Israel’s former health minister Yaakov Litzman was placed under investigation the same year over allegations he had tried to pressure psychiatrists to find Leifer unfit to stand trial.

 

Malka Leifer: The story behind Melbourne sisters’ 15-year fight for justice

 

Yaakov Litzman  - Left - His Crime Boss - Head of Gur Cult With Dead Mink On His Head - Front Right

It was the drawn-out legal battle kept hidden from jurors as a 15-year battle to bring a principal to justice reached its final weeks.

Three sisters’ fight to hold Malka Leifer accountable may never have come to fruition if not for video taken by private investigators who tracked her to the West Bank settlement of Immanuel in late 2017.

The former principal of the Adass Israel School – a religious school catering to Melbourne’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community – had fled back to her home country in 2008 after allegations of the sexual abuse of students first began swirling.

Details about Leifer’s extradition from Israel are only now able to be published after a gag order expired as a Melbourne jury handed down their verdicts last week.

Victoria Police had initiated extradition proceedings in 2014 but the case stalled when an Israeli court found she was mentally unfit to stand trial.

A social worker, Chana Rabinowitz, had contacted the school board days earlier to report her client’s whispered admission that she had been sexually abused.

“She was hunched over into herself and she could only whisper what it was,” Rabinowitz told a Melbourne court last month.

“She told me she had been hurt sexually by Malka Leifer. She described some of what happened.”

Leifer had fled Melbourne with her family in the middle of the night on March 6, 2008, after receiving a warning from members of the insular community.

On Monday, a jury found the 56-year-old guilty of sexually abusing Dassi Elrich, 35, and her sister Elly Sapper, 34, while they were students and later as junior religious teachers.

She was acquitted on allegations of abusing their older sister, Nicole Meyer, 37.

The trial began on February 8 and concluded after eight weeks and one day. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Paul Tyquin.

 

The mother-of-eight had been recruited to lead religious studies at the all-girls school in 2001, to great excitement in the school.

“She came to the community and became this person that was revered as much as a rabbi, and I had never seen a woman that people looked up to like this,” Ms Erlich told the trial.

“She made me feel loved when I spent time with her … I was hoping that she would love me like a mother. I wanted to feel loved,” Ms Sapper said of their relationship.

The sisters first filed police complaints in 2011, sparking a decade-long legal battle fought through two countries’ court systems.

Leifer was arrested by Israeli police in August 2014 at the request of Australian authorities and placed on house arrest as she challenged the extradition process.

For close to two years, she avoided scheduled hearings in an Israeli court, claiming she faced panic attacks and was too unwell to attend.

Then, in June 2016, the sisters were undoubtedly shocked when news broke that Leifer had been found mentally unfit by a court-appointed psychiatrist and her extradition hearings would be delayed indefinitely while she received treatment.

Fugitive teacher Malka Leifer faced multiple extradition hearings in Israel to try to have her returned to Australia. Picture: Ynet News.

 

Her lawyer, Yehuda Fried, told news outlets at the time she struggled to get clear instructions throughout the proceedings.

Leifer’s house arrest was lifted and she quietly continued on with her life.

Appeals from Australian government officials – including then-prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews – to re-examine the case failed to gain traction in Israel.

More than 200 hours of video proof showing Leifer out-and-about doing mundane tasks such as shopping and catching public transport, spectacularly captured national and international news headlines in 2018.

The sisters had travelled to Israel and met with the anti-child abuse organisation Jewish Community Watch, which arranged for a private investigator to track her down in the gated community.

It was then they launched the Bring Leifer Back campaign to fight for her return.

The footage galvanised Israel’s police force, who launched a fresh investigation and rearrested Leifer the same year amid suspicion she was feigning her mental illness.

 

Footage captured by private investigators who worked with Jewish Community Watch revealed Malka Leifer living a fully functional and social life. Picture: Supplied.

 

A new assessment found she was able to stand trial and, by 2019, she was being held in the country’s only female prison awaiting extradition proceedings.

Israel’s former health minister Yaakov Litzman was placed under investigation the same year over allegations he had tried to pressure psychiatrists to find Leifer unfit to stand trial.

He stood down from the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, in 2022 and was sentenced to eight months jail after taking a plea deal for breach of trust.

A panel of psychiatrists engaged by the Jerusalem District Court found in 2020 that Leifer had faked her mental illness to avoid returning to Australia.

More than six years after Victoria Police first filed the request, Israel signed the extradition order in December 2020.

A female officer from Victoria Police travelled to Israel in early 2021 and Leifer was taken into Australian custody, touching down in the country on January 25.

 

Malka Leifer was rushed out of Israel before borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: Ynet News.

During the following two years she faced a series of hearings across Melbourne courts before the case was eventually set down for a trial in February 2023.

Over seven weeks a jury heard evidence from the three sisters, police investigators, Adass Israel school staff, and psychologists and psychiatrists.

