug. 23, the day of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which would certainly make International Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan. 27) redundant.

Member of the Lithuanian parliament Emanuel Zingeris, for example, who was interviewed at length in the Oct. 6 article and expressed great concern for Holocaust education, was among the architects – and the only Jew to sign – the infamous Prague Declaration of June 3, 2008, which is the manifesto of Holocaust distortion.

Equating Crimes of Nazism with those of Communism. Lithuanian politician Emanuelis Zingeris is the only Jew to have signed the Prague Declaration of June 3, 2008, which the writer asserts is “a manifesto of Holocaust distortion.”

Zingeris, I am sorry to say, always has two positions on Jewish issues: One for his Lithuanian colleagues and another for ignorant foreign Jews. In his interview with JNS (Jewish News Syndicate), he praised truthteller Silvia Foti, who discovered that her grandfather, Lithuanian national hero Jonas Noreika, was a Holocaust perpetrator. But where was Zingeris in 2016, when popular Lithuanian author Ruta Vanagaite, who also discovered that her family members were participants in Holocaust crimes, was viciously attacked for revealing the truth about Lithuanian complicity in the Holocaust.

Denounced for Revealing the Truth. Ruta Vanagaite was denounced in her native Lithuania for challenging the conventional wisdom of her country’s role in the Holocaust.
 

In order to understand why the Lithuanians have changed their narrative of the Holocaust, it is important to remember that 96.4% of the Jews who lived under the Nazi occupation in Lithuania (212,000 of 220,000) were murdered. Some 90% were shot near their homes, in many cases by Lithuanian neighbors without any Germans present. In fact, there were less than 1,000 Germans in Lithuania during the Holocaust, a shocking statistic that no Lithuanian will ever mention.

Thus, on day one of Lithuanian independence, the fake narrative of the Holocaust was born:

The Nazis murdered our Jews, what a tragedy.”

If pressed on the issue of local collaborators, the official response will be:

Those few Lithuanians who participated were from the dregs of society, outcasts, not normative Lithuanians, who would never do such things.”

A perfect example of this cover-up was provided several months ago by Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte, who was quoted waxing poetic about the importance of memory and Holocaust education. But when the monuments at the Ponar mass murder site outside Vilna were vandalized, she referred to the 70,000 Jews murdered there as having been killed by “Nazis and others.” She could not utter the truth, nor could any other Lithuanian politician or official.

I am afraid that the JNS reports on Lithuanian Holocaust commemoration and education, which hide the sad truth about what is really happening in the Baltic republic, are likely influenced by the March of the Living, which wants to maintain good relations with the Lithuanian government. They got exactly what they wanted, regardless of truth and the dignity of the martyrs.


The murder of Lithuanian Jewry



About the wtiter:

Dr. Efraim Zuroff is a historian of the Holocaust, the chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Director of the Center’s Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs. His most recent book, written with Ruta Vanagaite, is Our People: Discovering Lithuania’s Hidden Holocaust published by Roman & Littlefield






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- 24-27 October 2022

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The Israel Brief – 25 October 2022 – Adidas severs ties with Kanye West. IDF raid Lions Den HQ. President Herzog in the USA. Dutch PM in Israel.



The Israel Brief – 26 October 2022 – President Herzog in USA. More companies drop Kanye. Israel gives approval for production on Karish. Israeli athlete to compete in Saudi Arabia.



The Israel Brief – 27 October 2022 – Historic maritime agreement signed. Presidents Herzog and Biden meet. DM Gantz in Turkey. Girl power in the IDF!





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- 26 October 2022

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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GETTING ‘HIGH’ IN HAIFA

Taking a ‘trip’ on Israel’s port city’s scenic new cable car

By David E. Kaplan

Visual Smorgasbord. Riding above forests and university campuses, the views of Haifa and beyond are beyond spectacular.

Essentially for commuters – notably students at Haifa University and the Technion – Haifa’s new cable car transport system on the north side of Mount Carmel is attracting tourists both local and abroad. The writer took a ride and while enjoying the sights, it was the insights of places coming into view that unpacked the gems of yesterday that promise the sparkles of tomorrow.

GETTING ‘HIGH’ IN HAIFA

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(2)

OY VEY, YE!

Rapper Kanye West creates a social media storm with antisemitic outbursts

By Rolene Marks

Rapper’s Revelation. A resurfaced 2018 Kanye West TMZ interview reveals the rapper’s adoration for Adolf Hitler.

This rapper is now being rapped over the knuckles. Rightly so! After antisemitic remarks on Instagram and Twitter, Kanye West or “Ye” as he now prefers to be called is feeling the heat. Being a celebrity – argues the writer – should afford NO protection for vile online antisemitism.

OY VEY, YE!

