Podcasts about french jews

Talks imminent between the U.S. & Iran. Analysis from Dep. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharren Haskel. French Jews make Aliyah, evacuated families from N. Israel return to their homes. Rabbi Tuly Weisz explains how to hold a Sovereignty Seder.

Talks imminent between the U.S. & Iran. Analysis from Dep. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharren Haskel. French Jews make Aliyah, evacuated families from N. Israel return to their homes. Rabbi Tuly Weisz explains how to hold a Sovereignty Seder.

PM Netanyahu & Pres. Trump strategize on Iran and hash out trade details. Analysis: Jonathan Tobin from JNS. Dozens of French Jews make Aliyah. The organization 'Passages' brings Christian students to Israel. CBN Israel helps Ukrainian immigrants.

PM Netanyahu & Pres. Trump strategize on Iran and hash out trade details. Analysis: Jonathan Tobin from JNS. Dozens of French Jews make Aliyah. The organization 'Passages' brings Christian students to Israel. CBN Israel helps Ukrainian immigrants.

As the largest Jewish community in Europe and the third largest in the world, French Jewry—primarily of Sephardic descent from North Africa—blends a rich, thriving Jewish heritage with modern challenges.Giving a voice to the French Jewish community on this week's episode of Adapting, David Bryfman sits down with Devorah Serrao, CEO of Alliance Israélite Universelle, to explore the unique dynamics of Jewish education and identity in France. Devorah shares insights into how young French Jews today balance their French and Jewish identities, as well as lessons for Jewish communities worldwide in navigating identity and finding your inner voice. This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Miranda Lapides. The show's executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben.  This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media.  If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating and review, or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released. To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. 

Today, The Fellowship's C.J. Burroughs shares the story of a French pastor who aided Jews being persecuted by the Nazis.

Israel has confirmed another Hamas leader's death, a heavy blow to the militant group. Will this new development lead us closer to a ceasefire or increase the pressure Israel puts on Gaza? Also: today's stories, including what problems a rise in main-in vote could bring, how some French Jews are protecting themselves and how immigrants help a decreasing population. Join the Monitor's Clay Collins and Nate Iglehart for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

Ariella; lethal and lovely.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Packed and Stacked.She was maybe twenty-five, and even in the battle dress she was wearing, she looked slender. I couldn’t tell much else about her except she looked a little the Arabic women I’d seen in Afghanistan. I was sure about two things though; the rifle was an Israeli M 89 SR sniper rifle, and she sounded very serious when she spoke.“What are you doing here?” she demanded.Since I was armed to the teeth and had just shot a guy, my story about being a tourist and out taking some pictures wasn’t going to work very well. The truth would work better unless she was one of the traffickers. I didn’t think she was though. If she had been, she’d have just shot me while she had the chance.“I’m an American. This guy hired me to track down some gold he thought was hidden in an old led mine. This is where the led mine is supposed to be located. I hadn’t counted on there being anybody else here.”She smiled then.“You’ll be Dale Stevenson, right?”“Yeah. How do you know that?”She was still smiling.“We can talk about that later. Right now, we need to take care of the guys who are going to come down that road in a couple of minutes.”Showdown looming.When the truck finally came into view, the men looked a little hesitant and the woman told me why.“They’re taking it slow because they don’t know who’s out here. If it was the Argentine Army, the traffickers would have known they were coming and they wouldn’t be here. That’s because they pay certain people in the Army to protect them. They would just relocate and the Army could appear to be doing their job because they discovered the camp. Once they figure out where we are, they won’t stop until we’re dead or they are so I hope you’re a good shot. During my briefing they said you are.”It was about then the truck came creeping down the road. The woman sighted through the rifle scope and with two quick shots; she shot the driver and smashed in the receiver of the M60.The men bailed out of the pickup and clustered up behind it, then talked for a while before another man pulled the dead driver out of the truck, got back in, started the engine, and started it back down the road. The other men followed behind it with their rifles ready. When they got close enough to see their faces, most of them looked scared.The woman was looking through the scope on her rifle when she whispered.“They’re still looking for where the shots came from, Oh, one of them just pointed in the direction of the man you shot. They think the shots came from those rocks over there. They’ll keep the truck between them and the rocks until they’re pretty close, and then jump out from behind it and start firing at those rocks and any other cover they see. We’ll have to take them before they spread out too much. I’ll take out the driver and the ones in the lead. You start at the rear and work your way toward the truck.”The truck continued to creep down the road, and when they were about ten meters from the main road, the men began to move up the side of the truck. She took out the driver and that was my signal. I sighted in on the man furthest from the truck and fired.The whole thing took less than a minute. I saw one man running back toward the camp, but he didn’t make it. The woman’s shot dropped him face first in the dirt of the road.Well, like I said, my original intention was to retreat if possible. Now, we’d shot a bunch of people based on what the woman had said, and I didn’t have the slightest idea who the hell she was or who they were. The only thing I was sure of was I was in deep shit and it was probably going to get deeper.I turned to look at the woman. She was in the process of changing magazines on her rifle. She slammed the full magazine into the magazine well, checked the chamber for a live round, and then looked up and smiled.“I guess you’re as good as they said. You only missed twice.”She was beginning to piss me off by telling me what to do and then criticizing me for how I did it.“Yeah, well, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a firefight. Since you seem to know everything about me and what just happened, what do we do now?”She stood up, shouldered the rifle, and frowned.“I’ve been watching that camp for a week waiting for you to get here, and I counted twelve men. That means there are five left. They’ll wait a while for these men to come back, but when they don’t they’ll send at least two to find out what happened. We need to get to that camp before they do that.”“And what do we do when we get there? I don’t really like shooting people when I don’t know which side they’re on.”She smiled again.“They’re on the side that would kill both of us without even thinking about it. Does that help?”Moving to a safer place.We kept to the rocks until we got to the trees, and then made our way to the camp by walking a few meters from the road. Two men were just walking to the second truck when we got there. The woman tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked she pointed at the shack and held up three fingers, the pointed to me.Without waiting for an answer, she sighted down the scope of her rifle. A second later, the guy starting to climb in the driver’s seat grabbed his chest and then fell down. It was maybe two seconds later and after the other guy started running back to the shack that he went down with a bullet in his back.That was about when the other three came running out of the shack with their rifles. I took them out with three shots. Then, we waited to see if any of them were going to get up or if there were any more in the shack. After five minutes, all was quiet, so the woman stood up.“That should be all of them. Let’s go see what they have in the shacks.”I noticed she didn’t shoulder the rifle this time, and she didn’t just walk out into the clearing. She ran to take cover behind the truck first. I followed her and kept watching our flanks and rear.Once we were at the truck, she peeked around it at the shack, then ran the three meters to the corner. Once she was there, she motioned for me. I knew what she wanted me to do because it was a standard method of entering a building used by US Army Rangers. I ran to the other corner. Once I was there, we started working our way to the door.Her count had been right. There was nobody in the smaller shack. It was evidently sort of a barracks and mess hall, because there were four cots on one side. On the other side was a table and a small wood-burning stove.We left the shack and repeated the same thing on the larger shack. When we pushed open the door there, I saw the reason the traffickers were there.Inside that shack and in a clump were six young girls holding on to each other because they were terrified. Two looked like the women I’d seen in Buenos Aires, but the other four were definitely Asian.The woman rattled off something in Spanish, and then something in what I guessed was French. It looked to me like the girls relaxed a little then. The two Hispanic girls smiled, and two of the Asian girls said something back to her and then started jabbering away at the other two.The woman turned to me and smiled.“I just told them we were here to rescue them. The girls who talked to me are Vietnamese girls and they understood French. They said they’ve been here for two weeks. The other two Asian girls are from Taiwan and they speak Chinese. The two Vietnamese girls are telling them what I said. Now we have to get them somewhere safe. I can take care of that.”The woman pulled what looked like a cell phone from her vest and tapped the screen, then held it to her ear. A few seconds later, she said, “Secure. Six kittens”. She got an answer, said, “Ready in fifteen”, then tapped the screen again. As she put the cell phone back in her vest, she smiled.