Unclear on the concept: David Mandel of JVP Sacramento

Jewish Twitterati is abuzz with Sacramento Jewish Voice for Peace's lack of knowledge of the most basic of Jewish ritual observances- the lighting of the Hanukkah candles.

"Asajew" David Mandel  posted a photo of his Chanukiah on the first night of the celebration.  Four candles are lit.   The shamash is empty.

The comments are priceless.
From A Yid In Dixieland
"JVP celebrates the 4th night of Hanukkah on the first night. And no shamash. Rumor has it they used a burning tire to light them."

A helpful suggestion from Talia Katz
"JVP posted this photo on their Facebook page...If you're going to pretend to be devout Jews, at least Google "Hanukkah" before posting a picture like this."

From  The Proctologist of The Elders of Zion:

Ignorant of  Jewish history.  Ignorant of Jewish Rituals.  "Proud to be ashamed to be Jewish"  JVP is the comic relief of Jew-ish social media.

And if that weren't enough, this travesty of a "Hannukah" celebration was a fundraiser for the terror-supporting SFSU professor Rabab Abdulhadi, whose fiscal sponsor is the extremist antisemtic Al Awda group.

The take - home lesson from the California Democratic convention

The recent controversies at the California Democratic convention underscore how few people understand the current system, and  how few are actually involved.

Every two years,  California Democrats elect 7 self-identified females and 7 other than self-identified females from each Assembly District  as delegates to the California Democratic party.  Only a tiny proportion of registered voters participate in these elections.  There are almost 8 million registered Democrats in California.  Of those, less than 400,000 voters participated in the last  elections, held in January of this year. That’s one half of 1 percent.  In my Assembly district, the elections were held on Shabbat, effectively disenfranchising  traditionally observant Jewish voters.  This is in violation of the parties own guidelines.

There is little transparency and little accountability in these elections.  Assembly District Delegate Elections are not regulated by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Those who are elected  can vote for Party officers, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office, attend the annual convention, and to introduce, endorse and vote on resolutions and ballot measures.

This is how extremists like David Mandel  in Assembly District 7 , Ronald “Chris” Yatooma in Assembly District 6 and Yassar Dahbour in Assembly District 9 are elected.   This is how bigoted and one sided resolutions are introduced into Democratic party policies.  And we can expect this to continue until moderate members of the Democratic get more involved.

David Mandel of Jewish Voice for Peace is kinda sorta maybe against anti-Semitism

This is not the support or solidarity that Jewish people want or need.  Thank Jewish Voice for Peace's David Mandel for this  "All Lives Matter" statement  with the violence directed at the Jewish people a mere afterthought :

The National Lawyers Guild notes with alarm the re-emergence of virulent and violent antisemitism, a core element of historical and currently resurgent white supremacy in the United States and around the world. Adherents of this phenomenon have aimed their toxic attacks at a wide variety of scapegoats – Muslims, refugees, Latinx, indigenous people, immigrants, Blacks, Arabs, LGBTQ-identified people and women, among others, and the left in general – all in an effort to install and bolster regimes that promote nationalism, racism and sexism to suppress democracy, worker rights and movements to save our planet. Moreover, the current U.S. regime and its growing coterie of look-alikes worldwide are fast establishing a pattern of tolerating and giving succor to the various phenomena that spring from white supremacist ideology.

The Guild further notes that in the wake of the hate-inspired killing of worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, there has been an increase in the volume of Trumpian, Charlottesville-style “both sides-ism,” citing “antisemitism of the right and the left”—the latter involving a false conflation of support for Palestine with anti-Jewish hatred. The Guild vehemently condemns this effort, which has fueled ongoing legislative and other initiatives to redefine antisemitism as including criticism of Israeli policies and unconstitutional attempts to suppress and even criminalize boycotts aimed at demanding Palestinian rights. At the same time, Israel’s government and some of its backers have welcomed support for Netanyahu from ultra-right groups in the United States and abroad, dangerously ignoring their deeply rooted antisemitism while aligning with their virulent Islamophobia.

Antisemitism and all forms of racism must be confronted and defeated whatever their source, and with full understanding of their sordid histories, but it is crucial to recognize that these phenomena today are overwhelmingly a function of dangerous fascist and white supremacist movements.

The Guild claim that antisemitism is a function of  "overwhelmingly  fascist and white supremacist movements" is wrong.  Anti-Semitism is the sordid middle ground where the far left and the far right find common cause. Denying that does not make it go away.

There was some good news from the California Democratic Paty's  2018 Fall Executive Board Meeting held this week in Long Beach.  Mandel's attempt to introduce a similar resolution was shot down by the party leadership.

David Mandel's recolution at CADEM  fails

JVP Coordinator David L. Mandel on NGO monitor report: "factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate".

Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento Coordinator  David L. Mandel  has substantiated NGO Monitor's  report on  JVP, writing " factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate".

Here's the context:

From the J weekly, the Jewish newsweekly of Northern California

Report rips Jewish Voice for Peace and its tactics

 A report from the pro-Israel watchdog organization NGO Monitor accuses Bay Area–based Jewish Voice for Peace of masquerading as a mainstream Jewish organization when its true purpose is to create an anti-Israel “wedge within the American Jewish community.”

 Examining JVP’s financial data, strategies, membership, programs and partners, the report, issued July 8, concludes that JVP has “actively promoted the central dimensions of the political warfare strategy against Israel.”....

 The J continues: 

(Yitzhak)Santis, who used to work for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, said pro-BDS and anti-Zionist activists use JVP as a “Jewish shield” to deflect suspicions of anti-Semitism and as a way of “deflecting the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community that strongly supports Israel.”

“They present a Jewish face and give permission,” he said. “They try to convince Christians [JVP is] part of the mainstream Jewish community and should be listened to. They reach out to college-age Jews in the process of forming identities to present a simplistic picture of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, taking advantage of their idealism.”

Moreover, he added, the organization supports or has partnered with groups such as Sabeel, Electronic Intifada, Al-Awda, International ANSWER Coalition, the International Solidarity Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine, all of which label Israel a racist apartheid state, support BDS and, in some cases, support violence against Israelis.

 Jewish Voice for Peace refused to be interviewed for the J weekly, yet several active members of the organization have commented on the article, including Lincoln Shlensky, one of the co-founders of JVP, and  David L. Mandel, Sacramento coordinator for JVP.  David wrote  "Of course much of the factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate; that’s not the point.", before launching into a tirade directed against the NGO watchdog.

David Mandel's admission regarding the accuracy of NGO monitor report (read the report in its entirety, here)  goes a long way in explaining JVP's  uncharacteristic silence on this damning exposure. When faced with incontrovertible evidence regarding the lack of transparency in their organization,  they issue not a ' mea culpa' nor an explanation, but  a childish "Nah Nah Nah.  I can't hear you"

It doesn't surprise me. JVP has been ignoring accuracy, truth and history since their inception.