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ALL IS NOT WELL AT WELLESLEY

An ‘Open Letter” to Wellesley College President Dr. Paula A. Johnson

By alumnus Gina Raphael

School Souring. The writer hopes Wellesley will embrace Jewish learning and acceptance befitting school’s motto.

With Wellesley having “fallen into the trap set by the BDS movement,” the writer question’s her alma mater’s moto of Non Ministrari sed Ministrare – “not to be served, but to serve”.  A school proud to include as its alumna Hilary ClintonMadeline AlbrightDiane SawyerNora EphronKatherine Lee Bates and astronaut Pamela Melroy, the writer fears for the future of America’s premier university for women.

ALL IS NOT WELL AT WELLESLEY

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LOTL Co-founders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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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 OCTOBER I DIDN’T GET MARRIED

My bride-to-be was one of fewer than 900 Jews to be given permission to leave the USSR that year. Did my activism on her behalf rob me of a ‘wife’?

By Jonathan Feldstein

(*First published in “The Times of Israel“)

In July 1985, I got engaged. The plan was to get married in October 1987, or at least begin the process to get married.  Under the circumstances, I couldn’t have just eloped, gone to a local court, or organized a more traditional Jewish wedding as would have been my inclination.  My fiancé was a Soviet Jewish refusenick. I proposed marriage the day we met in July 1985. The idea was that I was going to marry Kate to get her US citizenship, bring her to the USA, and use her becoming an American to get the rest of her family out.

Given how Soviet Jews were persecuted daily in every facet of life, this was my little battle to seek the freedom of at least one family.

I was committed to this arrangement, albeit one that would have been fictious and illegal according to US law.  I referred to Kate as my fiancé for two years and made arrangements to try to learn what would be needed to initiate a Soviet civil marriage, at a time before the internet and when phone calls and even letters were monitored by the KGB.  So I couldn’t just google how to get married in the USSR, and I couldn’t write or speak about it in our communications, lest we get caught. 

I am not sure my fiancé fully understood how serious I was, considered me her fiancé, or had any grasp of what I was doing to raise awareness (and funds) to make this possible, albeit under the radar so neither the Soviets nor the American government would have been on to me.  I understood the US penalty for a fictitious marriage and was prepared to risk it, despite a hefty fine and possible jail time. As serious as I was, and my efforts were admired, sometimes people joked that it was a way to buy myself a Russian bride and other less PG-rated suggestions!

I suspect it’s still illegal for a US citizen to marry someone for the purpose of getting them US citizenship, and since I never did it I suppose it’s safe for me to talk now about a crime I didn’t commit 35 years ago. But it’s strange that hundreds of thousands cross the US border regularly, albeit illegally, for much less noble reasons, and filing any legal charges against anyone are unheard of. Yet had I been caught I could have spent my 20s in jail, and my “wife” deported.

The author (l), Kate (m), and her father Victor (r): July 1985, the day I met them and proposed marriage. (courtesy)

My plans to return to the USSR in October 1987 were well underway by the time I got a phone call from Kate that July, sharing the news that she and her family had just been freed from the USSR.  They became four of fewer than 900 Jews to be given permission to leave the USSR that year. Ted Koppel anchoring ABC News, telling part of the story in March 1998 summed up the situation well, “It’s hard to tell why the Soviets do what they do.” But conventional wisdom was that because of my activism and putting the spotlight on her family, they were released in order to avoid the continued headache of the publicity I had already generated.  Little did they know what I had in store!

I was committed to this fictitious marriage and knew it would change and complicate my life, though I don’t think I was aware of how much, even assuming I didn’t get caught. The Soviets granting Kate’s family their freedom was one of the best non-wedding presents I could have received.

I don’t think about this part of my past so often, but this year marks 35 years.  It’s a milestone.  A non-anniversary I celebrate alone. 

What made me really think about it most recently is the visit a few weeks ago of my ex-fiance’s 16-year-old son, Mehael, to meet my family and spend Shabbat with us.  Despite having never met Mehael, I felt a kinship to him immediately.  Mehael is studying on the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program.  It’s no little thing that he has a strong connection to Israel and the Jewish people.  Growing up in the US, he could just as easily assimilate into American society. But his Jewish identity and connection to Israel are so strong that he made it a priority to spend a semester of high school in Israel, not waiting for a gap year between high school and college.  Mehael talks about making Aliyah and serving in the IDF.  

Mehael (r) and the author (l) after a delightful Shabbat and first meeting which felt like a family reunion. He reminded me of myself at his age when I adopted his family, became pen pals, and committed to getting them free from the USSR, even through a fictitious marriage to his mother. (courtesy)

If one understands even a little about how the Soviets persecuted Jews and prevented them from practicing Judaism or connecting to their heritage, of course its understandable why Jews wanted to leave, and eventually did so en mass.  But it’s not to be taken for granted that as a first generation American, child, and grandchild, of people who identify as Jews but are not practicing, that he would proactively choose to undertake the path he has. 

