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.

Israel haters groups response to anti-Semitism at SFSU "But we're the victims"

The recent lawsuit alleging systemic anti-antisemitism at San Francisco State University has gotten a great deal of press lately

Lawsuit claims San Francisco State, university leaders, have history of cultivating campus environment hostile to Jews

San Francisco State University fosters anti-Semitism, lawsuit alleges

Lawsuit says Jewish students ‘intimidated’ at SF State

Current and former students sue SFSU over alleged anti-Semitism

Not being able to control the narrative is a first for the haters.  How are they handling the stress?

What is the reaction of, oh, lets say Jewish Voice for Peace to this? After all, their mission statement claims they oppose "anti-Jewish, bigotry and oppression".   

Ben Lorber, a JVP staffer has "talking points" to share and can help you write a letter, denying anti-Jewish bigotry and oppression even exists

Other anti-Israel groups are also mobilizing fast as they can, utilizing their perpetual theme of  " But, but, but we're the victims" ( so send us money).

A "Launch good" page has been set up to raise money for  SFSU  Professor Rabab Abdulhadi and her students. 

The page reads

They disagreed with her work on Palestine, so they plastered posters across campus calling her a terrorist and a Jew-hater.

Professor Rabab Abdulhadi of the Arab Muslim and Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies program has filed several grievances against San Francisco State University for the hostile and unsafe work and study environment for Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs on campus. Your generous donation will contribute to the legal defense fund against Islamophobia, anti-Arab discrimination and hostility to Palestinians at SFSU campus and to supporting the AMED Studies program against destruction.

"They" apparently means pro-Israel groups such as David Horowitz, Canary Mission, AMCHA, Campus Watch, Stand With US, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Middle East Forum and the Zionist Organization of America -any group that dares defends the rights of Jewish students on campus.

In the eternal sunshine of their spotless victimhood, apparently  the appearance of several dozen tasteless posters on campus constitutes "intimidation" for the General Union of Palestinian students at SFSU. However, there is no evidence that any group other than the Horowitz center was involved, and Jewish SFSU faculty and student groups on campus immediately denounced the posters.  

The General Union of Palestinian Students has rather tender sensibilities for a group that routinely shouts down any dissenting voice, calls for genocide, and maintains a truth-optional view of history.

Spreading hatred at SFSU

Spreading hatred at SFSU

San Francisco State: Tolerating the intolerable

Our friend Mike L.recently originally published  a series of posts at Israel Thrives regarding San Francisco State University

As a graduate he expresses his concern that his alma mater aids and abets anti-Semitism.


He writes

"My concern is that my alma mater finances hatred toward Jews and thus helps to bring that hatred to public prominence in the United States..."

1) SFSU funds student organizations, such as the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS), that call for the murder of Jews, whom they call "colonizers."
2) In the last academic year, Muhammad Hammad, the former president of GUPS held up a blade, took a "selfie," and then published it on a social media site and talked about his desire to kill Jews.
3) The adviser to GUPS, professor Rabab Abdulhadi, a malicious anti-Israel anti-Jewish political activist who specializes in some semi-academic discipline called "race and resistance studies," took a university funded trip to the Middle East for the purpose of meeting with various terrorists and their supporters including plane hijacker, Leila Khaled, whom they exalt as a "freedom fighter."

Go to Israel thrives and  read  San Francisco State University Funds Hatred Toward Jews and

SFSU and the Abdulhadi Embarrasment # 1  

Mike reminds of that San Francisco State has a long and checkered history of tolerating the intolerable.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday, December 14, 2004, Cinnamon Stillwell tells us this:

How did such a threatening environment become associated with a campus located in one of the most liberal and tolerant cities in the nation? The truth is that SFSU has a reputation for intolerance that goes back at least 10 years. In this case, Republican students, clearly a minority at SFSU, were the targets. But in the past, such animosity was directed mostly at Jewish students or those seen as supporting Israel. Jews at SFSU have been spat on, called names and physically attacked, as well as censured by the administration for defending themselves, even as their attackers went unpunished.