“You’re wondering how I got a cell phone to work out here aren’t you? It is a cell phone so if I were to be captured, it won’t raise any suspicions. It works just like any other cell phone except it will only communicate with our own cell towers. My group has a mobile tower about six kilometers from here. They’ll meet us at the road in about fifteen minutes.”Like she said, about fifteen minutes later, a bus drove up and stopped where the road to the camp met the main road. Once the six girls were on board, the bus drove off and left the woman and me standing there in the road. I asked her why she didn’t get on the bus too. She smiled.“I’ll tell you on the way back to their camp. We have a few things left to do.”Her story explained a lot about her and how she knew so much about me.“My name, my real name, is Ariella. You don’t need to know my last name."Ariella is Hebrew for "Lioness of God”. My father named me that because he said I was so much like my grandfather. My grandfather was killed during the rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto. My other grandparents were sent to Treblinka where they were killed.“My father was ten years old then, and during the fighting, some people in the Polish resistance smuggled him out of the ghetto and into the forest. From there, he was taken to a Catholic monastery where he was baptized as a Catholic so the Germans wouldn’t arrest and take him to a concentration camp. He had to learn how to act like a Catholic boy in a very short time, but he was a smart boy and survived the war that way."When the war ended, my father was taken to France and placed with Catholic foster parents. He grew up on a vineyard near Langon and learned to speak French, but he never forgot he was Jewish. As soon as he reached the age of nineteen, he left France for Israel and began searching for any relatives who survived the camps. He found no one with the same last name who remembered his father or mother. Instead, he found Miriam, the woman he would marry and the woman who would become my mother."Her past was much like my father’s, though she was French. Her parents placed her with Catholic friends when the Nazi’s began arresting French Jews. She was later taken to Spain and raised by a family there. She was only eighteen when she went to Israel in hopes of finding her family. She found a job to support herself working in the government, and that is how she met my father."From my mother, I learned to speak and write Spanish. From both my father and mother, I learned to speak and write French and Hebrew."When I was eighteen, I was conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force. Because my testing showed I had an aptitude for languages, when I finished basic and combat training, I was sent to a school to learn to speak and write Arabic. After that school, I was transferred to the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps. I was made part of Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli Special Forces branch that does recon and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines. I can’t tell you what I did there."When I finished my service, a man came to see me and asked if I’d like to help Israel in a different way. What he told me sounded exciting, so I accepted and became part of the Duvdevan Unit. I spent two years dressed in civilian clothes in several Arab countries gathering intelligence on terrorist organizations. A year ago, I was identified by one of the radical Islamic organizations as an Israeli agent and had to leave the Middle East or I’d have been killed. I was assigned to Argentina to gather intelligence on the Neo-Nazi groups that are located here and to some extent, in Brazil and other South American countries."The men we just killed are part of a Neo-Nazi group who call their organization Ahner. They took their name from the Nazi Germany think-tank known as Ahnenerbe. Their ideology is the same as the German Nazi party. They advocate the elimination or enslavement or all races they consider inferior, and they finance their operations by trafficking in sex slaves of those same races. That’s what they’re doing out here; financing their operations. I was assigned to stop them."The camp you saw is a lay-over point between the ports in Chile where they land the girls and wherever they’re going next. It might be the brothels in Buenos Aires, Mexico, almost any country including the US. They will kill anyone who tries to stop them. Do you feel better about what we did now?”I’d heard of the Duvdeven Unit of the Israeli Special Forces, but the name was about all I’d heard. Nobody, not even the CIA guys I worked with, knew much about what the Duvdeven Unit did, or if they knew, they weren’t telling anybody. All that was known was they were Israelis who were fluent in Arabic and dressed in the clothing of the local population. Supposedly they infiltrated the ranks of the terrorists and sent that information back to Israel. There were rumors about assassinations of high-ranking terrorist officials, but that’s all they were, just rumors.That knowledge explained a lot of things about Ariella. I knew the Israeli Special Forces are among the most highly trained fighting forces in the world and were as good as our own US Army Rangers and Navy SEALs. To work undercover in the situations in Afghanistan and Iran would require more than training though. It would require an immense amount of self-confidence and as one of my Ranger instructors had once said, “balls big enough to need a wheelbarrow”.It also explained how much she knew about me. The CIA in the Middle East and the Israeli Special Forces have a very close working relationship. All it would take is for someone in the ISF to request information about me and they’d have it. What I didn’t understand is why they were interested in what I was doing in Argentina.“OK, I understand why you’re here, but you said you were waiting on me for a week. It’s not that I don’t appreciate you bailing my ass out of trouble, but why are you so interested in why I’m here?”Ariella stopped walking then and turned to face me.“Because Marcus Richter hired you.”I was confused again.“Richter isn’t a Neo-Nazi. He’s a dealer in international currencies.”Ariella smiled.“That’s what he told you, and he is, but his story is more detailed than that.At the end of World War Two, the Allies were looking for a German banker named Heinrich Richter because he was responsible for sending much of the gold pillaged by the German Army to Swiss banks. They wanted his records and his testimony so they could return the gold to the appropriate countries.Israel was very interested as well, because a significant amount of that gold came from Jews in the countries Germany overran. The Allies were closing in on him when he disappeared. The rumor was he was able to escape to Argentina. Through our intelligence efforts in Argentina, we learned he did indeed relocate to Argentina where he married a local woman with high status in the government. Unfortunately, we learned that information after he died."For several years, we monitored the activities of his wife and son, the same Marcus Richter who spoke with you. His mother appears to have retired to an estate in the country with a private nurse, and no one other than Richter visits or telephones her. In our observations of Richter though, it was soon evident he has close connections with several Neo-Nazi groups in Argentina. We suspected he was using his business to launder money for them, but we were never able to positively tie his financial dealings to them. Richter is smart and he uses Swiss banks for all the transfers. Getting information from a Swiss bank is something even Israel can not easily do. The reason is the amount of Nazi gold still held in those banks."We needed a way to stop him, so we laid a trap for him. We forged the hallmark on a single gold bar and arranged for another currency trader who supports our cause to contact him. We also planted the story about the submarines through another of our contacts in Argentina, a former member of the ISF who emigrated from Germany to Argentina a few years ago. The man who told Richter about the smelter was another of our contacts who casually related the story to Richter’s assistants. The story about the mine and its location has been rumored in Argentina for years so once we had located the smelter for him, Richter assumed the gold must be in the mine, just as we intended.The rest of the story you already know, except that the money you are being paid came from the treasury of Ahner. We know that information through the efforts of a man who is the son of a Jewish man and his Argentine wife. He grew up in Buenos Aires and is fluent in Spanish. He has infiltrated Ahner and relays information on their activities to my unit.”I was beginning to understand now and I didn’t feel good about the whole deal.“So, there is no gold?”Ariella smiled.“We believe there is a cache of Nazi gold somewhere in Argentina, but it is not likely to be found. All the people who knew of it are dead by now and as far as we’ve been able to determine, they didn’t pass the information on to anyone. As for any gold here in a led mine, well, there is a led mine a few kilometers from here, but it doesn’t have any gold.”“So I came down here for nothing?”“Oh no, you are going to be very useful. When you go back and tell Richter there is no gold here, he’ll have to relay that to Ahner. In the past, his contracts with Ahner have been that he is paid an advance which would be returned should his work not be successful. Since he will have failed in this attempt, Anher will demand that Richter return the advance.He won’t be able to do that because as we speak, the US is quietly in the process of freezing all his US bank accounts and arranging for a transfer from his Swiss bank would take too long"It would be my guess that when Ahner can’t get their money back, Marcus Richter will suddenly disappear and never be found. That is what happened to the last person who promised something to Ahner and then didn’t deliver. As I said, they will kill anyone without even a second thought.”“It sounds like I need to start sleeping with a pistol from now on. Thanks a lot.”Ariella shook her head.“No. You’re in no danger. We know Richter never disclosed your identity to Ahner, and the ammunition for both our rifles and your pistol are common to weapons issued to the Argentine Army and of the same manufacturer. When we leave, I’ll leave some evidence that it was the Argentine Army that attacked the camp. That does happen from time to time, usually when some company commander decides he isn’t being paid well enough to keep protecting them.”When we got back to the camp, Ariella took off her backpack.

