Behind the Aegis
Behind the Aegis's Journal1,000 drag queens will 'welcome' Trump to London when he visits
Source: LGBTQ Nation
Queen Elizabeth won’t the only queen greeting Donald Trump when he visits the U.K. in July.
A thousand people have signed onto a Facebook invitation for a drag-queen protest to greet the president in London on July 13. Another nearly 7,000 people are interested in attending.
Manchester drag performer Cheddar Gorgeous and four other performers have issued the call to all drag kings, queens, queers and our allies.
“Due to the appalling way the Trump administration has regarded the rights and welfare of the LGBTQI communities in the U.S., the idea of a Trump visit to the U.K. is unacceptable,” the invitation says.
“Let’s get visible, stand with our sisters, brothers and others in America.”
Read more: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/05/1000-drag-queens-will-welcome-trump-london-visits/?utm_source=queerty&utm_medium=directlink&utm_campaign=directlink&utm_content=1%2C000+drag+queens+will+%E2%80%98welcome%E2%80%99+Trump+to+London+when+he+visits
FAB-U-LOUS!
Germans of all faiths in 'wear a kippa march' against anti-Semitism
Source: CNN
Thousands of people across Germany marched Wednesday in solidarity with the country's Jewish community amid rising concerns over anti-Semitism.
A day after Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, warned against Jewish men wearing a kippa (skullcap) in public, demonstrators wore the head covering in a gesture of solidarity.
The largest event took place in Berlin, with other demonstrations held across the country in Erfurt, Potsdam and Cologne -- with people of different faiths coming together.
Schuster's remarks came after last week's anti-Semitic attack in Berlin that targeted two men wearing kippas.
According to the latest figures published by the Interior Ministry, there were 1,468 anti-Semitic attacks carried out in Germany in 2016.
Read more: http://www.abc17news.com/news/national-world/germans-of-all-faiths-in-wear-a-kippa-march-against-antisemitism/734750039
Neo-Nazis Burned a Swastika After Their Rally in Georgia
Neo-Nazis held a swastika burning following a white supremacist rally in the city of Newnan, Georgia, on Saturday.
Photographer Spencer Platt captured the scene for Getty Images. His pictures show a massing burning swastika and an othala rune – a pagan symbol that was used by some elements of the Third Reich.
One image shows dozens of people giving Nazi salutes in front of a burning swastika that appears to be 12 to 18 feet tall.
According to Platt and local news reports, the white supremacist group gathered in Draketown, Georgia, about 50 miles from Newnan after the protest.
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Members of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a swastika burning after a rally on April 21, 2018 in Draketown, Georgia. Community members had opposed the rally in Newnan and came out to embrace racial unity in the small Georgia town. Fearing a repeat of the violence that broke out after Charlottesville, hundreds of police officers were stationed in the town during the rally in an attempt to keep the anti racist protesters and neo-Nazi groups separated Spencer Platt - Getty Images
(Jewish Group) Sen. Brian Schatz Calls on Fellow Progressives to Fight Anti-Semitism Within...
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)Sen. Brian Schatz Calls on Fellow Progressives to Fight Anti-Semitism Within Their Ranks, Not Just On Right
As someone who reports regularly on anti-Semitism across the globe and the political spectrum, one of the most frustrating parts of my job is seeing how anti-Jewish bigotry is constantly dismissed as the perpetual sin of other people. That is, while many individuals are happy to oppose and expose anti-Semitism among their ideological opponents, they balk at confronting it among their allies. Invariably, when faced with evidence of anti-Jewish hate on their side, partisans will insist that the other side is worse, as though this is a relevant retort rather than an evasion.
We’ve seen this unfortunate pattern play out repeatedly in recent days, whether it has been progressives dismissing the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan and his Women’s March fans by gesturing to Trump and the alt-right, or conservatives waving off Trump’s apologias for neo-Nazis by pointing to leftist critics of Israel who lapse into anti-Semitism. In reality, the only people who win this fight over which group or political faction is “more anti-Semitic” are the actual anti-Semites, who keep on spreading their hate while their would-be opponents instead point fingers at each other.
Yesterday, progressive Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii refreshingly called out this disingenuous dynamic. Speaking at the annual J Street conference in Washington, Schatz advocated for a more open and critical discourse on Israel, and defended those like himself who disagree with Israeli policies while supporting the state of Israel. But along the way, he also made a key point about anti-Semitism that is worth highlighting.
“In one year, anti-Semitic incidents have increased by nearly 60 percent,” he noted. “And frankly, it’s coming from all sides.” This crosspartisan bigotry, Schatz continued, has historical precedent that should disturb us. “Philip Spencer, an emeritus professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Kingston University, has documented how the Nazis were able to build a movement based on anti-Semitism: It’s because the political parties never pushed back. Not the Social Democrats or the Communists in Germany, and not the resistance across the continent.” Those who overlook anti-Semitism, in other words, will ultimately be overtaken by it.