Leifer remained expressionless through the trial, sitting in adock at the back of a courtroom and was often seen reading a small gold and white coloured prayer book while silently mouthing words.

After more than 31 hours of deliberations spanning nine days, the jury re-entered the courtroom to a thick silence shortly after 3.45pm on Monday April 3.

Beyond reasonable doubt, they found Leifer guilty on five counts of rape, one count of rape by compelled sexual penetration, four counts of indecent act with a 16 or 17 year-old child, five counts of indecent assault and three counts of sexual penetration of a 16 or 17 year-old child.

The verdicts relate to incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2007 on school trips, during private education sessions at Leifer’s Elsternwick home, and backstage of a school play being performed at the Phoenix Theatre.

She was acquitted of five charges of rape and four charges of indecent assault, which were alleged to have occurred on school grounds or a June 2016 school camp in Blampied.

Israel approved the extradition request in December 2020, more than six years after it was first made by Victoria Police. Picture: Supplied.

In their testimony before the jury, the sisters said their mother had been violent and abusive growing up, and school had felt like a safe haven.

Leifer, they said, had begun to show them a “warmth and care” they were not receiving at home.

Prosecutors argued the evidence proved the former principal had targeted the girls for their vulnerability, manipulating them with her affection.

“In each instance, she started with lesser acts so she could see the reaction and escalated over time,” crown prosecutor Justin Lewis told the jury.

“As far as the accused was concerned, they were ripe for the picking.”

Leifer has vigorously maintained her innocence, with her barrister Ian Hill KC telling the jury from the outset her interactions were “proper and professional”.

Outside of court on Monday, he told reporters he had “nothing to say at this time”.

Sisters Elly Sapper, Nicole Meyer and Dassi Erlich held hands after the verdict was read out and said they were ready to move on with their lives. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

The sisters, however, held hands as they faced TV cameras and a throng of journalists to proclaim; “the whole world will know that now, she is guilty”.

“Today we can start to take the power back that she stole from us as children,” Ms Sapper said.

“We have sat in this court for going on nine weeks now, every day listening to our truth and having people try to tear that apart and tear us apart.”

Ms Meyer, whose allegations the jury acquitted Lefier on, described the feeling as “bittersweet”.

“Yes it’s bittersweet, but she is guilty,” she said.

“I turned around and looked at her … if she doesn't want to look at me, so be it.”

Ms Erlich said the abuse had held them hostage for so many years but it was now “time to start looking forward”.

“This is the beginning of our future now, throwing off how the abuse has impacted us for so many years and it’s time to start our lives,” she said.

Shortly after the verdict was handed down, Adass Israel School principal Aaron Strasser issued a statement on behalf of the school.

“On behalf of Adass Israel School, we apologise to the survivors abused by Mrs Malka Leifer while they were students here,” he said.

“We are sorry for the distress they have suffered and the impact of that abuse on their lives and families.

“We commend the survivors’ bravery in coming forward.

“Adass Israel School complies fully with all child safety standards and regulations, and we have zero tolerance for abuse of any kind.”

Leifer will return to court for sentencing at a later date. 

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/malka-leifer-the-story-behind-melbourne-sisters-15year-fight-for-justice/news-story/5d15676a90d7abe5583fb2c59de3737f

Leifer was found guilty on 18 counts of rape and sexual assault out of the 29 charges that she was on trial for.

 

Malka Leifer found guilty of rape, indecent assault

 

 Last year, a former Israeli minister, Yaakov Litzman, admitted to abusing his powers to try to protect Leifer from prosecution. Litzman, a haredi Orthodox politician, a member of the Gur Hassidic cult, was instructed by his rebbe/crime boss to shield her from extradition, resigned from the Knesset and was sentenced to probation and a nominal fine as part of his plea deal.

 

Malka Leifer, a former Australian school principal

 

Malka Leifer was found guilty of rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a minor, in the County Court of Victoria, Australia on Monday.

A jury found Leifer guilty of 18 of the 29 counts of sexual abuse charges against two sisters that she was on trial for but cleared her of all charges relating to a third sister.

The jury took 12 days to return a verdict after struggling to come to a unanimous decision on all charges in those days.

During the trial, which lasted six weeks, the jury heard allegations of various forms of sexual abuse on multiple occasions against sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper. The incidents occurred while the sisters attended Adass Israel School in Melbourne where Leifer was the principal and were said to have happened at the school, at summer camps and in Leifer's home.

Throughout the trial, the court heard that the sisters had a difficult home life, and Leifer used this to get close to them, raping and sexually assaulting them on multiple occasions.

 

 

 Australian sisters Elly Sapper, Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer, allegedly sexually abused by former headteacher Leifer. 

 

The court also heard that because the sisters had been raised ultra-orthodox, they did not understand the sexual nature of what was done to them and therefore could not give consent to any of it.