Ariella; lethal and lovely.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Packed and Stacked.She was maybe twenty-five, and even in the battle dress she was wearing, she looked slender. I couldn’t tell much else about her except she looked a little the Arabic women I’d seen in Afghanistan. I was sure about two things though; the rifle was an Israeli M 89 SR sniper rifle, and she sounded very serious when she spoke.“What are you doing here?” she demanded.Since I was armed to the teeth and had just shot a guy, my story about being a tourist and out taking some pictures wasn’t going to work very well. The truth would work better unless she was one of the traffickers. I didn’t think she was though. If she had been, she’d have just shot me while she had the chance.“I’m an American. This guy hired me to track down some gold he thought was hidden in an old led mine. This is where the led mine is supposed to be located. I hadn’t counted on there being anybody else here.”She smiled then.“You’ll be Dale Stevenson, right?”“Yeah. How do you know that?”She was still smiling.“We can talk about that later. Right now, we need to take care of the guys who are going to come down that road in a couple of minutes.”Showdown looming.When the truck finally came into view, the men looked a little hesitant and the woman told me why.“They’re taking it slow because they don’t know who’s out here. If it was the Argentine Army, the traffickers would have known they were coming and they wouldn’t be here. That’s because they pay certain people in the Army to protect them. They would just relocate and the Army could appear to be doing their job because they discovered the camp. Once they figure out where we are, they won’t stop until we’re dead or they are so I hope you’re a good shot. During my briefing they said you are.”It was about then the truck came creeping down the road. The woman sighted through the rifle scope and with two quick shots; she shot the driver and smashed in the receiver of the M60.The men bailed out of the pickup and clustered up behind it, then talked for a while before another man pulled the dead driver out of the truck, got back in, started the engine, and started it back down the road. The other men followed behind it with their rifles ready. When they got close enough to see their faces, most of them looked scared.The woman was looking through the scope on her rifle when she whispered.“They’re still looking for where the shots came from, Oh, one of them just pointed in the direction of the man you shot. They think the shots came from those rocks over there. They’ll keep the truck between them and the rocks until they’re pretty close, and then jump out from behind it and start firing at those rocks and any other cover they see. We’ll have to take them before they spread out too much. I’ll take out the driver and the ones in the lead. You start at the rear and work your way toward the truck.”The truck continued to creep down the road, and when they were about ten meters from the main road, the men began to move up the side of the truck. She took out the driver and that was my signal. I sighted in on the man furthest from the truck and fired.The whole thing took less than a minute. I saw one man running back toward the camp, but he didn’t make it. The woman’s shot dropped him face first in the dirt of the road.Well, like I said, my original intention was to retreat if possible. Now, we’d shot a bunch of people based on what the woman had said, and I didn’t have the slightest idea who the hell she was or who they were. The only thing I was sure of was I was in deep shit and it was probably going to get deeper.I turned to look at the woman. She was in the process of changing magazines on her rifle. She slammed the full magazine into the magazine well, checked the chamber for a live round, and then looked up and smiled.“I guess you’re as good as they said. You only missed twice.”She was beginning to piss me off by telling me what to do and then criticizing me for how I did it.“Yeah, well, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a firefight. Since you seem to know everything about me and what just happened, what do we do now?”She stood up, shouldered the rifle, and frowned.“I’ve been watching that camp for a week waiting for you to get here, and I counted twelve men. That means there are five left. They’ll wait a while for these men to come back, but when they don’t they’ll send at least two to find out what happened. We need to get to that camp before they do that.”“And what do we do when we get there? I don’t really like shooting people when I don’t know which side they’re on.”She smiled again.“They’re on the side that would kill both of us without even thinking about it. Does that help?”Moving to a safer place.We kept to the rocks until we got to the trees, and then made our way to the camp by walking a few meters from the road. Two men were just walking to the second truck when we got there. The woman tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked she pointed at the shack and held up three fingers, the pointed to me.Without waiting for an answer, she sighted down the scope of her rifle. A second later, the guy starting to climb in the driver’s seat grabbed his chest and then fell down. It was maybe two seconds later and after the other guy started running back to the shack that he went down with a bullet in his back.That was about when the other three came running out of the shack with their rifles. I took them out with three shots. Then, we waited to see if any of them were going to get up or if there were any more in the shack. After five minutes, all was quiet, so the woman stood up.“That should be all of them. Let’s go see what they have in the shacks.”I noticed she didn’t shoulder the rifle this time, and she didn’t just walk out into the clearing. She ran to take cover behind the truck first. I followed her and kept watching our flanks and rear.Once we were at the truck, she peeked around it at the shack, then ran the three meters to the corner. Once she was there, she motioned for me. I knew what she wanted me to do because it was a standard method of entering a building used by US Army Rangers. I ran to the other corner. Once I was there, we started working our way to the door.Her count had been right. There was nobody in the smaller shack. It was evidently sort of a barracks and mess hall, because there were four cots on one side. On the other side was a table and a small wood-burning stove.We left the shack and repeated the same thing on the larger shack. When we pushed open the door there, I saw the reason the traffickers were there.Inside that shack and in a clump were six young girls holding on to each other because they were terrified. Two looked like the women I’d seen in Buenos Aires, but the other four were definitely Asian.The woman rattled off something in Spanish, and then something in what I guessed was French. It looked to me like the girls relaxed a little then. The two Hispanic girls smiled, and two of the Asian girls said something back to her and then started jabbering away at the other two.The woman turned to me and smiled.“I just told them we were here to rescue them. The girls who talked to me are Vietnamese girls and they understood French. They said they’ve been here for two weeks. The other two Asian girls are from Taiwan and they speak Chinese. The two Vietnamese girls are telling them what I said. Now we have to get them somewhere safe. I can take care of that.”The woman pulled what looked like a cell phone from her vest and tapped the screen, then held it to her ear. A few seconds later, she said, “Secure. Six kittens”. She got an answer, said, “Ready in fifteen”, then tapped the screen again. As she put the cell phone back in her vest, she smiled.“You’re wondering how I got a cell phone to work out here aren’t you? It is a cell phone so if I were to be captured, it won’t raise any suspicions. It works just like any other cell phone except it will only communicate with our own cell towers. My group has a mobile tower about six kilometers from here. They’ll meet us at the road in about fifteen minutes.”Like she said, about fifteen minutes later, a bus drove up and stopped where the road to the camp met the main road. Once the six girls were on board, the bus drove off and left the woman and me standing there in the road. I asked her why she didn’t get on the bus too. She smiled.“I’ll tell you on the way back to their camp. We have a few things left to do.”Her story explained a lot about her and how she knew so much about me.“My name, my real name, is Ariella. You don’t need to know my last name."Ariella is Hebrew for "Lioness of God”. My father named me that because he said I was so much like my grandfather. My grandfather was killed during the rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto. My other grandparents were sent to Treblinka where they were killed.“My father was ten years old then, and during the fighting, some people in the Polish resistance smuggled him out of the ghetto and into the forest. From there, he was taken to a Catholic monastery where he was baptized as a Catholic so the Germans wouldn’t arrest and take him to a concentration camp. He had to learn how to act like a Catholic boy in a very short time, but he was a smart boy and survived the war that way."When the war ended, my father was taken to France and placed with Catholic foster parents. He grew up on a vineyard near Langon and learned to speak French, but he never forgot he was Jewish. As soon as he reached the age of nineteen, he left France for Israel and began searching for any relatives who survived the camps. He found no one with the same last name who remembered his father or mother. Instead, he found Miriam, the woman he would marry and the woman who would become my mother."Her past was much like my father’s, though she was French. Her parents placed her with Catholic friends when the Nazi’s began arresting French Jews. She was later taken to Spain and raised by a family there. She was only eighteen when she went to Israel in hopes of finding her family. She found a job to support herself working in the government, and that is how she met my father."From my mother, I learned to speak and write Spanish. From both my father and mother, I learned to speak and write French and Hebrew."When I was eighteen, I was conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force. Because my testing showed I had an aptitude for languages, when I finished basic and combat training, I was sent to a school to learn to speak and write Arabic. After that school, I was transferred to the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps. I was made part of Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli Special Forces branch that does recon and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines. I can’t tell you what I did there."When I finished my service, a man came to see me and asked if I’d like to help Israel in a different way. What he told me sounded exciting, so I accepted and became part of the Duvdevan Unit. I spent two years dressed in civilian clothes in several Arab countries gathering intelligence on terrorist organizations. A year ago, I was identified by one of the radical Islamic organizations as an Israeli agent and had to leave the Middle East or I’d have been killed. I was assigned to Argentina to gather intelligence on the Neo-Nazi groups that are located here and to some extent, in Brazil and other South American countries."The men we just killed are part of a Neo-Nazi group who call their organization Ahner. They took their name from the Nazi Germany think-tank known as Ahnenerbe. Their ideology is the same as the German Nazi party. They advocate the elimination or enslavement or all races they consider inferior, and they finance their operations by trafficking in sex slaves of those same races. That’s what they’re doing out here; financing their operations. I was assigned to stop them."The camp you saw is a lay-over point between the ports in Chile where they land the girls and wherever they’re going next. It might be the brothels in Buenos Aires, Mexico, almost any country including the US. They will kill anyone who tries to stop them. Do you feel better about what we did now?”I’d heard of the Duvdeven Unit of the Israeli Special Forces, but the name was about all I’d heard. Nobody, not even the CIA guys I worked with, knew much about what the Duvdeven Unit did, or if they knew, they weren’t telling anybody. All that was known was they were Israelis who were fluent in Arabic and dressed in the clothing of the local population. Supposedly they infiltrated the ranks of the terrorists and sent that information back to Israel. There were rumors about assassinations of high-ranking terrorist officials, but that’s all they were, just rumors.That knowledge explained a lot of things about Ariella. I knew the Israeli Special Forces are among the most highly trained fighting forces in the world and were as good as our own US Army Rangers and Navy SEALs. To work undercover in the situations in Afghanistan and Iran would require more than training though. It would require an immense amount of self-confidence and as one of my Ranger instructors had once said, “balls big enough to need a wheelbarrow”.It also explained how much she knew about me. The CIA in the Middle East and the Israeli Special Forces have a very close working relationship. All it would take is for someone in the ISF to request information about me and they’d have it. What I didn’t understand is why they were interested in what I was doing in Argentina.“OK, I understand why you’re here, but you said you were waiting on me for a week. It’s not that I don’t appreciate you bailing my ass out of trouble, but why are you so interested in why I’m here?”Ariella stopped walking then and turned to face me.“Because Marcus Richter hired you.”I was confused again.“Richter isn’t a Neo-Nazi. He’s a dealer in international currencies.”Ariella smiled.“That’s what he told you, and he is, but his story is more detailed than that.At the end of World War Two, the Allies were looking for a German banker named Heinrich Richter because he was responsible for sending much of the gold pillaged by the German Army to Swiss banks. They wanted his records and his testimony so they could return the gold to the appropriate countries.Israel was very interested as well, because a significant amount of that gold came from Jews in the countries Germany overran. The Allies were closing in on him when he disappeared. The rumor was he was able to escape to Argentina. Through our intelligence efforts in Argentina, we learned he did indeed relocate to Argentina where he married a local woman with high status in the government. Unfortunately, we learned that information after he died."For several years, we monitored the activities of his wife and son, the same Marcus Richter who spoke with you. His mother appears to have retired to an estate in the country with a private nurse, and no one other than Richter visits or telephones her. In our observations of Richter though, it was soon evident he has close connections with several Neo-Nazi groups in Argentina. We suspected he was using his business to launder money for them, but we were never able to positively tie his financial dealings to them. Richter is smart and he uses Swiss banks for all the transfers. Getting information from a Swiss bank is something even Israel can not easily do. The reason is the amount of Nazi gold still held in those banks."We needed a way to stop him, so we laid a trap for him. We forged the hallmark on a single gold bar and arranged for another currency trader who supports our cause to contact him. We also planted the story about the submarines through another of our contacts in Argentina, a former member of the ISF who emigrated from Germany to Argentina a few years ago. The man who told Richter about the smelter was another of our contacts who casually related the story to Richter’s assistants. The story about the mine and its location has been rumored in Argentina for years so once we had located the smelter for him, Richter assumed the gold must be in the mine, just as we intended.The rest of the story you already know, except that the money you are being paid came from the treasury of Ahner. We know that information through the efforts of a man who is the son of a Jewish man and his Argentine wife. He grew up in Buenos Aires and is fluent in Spanish. He has infiltrated Ahner and relays information on their activities to my unit.”I was beginning to understand now and I didn’t feel good about the whole deal.“So, there is no gold?”Ariella smiled.“We believe there is a cache of Nazi gold somewhere in Argentina, but it is not likely to be found. All the people who knew of it are dead by now and as far as we’ve been able to determine, they didn’t pass the information on to anyone. As for any gold here in a led mine, well, there is a led mine a few kilometers from here, but it doesn’t have any gold.”“So I came down here for nothing?”“Oh no, you are going to be very useful. When you go back and tell Richter there is no gold here, he’ll have to relay that to Ahner. In the past, his contracts with Ahner have been that he is paid an advance which would be returned should his work not be successful. Since he will have failed in this attempt, Anher will demand that Richter return the advance.He won’t be able to do that because as we speak, the US is quietly in the process of freezing all his US bank accounts and arranging for a transfer from his Swiss bank would take too long"It would be my guess that when Ahner can’t get their money back, Marcus Richter will suddenly disappear and never be found. That is what happened to the last person who promised something to Ahner and then didn’t deliver. As I said, they will kill anyone without even a second thought.”“It sounds like I need to start sleeping with a pistol from now on. Thanks a lot.”Ariella shook her head.“No. You’re in no danger. We know Richter never disclosed your identity to Ahner, and the ammunition for both our rifles and your pistol are common to weapons issued to the Argentine Army and of the same manufacturer. When we leave, I’ll leave some evidence that it was the Argentine Army that attacked the camp. That does happen from time to time, usually when some company commander decides he isn’t being paid well enough to keep protecting them.”When we got back to the camp, Ariella took off her backpack.