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FINALLY!!! This bears repeating...... the only people who win this fight over which group or political faction is “more anti-Semitic” are the actual anti-Semites, who keep on spreading their hate while their would-be opponents instead point fingers at each other.
And just because it was so poignant, here is J.K. Rowling's quote on anti-Semitism:
'Would response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify?'
The Jews who fought back: the story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
During the Second World War, Jews forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland had little choice: they could either fight their Nazi oppressors, or be transported to certain death at Treblinka extermination camp. Here, Alexandra Richie explores the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a remarkable act of Jewish resistance that began 75 years ago today
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, one of the most significant and tragic events in the history of the Second World War. It was a demonstration of heroic resistance, when Jews decided to fight against their oppressors rather than be forced to die in a concentration camp. It has left a remarkable legacy, which reverberates to this day.
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Jews had been living in Poland for more than a thousand years. Around 10 per cent of the country’s pre-war population was Jewish, but in some cities the proportion was much higher. Only New York had a higher number of Jewish residents than Warsaw, which was home to around 375,000 Jews – approximately 30 per cent of the city’s population. They had created a rich and diverse culture – something that the Germans were determined to destroy.
The Nazi persecution of the Jews in Poland began with the invasion of the country in 1939. Jews very quickly lost their rights; by October 1939 they were forced to register and have the word ‘Jude’ stamped on their identity papers. They were soon forbidden from many ordinary activities, such as walking on the pavement, or going to schools, libraries or museums. Synagogues were blown up, or turned into prisons or factories, and many Jews were abused and humiliated on the streets.
April 19, 2018 at 12:53 pm
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75 years ago marked the beginning of the end: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Yiddish: אױפֿשטאַנד אין װאַרשעװער געטאָ?; Polish: powstanie w getcie warszawskim; German: Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto) was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties are not known, but were not more than 300. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.
On April 19, 1943, a brave group of Polish Jews began the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, their storied resistance against the Nazis. The ghetto fighters, although small in number and lacking in resources, dared to defy the odds. Though the uprising lasted only a month, today it is remembered as a legendary act of Jewish defiance during the Holocaust.
This anniversary is especially poignant for me as I sit in my office, just blocks away from what remains of the Warsaw Ghetto walls. I hear the bustling sounds of our capital city's first modern Jewish Community Center.
The smell of vegan matzo ball soup reaches my office from the ground floor, where a Jewish cooking workshop is in full swing. On another floor, a group of teenagers plans a scavenger hunt for our Sunday school children in a room housing our newly opened Hebrew library. And next to my desk, Jews of different backgrounds plan the future of Limmud, a Jewish educational and cultural conference, the biggest event for Poland's Jews, bringing together nearly 1,000 participants.
Contrary to popular opinion, Jewish life goes on here for the 10,000 to 20,000 Jews who call Poland home today.
True, conversations among us often turn to concern over the recent legislation in the Polish parliament about Holocaust history and its consequences. We also worry about the rise in anti-Semitic sentiment, outside misconceptions about our country and Jewish visitors canceling their trips.
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75 years after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Poland holds a day of commemoration, taking a moment of silence to remember those who fell in resistance to the Nazi regime, as well as the millions of others slain in the Holocaust.
People in Warsaw pinned paper daffodils to their clothes as the Polish capital held a day of commemorations Thursday on the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
People stopped in the street and officials stood at attention as sirens wailed and church bells tolled at noon in a sign of mourning for the Jews who died fighting, as well as the millions of other Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
The daffodils tradition comes from Marek Edelman, who was the last surviving commander of the uprising, and on every anniversary used to lay these spring flowers at the monument to the fighters. He died in 2009.
President Andrzej Duda was to speak during official commemorations at the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes and pay homage to the hundreds of Jewish fighters who took up arms in the 1943 rebellion against the German forces that occupied Poland during World War II. The revolt ended in death for most of the fighters, yet left behind an enduring symbol of resistance.
At a ceremony at Warsaw's Town Hall, three Holocaust survivors—Helena Birenbaum, Krystyna Budnicka and Marian Turski—were given honorary citizenship of the city.
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The uprising by Jewish people entrapped in the Warsaw Ghetto 75 years ago has been well documented in art and literature. Here, a look at how the event has served as fodder in films.
On April 19, 1943, 75 years ago, the inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw started an uprising against their tormentors. They refused to simply let themselves be sent to death.
Between July 1942 and that day, the Nazis had some 300,000 people deported from the Ghetto to concentration camps. The remaining Jews resisted. The Nazis stopped the rebellion by burning down every block of the Ghetto. By May 16, 1943, the Germans managed to crush the uprising; a total of 13,000 Jews died. It was the largest act of revolt by Jews during World War II.