His determination reminded me of myself at his age when I adopted his family, became pen pals with his mother, and committed to getting them free, even through a fictitious marriage if need be. While I felt connected and was able to share things about his family that he didn’t know, he was surprised to learn about my plans to marry his mother. For me, it was a huge undertaking and part of my life that still is relevant.  He couldn’t imagine that I would have done this. In retrospect decades later, there is something unimaginable about it. 

Mehael is tremendously bright and inquisitive, wanting to learn more about Israel and the Jewish people.  He’s fluent in Russian and was impressed I taught myself to read Russian to be able to get around Moscow on my own without calling attention to myself as a twenty-something year old tourist on my own, plotting to marry a Soviet citizen to get her free. As much as he knows about the history of the USSR and the Jews and his family there, there are many things he doesn’t know.  That’s all the more so among his peers who are fourth and fifth generation Americans and who have no idea of the history of persecution of Soviet Jews, or the complementary struggles both among Jews in the USSR and in the West to free them.

The history of the persecution and redemption of Soviet Jews is an essential chapter in our modern history as a people, the history of Israel, along the timeline of Jewish history in general. Whether they know Russian or not from speaking to their parents and grandparents, I hope that students like Mehael, in the US, Israel and everywhere else, will be able to learn about this, and take the story of someone once their age as a model to continue to be connected and do good for our people for generations to come.  

Forgetting the modern exodus of our people from the USSR would be as bad as forgetting the Biblical Exodus, both central to our history and where we are today. As much as my idea of marrying Kate was unimaginable, forgetting this chapter in our history would be much worse.




About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.



* (Feature picture: Justin Oberman/Creative Commons)





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).

JEWISH PRIDE DEFIES THIS ANCIENT HATRED

By Alex Ryvchin

(*First published in The Australian)

For the most part, my childhood in Australia was free of anti-Semitism. This led me to believe we had left that hatred behind in the Soviet Union, when we emigrated in 1987.

In Australia, my family moved house every couple of years as new migrants finding their way tend to do, and in my early teenage years we came to live in a modest, low-rise apartment block in middle-class Randwick in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Soon we realised how deluded we had been.

Randwick is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia

Directly above us lived a couple from Austria. The man was ageing but tall and vigorous, with a deep, resonant voice and a farmer’s build. When he met my father, who spoke with a strong Russian accent and whose pale blue eyes and fair complexion hardly betray his ethnicity, the neighbour was genial to a fault. Then he saw my mother, and everything changed.

Upon learning that the new occupants were Jews, our neighbour would stand on his balcony and bellow at us, night after night, alternating between a thunderous guttural roar and a sneering tone full of menace, “Hitler didn’t finish the job, I will finish it for him”. An evening serenade that continued for weeks. It was terrifying to hear. It became difficult to sleep beneath such a man, and it pained me to see the fear that returned full bore to my parents’ eyes.

Why did he hate us so? What did he think we had done? What did he think we intended to do beyond living simple, honest lives as hopeful migrants in a new land?

He surely would have had no coherent answer to these questions. He probably didn’t ponder on them a great deal. But he knew with perfect certainty that the Jew, represented in that moment by my parents and their two boys, was something so loathsome, so repugnant, so unhuman, that he was justified in threatening repeatedly to kill a young family.

My youngest daughter will someday reflect on her first brush with antisemitism. It occurred on October 13, 2022 in Sydney’s eastern suburbs when a large swastika was scrawled on the perimeter of her childcare centre. The owners are Jewish, as are most of the families there. Of course, the symbol meant nothing to my two-year-old daughter. But she may have detected things were different that day. The comings and goings. The tension of the owners. The anxiety of the parents wondering whether this was the act of another bellicose neighbour or of an idiot kid inspired by an idiot rapper. But perhaps it was a portent, the latest in an accumulation of incidents, street abuse, white supremacist flyers in mailboxes, suspicious characters lurking outside synagogues, that pointed to people in our communities who wished to do us harm. People afflicted by that ancient, consumptive hatred we know as antisemitism.

Antisemitism is an extraordinary condition, a pronounced defect in human reasoning turned outward. Unique among hatreds in very many ways, it has a tenacity and durability that sees it latch on to whatever the Jews hold dear and however they choose to identify themselves. For one antisemite, it is our original monotheistic faith that is so abhorrent. For another, it is our designation as a people, community, even a race. For others still, our nation-state is the embodiment of evil, the impediment to a better world. Every target is attacked with equal ferocity because in every case the target is the Jew. Yet it is not the flesh-and-blood Jew that is so hated. Rather the mythical Jew, the beast the antisemite conjures just to have something to slay. The scheming Jew, the conspiring Jew, the all-powerful Jew, the vengeful Jew, the bloodthirsty Jew, the superior Jew, the inferior Jew, the capitalist Jew, the communist Jew, the moneyed Jew, the filthy Jew.