Leifer escaped to Israel

The sisters first accused Leifer of sexual abuse in late 2007 and early 2008 after Erlich spoke to a social worker about the abuse she was subjected to. Shortly after the accusations, Leifer fled Australia to Israel where she claimed she was not mentally fit to be extradited and stand trial in Australia.

Leifer remained in Israel for more than 15 years until Israeli courts ruled her fit and she was extradited back to Australia in January of 2021 after a six-year legal battle.

The court did not hear of Leifer's escape to Israel or about the extradition affair. Media in Australia was also barred from reporting about Leifer in Israel until after the sentencing.

“Today’s guilty verdict is a great day for justice and vindication of the courageous survivors whose perseverance and dignity have been a hallmark of their long and extraordinary fight for justice.”

In the middle of the trial, Leifer was acquitted of two counts of sexual abuse because the dates of the laws used to charge her did not match the dates in which the abuse allegedly occurred.

Leifer will receive her sentence at the end of April. According to Go To Court, which was established by Australian lawyer James Stevens, a standard sentence for rape could be 10 years in Victoria with the maximum being 25. The maximum sentence for sexual assault is 10 years. Sex offenders who sexually abuse minors usually get longer sentences depending on the age of the victim.

After the verdict, the three young women who led the acquisitions against Leifer, after personally suffering sexual abuse, spoke to the media. One of them said that “we have sat in this court for nine weeks, every day listening to our truth and having people try to tear it apart. It's a hard process but with support, it's the right thing to do; not to [give Leifer] access to touch kids ever again.”

“Today’s guilty verdict is a great day for justice and vindication of the courageous survivors, Nicole, Dassi and Elly, whose perseverance and dignity have been a hallmark of their long and extraordinary fight for justice,” said VoiCSA. “We hope that today’s verdict provides them with some peace of mind and contributes to their long-term healing and well-being,” he said.

VoiCSA (originally Kol v'Oz) was established in 2016 as an Israel-based, international organization that is dedicated to combating child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.

VoiCSA called upon the Adass Israel School “to issue an unequivocal public apology to Dassi, Elly and Nicole for its horrific failure to protect them when they were under its care,” as well as calling upon Victoria Police “to hold to account those members of the Adass Israel School’s leadership who aided and abetted Leifer’s escape to Israel from Australia after being informed of what she had done.”

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said in response to the verdict that he hopes "that the verdict brings much-needed closure to Elly, Nicole and Dassi who bravely fought for justice for many years." He added that it also "brings closure for the Australian Jewish community who have supported the brave survivors’ demands that Malka Leifer face justice in Australia. We continue to stand with Elly, Nicole and Dassi and all survivors of abuse in their fight for justice.”

Leibler continued, “a key part of their trauma was the time it took to extradite Leifer back to Australia and the clear evidence of political interference in that process. Israel must take action to ensure that such a travesty cannot recur.” 

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-736231?_ga=2.220970399.667174566.1679803536-103014047.1667283256&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&

Trump, like the Republican opportunists who cling to him like remoras under a shark and stinks like zevel on your shoes, doesn’t care about shame—he cares about getting away with it. Indeed, rather than leaving the public arena, Trump has reveled in it all, rolling around in the garbage of his own life and grunting happily about how the rules don’t apply to the real elites like him.

 But to focus on which indictment should come when, is to ignore that Trump has already admitted to his awful behavior in the events around the case. Trump (who sometimes refers to Stormy Daniels as "Horse Face") denies that he had an affair with the porn actor...

'You shall teach them with your children, to speak with them, when you sit in your home, when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you arise” [Deuteronomy 11:19].

Torah Umesorah's Mission -

The chinuch of our children has been a major factor in the exponential growth of Torah and Yiddishkeit in North America over the past 80 years.

Torah Umesorah’s establishment in 1944, by Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l, was for the very purpose of assuring the continuity of Klal Yisroel on these shores.

 The results far surpassed his expectations. Starting with barely a handful of yeshivos, Torah Umesorah’s network today includes over 850 schools, 350,000 students and 25,000 teachers, and the quality and scope of chinuch at an all-time high.

This alone should have eliminated him as the featured speaker at a recent Torah Umesorah convention. PM

 

An American Tragedy

 

Donald Trump is about to be charged with crimes in New York. I do not know if he is guilty of any of these charges—we don’t even know the exact accusations yet—and neither do you. That’s for a jury to decide, and both Trump and the state of New York will have their day in court. In that sense, this is a good day for America, because it shows, in the most direct way possible, that no one in this country is above the law.

But this whole mess, no matter how it turns out, and no matter what other charges may come at Trump from elsewhere, is also an American tragedy. Trump’s status as a former president has not shielded him from answering for his alleged crimes. The indictment itself is shot through with tension, because Trump is, in fact, a former president and a current leading presidential candidate—which underscores the ghastly reality that no matter how much we learn about this crass sociopath, millions of people voted for him twice and are still hoping that he will return to power in the White House.