Ariella; lethal and lovely.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.Packed and Stacked.She was maybe twenty-five, and even in the battle dress she was wearing, she looked slender. I couldn’t tell much else about her except she looked a little the Arabic women I’d seen in Afghanistan. I was sure about two things though; the rifle was an Israeli M 89 SR sniper rifle, and she sounded very serious when she spoke.“What are you doing here?” she demanded.Since I was armed to the teeth and had just shot a guy, my story about being a tourist and out taking some pictures wasn’t going to work very well. The truth would work better unless she was one of the traffickers. I didn’t think she was though. If she had been, she’d have just shot me while she had the chance.“I’m an American. This guy hired me to track down some gold he thought was hidden in an old led mine. This is where the led mine is supposed to be located. I hadn’t counted on there being anybody else here.”She smiled then.“You’ll be Dale Stevenson, right?”“Yeah. How do you know that?”She was still smiling.“We can talk about that later. Right now, we need to take care of the guys who are going to come down that road in a couple of minutes.”Showdown looming.When the truck finally came into view, the men looked a little hesitant and the woman told me why.“They’re taking it slow because they don’t know who’s out here. If it was the Argentine Army, the traffickers would have known they were coming and they wouldn’t be here. That’s because they pay certain people in the Army to protect them. They would just relocate and the Army could appear to be doing their job because they discovered the camp. Once they figure out where we are, they won’t stop until we’re dead or they are so I hope you’re a good shot. During my briefing they said you are.”It was about then the truck came creeping down the road. The woman sighted through the rifle scope and with two quick shots; she shot the driver and smashed in the receiver of the M60.The men bailed out of the pickup and clustered up behind it, then talked for a while before another man pulled the dead driver out of the truck, got back in, started the engine, and started it back down the road. The other men followed behind it with their rifles ready. When they got close enough to see their faces, most of them looked scared.The woman was looking through the scope on her rifle when she whispered.“They’re still looking for where the shots came from, Oh, one of them just pointed in the direction of the man you shot. They think the shots came from those rocks over there. They’ll keep the truck between them and the rocks until they’re pretty close, and then jump out from behind it and start firing at those rocks and any other cover they see. We’ll have to take them before they spread out too much. I’ll take out the driver and the ones in the lead. You start at the rear and work your way toward the truck.”The truck continued to creep down the road, and when they were about ten meters from the main road, the men began to move up the side of the truck. She took out the driver and that was my signal. I sighted in on the man furthest from the truck and fired.The whole thing took less than a minute. I saw one man running back toward the camp, but he didn’t make it. The woman’s shot dropped him face first in the dirt of the road.Well, like I said, my original intention was to retreat if possible. Now, we’d shot a bunch of people based on what the woman had said, and I didn’t have the slightest idea who the hell she was or who they were. The only thing I was sure of was I was in deep shit and it was probably going to get deeper.I turned to look at the woman. She was in the process of changing magazines on her rifle. She slammed the full magazine into the magazine well, checked the chamber for a live round, and then looked up and smiled.“I guess you’re as good as they said. You only missed twice.”She was beginning to piss me off by telling me what to do and then criticizing me for how I did it.“Yeah, well, it’s been a while since I’ve been in a firefight. Since you seem to know everything about me and what just happened, what do we do now?”She stood up, shouldered the rifle, and frowned.“I’ve been watching that camp for a week waiting for you to get here, and I counted twelve men. That means there are five left. They’ll wait a while for these men to come back, but when they don’t they’ll send at least two to find out what happened. We need to get to that camp before they do that.”“And what do we do when we get there? I don’t really like shooting people when I don’t know which side they’re on.”She smiled again.“They’re on the side that would kill both of us without even thinking about it. Does that help?”Moving to a safer place.We kept to the rocks until we got to the trees, and then made our way to the camp by walking a few meters from the road. Two men were just walking to the second truck when we got there. The woman tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked she pointed at the shack and held up three fingers, the pointed to me.Without waiting for an answer, she sighted down the scope of her rifle. A second later, the guy starting to climb in the driver’s seat grabbed his chest and then fell down. It was maybe two seconds later and after the other guy started running back to the shack that he went down with a bullet in his back.That was about when the other three came running out of the shack with their rifles. I took them out with three shots. Then, we waited to see if any of them were going to get up or if there were any more in the shack. After five minutes, all was quiet, so the woman stood up.“That should be all of them. Let’s go see what they have in the shacks.”I noticed she didn’t shoulder the rifle this time, and she didn’t just walk out into the clearing. She ran to take cover behind the truck first. I followed her and kept watching our flanks and rear.Once we were at the truck, she peeked around it at the shack, then ran the three meters to the corner. Once she was there, she motioned for me. I knew what she wanted me to do because it was a standard method of entering a building used by US Army Rangers. I ran to the other corner. Once I was there, we started working our way to the door.Her count had been right. There was nobody in the smaller shack. It was evidently sort of a barracks and mess hall, because there were four cots on one side. On the other side was a table and a small wood-burning stove.We left the shack and repeated the same thing on the larger shack. When we pushed open the door there, I saw the reason the traffickers were there.Inside that shack and in a clump were six young girls holding on to each other because they were terrified. Two looked like the women I’d seen in Buenos Aires, but the other four were definitely Asian.The woman rattled off something in Spanish, and then something in what I guessed was French. It looked to me like the girls relaxed a little then. The two Hispanic girls smiled, and two of the Asian girls said something back to her and then started jabbering away at the other two.The woman turned to me and smiled.“I just told them we were here to rescue them. The girls who talked to me are Vietnamese girls and they understood French. They said they’ve been here for two weeks. The other two Asian girls are from Taiwan and they speak Chinese. The two Vietnamese girls are telling them what I said. Now we have to get them somewhere safe. I can take care of that.”The woman pulled what looked like a cell phone from her vest and tapped the screen, then held it to her ear. A few seconds later, she said, “Secure. Six kittens”. She got an answer, said, “Ready in fifteen”, then tapped the screen again. As she put the cell phone back in her vest, she smiled.“You’re wondering how I got a cell phone to work out here aren’t you? It is a cell phone so if I were to be captured, it won’t raise any suspicions. It works just like any other cell phone except it will only communicate with our own cell towers. My group has a mobile tower about six kilometers from here. They’ll meet us at the road in about fifteen minutes.”Like she said, about fifteen minutes later, a bus drove up and stopped where the road to the camp met the main road. Once the six girls were on board, the bus drove off and left the woman and me standing there in the road. I asked her why she didn’t get on the bus too. She smiled.“I’ll tell you on the way back to their camp. We have a few things left to do.”Her story explained a lot about her and how she knew so much about me.“My name, my real name, is Ariella. You don’t need to know my last name."Ariella is Hebrew for "Lioness of God”. My father named me that because he said I was so much like my grandfather. My grandfather was killed during the rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto. My other grandparents were sent to Treblinka where they were killed.“My father was ten years old then, and during the fighting, some people in the Polish resistance smuggled him out of the ghetto and into the forest. From there, he was taken to a Catholic monastery where he was baptized as a Catholic so the Germans wouldn’t arrest and take him to a concentration camp. He had to learn how to act like a Catholic boy in a very short time, but he was a smart boy and survived the war that way."When the war ended, my father was taken to France and placed with Catholic foster parents. He grew up on a vineyard near Langon and learned to speak French, but he never forgot he was Jewish. As soon as he reached the age of nineteen, he left France for Israel and began searching for any relatives who survived the camps. He found no one with the same last name who remembered his father or mother. Instead, he found Miriam, the woman he would marry and the woman who would become my mother."Her past was much like my father’s, though she was French. Her parents placed her with Catholic friends when the Nazi’s began arresting French Jews. She was later taken to Spain and raised by a family there. She was only eighteen when she went to Israel in hopes of finding her family. She found a job to support herself working in the government, and that is how she met my father."From my mother, I learned to speak and write Spanish. From both my father and mother, I learned to speak and write French and Hebrew."When I was eighteen, I was conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force. Because my testing showed I had an aptitude for languages, when I finished basic and combat training, I was sent to a school to learn to speak and write Arabic. After that school, I was transferred to the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps. I was made part of Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli Special Forces branch that does recon and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines. I can’t tell you what I did there."When I finished my service, a man came to see me and asked if I’d like to help Israel in a different way. What he told me sounded exciting, so I accepted and became part of the Duvdevan Unit. I spent two years dressed in civilian clothes in several Arab countries gathering intelligence on terrorist organizations. A year ago, I was identified by one of the radical Islamic organizations as an Israeli agent and had to leave the Middle East or I’d have been killed. I was assigned to Argentina to gather intelligence on the Neo-Nazi groups that are located here and to some extent, in Brazil and other South American countries."The men we just killed are part of a Neo-Nazi group who call their organization Ahner. They took their name from the Nazi Germany think-tank known as Ahnenerbe. Their ideology is the same as the German Nazi party. They advocate the elimination or enslavement or all races they consider inferior, and they finance their operations by trafficking in sex slaves of those same races. That’s what they’re doing out here; financing their operations. I was assigned to stop them."The camp you saw is a lay-over point between the ports in Chile where they land the girls and wherever they’re going next. It might be the brothels in Buenos Aires, Mexico, almost any country including the US. They will kill anyone who tries to stop them. Do you feel better about what we did now?”I’d heard of the Duvdeven Unit of the Israeli Special Forces, but the name was about all I’d heard. Nobody, not even the CIA guys I worked with, knew much about what the Duvdeven Unit did, or if they knew, they weren’t telling anybody. All that was known was they were Israelis who were fluent in Arabic and dressed in the clothing of the local population. Supposedly they infiltrated the ranks of the terrorists and sent that information back to Israel. There were rumors about assassinations of high-ranking terrorist officials, but that’s all they were, just rumors.That knowledge explained a lot of things about Ariella. I knew the Israeli Special Forces are among the most highly trained fighting forces in the world and were as good as our own US Army Rangers and Navy SEALs. To work undercover in the situations in Afghanistan and Iran would require more than training though. It would require an immense amount of self-confidence and as one of my Ranger instructors had once said, “balls big enough to need a wheelbarrow”.It also explained how much she knew about me. The CIA in the Middle East and the Israeli Special Forces have a very close working relationship. All it would take is for someone in the ISF to request information about me and they’d have it. What I didn’t understand is why they were interested in what I was doing in Argentina.“OK, I understand why you’re here, but you said you were waiting on me for a week. It’s not that I don’t appreciate you bailing my ass out of trouble, but why are you so interested in why I’m here?”Ariella stopped walking then and turned to face me.“Because Marcus Richter hired you.”I was confused again.“Richter isn’t a Neo-Nazi. He’s a dealer in international currencies.”Ariella smiled.“That’s what he told you, and he is, but his story is more detailed than that.At the end of World War Two, the Allies were looking for a German banker named Heinrich Richter because he was responsible for sending much of the gold pillaged by the German Army to Swiss banks. They wanted his records and his testimony so they could return the gold to the appropriate countries.Israel was very interested as well, because a significant amount of that gold came from Jews in the countries Germany overran. The Allies were closing in on him when he disappeared. The rumor was he was able to escape to Argentina. Through our intelligence efforts in Argentina, we learned he did indeed relocate to Argentina where he married a local woman with high status in the government. Unfortunately, we learned that information after he died."For several years, we monitored the activities of his wife and son, the same Marcus Richter who spoke with you. His mother appears to have retired to an estate in the country with a private nurse, and no one other than Richter visits or telephones her. In our observations of Richter though, it was soon evident he has close connections with several Neo-Nazi groups in Argentina. We suspected he was using his business to launder money for them, but we were never able to positively tie his financial dealings to them. Richter is smart and he uses Swiss banks for all the transfers. Getting information from a Swiss bank is something even Israel can not easily do. The reason is the amount of Nazi gold still held in those banks."We needed a way to stop him, so we laid a trap for him. We forged the hallmark on a single gold bar and arranged for another currency trader who supports our cause to contact him. We also planted the story about the submarines through another of our contacts in Argentina, a former member of the ISF who emigrated from Germany to Argentina a few years ago. The man who told Richter about the smelter was another of our contacts who casually related the story to Richter’s assistants. The story about the mine and its location has been rumored in Argentina for years so once we had located the smelter for him, Richter assumed the gold must be in the mine, just as we intended.The rest of the story you already know, except that the money you are being paid came from the treasury of Ahner. We know that information through the efforts of a man who is the son of a Jewish man and his Argentine wife. He grew up in Buenos Aires and is fluent in Spanish. He has infiltrated Ahner and relays information on their activities to my unit.”I was beginning to understand now and I didn’t feel good about the whole deal.“So, there is no gold?”Ariella smiled.“We believe there is a cache of Nazi gold somewhere in Argentina, but it is not likely to be found. All the people who knew of it are dead by now and as far as we’ve been able to determine, they didn’t pass the information on to anyone. As for any gold here in a led mine, well, there is a led mine a few kilometers from here, but it doesn’t have any gold.”“So I came down here for nothing?”“Oh no, you are going to be very useful. When you go back and tell Richter there is no gold here, he’ll have to relay that to Ahner. In the past, his contracts with Ahner have been that he is paid an advance which would be returned should his work not be successful. Since he will have failed in this attempt, Anher will demand that Richter return the advance.He won’t be able to do that because as we speak, the US is quietly in the process of freezing all his US bank accounts and arranging for a transfer from his Swiss bank would take too long"It would be my guess that when Ahner can’t get their money back, Marcus Richter will suddenly disappear and never be found. That is what happened to the last person who promised something to Ahner and then didn’t deliver. As I said, they will kill anyone without even a second thought.”“It sounds like I need to start sleeping with a pistol from now on. Thanks a lot.”Ariella shook her head.“No. You’re in no danger. We know Richter never disclosed your identity to Ahner, and the ammunition for both our rifles and your pistol are common to weapons issued to the Argentine Army and of the same manufacturer. When we leave, I’ll leave some evidence that it was the Argentine Army that attacked the camp. That does happen from time to time, usually when some company commander decides he isn’t being paid well enough to keep protecting them.”When we got back to the camp, Ariella took off her backpack.