Even our identity, our right to be called a “Jew”, is attacked. Kanye West calls us imposters who stole the identities of the “real” Jews, African-Americans, in a mangled libel invented by half-deranged street preachers in New York and globalised by the man who brings Stronger and No Church in the Wild to my workout playlist.

When Jews speak out against the hatred directed at us, we are accusing of “crying” antisemitism or “inventing” it. When we seek to define it so others may understand a hatred that has brought unspeakable ruin to humanity, we are accused of acting with sinister motives, scheming to muzzle criticism of Israel rather than trying to protect our families. The National Tertiary Education Union just allowed a handful of pro-Palestinian fanatics to pass a resolution to reject the scholarly definition of antisemitism endorsed by the Jewish world and, more to the point, send a collective “f..k you” to our community.

My daughter’s experiences with antisemitism have commenced a little earlier than I would have expected. As she comes of age, she will sense its lurking presence, she will learn of its savagery that caused her forebears all manner of unnatural death. But she will learn too that we are not victims, we don’t seek or need pity, we don’t plead with our oppressors, we outlive them; and we have learned through our agonies and our survival how to stand proud as a Jew and to strike back against those who do us harm.






About the writer:

Alex Ryvchin is the co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. His new book on anti-Semitism, The 7 Deadly Myths, is due for publication in early 2023.







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- 18-20 October 2022

The Israel Brief – 18 October 2022 – Israel slams Australian decision re Jerusalem. Task force presents interim findings on Mount Meron disaster. Pres Herzog to visit USA. Former South African Chief Justice visits Israel.



The Israel Brief – 19 October 2022 – Ukraine to formally request air defense systems from Israel. Australian senators condemn gov decision to reverse recognition of West Jerusalem. Taliban wants relationship with Israel? Ido Baruch’s legacy.



The Israel Brief – 20 October 2022 – Noa Lazar killer is eliminated. Australia removes recognition of East Jerusalem for Palestinians. IDF drills. Should we ignore Kanye?



20 October 2022 – Rolene Marks speaks to Rob Schilling about Jerusalem – and Australia.





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).

GETTING ‘HIGH’ IN HAIFA

Taking a ‘trip’ on Israel’s port city’s scenic new cable car

By David E. Kaplan

Looking for something different to do in Israel, consider taking the train to Haifa and experience something literally UPLIFTING – the new spectacular cable car ride up Mount Carmel.

I went with my son and grandson, where we caught the train from Tel Aviv – a super scenic ride hugging most the time the Mediterranean coastline – and disembarking at the Ein Hamifratz Mall just north of Haifa, which adjoins the cable car station. I had not been to this mega mall since 1992 when I visited – out of sheer curiosity – to see an intact Iraqi Scud missile that had lodged without exploding in the Mall’s roof in the course of the 1990-1991 Gulf War.  Although Israel had not participated in this conflict – a 35-country military coalition spearheaded by the US in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait – Saddam Hussein nevertheless tried to entice Israel by sending this malicious ‘gift’. He regrettably sent many more but Israel never took the bait.

Efficient Commuter System. Commuters never have to wait longer than a few seconds for a car. (Photo: David E. Kaplan).

There was talk at the time of leaving this ugly hunk there permanently as  a tourist attraction – it ‘attracted’ me – but no, it was wisely removed and today, during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, the mall was buzzing with Israelis from across the country. Many were there – as were we – to experience the cable car – a 17 minute ride up, well over a half-hour return. Its a total distance of 4.4 kilometres and an elevation gain of 460m. Called – Rakavlit (a diminutive of רכבל, meaning cable car, and itself a contraction of רכבת, train, and כבל, cable), it starts at the HaMifratz Central Bus Station that includes the railway station and Lev HaMifratz Mall then a short ‘hop’ to Krayot Junction, which Israelis are more familiar as “Check Post”, followed by Dori Street Station, then two stations covering the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and finally arriving at the University of Haifa at the top of Mount Carmel.

Looking and Learning. The writers grandson on the straight stretch before stopping at the second station, ‘Check Post’. (Photo: David E. Kaplan).

On the walk from the railway station through the Lev Hamifratz Mall to the cable car station, you pass endless restaurants and coffee shops with delicious confectionery and aromas that soon wear down any resistance – after all, the mountain is not going anywhere and can wait.