Trump’s defenders will argue that the New York case is just a local political vendetta, and that the potential crimes involved are relatively minor. As my colleague David Graham has noted, “Falsifying records is a crime, and crime is bad,” but this is like trying to get Al Capone on tax evasion, especially because “the Manhattan case seems like perhaps both the least significant and the legally weakest case.” David also notes that even some Trump critics wish Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had waited for Trump to be indicted on more important potential charges.

I’m not so sure. Trump has kept his supporters in a state of high tension over the past few weeks, first claiming that he’d be arrested on Tuesday, March 21, and then, in an appalling cultlike rally in Waco, bellowing that 2024 would be “the final battle” after previously warning that to indict him would be to court violence and civil unrest. Perhaps the New York charges have popped that bubble of tension; Trump can now go and whine about that while others prepare the case arguing that he has committed crimes against American democracy.

But to focus on which indictment should come when is to ignore that Trump has already admitted to his awful behavior in the events around the case. Trump (who sometimes refers to Stormy Daniels as "Horse Face") denies that he had an affair with the porn actor, but no one contests that he authorized paying her off, nor does his legal team deny that he lied about that money while standing in Air Force One—part of their risible argument that she was being paid hush money to keep quiet about an affair that never happened. They’re simply saying that technically, he didn’t violate any namby-pamby laws about ledger entries and campaign funding.

To our shame, we have too often let those kinds of arguments define the Trump legal saga. If Trump is brought to trial on the far more serious charge of attempting to strong-arm Georgia election officials, his defenders will claim that that indictment, too, is just local huckstering. They will find other excuses in the event that he somehow must answer for his role in trying to overturn our constitutional processes. And once again, even after looking at Trump’s own behavior, including his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state and the exhortation to the mob on January 6, too many Americans will focus on whether he committed an actual crime instead of coming to their senses and realizing that in any functional and healthy democracy, someone like Trump would have been shamed and forced into political and social exile years ago.

Trump, like the Republican opportunists who cling to him like remoras under a shark, doesn’t care about shame—he cares about getting away with it. Indeed, rather than leaving the public arena, Trump has reveled in it all, rolling around in the garbage of his own life and grunting happily about how the rules don’t apply to the real elites like him. Forget about Richard Nixon, who publicly resigned; Trump isn’t even Spiro Agnew, a man who seethed with rage at the felony corruption charges against him but had the sense not to brag about them. (Agnew insisted on his innocence for two months and then took a plea of “no contest” to a single tax-evasion charge, after which he mostly vanished from public view.)

No such luck this time. Win or lose in court, Trump is determined to bring us all into a summer-heat dumpster with him for as long as he can. And that leads to the last and most shocking thing about today’s news: Late this afternoon, New York local media reported that security was tightening up in certain areas of the city. That’s how we knew something was coming: The former president had already told us that he fully intended to trigger violence if the institutions of the law tried to touch him.

Tomorrow, all NYPD officers have reportedly been ordered to be in full uniform and ready to deploy. And again, somehow, we’ve just accepted this as the new normal. We no longer even blink when New York, a city scarred by multiple terror attacks against its innocent citizens, has to go on alert just to charge Trump with a crime. That one fact, more than any other, tells you how far down the long slide into vice and venality—and violence—Trump has dragged this country.

Every defendant, including Donald Trump, deserves the presumption of innocence. But when it comes to our civic and political innocence, Americans long ago lost whatever is left of ours.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/03/donald-trump-indicted/673577/

The jury in the Malka Leifer child sex abuse trial has reached unanimous verdicts on some of the charges in the case, but is yet to reveal its decision in court.

 

Malka Leifer sex abuse trial nears end as jury set to reach some unanimous verdicts

Former school principal Malka Leifer will continue to be tried on the remaining 27 charges after two were dropped.

The jury in the Malka Leifer child sex abuse trial has reached unanimous verdicts on some of the charges in the case, but is yet to reveal its decision in court.

Key points:

• The 12 person jury has indicated it will be able to reach unanimous verdicts on all 27 counts
• The former Melbourne school principal is accused of sexually abusing three sisters on school grounds 
• The jury will continue deliberations tomorrow morning

Mrs Leifer, the former principal of the Adass Israel school in Melbourne's inner-south east, has pleaded not guilty to 27 charges dating back two decades.

The complainants in the case are sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, former students of the school who came forward to police.

They alleged Mrs Leifer abused them in secret on the school grounds, on school camps and at the principal's home.

Mrs Leifer faced a County Court trial that heard evidence over six weeks, with the jury retiring to consider its verdicts last Wednesday.

Around 4pm this afternoon, the jury foreperson was asked by Judge Mark Gamble whether they had reached unanimous verdicts on some charges, and whether they had been unable to do so on others.

