AJC Dispatch

Spotlight

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, announced an agreement to govern the country. Joining us on the podcast is Tal Schneider, political and diplomatic correspondent at Globes, to discuss the power-sharing agreement, including its more controversial elements. Then, we hear from AJC Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations Ari Gordon on the release of a new Arabic-language video about the Holocaust. The new video is the third in AJC’s highly successful Arabic video series, ‘An al-Yahud (“About the Jews”), which has reached tens of millions across the Arab world. Listen now

Must-reads

AJC Welcomes Formation of National Unity Government in Israel
The Algemeiner / 3-minute read
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz have agreed to a national unity government, ending a political crisis that has seen the country hold three general elections in less than a year. Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, Netanyahu will remain in the role for 18 months, before handing over the premiership to Gantz for the remainder of a three-year term. Blue and White will take half of all ministries, including defense and foreign affairs. AJC welcomed the formation of a national unity government, saying: “We applaud the vision and pragmatism of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz – forging a unity government, in the spirit of democratic compromise, to guide the country through the coronavirus crisis and confront strategic challenges.”

AJC Releases Arabic Video on the Holocaust
AJC Global Voice / 2-minute read
On April 20, ahead of Yom HaShoah, AJC released an Arabic-language video about the Holocaust, which presents the basic facts about the Nazi extermination program during World War II (watch the video in English and in Arabic). While the video features Nazi collaborators like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, an ally of Adolf Hitler’s, it also highlights the stories of Righteous Among the Nations, such as King Mohammed V of Morocco, who protected his Jewish subjects, and other Muslims who risked their lives to save Jews. In less than three months, AJC’s 'An al-Yahud ("About the Jews") Arabic video series has reached tens of millions and attracted a massive—and rapidly rising—following on social media. The project’s Arabic-language Facebook page has over 150,000 followers and its Twitter account has attracted an audience of over 50,000.

Sharing the Narrative: How Muslims and Jews Can Remember the Holocaust Together
Moment Magazine / 6-minute read
In a piece published in Moment Magazine on April 21, AJC’s Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations Ari Gordon shares his moving journey from the grandson of Holocaust survivors to a groundbreaking joint visit of Muslims and Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In January 2020, Gordon took part in the most senior delegation of Muslim leaders ever to tour a Nazi death camp, organized and led by AJC and the Muslim World League. Reflecting on the experience, Gordon shared in his article four key ways Muslims and Jews can remember the Holocaust together. On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, AJC CEO David Harris wrote: “We shall never forget the importance of speaking out against intolerance, whenever and wherever it occurs, all the more so as antisemitism in Europe is again on the rise, and deadly attacks against Christians, Jewish, and Muslim houses of worship, both in the United States and abroad, that have seared our souls.”

Good to Know

AJC Demands Apology from U.S. Lawmaker for Comparing Coronavirus Response to Nazis
The Jerusalem Post / 4-minute read
On April 20, AJC called on Republican Idaho state lawmaker Heather Scott to apologize for comparing workers asked to stay at home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus to victims of the Holocaust. AJC said that "Scott's comparison of stay-at-home orders during the pandemic to Nazi death camps is unfathomably offensive and an unforgivable affront to victims of the Holocaust.” During a Zoom interview, Scott suggested that the lockdown was “no different than Nazi Germany where you had government telling people either you were an essential worker or a non-essential worker, and non-essential workers got put on a train.” The legislator also called Idaho Governor Brad Little, “Little Hitler.”

Iran Launches Military Satellite into Orbit amid Tensions with U.S.
BBC / 4-minute read
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on April 22 that it had successfully launched a military satellite into orbit amid wider tensions with the U.S. A spokesman for the group said that the launch was “a great success and a new development in the field of space for Islamic Iran.” The satellite, named Nur ("Light"), reached an orbit of 264 miles after being carried by a three-stage Qased launcher. In April 2019, the U.S. designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. Washington expressed concern in the past that the technology used to launch satellites could help the Islamic Republic develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, an aspect not covered by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The launch potentially violates a UN Security Council resolution, which calls upon Iran not to "undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

Germany: Halle Synagogue Attacker Charged with Murder
Deutsche Welle / 2-minute read
The far-right extremist behind the botched synagogue attack in the German city of Halle has been charged with murder and attempted murder of 68 people, German prosecutors said on April 21. The assailant, identified only as Stephan B., tried to attack the synagogue on October 9 last year, the day Jews marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. After unsuccessfully trying to force his way into the building, the attacker fatally shot two people nearby and later injured two others. Prosecutors said that Stephan B. was acting based on "anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic sentiments." The perpetrator posted antisemitic material online before the attack and broadcast the shooting live on a popular gaming site. AJC sent a message of solidarity to the German Jewish community following the incident, saying: “An attack on one Jew is an attack on all.”

Tidings

The Jew-iest episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ will get you through quarantine (The Forward / 5-minute read)
The Israeli making culture accessible, one model at a time (Israel21c / 5-minute read)
The Jerusalem art show goes online to defy coronavirus (The Jerusalem Post / 6-minute read)

The articles featured here do not necessarily reflect AJC’s positions.

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