Anne de Courcy returns to the podcast by popular demand to talk about her astonishing book on Coco Chanel, and the glamorous but dangerous society that she dominated. From the most deprived of backgrounds Chanel conquered the worlds of fashion and perfume. With her fast friends, wealthy and titled lovers and her appetite for the best things in life she basically ran the 'scene' in Paris and the French Riviera. Then war, occupation and the systematic murder of French Jews presented her with some terrible choices.Her decision to work with the occupying authorities and take a powerful Nazi lover has cast a shadow over her reputation. But was her ‘collaboration horizontale' forgivable? Here is the article in which Phil mentioned the BBC's 'Niven Car' business in the 1980s...https://thecritic.co.uk/im-done-with-po-faced-politicians/You can buy the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/chanel-s-riviera-life-love-and-the-struggle-for-survival-on-the-cote-d-azur-1930-1944-anne-de-courcy/1616455?aid=12054&ean=9781474608213&***We now have a Thank You button (next to the 'three dots') for small donations that help support our work****** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongersTHE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on youtube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast/videosThe Scandal Mongers...https://twitter.com/MongersPodcastPhil Craig...https://twitter.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)Produced byPodcastWorld.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anne-Sophie Sebban, director of the American Jewish Committee in Paris, provides insights on the political situation for French Jews today. They are caught between the antisemitic Far Left and the Far Right trying to overcome its heritage of antisemitism.  