"Yes," the foreman replied.

The jury foreman agreed that with further time to deliberate, the panel of 12 could reach unanimous verdicts on all counts.

The jury was not asked to reveal the breakdown of their finalised verdicts, nor give an indication about whether they had found Mrs Leifer guilty or not guilty on any counts.

They will resume deliberations from 10:30am on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the jury passed Judge Gamble a note saying it was "unlikely" they would reach a unanimous decision on all charges.

"Can you please offer direction on a deadlock? Is it possible to use a majority verdict on charges?" they asked.

Judge Gamble told them to continue their discussions.

He said history had shown with time, juries had been able to reach conclusive decisions.

Mrs Leifer was in the dock to hear proceedings on Tuesday, as were the three sisters, who sat in the court gallery.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/malka-leifer-trial-sexual-abuse-trial-jury-update/102038320

We simply cannot ignore that Zionism is the only safeguard to the survival and prosperity of Jewish life today, and that Jews have longed for a homeland of their own for centuries.

 

A Message From Campus: Judaism Can’t Exist Without Zionism

George Washington University

Not long ago, while walking through George Washington University’s campus, I came across several posters with headlines that read “Judaism does not equal Zionism,” “Judaism values love,” and “Jewish values reject Zionism.”

 

One particular headline grabbed my attention: “Judaism exists without Zionism.”

 

Really? I think not. Giving this proposition the slightest consideration would entail some serious historical distortion. 

We simply cannot ignore that Zionism is the only safeguard to the survival and prosperity of Jewish life today, and that Jews have longed for a homeland of their own for centuries.

Across US campuses, the Jewish Voice for Peace organization (JVP) has become the face of Jewish anti-Zionism, in solidarity with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and numerous other organizations that seek to undermine or eliminate Israel.

JVP claims that Zionism corrupts Jewish values of “justice, equality, and dignity,” and that Israel’s eradication will foster peace and a return to authentic Jewish values.

JVP does perhaps get one thing right: Judaism can exist without Zionism — but only as a religious philosophy. Indeed, modern Zionism began as a secular movement, yet its DNA is inextricably shared with Judaism. Jewish history, culture, and values make them not only inseparable, but interdependent.

Zionism is defined as the movement for self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Theodore Herzl, a secular Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, conceived Zionism as a means for Jews to have a “normal existence” in a state of their own, in the face of incessant and violent antisemitism.

Zionism has enabled both diaspora and Israeli Jews to practice their religion in relative safety and engage in Tikkun Olam, the Jewish principle of repairing the world. It has contributed to the peaceful practice of Jewish worship on almost every continent, even in some regions once hostile to Jews.

According to a 2022 survey published by the American Jewish Committee about the state of antisemitism in America, 90% of the public agrees that saying “Israel has no right to exist” is inherently antisemitic. Yet, contrary to common sense, the claim that anti-Zionism is antisemitism is widely contested, especially across college campuses where BDS is highly active.

This contradiction illustrates that many college students are either ignorant about Zionism, or have been turned against Israel by lies from groups like JVP, SJP, and more.

To be clear, anti-Zionism is shorthand for “Israel has no right to exist.” And when we see anti-Zionism on the rise, we know that antisemitic persecution will follow.

BDS makes no secret of its mission to seek an “end of Israel” — and they use JVP to perpetuate their anti-Jewish bigotry. Tragically, well-intended JVP members have fallen victim to BDS propaganda.

Make no mistake, anti-Zionist Jew-hatred is an attack on all Jews. Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a BDS supporter, denigrates Tikkun Olam as a philosophy that “camouflages [Israel’s] oppressive power”; he also spews antisemitic tropes such as “Jews use money for nefarious purposes.” These same efforts to demonize and delegitimize Jewish self-determination trace directly to ancient Jew-hatred rooted in Christian blood-libel propaganda used during the Spanish Inquisition, Russian pogroms, and the Nazi Holocaust.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist group, once wrote, “If we searched the entire world for a person more despicable, weak and feeble in mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.” He then adds, “Notice, I do not say the Israeli.”

The charter of another terrorist group, Hamas, reads, “the Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them.” In essence, Hitler’s Final Solution is what anti-Zionism espouses after all.

JVP envisions not a two-state solution for the neighborly coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis, but one bi-national state for both peoples. Eventually, this will mean Israel cannot remain a democracy, or will become an Arab state.

Regional demographics cannot be ignored: While only 7 million Jews inhabit Israel, more than 300 million Muslim Arabs occupy neighboring Middle Eastern nations. The Pew Research center expects a 74% increase in the Middle Eastern Muslim population by 2050. Clearly, Jews will always remain the regional minority.