Using my ‘Rav-kav’ (a smart card for making electronic payments for public transportation across Israel) and being a senior, the ride cost only a paltry two shekels and to our surprising delight, despite thousands using the cable cars every hour, there is no waiting.  The cars arrive every five seconds and moves quickly – unlike Israeli traffic. The cars take six comfortably but we had a car to ourselves.

The first station we arrived at was still on the flat  before the ascent. This was ‘Check Post’ at a location that had been since time immemorial a junction or crossroads of sorts but was given this nickname during the British Mandate that came to an end in 1948. The name is derived from ‘inspection post’, indicating this had been a major British checkpoint at the intersection where they sought to apprehend Jewish underground fighters in the lead up to the 1948 War of Independence. Although today its official name is the “Krayot Interchange“, its old name is more in common usage. So,  as there remains no scud in the roof of the  Lev HaMifratz Mall, so too there remains no visible presence of the once British military administration. They are conflicts of the past and dwell only in the minds of those who remember. Most the people enjoying the day were born after these events,  and their sights were on the present and future, not the past.

Joy Ride. Having fun, the writer (right) with his son Gary (left) and grandson Yali in the cable car above forests and Haifa’s famed Technion. (Photo: David E. Kaplan).

From this station begins the sharp ascent, which solicited a sharp cry of joy from Yali, my grandson who was really enjoying the excitement. As we rose higher, the views were spectacular. I looked to the right and saw on a far mountaintop, moshav ‘Manof’, a community settlement started in 1978 by South Africans – including my brother Sidney Kaplan. Located on Mount Shekhanya in the Lower Galilee, where once the lingua franca was English with inimitable South African accents, today, the population of over 800 are Israeli speaking Hebrew.  From the cable car, it was a cluster of specs, one of which I assumed was my brothers house that was on the moshav’s ring-road.

Cresting over the City. Riding above forests and suburbia. (Photo: David E. Kaplan).

As we ascended higher, we peered to the very far north and could see the mountains separating Israel from Lebanon and to the west, the blue expanse of the Mediterranean Sea.  Straining the eye, we could see Nahariya in the far distance and then closer, Acre with its Crusader walls.  Haifa Harbour looked busy with many ships docking.  With so many people waiting for long ordered cars – a current global problem – I‘m sure there were murmurings, “I hope my car is arriving in one of those ships!”

We were now high above mountain forests and what I found most fascinating as I peered directly below was the size of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. A public research university established in 1912 then under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technion is the oldest university in the country. Offering degrees in science and engineering, and related fields such as architecture, medicine, industrial management, and education, the Technion is in the world’s top 100 universities in the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Its faculty members include four Nobel Laureates, three in Chemistry.   

Albert Einstein visits Technion in 1923

Peering below at the buildings between so many trees,  I wished I could have picked out that special palm tree planted by Albert Einstein when he visited the campus  in 1923. It still stands today in front of the Technion’s original building. He was later to tour America to raise funds for higher-education in Palestine, an issue he said he held “close to his heart.” As he expressed at the time, “I do what I can to help those in my tribe who are treated so badly everywhere.”

The Einstein legacy continues to this day with four Technion Nobel laureates in nine years. In 2004, Profs. Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko received Israel’s first Nobel Prizes in Science. In 2011, Prof. Dan Shechtman followed on, and in 2013, Prof. Arieh Warshel received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Ascending even steeper, we crossed above a serpentine mountain pass meandering through dense forest until finally we arrived at the last stop – the University of Haifa, next to the towering Eshkol Tower that pinpoints Haifa from afar. Even from my brother’s patio on moshav Manof, you can clearly make out the tower.

Fascinating & Fun. Best way to view Haifa and surroundings.

Founded in 1963, Haifa University has a student body of approximately 18,000 students with the largest percentage (41%) of Arab-Israeli students. However, being vacation there were few students about and before the cable car docked at the summit, we went past the impressive Hecht Museum of Archaeology and Art. It is well worth a visit. The museum features a special exhibit of an ancient ship that dates to the fifth century BC that was found off the Mediterranean shores of Kibbutz Maagan Michael in the 1980’s. The museum is the initiative of the late Dr. Reuben He​cht – founder of the “Dagon Silos” in the port of Haifa and a founding member of the University of Haifa Board of Governors.  From his youth, Dr. Hecht was interested in the archaeology of the Land of Israel. An ardent Zionist, he strongly believed that archaeology was an important expression of Zionism and that the discovery of ancient artifacts was proof of the link between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.  The museum in his name is a reflection of his philosophy.

Also in close walking distance from the cable car station and well worth a visit, is literally the ‘high point’ of Haifa – the 30th-floor observation Eshkol Tower, designed by renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Take the elevator up to the 29th floor and from there take the stairs up to the lookout point which provides the best view in Haifa of Haifa and of all of northern Israel.

(Photo: David E. Kaplan).