California taxpayers foot the bill for extremist junket

Via the San Francisco Examiner

California taxpayers, especially Jewish-Americans, were shocked to discover that San Francisco State University (SFSU), which recently increased its students' tuition, paid more than $7.000 for a trip to the Middle East for two of the university's professors to meet with convicted terrorists, according to a number of sources on Friday, including police counterterrorism expert, Jennifer Sackman. 

The details of the trip surfaced when Jewish-American organizations obtained funding documents using the state's California Public Records Act.

Investigative work by the AMCHA initiative shows that California taxpayers have footed the bill for San Francisco State Professor Rabab Abdulhadi’s junket to the West Bank, which she described as "political solidarity tour”. Abdulhadi, her husband and others proudly admitted meeting with convicted terrorists on the trip, subsidized by our tax dollars. Abdulhadi was originally scheduled to present a paper at a Jan. 11 - 14 Conference of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Lebanon at the school's expense, but after receiving university funding to attend , Abdulhadi sent an email to the SFSU Risk Management Office advising that her "name was dropped from the Beirut conference."

San Francisco State University officials have responded saying  the school investigates "any allegations that a member of the University community misused state funds."

An open letter to California State University officials, and courtesy copied to California politicians signed by eight human rights organizations- the AMCHA Initiative, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel , Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, Zionist Organization of America summarizes their findings and urges action:

SFSU Professor of Ethnic Studies Rabab Abdulhadi went on a "political solidarity tour" to Jordan, "1948 areas of Palestine" [i.e. Israel] and the West Bank, a trip whose primary purpose was to build relationships between Palestinian and North American anti-Israel political activists in order to promote antisemitic academic, cultural and economic boycotts of Israel.  Abdulhadi arranged for the delegation she led, which included SFSU Ethnic Studies Professor Joanne Barker and Abdulhadi's husband Jaime Veve, to meet with at least one known terrorist, Leila Khaled, as well as with a Muslim cleric who had been imprisoned by Israel because of his ties to Hamas and who was again incarcerated by Israel a few weeks after meeting with Abudlhadi's delegation, on charges of incitement to violence.

On at least 4 official University documents signed by several SFSU and CSU administrators, including SFSU President Wong and CSU Chancellor White or someone from his office, Abdulhadi concealed the fact that the true purpose of her trip was political activism to promote efforts to harm the Jewish state, as well as the fact that she had planned to meet with individuals affiliated with organizations on the U.S. State Department's list of Designated Terrorist Organizations.  Presumably by concealing these crucial facts, Abdulhadi was able to receive from the SFSU Office of Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management approval to travel to "high risk" countries and insurance coverage paid for by the University (and California taxpayers), and she was able to receive from the University (and California taxpayers) more than $7,000 dollars for her transportation, lodging and food during the 21 days of her "political solidarity tour."

We believe that there has been an egregious abuse of university and taxpayer funds as well as potential violations of California state law prohibiting the use of state resources for personal or political purposes. 

 Read more here

Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker: This one's for you

Several weeks ago, Rabab Abdulhadi, Joanne Barker  and Jaime Veve appeared in a panel discussion at San Francisco State University and attempted to link indigenous struggles throughout the world.  In their warped world view, however, the history of the Jewish people in the holy land that stretches back through millennium is ignored. Instead, the Jewish people are  presented as "colonizers"

This is for them, written by Ryan Bellerose, a Metis activist. Originally published in the Times of Israel. Ryan's got their number

On the Theft of Indigenous studies

I see people claiming commonalities with my people all the time. They tell me “My people are just like yours,” but the reality is quite different. I hear people telling me “My people have similar experiences to yours,” when the reality is that they have undergone nowhere near the marginalisation or oppression that my people have somehow survived.