Disavowing Zionism, as JVP suggests, effectively subjects Jews to their former state of precariousness — to the same conditions that Jews endured in old Europe, the Soviet Union, or the Arab world before Israel’s independence. Israel provided the only viable safeguard for three million Soviet Jews and approximately one million Jews from Arab lands who were expelled from the communities they inhabited for centuries. Zionism made this possible.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel once said, “I can live as a Jew outside Israel, but not without Israel.” Over the centuries, Jews have emphatically written things down, driven by the tenet of “le dor va dor” — from generation to generation. Annual Haggadah readings during Passover remind Jews of liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt, calling upon Jews to fight for freedom and believe in God.

Despite all of Israel’s internal turmoil, modern Zionism remains rooted in compromise while enabling the existence of Judaism. It was for this purpose that the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan established side-by-side Jewish and Palestinian states. Israel accepted the plan but, to this day, militant Palestinian organizations prevent the establishment of a formal Palestinian nation.

Palestinian Human Rights activist Bassem Eid has said, “Why trust the BDS? Why trust the Jewish Voice for Peace? We lost trust with these people … Everybody knows the BDS agenda is to destroy Israel and not to bring peace. The Palestinians should not participate in this.”

The Jewish value of Pikuach Nefesh always preserves life — existence — over death. A true Jewish voice for peace would engage with Zionism through the lens of Jewish values, employing the Jewish principle of Tikkun Olam for constructive criticism. Perhaps JVP should change its name.

By Sabrina Soffer, the commissioner of the Presidential Task Force to Combat Antisemitism at George Washington University.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/03/29/a-message-from-campus-judaism-cant-exist-without-zionism/

Is It Possible To Be Smart & Dumb Simultaneously? Bibi Misses The Point --- He Lost Trust As A Mensch!

 

Why Netanyahu paused the march of tyranny and nobody who loves Israel can rejoice yet

 

Had he not fired Gallant, the PM would right now be enacting his key autocratic edict. His overreach merely compelled a timeout, unless Herzog can somehow find a path to salvation

 

Police use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators blocking a highway during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, March 27, 2023

 

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his key coalition allies on Monday morning that he saw no alternative other than to pause their legislative blitz neutering Israel’s judiciary, the far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir was reportedly the most bitterly opposed.

“We are letting the anarchists win,” protested Ben Gvir (using the coalition leaders’ favored term for the defenders of our democracy), according to an unconfirmed account of the conversation reported by Channel 12 news.

“We’re not letting them win,” Religious Zionism party chief Bezalel Smotrich is said to have retorted. “We’ll only halt the legislation for a few months.

At which point the justice minister, Yariv Levin, reportedly summed up: “You’re all correct, but we need to be smart. We’ll pass the legislation later on, but not now. We have people in Likud who are opposed; I’m not sure that we’d have 61 [votes in the 120-seat Knesset]. The people want reform, and they will get it, but we also have to look at what’s going on outside [with the anti-overhaul protests, etc.]; it can’t be ignored.”

The exchange helps underline why, when Netanyahu told the nation on Monday evening that he was halting the legislation’s progress for a few weeks, his declared readiness to do so “out of national responsibility, out of a desire to prevent a rift in the nation,” was instantly dismissed as empty rhetoric by the leaders of the mass protests, and opposition leader Yair Lapid warned that Netanyahu might be up to his old tricks.

After all, Levin had vowed repeatedly, during the three months since he unveiled plans to give near-absolute power to the coalition and leave Israelis’ most basic rights unprotected, that his “reforms” would not be halted “even for a minute,” and reportedly threatened to resign should the march to enactment be interrupted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Justice Minister Yariv Levin in the Knesset in Jerusalem on March 6, 2023.

Furthermore, the prime minister had insisted as recently as Thursday that, while no disagreement should be allowed to “endanger our joint future,” a central element of his de-democratization assault, the law that gives the coalition control over the appointment of judges, would be approved by the Knesset this week, as planned, in its current form.

What, then, prompted Netanyahu to magnanimously announce the temporary shelving of that law and the others in the pipeline on Monday evening, and Levin to back him in the coalition meeting earlier in the day?

The simple fact, as the justice minister reportedly acknowledged, that despite heading a 64-strong coalition in the 120-member Knesset, they were no longer certain that they had the votes for an absolute majority — not technically required to pass the judicial selection law, for which a simple majority would suffice, but a major asset in defending the democracy-shattering legislation before a still-functional and independent High Court.

What had changed since last Thursday was that Netanyahu had fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for having the temerity to privately and then publicly warn that the national divide over the coalition’s bid to change the way Israel is governed was prompting deepening dissent in the ranks of the military, to the point where it constituted a “clear, immediate, and tangible threat to the security of the state.”

The dismissal of the defense minister on Sunday night, in turn, triggered a spontaneous national uprising, angry demonstrations that raged for hours among a growing swath of the citizenry who saw, in Gallant’s brutal termination, further evidence that Netanyahu continues to place personal and political interests above the core needs of the state.