Looking at the view from the top of the bay and the beautiful suburbs on the Carmel,  I could well understand why South Africans, particularly those from Cape Town, chose to make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel) to Haifa in the 1950s and 1960s. It would have scenically reminded them of the home they left and the desire to fulfill their Zionist dream with one proviso – to be  near the sea. No wonder in those early years  of the State, there was such a strong South African community in Haifa. The way Israel’s third largest city is growing, and a South African Jewish community again on the move, Haifa may well again attract future generations of South Africans.

Final Station. On the top of Mount Carmel, University of Haifa with Eshkol Observation Tower on the left. (Photo: David E. Kaplan).

These were this writer’s thoughts gazing at the view of Haifa bay but the thoughts of my grandson was more of the expectation of the fun ride back on the cable car.

Let’s go,” the impatient four-year-old said.

Following Yali yacking to his cousins about the trip, I will be returning with the rest of my grandkids. After all, the cable car was undoubtedly the HIGHlight of our day in Haifa.







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).

OY VEY, YE!

Rapper Kanye West creates a social media storm with antisemitic outbursts

By Rolene Marks

Kanye West or rather “Ye” as he prefers to be called nowadays is one of those rappers/fashion designers/celebrities/wannabe politicians/former Kardashian paramours that is best known for generating headlines in the tabloids. If you are hooked on pop culture like I am, you are familiar with West’s eccentric exploits. Nobody could have predicted Ye targeting Jews around the world with some of the most vile (and badly phrased) threats and antisemitism seen in the public domain like he did over the past two weeks.

It has been a steady build-up of comments that would not have been out of place in Germany circa 1938. 

West’s tweet:

West’s rantings cannot and must not be dismissed as the rantings of a narcissistic celebrity desperate for relevance, or someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  His comments also cannot be dismissed as the musings of a misunderstood genius. West/Ye/Whatever he calls himself, has a newly discovered history of antisemitic comments.

Let’s make one thing abundantly clear – bipolar disorder or any other mental health issue does not cause racism or antisemitism. West’s antisemitism also should not be excused because he is a celebrity.

West poses an added danger – his Twitter following is a staggering 31.4 million. That is more than double the amount of Jews in the world – and excludes his other social media platforms.

This is not the first offence from West. Podcaster Van Lathan, an ex-TMZ (entertainment news site) worker, has recently claimed that the rapper confessed his love for Adolf Hitler during an interview with him in 2018. Lathan made the shocking revelation about the rapper during the recent episode of his ‘Higher Learning’ podcast, where he revealed that he made controversial comments during an interview for TMZ, but it was edited out and was not back then made public.

Lathan told his co-host, Rachel Lindsay:

I’ve already heard him say that stuff before. I mean, I was taken aback because that type of antisemitic talk is disgusting. But as far as him, I knew that that was in him because when he came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview, ” he alleged, as per Page Six.

Lathan continues, “If you look at what I said at TMZ, it goes from me saying, ‘Hey Kanye, there’s real-life, real-world implications to everything that you just said there.’ “What I say after that — if I can remember, it’s been a long time — was, ’12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,’ and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery,” Lathan alleged.

The reason they took it out is because it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ. He said something like, “I love Hitler, and I love Nazis.” Something to that effect. “

Rapper’s Revelation. A resurfaced 2018 Kanye West interview reveals the rapper’s adoration for Adolf Hitler.

Some of West’s other bizarre antisemitic comments from the recent controversial Tucker Carlson Fox News interview also made their way to the cutting room floor but included doozies like this:

I’d prefer my kids knew Chanukah than Kwanzaa, at least it would come with some financial engineering,” said West. Clearly while many of us are scratching our heads wondering if we missed something when it comes to the way we celebrate Chanukah, an ugly comment like this hearkens back to those revolting antisemitic tropes that Jews control the world’s financial systems.

West also appeared on the Drink Champs podcast to last week adding:

Jewish people have owned the black voice, whether it’s through us wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt, or as all of us being assigned to a record label, or having a Jewish manager or being assigned to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney, and we understand this.”

I want Jewish children to look at their daddy and say, ‘why is Ye mad at us?’” he ranted.

He also blamed “Zionist Jews” for prompting his ex-wife Kim Kardashian‘s confession that she had sex in front of a fireplace with former lover, Pete Davidson. Okay, then. Apparently we “Zionist Jews” are SO powerful we can influence people’s sexual activity! No, I am not making this up!

Oy vey Ye, maybe you should just shut up?