When someone invokes the experiences of Native North Americans in order to claim commonalities with us, it’s almost always in order to demonise another country. In the majority of cases I see, it’s Arabs or white people trying to demonise Israel, first by calling them colonisers, and second by inferring that they stole the land on which they built their state. The irony should be obvious.

What I have learned after years of study is that if there is one people in the entire world who can legitimately claim commonalities with us, it is not the descendants of 7th century conquerors who were ascendant for 600 years, until the past century, when the cycle was reversed. The arab muslims who dominated the region after conquering it are the furthest thing from my people. Rather, our fraternity here is with the people who only recent underwent a real genocide and who have still managed to maintain their cultural integrity. That people are the Jewish nation. I do not say this lightly; it comes after years of research, years of speaking to and listening to survivors both of residential schools and the Holocaust. It is not a comparison of tragedies, nor is it a contest; rather, it is about empathy and understanding through common experience.

Ryan finds the comparison of his people's struggles with that of the Palestinians offensive. Here's why:

The Arabs calling themselves Palestinians have not only adopted the mantle of the coloniser/ occupiers, but have also embraced it. They were not forced to take the Arab language, nor were they forced to become converts to a religion that is not their own. There are no residential schools forcing them to keep that foreign language, that alien religion, or those unknown traditions. They do so by choice. They were offered a state of their own three times and refused each time. It’s patently offensive to compare that with the history of my people, especially the Metis, who fought two rebellions and were expelled from their homes a third time.  The Arabs who call themselves Palestinians have been given money and weapons consistently by Iran and other supporters of terrorism. They have been encouraged to kill civilians indiscriminately – they talk about resistance, but the truth is that they are pawns fighting a war against Israel as proxies for the Arab world. They are not freedom fighters, because they fight against the only truly free country in the region. Don’t believe me? Try building a church or synagogue in the Palestinian authority.

Ryan Bellerose will be in the Bay area later this year.  Many of us are looking to forward to hearing more of what this articulate young man has to say.

Report From Members of the Academic and Labor Delegation to Palestine 2014

An event at San Francisco State University last week had several Jewish organizations  deeply concerned.

Our friends, Rima Greene and Emunah attended.

Here is their report:

The March 6 discussion at San Francisco State University "Report and Discussion From Members of the North American Based Academic and Labor Delegation to Palestine 2014," had no pretense of objectivity.  Although promoted on the official SFSU website of the College of Ethnic studies, the presentation was hardly academic in nature. Rather it was a series of biased and unsubstantiated observations, devoid of history and context, by an admittedly biased panel.  The College of Ethnic Studies houses the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative, (AMED), a co- sponsor of last years notorious rally that featured placards glorifying murder.   The department has never condemned the glorification of violence expressed at that rally, or expressed regret for their role in the event. They have made no attempt to distance themselves from the psychotically violent writings of the former president of the General Union of Palestinians Students, Mohammad Hammad.   To those attending the discussion, the reason is now obvious.  The panel’s cavalier attitude towards violent threats on campus was reflected by their attitude towards violent threats abroad.

The discussion featured Rabab Abdulhadi (Race and Resistance Studies), Joanne Barker (American Indian Studies) and Jaime Veve (a self-described Labor and Social Justice Activist), and was intended as a report on a trip that participants readily admitted was highly politicized and biased, saying this was not "solidarity lite" There were repeated references to apartheid South Africa, claiming a system of "apartheid by law, by practice and by acceptance" existed within Israel. There were repeated comparisons to the Nazis. There were spurious claims that the Bedouin have no water or power because these resources were "diverted to the settlements" There were claims of segregation within Israel, with the implication that new immigrants could not live in "high fashion areas’ but rather were separated by race and origin. Rabab Abdulhadi had no issue with race-baiting, claiming the Holocaust was used as a propaganda tool, and that Christian support for Israel was "not in order to survive, they're supporting Israel in order to destroy the world."