And those protests, in turn, finally prompted a handful of Likud politicians to publicly raise concerns — not, heaven forbid, about the content of the Netanyahu-Levin legislation, but about the way it was being steamrollered through parliament, with a speed and brutality that, opinion polls have indicated, was gradually alienating ever more of the public.

With the support of the likes of Nir Barkat, Yuli Edelstein, David Bitan, Eli Dallal and Danny Danon no longer guaranteed, and Gallant himself most unlikely to vote with the coalition, Levin was compelled to point out that “I’m not sure we’d have 61.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (left) and MK Yuli Edelstein arrive for a meeting of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, in the Knesset on March 27, 2023

 

‘One way or another’

Does all this mean that Netanyahu’s promise to halt the legislation and engage in dialogue is merely a case of him playing for time — ostensibly heeding the concerns of the electorate while allowing public anger to subside and herding his Likud colleagues back into line, ready to revive the self-same legislation just a few weeks from now?

That is indeed almost certainly the plan. His gambit also confuses the public and thus likely weakens the mass protests against de-democratization. It yields the added bonus that Netanyahu has deepened the friction in the opposition camp between the relatively statesmanlike if wary Benny Gantz, who welcomed Netanyahu’s speech, and the warier-still Lapid. And it immediately separates — not ideologically but practically — the anti-Netanyahu political leadership, which will now engage with the prime minister’s representatives in a dialogue brokered by President Isaac Herzog, from the protest organizers, who have unsurprisingly concluded that the prime minister is still intent on enacting his “dictatorship laws” and who will only stand down if the current legislation is scrapped.

Don’t forget, Netanyahu, in his speech, made clear that work on the legislation would resume after the Passover break, that the overhaul would end up passing “one way or another,” and that the “lost balance” between the branches of government would be restored. “We will not give up on the path for which we were elected,” he vowed.

The march of tyranny was merely taking what Netanyahu described as “a timeout.”

Nonetheless, the prime minister’s spectacularly intemperate firing of Gallant prompted not only an outpouring of public rage but also nationwide strike action on Monday. Overseen by the Histadrut labor federation, this entailed dozens of canceled flights at Ben Gurion Airport, the shuttering of some local councils, and the closures of shops, restaurants, malls, banks, universities and more. The Histadrut called off the strike action as soon as Netanyahu had finished speaking, but it has now shown its potency, and would likely be ready to order repeat action if needed.

And Netanyahu has also now found himself dragged back into contact with Herzog, would-be judicial peacemaker in chief, whose alternate package of reform proposals the coalition summarily rejected just two weeks ago.

Herzog’s challenge

The president has, to put it mildly, an uphill battle as he now resumes his negotiating efforts, and the stakes could not be higher.

The elements of this national crisis remain as problematic as ever. Netanyahu and his allies want to shackle the justices in order to advance a radical, discriminatory, and in some cases, racist and theocratic political agenda, at odds with Israel’s democratic and tolerant Jewish foundational principles. They won a decisive election in November and enjoy fervent and wide support.

 

Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan rally near the Knesset in Jerusalem, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Oren Ziv)

But half the country didn’t vote for them, and some of their own voters are deeply unhappy that they did. If the surveys are to be believed, the coalition is hemorrhaging support, which can only reinforce its desire to marginalize the judiciary and maximize its hold on power.

On Monday morning, the coalition-controlled Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved the legislation that gives the government control of judicial appointments, precisely as Levin had planned and Netanyahu had promised. On Tuesday morning, the draconian edict was formally filed for its second and third (final) readings in the Knesset plenum, which can now take place at any moment.

Anti-government protesters burn tires near Beit Yanai, Israel, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Had he not fired his defense minister, the prime minister would right now be enacting into law the centerpiece of his judicial takeover. Instead, that peremptory tactical overreach, by a would-be despot who preposterously invoked King Solomon as his role model on Monday night, means he and his cronies will have to wait.

The fear is that it won’t be for long. “We need to be smart,” as Yariv Levin said. “We’ll pass the legislation later on.”

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-netanyahu-paused-the-march-of-tyranny-and-nobody-who-loves-israel-can-rejoice-yet/

The Straw That Broke The Haredi Knesset Members' Back! ---- McDonald's even announced it was closing all of its locations in the country.

 

Netanyahu set to suspend Israeli judicial overhaul plan after protests

 

Burger King Next? Too Risky!

Israelis gather outside the Knesset, carrying Israeli flags and anti-government placards early on Monday, to protest against the government's plan to introduce judicial changes.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce Monday that he is suspending his coalition's judicial overhaul legislation after a night of mass protests and the announcement of a general strike across much of the country, officials in his Likud party said.

Why it matters: Israel, including its economy, has faced instability and an unprecedented political and social crisis since the plan to weaken the country's Supreme Court was announced in January.