Many have roundly condemned West’s vile behaviour including political leaders, black personalities and leaders; and entertainment celebrities like Friends star, David Schwimmer:

Sadly, others like late night talk show host, Trevor Noah (who also has a dubious history of antisemitic comments) managed to turn it into comedy shtick for his TV show, making light of the meaning and pronunciation of “Deathcon 3”. Trevor should sit this one out. The internet keeps receipts of people’s activities and Noah should take a long, hard accounting of his:

Adding fuel to the fire is Candace Owens, a conservative commentator. Owens tweeted out that West was dumped by JP Morgan, the private bank because of his antisemitic rants. The truth is West and JP Morgan bank cut ties several weeks ago.

West has supported Owen’s documentary “BLM: The greatest lie ever sold” about the Black Lives Matter movement that has fomented racial divisions and taken in an extraordinary amount of money to fill their coffers.

In a strange twist of events, West announced he is buying Parler, the conservative social media platform. The CEO is Candace Owens’s husband. Is it just me, or do you also smell a stinking publicity rat?

West has doubled down on his vile comments saying that he is glad that he crossed the line and that his comments did “not come out of nowhere”.

Jews have been sounding the alarm over rising antisemitism, especially on social media platforms for years now. While platforms like Twitter and Instagram may deplatform some for their comments (the Ayatollah al Khameini is still able to post egregious antisemitic comments in less than 280 characters) it is clearly not enough. Don’t even get me started on the comments from people in the spaces under articles or online in response to coverage of West/ye/Whatever’s antisemitism. It is a clear indication of the groundswell of danger out there.

The Holocaust started with words. Some of you reading this may think that I am overreacting or being too dramatic. I am don’t think that I am. We have witnessed throughout our history what the consequences of unchecked hate speech are.

We cannot dismiss the damage caused as the ravings of a man with mental health issues or downplay it because comments like this bring clicks and likes to big tech and effectively more money for them. This kind of hate speech poses a clear and present danger.

Where to from here? I am a firm believer that the only way to fight this is with a sense of pride and identity. This involves calling it out wherever you see it – and using the apparatus that is available to us. Our own social media, legal channels if necessary, reporting structures and most important, educating and empowering the next generation so that they too are equipped to better deal with what they face every day on their social media.

Throughout our history there have been attempts to silence Jewish and Zionist voices. The time has come to make them heard as loud and as proud as possible. It is the only way to drown out the noise of hate speech.


Kanye West exclusive: Rapper tells Tucker Carlson story behind White Lives Matter shirt

ALL IS NOT WELL AT WELLESLEY

An ‘Open Letter” to Wellesley College President Dr. Paula A. Johnson

By alumnus Gina Raphael

Wellesley’s motto, Non Ministrari sed Ministrare, means giving back, being a good citizen of the world, and deciding ways in which the knowledge that you have and the work that you do can affect a community that needs support. My years at Wellesley translated the motto into a call for leadership and making a difference in the world. 

Non Ministrari sed Ministrare is the philosophy and guiding light that sets the tone of a Wellesley education, ranking Wellesley as the leading college for women in the United States. Wellesley has been educating leaders since 1875 including such notable alumnae as Hilary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Diane Sawyer, Nora Ephron, Katherine Lee Bates and Pamela Melroy.

While the President of Wellesley College, Paula Johnson, should be commended for taking a courageous path of calling out The Wellesley News  (the student run newspaper) for supporting The Mapping Project (which targets individuals and organizations that support Jewish life)  for promoting antisemitism, she does not go far enough to address the  antisemitism laden in the Wellesley News article, the history of antisemitism at Wellesley, nor does she lead the way to set a brighter future and a resurgence of Jewish life on campus.

The President of Wellesley College, Paula Johnson

Consistent with elite east coast Colleges of the time, Wellesley had an official or unofficial quota of about 10% of Jewish students in the 1930s and 1940s. For decades following, Wellesley prohibited Jewish professors from teaching courses on the New Testament. It took until 1981 for a Jewish professor to receive tenure in the Religion department, only after engaging a lawyer who went about documenting the history of discrimination against Jews at the college.

In the 1990s, Africana studies professor Tony Martin assigned his students a Nation of Islam tract that inaccurately depicted Jews as the foremost figures in the African slave trade. When challenged by historians and others, he lashed out with an antisemitic book of his own, “The Jewish Onslaught”. Then Wellesley president, Diana Chapman Walsh, denounced Martin’s book as divisive and offensive but like this incident mentioned, the Wellesley News of September 2022, President Johnson did not call out the paper for antisemitic behavior.

Diana Chapman Walsh former President of Wellesley College (1993 to 2007)

The article calls “for the Liberation of Palestine” and for the boycott, divestment & sanction (BDS) of the State of Israel. BDS is used to isolate the State of Israel and is included in the definition of antisemitism by IHRA, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The article takes biased positions about the conflict in the Middle East and does not address terrorism and corruption associated with the Palestinian Authority. In avoiding these substantive parts of the article, President Johnson fails to adhere to Wellesley’s motto of Non Ministrari sed Ministrare.

