Palestinian Grand Mufti complicit in the deaths of European Jews

Congressperson Rashida Tlaib is now claiming her ancestors provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the Holocaust. Its simply not true. The Arab leadership in pre-state Israel did all they could to prevent Jewish migration. The Grand Mufti personally prevented 10,000  children from entering the land, dooming them to certain death in Europe

From the Des Moines Tribune, April 26 1961, writing about the Eichmann trial and quoting notes from Dieter Wisliceny, one of Eichmann's former aides.

In 1937 there already was an intelligence connection between the SS and the mufti of Jerusalem, Wisliceny was quoted as having written.

The excerpts told of a visit by Eichmann to Palestine in 1937 and by the mufti to Germany in 1941 or 1942.

According to Wisliceny, the mufti received consent from Nazi authorities to have a Nazi adviser sent to him after the Axis' expected final victory.

When there was a plan in 1942 to free 10,000 Jewish children to let them go to Palestine the mufti objected according to Wisliceny.

The notes quoted Eichmann as reporting that objections from the mufti prompted SS chief Himmler to suspend the project and to rule that no Jew should be permitted to go to Palestine from German-occupied Europe

Records from the Eichmann trial show that the Grand Mufti was paid a salary of 50,000 marks a month to foment hate in the region.   Rather than provide the Jews of Europe with a safe haven, the Palestinian Grand Mufti was complicit in their deaths.

Antisemitic article from Janet Lahr Lewis draws rebuke from the Methodist Bishop of Iowa

"Antisemitism cannot be used as a political tool. It cannot legitimately be used to advance an argument. "

Statement from the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines June 2, 2015 

Antisemitism draws rebuke from the Methodist Bishop of Iowa

When presented with an example of blatant antisemitism authored by a United Methodist staff member, Iowa United Methodist Bishop Julius C. Trimble responded quickly and authoritatively. As a bridge-builder for peace, the bishop acknowledged and denounced the antisemitism as evidenced.

A keynote speaker at an upcoming program of the Iowa Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, United Methodist staff member Janet Lahr Lewis recently called for a boycott of Holocaust museums in protest of an alleged Palestinian holocaust by Israel.

In a column posted by Ms. Lewis to The United Methodist’s General Board of Church & Society website, she wrote: “ Don’t visit a Holocaust museum until there is one built to remember the other holocausts in the world: the on-going Palestinian holocaust, the Rwandan, the Native American, the Cambodian, the Armenian…You could be waiting a long time.” Ms. Lewis serves as the Peace and Justice Program Associate at the General Board of Church & Society, and is a missionary with the Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church.

As analyzed by the Jewish Federation, the problems of Ms. Lewis’ statement are as follows:

1. Ms. Lewis implies that it is solely up to the Jews to memorialize the genocides of history – and that the Jews are somehow blocking the memorialization of other genocides. Outside of the fact that Holocaust museums, especially the major ones, do in fact recognize, study, memorialize and call for action against genocides worldwide, the questions arise: Why are the Jews uniquely responsible for this, and how are Jews blocking others from doing so? Singling out Jews in this manner is antisemitism.

2. Contending, as Ms. Lewis does, that Israel is committing genocide or a holocaust against the Palestinian people is not only inaccurate in analogy, but is also defamatory. It is a charge that demonizes Israel by insinuating that the intention of Israel is to annihilate the Palestinian people and casts Israelis as Nazis. Demonizing Israel is antisemitism.

3. Finally, by advocating that Methodists boycott Holocaust museums, Ms. Lewis is targeting Jews and not Israel. When people take out their anger at Israel by targeting Jews in general, that is antisemitism.

When presented with what a staff member was advocating, Bishop Julius C. Trimble issued a message of assurance in response to our concerns. In his letter, which is now available online in order that he not be taken out of context, the bishop reaffirmed that his denomination denounces all acts and expressions of anti-Semitism, along with all forms and expressions of hatred, racism.

The bishop implicitly advised that it is unwise to promote the boycotting of Holocaust museums. “I have visited the Holocaust Museum in Israel and Beachwood, Ohio on several occasions. I have found them to be deeply moving, education and painful experiences. Knowing the history of the Jews, and many others who were killed and their lives before the Holocaust, serves to deepen my own desire for peace.”

Bishop Trimble asserted, quite rightfully, we believe, that “we cannot build bridges between communities by comparing atrocities…but we can denounce hatred, racism and anti-Semitism wherever it surfaces.”

In accordance with his stated guideline, Bishop Trimble then proceeded to note: “Accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people is anti-Semitism; that is wrong, because it is defamatory.”

We thank Bishop Trimble for his forthright evaluation of the hurtful sentiments expressed by Janet Lahr Lewis, and we call upon Ms. Lewis to desist from using such defamatory means to promote her agenda.

We moreover request the Iowa Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action to publicly repudiate their keynote speaker’s use of antisemitism.

Antisemitism cannot be used as a political tool. It cannot legitimately be used to advance an argument. 

Gad Beck z"l. A Life of Pride and Resistance

Gad Beck, an anti-Nazi Zionist resistance fighter and last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust died this week just days before his 89th birthday.

Beck’s father was an Austrian Jew and his mother was a convert to Judaism. Beck was classified as a mischling (half-breed)under the Nazi racial laws. In 1943, he and his father were sent to a holding compound in Berlin until massive protests by non-Jewish wives convinced the Nazis to release the prisoners. There were “thousands of women who stood for days... my aunts demanded ‘give us our children and men,’” he later wrote.

“The Rosenstrasse event made one thing absolutely clear to me: I won’t wait until we get deported,” said Beck.

Following his release, Beck joined Chug Chaluzi, an underground Zionist resistance group, which played a key role in ensuring the survival of Jews and gays in Berlin. According to the entry about him at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, he noted that “as a homosexual, I was able to turn to my trusted non-Jewish, homosexual acquaintances to help supply food and hiding places.”

In his autobiography, Beck describes wearing a Hitler Youth uniform and entering the pre-deportation camp where his boyfriend, Manfred Lewin was being held. He asked the commanding officer for Lewin’s release for use in a construction project. Permission was granted. When outside the building, however, the boy declined, saying, "Gad, I can't go with you. My family needs me. If I abandon them now, I could never be free." "In those seconds, watching him go," Gad recalls, "I grew up." Lewin and his entire family were murdered at Auschwitz

After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Beck continued his Zionist work and helped Jewish survivors emigrate to Palestine. He remained in Israel between 1947 and 1979.Beck returned to Berlin in 1979 where he was the director of the Jewish Adult Education Center

Beck is survived by his partner of 35 years, Julius Laufer.