Driving the news: Netanyahu shocked Israel on Sunday when he fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who a day earlier called for the legislation's suspension, saying the plan "created an internal rift that poses a clear and immediate threat for Israel's national security."

• After Gallant was fired, spontaneous demonstrations erupted across the country.
• More than 100,000 Israeli protesters blocked Tel Aviv's main highway for hours Sunday night and thousands more demonstrated in front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem and in other cities across the country.

The big picture: In a rare move, the head of Israel's workers' union announced on Monday morning a general strike across the country until the legislation is suspended. Such a strike hasn't taken place in decades. Many of Israel's largest workers' unions are controlled by people affiliated with Netanyahu's Likud party.

• The private sector as well as workers in all government ministries and municipal authorities joined the strike. McDonald's even announced it was closing all of its locations in the country.
• As a result of the strike, Israel's international airport and kindergartens were shut down and hospitals started dealing only with emergency cases.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu held intense discussions with members of his coalition government, aides and family members on Sunday night, Likud officials said.

• Some Likud ministers urged him to stop the legislation, with several going on television.

• Netanyahu on Monday morning held a meeting with the leaders of his coalition's parties during which Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Jewish Power party threatened to leave the bloc if the legislation was suspended.
• In a dramatic turn later Monday, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who had also threatened to resign, issued a statement stressing that he would respect any decision Netanyahu makes regarding the judicial overhaul. He also said he would work to stabilize the coalition in order to prevent the government from collapsing. Levin's announcement gave Netanyahu important backing for suspending the legislation.
• Senior Likud members are pressing Netanyahu to reverse his decision to fire Gallant. Netanyahu hasn't sent Gallant a formal letter firing him, which means the 48-hour process of the decision coming into effect hasn't started yet.

What to watch: Netanyahu is expected to address the nation on Monday. 

A Thought From The "AI" Rabbi...BotWitz

 

Parshat Vayikra is the third weekly Torah portion in the book of Leviticus, which is the third book of the Torah. It deals primarily with the sacrificial system of the ancient Israelites, including the various types of offerings that were brought to the Tabernacle or Temple.

Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is a holiday that commemorates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar and is celebrated in the spring, usually in late March or early April.

Although Parshat Vayikra and Passover are not directly related, there are some connections between them. One of the main themes of Parshat Vayikra is the idea of atonement, which is achieved through the offering of sacrifices. Similarly, Passover is a time for Jews to reflect on their own spiritual redemption and liberation from slavery, and to seek forgiveness for their sins.

Another connection between the two is the idea of purity and cleanliness. In Leviticus, there are many laws regarding cleanliness and purification, especially in relation to the sacrificial system. Similarly, Passover involves a great deal of cleaning and preparation, both in the home and in the synagogue, in order to ensure that everything is free from chametz (leavened bread) and other impurities.

Overall, while there may not be a direct connection between Parshat Vayikra and Passover, both deal with themes of redemption, atonement, purity, and spiritual renewal, which are central to the Jewish faith.

ChatGPT Mar 14 Version. 

Here we have a subspecies of that bias evinced by a Jewish rabbi and gender activist, who claims that Judaism has long recognized a whole range of genders—six, to be exact.

 

Rabbi’s NYT op-ed misleadingly claims that Jews recognized six genders

whyevolutionistrue Mar 21

Here we have another example of what I call the "reverse appeal to nature", except that it's a "reverse appeal to Judaism". The former trope goes like this, "What my ideology says is good is what I must find in nature." That is, if you're a gender activist, you must argue that since there is no sexual binary in humans (a false assertion, of course), then there is no sexual binary in animals in general (another false assertion).

Here we have a subspecies of that bias evinced by a Jewish rabbi and gender activist, who claims that Judaism has long recognized a whole range of genders—six, to be exact.  This is also false, for the "genders" adduced by rabbi Elliot Kulka, a transgender man, are not socially enacted sex roles but what doctors call "disorders of sex development"( DSDs): very rare conditions when the development of sexual characteristics goes wrong (DSDs, despite Anne Fausto-Sterling's claim, are not "new sexes"). These ancient Jewish categories do not correspond to the kind of genders people recognize today—and Rabbi Kukla admits it.  The fallacy here is imposing onto one's historical religion what what sees as good today: the recognition and approbation of different genders. (Unlike biological sex, which comes in only two forms in humans, genders can be multifarious, as they are social roles or identities assumed by biological males or females.) Somehow the Rabbi thinks it gives succor to the social justice movement to show that Jews recognized people who were victims of sex-trait development gone awry.

The article identifies Kukla as "a rabbi who provides spiritual care to those who are grieving, dying, ill or disabled. He is working on a book about grief in a time of planetary crisis." Wikipedia also notes that he's "the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles."

Read his op-ed by clicking on the screenshot below, or you can find an archived copy here for free.

Why Evolution Is True