Non Ministrari sed Ministrare on campus should include the following:

Participation in Faculty Fellowships, a Jewish National Fund USA program that brings academicians from the USA to Israel. Now in its 15th year of operation, the fully subsidized program has brought over six hundred faculty across 130 institutions to Israel. Opening Israel to academics from all disciplines, inspires a more open-minded dialogue on campus.

Participate in Caravan for Democracy, a Jewish National Fund program for a decade, bringing more than five hundred non-Jewish American college student leaders from student government, ethnic, and minority groups, LGBT groups and women’s groups to experience Israel first hand. This effort creates constructive dialogue about Israel and the Middle East on college campuses across America.

Welcoming Progressive Voices – bringing speakers such as author, actress and Israeli antisemitism envoy Noa Tishby, author of “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” to speak on Campus to share how Israel is portrayed incorrectly on the world stage; inviting writer, feminist and activist Eve Barlow and other speakers on why she stands strong as a Zionist and against antisemitism.

Building partnerships and exchanges from campus to Israel and across the region with Jews, Arabs, Christians, Druze and Bedouins, leading the way for Wellesley women to empower women to build alliances and learn new perspectives of collaboration and understanding to campus and the world.

When I had the honor to serve years ago as the Chair of the Wellesley Jewish Alumnae Association, President Johnson and the administration refused to engage in these topics of conversation. My calls to President Johnson to create a stronger Jewish Alumnae presence went unanswered after our first conversation.

The writer on graduation day in 1986 at Wellesley College

While Wellesley has fallen in the trap set by the BDS movement spreading across the country, it does have a history of moments of strong Jewish life and acceptance which existed shortly before I started at at the college. In 1976, Wellesley College granted Golda Meir, the fourth female leader of a country in the world and Israel’s first and only female Prime Minister, an honorary degree. I was privileged to serve as head of the Wellesley Jewish Students Association during my years at Wellesley. While not a significant group on campus, opportunities to pray, celebrate and flourish were widely available and accepted on campus. Wellesley went out of its way to create a small Hebrew class to encourage learning of the language. As a Political Science major, Wellesley arranged an expert at MIT in an exchange program to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With one amazing middle school daughter remaining, I hope that Wellesley leadership strives to create a vibrant place of learning that embraces Jewish life and acceptance on campus that befits her motto that has served her well and all her alumnae for 150 years.



About the writer:

Gina Raphael and husband Jeffrey Gross at Mickey Fine, a pharmacy with a soda fountain (JNF Impact – May 2016)

A mother of three daughters adopted from China, Gina Raphael is a businesswoman who owns & leads Mickey Fine Pharmacy & Grill, the leading independent pharmacy chain in Los Angeles. With WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) being the largest social services provider in Israel outside of the government helping women & children, Gina is enormously proud to Chair the WIZO branch in California. A 1986 graduate of Wellesley College, Gina has prioritized throughout her career the mentorship, empowerment, and advancement of women.





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- 18 October 2022

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 Virginia, USA.

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Articles

(1)
MUSICAL DIPLOMACY

Rhetoric from Iran is met by melody from Israel

By David E. Kaplan

Singing for her Sisters“I’ve always believed women can make the revolution in Iran says Charhi seen here in the studio.

While the leadership of Iran threatens the citizens of Israel with extinction, the protesting people in Iran are being inspired by the music of an Israeli. Striking the right note, the music of Israeli Liraz Charhi is reaching the hearts and minds of her “sisters” in Iran who are braving bullets armed with ballads.

MUSICAL DIPLOMACY

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(2)

THE ELIZABETH LINE

A personal account in participating in the historic queue paying tribute to ‘The Queen’

By Rehna

The People’s Queen. They came from all the corners of the realm to pay their respects to the end of a reign.

For a few days, the line to the British throne took on a different meaning as the people stood in line to ‘see’ their Queen – one final time! What brought people of all ages and from across the country to stand in an ever-increasing queue to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth lying in state? The writer, a UK lawyer, relates her personal experience.  

THE ELIZABETH LINE

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(3)

GOOSE STEPS TO GOOSE BUMPS IN POLAND

A visit to Oscar Schindler’s Enamel Factory inKraków

By Motti Verses

Schindler the Savior. The writer at Oskar Schindler’s factory with photographs of the Jewish workers he saved.  

While the Jews of Europe were being exterminated in Nazi ‘factories of death’, one factory owned and run by a German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party, was saving Jews.  The writer, a communications executive from Israel, visited the Oskar Schindler’s Enamelware Factory  in Kraków, Poland and came away with new and long-lasting impressions.

GOOSE STEPS TO GOOSE BUMPS IN POLAND

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LOTL Co-founders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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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).