The drastic results of the French elections this week resulted in calls from Paris's Chief Rabbi to the Jewish community to leave France and seek it's future in Israel. The Far Left has joined its cause with those of France's Islamists and together they offer a bleak future for the Jews in France and beyond.Ilana Rachel Daniel sat with Rabbi Dr Dov Maimon to learn more about the environment that led to the divides that have pit the population firmly between the far left and the far right and what it means not only for France's future, but for Europe, the US, and the West as a whole.https://jppi.org.il/en/Senior Fellow at JPPI, Rabbi Dr Dov Maimon leads the "Grand Strategy toward Islam" project, the "Israel-Diaspora New Paradigm" project and the Institute's activities in Europe. Among his action-oriented work, he is a member of the Advisory Committee for Improving access to Ultra-Orthodox to Higher Education chaired by Professor Manuel Trajtenberg. He is also the author of the Action Plan for bringing the developing mass migration of French Jews to Israel. Commissioned by governmental agencies, the plan was adopted by the Israeli Cabinet on June 22nd 2014. Born in Paris, he earned a B.Sc. from the Technion (Haifa, Israel), a MBA from Insead (Fontainebleau, France), a M.A in Religious Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Islamic and Medieval Studies from the Sorbonne University. He is a laureate of the prestigious prize "Grand Prix du chancelier des universites 2005" awarded to the best French PhD work in Literature and Human Sciences. He is also a graduat of the Mandel School of Educational Leadership. Formerly an High-Tech industry entrepreneur, Dov is teaching at the School of Business Administration of the Ben Gurion University. Get full access to Ilana Rachel Daniel at ilanaracheldaniel120.substack.com/subscribe

A few days ago, Israeli Knesset member Sharren Haskel, who was born in Canada, made headlines when she said her 88-year-old grandmother, who lives outside of Paris, had been badly beaten by two Arab suspects who noticed the visibly Jewish elderly woman wearing a Star of David necklace. The alleged attack is part of a series of antisemitic violence against French Jews that has sprung up since Oct. 7—and spiked even higher in the run-up to the recent French election. Over the weekend, early ballot results proved a surge in popularity for the federal far-right party with Holocaust-denial roots, led by Marine Le Pen, but also tallied the shocking victory of a hastily assembled leftist coalition whose leader has sided with Palestinians, engaged in antisemitic tropes and downplayed the antisemitism problem sweeping France. Haskel posted on social media that France has abandoned its responsibility to protect Jews, and argues it's time for her grandmother—and other Diaspora Jews—to move to Israel for their own safety. The Israeli politician warns that these same antisemitic currents in France are also at play here in Canada, and brought her message directly to this country's lawmakers and Jewish leaders during a recent trip to Toronto and Ottawa, sponsored by the Exigent Foundation. Haskel joined The CJN Daily's Ellin Bessner to explain why she thinks Canada is seeing the growing influence of the forces of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, and why Canada's pro-Palestinian stance on the war—including support for UNRWA—is like "a knife in the back" that "will cost Israeli lives." What we talked about: Read Haskel's article in a French newspaper from July 3 about how France is failing to protect its Jews from radical Islam Learn why Haskel's IDF military service during the Second Intifada coloured her views of possible peace with Palestinians, in The CJN from 2017, and read other Sharren Haskel coverage in The CJN archives Follow Haskel on Instagram **Credits: ** The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Elections are happening across the globe and, as usual, the Jews seem to be at the center of the storm. Hold tight for another no-holds-barred episode of “The Quad” with a special guest: former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Avi Mayer.Also, the American presidential debate brings Joe Biden's mental faculties into question; the Iranian regime pulls the wool over the eyes of the West; and France chooses between extremes.And, of course, the Scumbags and Heroes of the Week!