The photos of Leila Khaled, Sheik Raed Salah and Omar Barghouti flashing in the background made this all perfectly clear. The fringe movement to demonize the Middle East’s only democracy has been desperate to broaden their range of support, and have honed in on people of color as potential allies. The reoccurring tropes of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing were presented with attempts to tie them into the struggle of the indigenous people throughout the world. Even the most banal occurrences were judged as examples of the irredeemably flawed quality of Israel’s existence. Shops in Israel selling dream catchers were held up as an example of shameless "cultural appropriation." The conclusion of the panelists was clear- of all the nations of the world, only Israel was so uniquely damaged, so inherently flawed from its birth onward that all of its actions, and its very existence were called into question. Thousands of years of Jewish connection to this land were denied, with the ancient homeland of the Jewish people dismissed as a mere "settler colonialist project"

The panelists talk was long on anecdote but woefully short on facts. The steady stream of unsubstantiated hearsay and downright lies were punctuated repeatedly with the statement " It happens all the time". The solution to Israels’ "multi-tiered system of oppression’ and the "basic democratic freedoms denied to the Palestinian people" was "Boycotts Sanctions and Divestment"

Most egregious was the panelists’ white-washing of terror. The murder of Israeli civilians and the ongoing terror war against Israel was dismissed as the "cry of a baby" for attention. The panelists freely admitted meeting with people who had committed "political acts of defiance and resistance’ who had been released in a recent prisoner exchange. They acknowledged that these murderers of civilians were regarded as "heroes". The panelists offered their unqualified support for hijacker Leila Khaled, describing her as a feminist "icon" and for Sheik Raed Salah, who has recently been sentenced to prison for incitement to violence.

There was no context. There was no mention of the ongoing terror war or the thousands of Israeli civilian casualties that resulted in security precautions that continue to save countless lives. Inconvenient facts were deliberately ignored. Israel’s Supreme Court was described as " headed by a settler", with no mention that there is also an Arab Justice. Talk of the "desecration" of the ancient Mamilla cemetery neglected the salient fact that the years ago Grand mufti of Jerusalem had issued a religious decree declaring the abandoned cemetery was no longer considered sacred ground. In 1929 Arabs removed many graves and built the Palace Hotel on its grounds.

Truth, history and language itself were all sacrificed in this hagiographic tribute to Palestinian victimhood. Ignoring the rapid population growth, low infant mortality and high life expectancy of the Palestinians, the situation was instead labeled "a genocide". For those aware of the history of the region, the repeated references to Nelson Mandela, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr were particularly offensive, as both men were committed to the security of Israel and to its recognition as the state of the Jewish people. The panelists seemed unaware of the internal contradictions within their own presentation- claiming local Greeks and Armenians were Palestinians, while maintaining the Palestinians as an "indigenous" people.

Years ago, Sigmund Freud presented "projection" as an immature defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously rejects their own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to others. There was a pervasive air of "projection" perpetuated by this panel. Photos from an Israeli art colony Ein Hod flashed on the scene, with the claim that art in Israel was an "attempt to create a folkloric cultural history". Historian Barbara Tuchman has stated that "Israel is the only nation in the world that is governing itself in the same territory, under the same name, and with the same religion and same language as it did 3,000 years ago." A rich historic, liturgical and archaeological history of the Jewish people in their homeland already exists, and has for thousands of years. Can we say the same thing about the Palestinians?

Rabab Abdulhadi , Joanne Barker and Jaime Veve should heed the words of African American Pastor and Israel Advocate Dumisani Washington, who has written:

"I do not spurn the Palestinian fight for self-determination. Every fight for justice is a righteous struggle. I would just say that, what made the Black historic struggle effective was our remembering who our enemy was — and who it was not. In the interest of defending Palestinian human rights, one may want to start with the main perpetrators: The Palestinian Authority and Hamas."