The rebellion in film
"The Pianist," "Jacob the Liar," and "Run Boy Run" are among the best-known films about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Several film directors, most notably Roman Polanski, adapted the historical events into film.
The renowned French-Polish director personally survived another Jewish ghetto in Poland, in Krakow, and his mother was assassinated in Auschwitz. Polanski's film "The Pianist," a box office hit, received three Oscars.
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People in the Polish capital are holding a day of commemorations on the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
People stopped in the street and officials stood at attention as sirens wailed and church bells tolled at noon in a sign of mourning for the Jews who died fighting, as well as the millions of other Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
The daffodils tradition comes from Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the uprising, who on every anniversary used to lay the spring flowers at the monument to the fighters before his death in 2009.
President Andrzej Duda spoke during official commemorations at the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes and pay homage to the hundreds of Jewish fighters who took up arms in the 1943 rebellion against the German forces that occupied Poland during the Second World War.
more...
During the Second World War, Jews forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland had little choice: they could either fight their Nazi oppressors, or be transported to certain death at Treblinka extermination camp. Here, Alexandra Richie explores the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a remarkable act of Jewish resistance that began 75 years ago today
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, one of the most significant and tragic events in the history of the Second World War. It was a demonstration of heroic resistance, when Jews decided to fight against their oppressors rather than be forced to die in a concentration camp. It has left a remarkable legacy, which reverberates to this day.
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Jews had been living in Poland for more than a thousand years. Around 10 per cent of the country’s pre-war population was Jewish, but in some cities the proportion was much higher. Only New York had a higher number of Jewish residents than Warsaw, which was home to around 375,000 Jews – approximately 30 per cent of the city’s population. They had created a rich and diverse culture – something that the Germans were determined to destroy.
The Nazi persecution of the Jews in Poland began with the invasion of the country in 1939. Jews very quickly lost their rights; by October 1939 they were forced to register and have the word ‘Jude’ stamped on their identity papers. They were soon forbidden from many ordinary activities, such as walking on the pavement, or going to schools, libraries or museums. Synagogues were blown up, or turned into prisons or factories, and many Jews were abused and humiliated on the streets.
April 19, 2018 at 12:53 pm
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Hans Asperger aided and supported Nazi programme, study says
The Austrian doctor after whom Asperger syndrome is named was an active participant in the Nazi regime, assisting in the Third Reich’s euthanasia programme and supporting the concept of racial hygiene by deeming certain children unworthy to live, according to a study by a medical historian.
Herwig Czech, from Vienna’s Medical University, has made the claim in an academic paper published in the open access journal Molecular Autism, following eight years of research into the paediatrician Hans Asperger.
-snip-
But by unearthing previously untouched documents from state archives, including Asperger’s personnel files and patient case records, Czech has revealed a scientist who allied himself so closely with the Nazi ideology that he frequently referred children to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic, which was set up as a collecting point for children who failed to conform to the regime’s criteria of “worthy to live”.
-snip-
Czech also lists examples of how Asperger often deemed sexually abused children to be responsible for the abuse and cites how antisemitic stereotypes crept into Asperger’s diagnostic reports.
“Asperger refused to acknowledge the reality of anti-Jewish persecution by the Nazi regime; this indifference is visible both during and after the war,” said Czech.
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Bipartisan group of lawmakers condemn anti-Semitic attacks on Parkland students
A bipartisan group of lawmakers issued a statement on Friday condemning anti-Semitic attacks on students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Four lawmakers from Florida and New York said they condemn "anti-Semitism in all its forms and reject any inappropriate evocation of the Holocaust or comparison to Nazis."
The letter — signed by Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Eliot Engel (R-N.Y.), who co-chair the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism — comes after anti-Semitic and anti-gun control fliers were left adjacent to the campus of American University this week.
Yahoo News reported on Monday that police arrested a person was caught trying to hang anti-Semitic fliers that pictured a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February. Adolf Hitler was also pictured on the flier.
“It is shameful for anyone to attack students — especially survivors of gun violence — with anti-Semitic slurs and Nazi comparisons. Policy differences are never an excuse for anti-Semitism," the lawmakers' statement reads.
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I am shocked! Just as I am shocked how this was covered and discussed by so many who despise bigotry.
Oh wait...nope, not shocked at all. Not shocked at the anti-Semitism, not shocked at the lack of interest or discussion.
The original "Never Again", today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance.
Yom Hashoah is the day of remembrance for the six million Jews who were massacred in Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Not all Jews met their deaths in the camps, many died along the way, some died in their homes, and others were murdered before the camps were even functioning.Most of the Jews of Europe were eradicated. The world population was greatly reduced as well.
Never Forget.