They've voted in Britain, are about to vote in France and come November they'll be voting in America - even if they're not exactly sure who's going to be on the ballot. Yonit and Jonathan break down the unfolding situations in both the UK and US and talk to one of France's best known TV journalists, Ruth Elkrief about the dilemma Sunday's vote poses for French Jews - and why she herself ‘came out' as a Jew after October 7. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook: Unholy Podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges to keep up the fighting in Gaza, thousands of Israelis joined together at a conference on Monday to deliver a message to his government and the world: It's time to reach a deal, to stop the war, to make peace. One of the many groups behind the peace conference was Women Wage Peace, whose co-founder Yael Admi told Haaretz reporter and special host of Haaretz Podcast Linda Dayan that within the peace camp, "We have to unite our voices, and that's what we did." Discussing how the event came about, how to keep the momentum and the role of women in ending the conflict, Admi said, "We have one common target: To bring back the hostages, to make this terrible war end and to begin a process of diplomatic agreements to give a horizon of solutions for these awful days." Dayan also interviewed activists Ibrahim Abu Ahmad and Josh Drill, bereaved mother Elana Kaminka and Standing Together co-director Alon-Lee Green, who said "After nine months of war... It's not enough to point out what we hate," adding, "we must put forward a vision of which kind of reality we are demanding." As Israelis dream of a better future, in Europe, France is gearing up for a far-right government after the National Rally party emerged victorious in the first round of voting on Sunday. Haaretz correspondent and France 24 journalist Shirli Sitbon joined the podcast to explain where France and its Jewish citizens, who have become a political football, go from here. The Jewish community "is very divided" on the results, she said. "At the same time, they feel that [it's] a strong party that will be tough on anyone who attacks Jews – that's what the National Rally promises, to defend Jews – but at the same time, a lot of Jews know very well what this party is made of, its history, its program, and they see it as extremely dangerous." Still, some French Jews are willing to live with antisemitism in parliament "if it means, they believe, more security on a daily basis," she said. Until now, she added, French Jews have never had official contact with the far right beyond condemning them. But suddenly, with a high likelihood of a far-right total majority, "some Jewish officials are already officially starting to talk to the National Rally, because they want to know what's going to happen, to see what's next." But, "with Jews in a situation we've never known before," she said, "we don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow when they're in power."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israelis should expect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "poison machine" to be working overtime with the coalition government attacking its own military leaders on a daily basis, says Haaretz senior defense analyst Amos Harel on the Haaretz Podcast. After a brief "honeymoon" period last week, following the IDF's daring rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza, he said, "The hunt is on again. We'll see Netanyahu attacking them almost on a daily basis on the one hand, and also, what we call the poison machine run by his son and his supporters. We'll see more and more accusations pointed towards Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Ronen Bar, the head of the [Shin Bet security service]." The goal of these attacks, Harel says, is to distract the Israeli public from Netanyahu's "dirty political trickery" and "the terrible, terrible price of the ongoing war." "Netanyahu's interests are no longer in line with Israel's strategic interest," Harel asserts. What about the "Decisive victory" the prime minister keeps talking about? "It's absolute nonsense," He said, "and Netanyahu knows that better than anyone else." Also on the podcast, French journalist Shirli Sitbon, a long time Haaretz contributor, reports on how French Jews, along with the rest of the country, were "shocked" by the snap elections declared by President Emmanuel Macron. She said they are themselves caught between political blocs on the left and the right, and with the center weakened, now embrace extremist parties. On the far left, she said, the bloc includes MPs "saying Israel is solely responsible" for the war in Gaza, who view Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement, support a full boycott and sanctioning of the country as well as arresting Israeli soldiers traveling in Europe and protesters carrying signs portraying French Jewish politicians as pigs. The alternative is a right-wing coalition led by Marine Le Pen's extreme xenophobic National Rally. The polarization, she said, leaves many Jews frightened and confused, with indications that more than half might consider leaving the country if the far left or the far right win a decisive victory and the country "changes on a fundamental level."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the culture and politics of the vibrant community of Yiddish-speaking immigrants to Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Making their way to the French capital from various sites in Eastern Europe, members of this Jewish community developed their own cultural institutions, including theatre companies, musical groups, and choruses. Left-leaning in their politics, these newly French Jews typically understood their cultural and community work as expressions of a Socialist or Communist politics. This political orientation also drew non-Yiddish-speaking and non-Jewish audiences to the work of these organizations and artists, establishing forms of solidarity across cultural and religious groups and classes, in Yiddish and in French.  Throughout the book, Underwood examines closely the history of key cultural organizations that brought Yiddish speakers in Paris together and worked to disseminate Yiddish language and culture throughout a wider community in France. Understanding their efforts as profoundly modern, even avant-garde, these cultural and political actors forged and expressed a Jewish diaspora nationalism they regarded as compatible with French republicanism. France was a space of multicultural possibility that seemed the perfect place to build the future.  Taking the reader through the work of various figures and groups, Underwood follows the solidarity, performances, and pluralism of the Yiddish community in interwar Paris up to the eve of the Second World War. Attentive to the devastating experiences that awaited so many French and European Jews after 1939, the book remains focused on the present of the interwar period throughout, emphasizing the community's hopes for an inclusive French society respectful of forms of religious, racial, cultural, and linguistic difference. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials the author pursued in sites in multiple countries, the book includes some very real and moving stories. Apart from the historical actors Underwood sought out directly and through family members, the lives and experiences of so many actors, singers, musicians, and engaged community members spring off many of the book's pages. It's a compelling book that will be of great interest to scholars across subfields and disciplines, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/french-studies

Welcome to Inside The Epicenter, where we bring you deep insights into the latest geopolitical events, biblical prophecy, and the impact on individuals and families. In this episode, our host, Joel Rosenberg delves into the complexities of moving to Israel and living in the epicenter of historical and biblical significance. He discusses the practical challenges and emotional journey of relocating to Israel, sharing personal experiences and insights from his life. Additionally, Joel provides a unique perspective on the humanitarian and political landscape in Israel, emphasizing the biblical significance of the country and its role in the fulfillment of prophecy. He shares thought-provoking views on the fullness of the Gentiles during the tribulation, the increase in Jewish believers in Jesus, and the potential future relationship with Israel's neighbors. Join us as we explore the intersection of faith, politics, and prophecy and gain a deeper understanding of the complexities and blessings of living in Israel. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the personal experiences and reflections of those who have made the journey to the heart of biblical history.   (00:05) Jews return due to threats. (05:42) French Jews immigrating to Israel amid antisemitism. (15:18) Potential Jewish migration to Israel amid adversity. (22:18) Israel has about 35,000 Jewish born-again believers. (28:26) Rapture leads to Jews coming to faith. (32:36) Creation of Israel was previously unthinkable, miraculous. (39:23) Supporting and defending Israel is crucial. (43:20) Emphasizing the importance of Israel in Christianity. (53:47) Saudi reforms and peace efforts with Israel. (58:59) Successful transition from politician to bestselling author. (01:00:26) Curiosity about prophecies and practical eschatology. (01:11:23) Importance of humanitarian relief, thoughtful communication, biblical truth. (01:16:09) Great commission to reach every person worldwide.     Learn more about The Joshua Fund. Make a tax-deductible donation. The Joshua Fund Stock Media provided by DimmySad/Pond5   Verse of the Day: Matthew 28:19—Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Prayer Request:Pray that more people will be open to coming to Israel and willing to experience Israel, give to Israel, and respond to the needs in Israel. Pray for ministers and families serving in Israel, that they would be strengthened, protected, and provided for. Related Episodes:Christians Blessing Israel: How and Why? #170Uniting Christians and Jews: A Spiritual Journey in Israel with Tatiana Mazarsky and Albert Veksler #168Transforming Lives Through Women's Ministry in Israel #115The Joshua Fund's Origin Story #107 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Biden v. Trump polls and Super Tuesday, the Supreme Court's decision to leave Donald Trump on the ballot, and whether The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending with The Atlantic's Franklin Foer. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to gabfest@slate.com and you might be picked to chatter live.    Here are some notes and references from this week's show: 538: Latest Polls Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times: Voters Doubt Biden's Leadership and Favor Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: The Supreme Court's “Unanimous” Trump Ballot Ruling Is Actually a 5-4 Disaster Michael C. Dorf for Dorf on Law: Nine Justices in Search of an Excuse to Nullify Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Kate Shaw, Melissa Murray, and Leah Litman for Crooked Media's Strict Scrutiny podcast: SCOTUS Restores Trump to the Colorado Ballot, Unanimously (Kind Of) Franklin Foer for The Atlantic: The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending Elena Schneider and Melanie Mason for Politico: AIPAC uncorks $100 million war chest to sink progressive candidates Center for Antisemitism Research: 24% of Americans Harbor Extensive Antisemitic Prejudice, Up From 20% in 2022, Survey Finds Romain Chauvet for The Times of Israel: ‘I'm afraid every day for my children': As antisemitism soars, French Jews flee to Israel Here are this week's chatters: Emily: Madaleine Rubin for The Texas Tribune: Sean Teare unseats Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in primary; Serena Lin for the Austin American-Statesman: Incumbent José Garza wins Democratic primary for Travis County district attorney; Stefanie Dazio for AP: Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff; Mensah M. Dean for The Trace: In Philadelphia, a Program Offers Some People Arrested for Unlicensed Guns a Second Chance; and Jenice Armstrong for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly program keeps gun offenders out of prison. I'm all for it. John: Bozi Tatarevic for Road & Track: Here's Why NASCAR Driver Joey Logano Was Penalized For Cheating Gloves and Victoria Beaver: Caught Webbed-Handed: Here's the Cheated-Up Glove NASCAR Fined Joey Logano Over David: One Day on Netflix and One Day by David Nicholls; Normal People on Hulu and Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney; Shōgun on Hulu and Shōgun, Part One by James Clavell; Atlas Obscura's Ecliptic Festival; and Danielle Dowling for The New York Times: 31 Things to Do for the Big Eclipse This April Listener chatter from Jason Dewees in San Francisco, California: Julie Zigoris for The San Francisco Standard: He died in a Jewish ghetto. How did his long-lost art end up on a bench in San Francisco?   For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk with Researcher Julie about working as an election judge. See Arapahoe County (Colorado) Elections; Election Judges; Election Transparency; and Arapahoe County Life of the Ballot.    In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.   Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth  Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Biden v. Trump polls and Super Tuesday, the Supreme Court's decision to leave Donald Trump on the ballot, and whether The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending with The Atlantic's Franklin Foer. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to gabfest@slate.com and you might be picked to chatter live.    Here are some notes and references from this week's show: 538: Latest Polls Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times: Voters Doubt Biden's Leadership and Favor Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: The Supreme Court's “Unanimous” Trump Ballot Ruling Is Actually a 5-4 Disaster Michael C. Dorf for Dorf on Law: Nine Justices in Search of an Excuse to Nullify Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Kate Shaw, Melissa Murray, and Leah Litman for Crooked Media's Strict Scrutiny podcast: SCOTUS Restores Trump to the Colorado Ballot, Unanimously (Kind Of) Franklin Foer for The Atlantic: The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending Elena Schneider and Melanie Mason for Politico: AIPAC uncorks $100 million war chest to sink progressive candidates Center for Antisemitism Research: 24% of Americans Harbor Extensive Antisemitic Prejudice, Up From 20% in 2022, Survey Finds Romain Chauvet for The Times of Israel: ‘I'm afraid every day for my children': As antisemitism soars, French Jews flee to Israel Here are this week's chatters: Emily: Madaleine Rubin for The Texas Tribune: Sean Teare unseats Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in primary; Serena Lin for the Austin American-Statesman: Incumbent José Garza wins Democratic primary for Travis County district attorney; Stefanie Dazio for AP: Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff; Mensah M. Dean for The Trace: In Philadelphia, a Program Offers Some People Arrested for Unlicensed Guns a Second Chance; and Jenice Armstrong for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly program keeps gun offenders out of prison. I'm all for it. John: Bozi Tatarevic for Road & Track: Here's Why NASCAR Driver Joey Logano Was Penalized For Cheating Gloves and Victoria Beaver: Caught Webbed-Handed: Here's the Cheated-Up Glove NASCAR Fined Joey Logano Over David: One Day on Netflix and One Day by David Nicholls; Normal People on Hulu and Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney; Shōgun on Hulu and Shōgun, Part One by James Clavell; Atlas Obscura's Ecliptic Festival; and Danielle Dowling for The New York Times: 31 Things to Do for the Big Eclipse This April Listener chatter from Jason Dewees in San Francisco, California: Julie Zigoris for The San Francisco Standard: He died in a Jewish ghetto. How did his long-lost art end up on a bench in San Francisco?   For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk with Researcher Julie about working as an election judge. See Arapahoe County (Colorado) Elections; Election Judges; Election Transparency; and Arapahoe County Life of the Ballot.    In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.   Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth  Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Biden v. Trump polls and Super Tuesday, the Supreme Court's decision to leave Donald Trump on the ballot, and whether The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending with The Atlantic's Franklin Foer. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to gabfest@slate.com and you might be picked to chatter live.    Here are some notes and references from this week's show: 538: Latest Polls Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times: Voters Doubt Biden's Leadership and Favor Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: The Supreme Court's “Unanimous” Trump Ballot Ruling Is Actually a 5-4 Disaster Michael C. Dorf for Dorf on Law: Nine Justices in Search of an Excuse to Nullify Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Kate Shaw, Melissa Murray, and Leah Litman for Crooked Media's Strict Scrutiny podcast: SCOTUS Restores Trump to the Colorado Ballot, Unanimously (Kind Of) Franklin Foer for The Atlantic: The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending Elena Schneider and Melanie Mason for Politico: AIPAC uncorks $100 million war chest to sink progressive candidates Center for Antisemitism Research: 24% of Americans Harbor Extensive Antisemitic Prejudice, Up From 20% in 2022, Survey Finds Romain Chauvet for The Times of Israel: ‘I'm afraid every day for my children': As antisemitism soars, French Jews flee to Israel Here are this week's chatters: Emily: Madaleine Rubin for The Texas Tribune: Sean Teare unseats Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in primary; Serena Lin for the Austin American-Statesman: Incumbent José Garza wins Democratic primary for Travis County district attorney; Stefanie Dazio for AP: Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff; Mensah M. Dean for The Trace: In Philadelphia, a Program Offers Some People Arrested for Unlicensed Guns a Second Chance; and Jenice Armstrong for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly program keeps gun offenders out of prison. I'm all for it. John: Bozi Tatarevic for Road & Track: Here's Why NASCAR Driver Joey Logano Was Penalized For Cheating Gloves and Victoria Beaver: Caught Webbed-Handed: Here's the Cheated-Up Glove NASCAR Fined Joey Logano Over David: One Day on Netflix and One Day by David Nicholls; Normal People on Hulu and Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney; Shōgun on Hulu and Shōgun, Part One by James Clavell; Atlas Obscura's Ecliptic Festival; and Danielle Dowling for The New York Times: 31 Things to Do for the Big Eclipse This April Listener chatter from Jason Dewees in San Francisco, California: Julie Zigoris for The San Francisco Standard: He died in a Jewish ghetto. How did his long-lost art end up on a bench in San Francisco?   For this week's Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk with Researcher Julie about working as an election judge. See Arapahoe County (Colorado) Elections; Election Judges; Election Transparency; and Arapahoe County Life of the Ballot.    In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.   Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth  Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With an estimated 400,000 people, France has the largest Jewish community in Europe. The French interior ministry has said there was what could only be described as an explosion of attacks on French Jews since the start of October.