The number of Jews in the world is still lower than it was in 1939, prior to the Holocaust, according to figures released Tuesday by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
This number is similar to that in 1922, 96 years ago, when 14 million Jews lived worldwide.
Today, most Jews live in Israel and the United States.
The data of the Central Bureau of Statistics are based on information gathered by the Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics and the A. Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which relate to 2016.
The data indicate that there are currently 6,446,000 Jews in Israel, 5,700,000 in the US, 456,000 in France, 390,000 in Canada, 290,000 in Britain, 181,000 in Argentina, 176,000 in Russia, 117,000 in Germany, and 113,000 in Australia.
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Holocaust denial is a position consciously held not because there is no evidence but despite it. Like antisemitism, to which it is closely related, Holocaust denial is not based on evidence but is a position held because its adherents want it to be true, writes Professor Dan Stone.
There are few “flat earthers” these days and the majority of people no longer believe that the moon is made of green cheese. By contrast, denying the Holocaust, that is, claiming that the genocide of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II ever took place, seems to be flourishing.
It is an extreme example of an increasingly common phenomenon: rejecting facts when they happen to be inconvenient. At least when, in the middle ages, people thought that the sun orbited the earth, they had no proof to the contrary. Holocaust denial is a position consciously held not because there is no evidence but despite it. Like antisemitism, to which it is closely related, Holocaust denial is not based on evidence but is a position held because its adherents want it to be true. Unfortunately, it is not.
Just as antisemitism is a claim about Jews that rests ultimately on mythical thinking – Jews as puppet-masters behind world events, for example – so Holocaust denial rests on similar conspiracy theories – that the Jews concocted the whole story to extract money from Germany and to promote Zionism, for example.
People with strongly-held antisemitic beliefs are rarely amenable to having their views changed by the presentation of evidence, and the same is true of Holocaust denial. What follows is not aimed at those who are unshakeable in their belief that the Holocaust never happened, although it would be nice to think that their minds could be changed (they probably do not read the JC, in any case). Rather, I want to show that, when people – often youngsters – are confused by the easily-accessible lies that proliferate on the internet, it is not hard to put them straight.
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Feelings of insecurity are widespread among European Jews as a result of the resurgence of the extreme right, a heated anti-Zionist discourse on the left and radical Islam, according to a global study of antisemitism.
Last year the number of recorded violent antisemitic incidents fell by about 9% compared to 2016 – and by almost 50% compared with the 2006-14 average – but there was a notable increase in harassment and abuse, according to a survey published by the Kantor Center.
The report highlights a strengthening of the extreme right in some European counties, “accompanied by slogans and symbols reminiscent of the 1930s” and “the intensity of the anti-Jewish sentiments expressed in a variety of ways [...] especially on street demonstrations”. It says this may explain a discrepancy between the levels of fear among European Jews and the actual number of incidents.
“Expressions of classic traditional antisemitism are back and, for example, the term ‘Jew’ has become a swear word,” it says.
The 105-page report examines the prevalence of antisemitism in Europe, the post-Soviet region, the US, Canada, Australia, South America and South Africa. It records 327 major incidents of violence, vandalism and desecration in 2017, compared with a peak of 1,118 in 2009 and a low of 78 in 1989, the year the study began. It found 30% of attacks were directed at individuals, 20% at cemeteries and memorial sites, and 17% at synagogues.
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Confronting Holocaust Denial
Holocaust denial is a position consciously held not because there is no evidence but despite it. Like antisemitism, to which it is closely related, Holocaust denial is not based on evidence but is a position held because its adherents want it to be true, writes Professor Dan Stone.
There are few “flat earthers” these days and the majority of people no longer believe that the moon is made of green cheese. By contrast, denying the Holocaust, that is, claiming that the genocide of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II ever took place, seems to be flourishing.
It is an extreme example of an increasingly common phenomenon: rejecting facts when they happen to be inconvenient. At least when, in the middle ages, people thought that the sun orbited the earth, they had no proof to the contrary. Holocaust denial is a position consciously held not because there is no evidence but despite it. Like antisemitism, to which it is closely related, Holocaust denial is not based on evidence but is a position held because its adherents want it to be true. Unfortunately, it is not.
Just as antisemitism is a claim about Jews that rests ultimately on mythical thinking – Jews as puppet-masters behind world events, for example – so Holocaust denial rests on similar conspiracy theories – that the Jews concocted the whole story to extract money from Germany and to promote Zionism, for example.
People with strongly-held antisemitic beliefs are rarely amenable to having their views changed by the presentation of evidence, and the same is true of Holocaust denial. What follows is not aimed at those who are unshakeable in their belief that the Holocaust never happened, although it would be nice to think that their minds could be changed (they probably do not read the JC, in any case). Rather, I want to show that, when people – often youngsters – are confused by the easily-accessible lies that proliferate on the internet, it is not hard to put them straight.
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