Since the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel's crushing response in the Gaza Strip, more than 1,500 anti-Semitic acts have been recorded in France – three times as many as in the whole of 2022. For many French Jews, this outpouring of hatred has awakened a feeling of vulnerability. We went to meet Rachel Jedinak, a survivor of the World War II Vel d'Hiv' roundup; Jonas Jacquelin, a rabbi at a synagogue in Paris's Copernic Street; Hanna Assouline, president and co-founder of the NGO Women Warriors for Peace; and Michel Wieviorka, a renowned sociologist and author whose research interests include anti-Semitism. FRANCE 24's Natacha Vesnitch and Jonathan Walsh report.

France has both the largest Muslim and Jewish communities in Europe. With the war in Gaza now in its third month, authorities are keen to prevent tensions from spilling over. There has already been a significant surge in anti-Semitic incidents and some French Jews fear for their safety. Another concern is the rising level of hate speech on social media, with racist and anti-Semitic comments soaring. FRANCE 24's Jonathan Walsh and Clovis Casali met with some of the peace activists who are trying to prevent tensions from spreading in France.

Following Hamas' October 7 massacre of Israelis Jews around the world have experienced a  surge of antisemitism. We checked in with some of AJC's global experts  to learn what they've been seeing and hearing on the ground and to understand what efforts are underway to protect Jews and counter this hate. In the first of two installments, we hear from AJC Europe Managing Director Simone Rodan Benzaquen, AJC Africa Director Wayne Sussman, and Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC's Belfer Institute on Latin American Affairs. Take action to bring all hostages home now. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Simone Rodan Benzaquen, Wayne Sussman, and Dina Siegel Vann Show Notes: Listen – People of the Pod on the Israel-Hamas War: What Happens Next: AJC's Avital Leibovich on the Hostage Deal and Challenges Ahead What Would You Do If Your Son Was Kidnapped by Hamas? The Good, the Bad, and the Death Threats: What It's Like to Be a Jewish College Student Right Now Mai Gutman Was Supposed to Be at the Music Festival: IDF Lone Soldier Recounts Harrowing Week Responding to Hamas Terror: IsraAID CEO on How You Can Help Israelis Right Now Learn: Debunking the False Equivalency Between Israeli Hostages and Palestinian Prisoners How much do you know about Hamas? Try to ace our quiz and expose the truth about the terror group today. Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Transcript of Interview with Simone Rodan Benzaquen, Wayne Sussman, and Dina Siegel Vann: Manya Brachear Pashman: American Jewish Committee has 14 international offices around the world. For today's episode, we checked in with some of those offices to learn what they're seeing and hearing on the ground since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Today, we take you to Europe, Africa and Latin America. We start in Paris, where years of work to combat rising antisemitism has seen a serious setback. For more than two decades, since the Second Intifada, antisemitism has been on the rise on the European continent. In fact, it was that ripple effect that prompted AJC to ramp up its advocacy there. AJC Managing Director of Europe Simone Rodan Benzaquen joined us from Paris. Simone Rodan Benzaquen: What we have seen, I think, in Europe is more or less what we've seen, everywhere, what can only be described as an explosion of antisemitism across the European continent, I would say, mostly in Western Europe, here in France in particular, but also in the United Kingdom, we have seen the same. In Germany, we have seen similar things going on in Sweden and Denmark. But of course, here in France, where antisemitism has existed for at least two decades, or at least this contemporary form of antisemitism, for the past two decades with high numbers of antisemitic hate crimes. The situation is very, very serious. We've had basically three times the number of antisemitic hate crimes, since October 7 of what we had during the entire year, last year.   We have desecration of cemeteries, we have antisemitic tags. We have intimidation, we have spitting on people. It is as if the sheer horror, the violence that happened on October 7, unleashed an antisemitic passion, an antisemitic violence across the world. As if the horrible images that were filmed by the Hamas terrorists on October 7 sort of was a legitimization. Manya Brachear Pashman: So what does that mean for the Jewish community and daily life? Simone Rodan Benzaquen: We've reached a point where people are hiding every single aspect of their Jewish identity. People are changing their names on their delivery apps, people are changing their names on their doorbells, if they believe that they sound Jewish. People are hiding every single aspect of their Jewish identity. On Uber apps, on taxi apps, myself, you know, I go on TV and do interviews quite a bit and so I give a different name to the taxi, and I give a different address a few blocks down the street is to be sure that you know, just in case, the taxi driver doesn't know where I actually live. So everybody takes precautions. It's gotten to a point where we just don't live the same life as everybody else. Manya Brachear Pashman: Has the work you've done over the past two decades made a difference? For example, since the Second Intifada, there have been a number of conflicts between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza. Do you see progress? Simone Rodan Benzaquen: We in Europe have felt like we've been doing a little bit of the work of Sisyphus over the past two decades, where we have moments of hope and things are getting better. And we say to ourselves, oh, maybe this is a wakeup call. And sort of, then we go back to, you know, before. And I hope that this this time around, given the level of violence, given the level of antisemitic hate crimes, given the number of sheer antisemitic attacks.  When you actually take it down, you come to on average about 40 antisemitic acts a day. I mean, that's huge for a population that represents far less than 1% of the entire French population. I hope this will serve as a wakeup call. But there is the question of what does it mean, how do you translate it politically? How do you translate it into government action? I mean, Europe has come up with different plans, action plans against antisemitism, but it's not enough and more needs to be done. I think one of the things that we as Jewish communities were very wary about was the fact that  over the past sort of two decades, there was sort of a lack of how can I say, solidarity from other French people. Again, we've had antisemitic hate crimes for the last 20 years, people have been murdered. But every single time, when you look at the demonstrations, at the marches after something horrible happened, you would mostly have a few hundred, or maybe a few thousand Jews in the streets.  And so there was sort of a feeling that within the French Jewish community that they were a little bit abandoned by the rest of society. And so we know from our surveys, AJC does a survey every two years where we know that, for example, French people, and Germans as well, are convinced about the fact that antisemitism is not the problem of Jews alone, but that of the entire society.  So both in Germany and in France, 73% of the population say that it is not the problem of Jews alone. But despite that number, it has never sort of translated into something concrete. So we would never have marches. We would never have like sort of big shows of solidarity with the Jewish community. And I think, since, if there's one good news, and there's not a lot of good news these days, if there's one good news is that last Sunday there were massive demonstrations across France, against antisemitism with basically the entire political class were present, with 20 government ministers who were present, with a prime minister who was present, with three former prime ministers who were present, two former presidents, plus a lot of people on the streets. We had over 180,000 people in the streets of France, basically expressing solidarity with the Jewish community and saying that they want to fight against antisemitism. So I think that was a sort of a very important sign of hope for many French Jews. …. Manya Brachear Pashman: Now we go to the continent of Africa, where AJC Africa Director Wayne Sussman joins us from the South African city of Johannesburg to explain how the war that began on October 7 affects Israel's relations with African countries.  Wayne Sussman: I would say the tensest of the relationships right now is between Israel and South Africa. The Ambassador of Israel to South Africa received a démarche.  So when the first two countries to recall their ambassadors were South Africa and Chad. When it comes to Chad, that was more unexpected than South Africa. Because relations were recently increasing between Chad and Israel. Sadly–and one's got to remember that the largest Jewish community in Africa by a country mile is in South Africa. But sadly, the government of South Africa has had a very adversarial relationship with the State of Israel over the last few years. And this has manifested in the last few weeks. Manya Brachear Pashman: Because of this antagonistic relationship with Israel, has the South African Jewish community faced quite a bit of antisemitism? Wayne Sussman: Even though the current government of South Africa has had an adversarial relationship with the State of Israel, levels of antisemitism are extremely low–far lower than Europe, far lower than Latin America, far lower than the United States of America, far lower than Canada, far lower than Australia.  So we are working off a very low base here in South Africa. But over the last few weeks, antisemitic incidents have increased. For the time being, levels of violent incidents have been low. A turning point was on Sunday afternoon in Cape Town on the Sea Point Promenade, just to zone in on Sea Point, where the majority of Jews in Cape Town live. And the promenade is a beautiful public space, which all residents of the city use.  And what we saw the day before was a pro-Palestinian demonstration through the streets of the City of Cape Town. It was a largely peaceful protest. There were pockets of the protests, which had hateful slogans and made concerning threats against the main Jewish Day School in Cape Town.  And then the next day, a group of Christians at the Sea Point Promenade, which I referred to earlier, which is in the Jewish neighborhood of Sea Point, were going to have a prayer vigil for the State of Israel. They had a stage set up, microphones, etc. And a group of 200 to 300 pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas supporters sympathizers came and disrupted it. And the police had to get involved and use water cannons. It's very rare for us to see sights like this in South Africa, particularly in Sea Point. Manya Brachear Pashman: So what I'm hearing you say is the antagonism toward Israel doesn't normally translate into antagonism that targets the Jewish community there? Wayne Sussman: One of the worrying sides we see is our threats against, first of all, multinational corporations. I think these threats will not be impactful. But what is more concerning are privately owned Jewish businesses. And we have seen specific targets in this regard. Because of  the CEOs of these businesses purporting to support and stand with Israel. But I think we need to see how successful these are going to be.  But I think the community is incredibly united right now. They are standing strong. And it's vital because this is a very important Jewish community in South Africa. A rich history, this community has made a remarkable contribution to the fight against apartheid, to building this economy, to creating jobs in the field of medicine and law, to arts and culture, and even some in sport. Manya Brachear Pashman: There was a United Nations resolution calling for a truce. I believe 35 African states voted in favor of that resolution but Cameroon and Ethiopia abstained. Can you shed a little light on where other African countries stand? Wayne Sussman: I would say the overwhelming amount of countries have adopted a neutral position that might change when we come to the United Nations and a multinational forum on the African continent like the African Union. But countries like Kenya, who under the new president have stood firmly and strongly with Israel. Countries, like Zambia have shown a lot of empathy towards Israel. That's a version relationship. And then we look at countries in the west of Africa, Togo and Cameroon. They've historically had very strong ties with Israel, those ties remain. And then you have countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, those countries have stood firmly with Israel at this time. An interesting development. And again, this is a very fluid situation. But Indian Ocean islands like Mauritius, and Seychelles, where I was, I've been surprised at their even-handedness on this particular situation.  Ethiopia is a fascinating country. It's a country which for many years had remarkable levels of economic growth, a very young population, one of the largest populations in Africa, also the center of the African Union, and also the hub of African air travel. And, of course, a country where many of Israel's citizens hail from and still maintain deep personal ties to. So I think that Ethiopia abstaining was very, very interesting in that regard. And that ties will be stronger between the two countries after this. Manya Brachear Pashman: I should note that Sudan and Morocco, two signatories of the Abraham Accords, did vote in favor of a truce. Do you see those ties weakened by all of this? Wayne Sussman: I think universally, it's going to be a challenging time for Israel. But I think once the dust settles, that you will see countries like Morocco return to embracing normalization. You'll see countries like Zambia, who are not part of the Abraham Accords, but are deepening ties, I think they will continue to do that. So I think the next few days and weeks will be very difficult. But again, back to what I was saying earlier, from a bilateral level, I think African countries are pragmatic.  Those which were considering the Abraham Accords will see the benefit with regards to Israel, agritech Israel in fintech, Israel in rural health care, Israel in rural development. I think countries have seen a great benefit in deepening those ties. So it is going to be tested, certainly in places like the United Nations, certainly in forums like the African Union.  What's very interesting, there was an interview in a Saudi Arabian newspaper recently with the president of Somalia. And he was very bullish, saying that if Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a two-state solution, that it would be right for Somalia to engage in peaceful relations with Israel.  So even though we're in a very difficult and dark time, and it's unclear what's going to happen, we're seeing signs from Somalia, which is obviously in Africa, and also signs in Saudi Arabia, that even once the dust settles over here, that diplomatic doors will still remain open. …. Manya Brachear Pashman: In July 1994, terrorists bombed the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring more than 300 others. From that point on, the Argentine capital became known as the site of the worst and most fatal antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. That distinction changed on October 7 when terrorists breached the border between Israel and Gaza and murdered more than 1,200 people. As the Director of AJC's Belfer Institute for Latin American Affairs Dina Siegel Vann explains, it has not been an easy time for Jews on the South American continent or other Spanish-speaking regions.  Dina Siegel Vann: Some of the countries that have really concerned us the most, are countries like Colombia, which in the past used to be the most steadfast ally of the United States and of Israel. But since the arrival of President Petro, who is a leftist ideologue, I would say, this has changed. And since October 7, we have seen really the country go in a totally different direction, which is really endangering the relationship not only with Israel, but with the United States.  Colombia, President Petro has tweeted on October 8, he was already tweeting, where he was comparing Gaza to Auschwitz, where he was talking about international bankers, and he was talking about, the media, international media being on the side of those who commit genocide.  So, you know, that has already made for a very rarefied environment, in terms of relations, as I said, both with the United States and what Israel. He also threatened through his foreign minister, the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador who was responding to his attacks, and now he has recalled his ambassador to Israel. Manya Brachear Pashman: Chile also has been unfriendly, but that's been the case for a while. It is home to the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East, and leaders of that community have expressed support for Hamas. But AJC will hold its annual strategic forum for Latin American and Iberian leaders in Santiago this month. Can you give us the lay of the land there?  Dina Siegel Vann: So what has happened since is that President Boric, who, you know, who identifies with those positions of the Palestinian community has also had very hostile attitudes towards Israel. Number one, you know, he has not met with the Jewish community, he has not expressed his condolences, he hasn't expressed his condolences to Israel, and to the families of the victims. And he has also spoken, you know, mostly about what is going on in Gaza, and has characterized Israel's efforts to defend itself as genocidal as crimes against humanity, etc. And that also has created a very very vulnerable sense in the Jewish community in Chile that feels, you know, totally alone when it comes to this development. So I would say that Chile and Colombia have been the most egregious cases. Particularly because we're not talking about insignificant countries in the region, we're talking about Colombia, which is the third largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt. And we're talking about a country like Chile, who has always been or considers itself a paragon of human rights, not only in the region, but around the world. So their voices count, and that's why, you know, it concerns us a great deal. Manya Brachear Pashman: As I mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, until October 7, the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust had taken place in Argentina in 1994, carried out by Iran's terror proxy, Hezbollah. And just recently, Brazilian police detained a couple of Hezbollah operatives who were in the country with plans to attack Brazilian Jewish institutions, correct?  Dina Siegel Vann: It underscores the really, really dangerous role that Iran plays in the region. And we know firsthand about it, because of course, the attacks in 1992 and 1994. But we know about it also, because of the tri-border area, where we know that Hezbollah and Hamas are very active, undertaking all kinds of money laundering activities. It's very important that we keep a focus on that. I think the U.S. is very, very keen on following very closely what's going on in that area, and in other areas in other areas of the region, including Venezuela, which has been the gateway to Iran in the region. Iran is very well positioned in that country and has ties to President Maduro. Started with President Chavez and it has continued with President Maduro.  So we need to keep in focus, when we talk about, you know, potentially dangerous scenarios, not only from lead for Latin America, but for the United States for the whole hemisphere., this, you know, Iran is quite  active. And is really, you know, thinking about how to create mischief, you know, whether in Brazil or elsewhere.We don't remember that, you know, that we have really a dangerous situation very close in our own neighborhood. Manya Brachear Pashman: You have told me that 30% of the hostages hail from Latin America: Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, 15 from Argentina.  Dina Siegel Vann: Yes. Well, I have to say that Argentina, for example, President Fernandez published in the New York Times a half a page with a letter an open letter demanding that the hostages be brought home and talking about their own hostages their own citizens. So yeah, absolutely. I mean, the hostages are traveling, there's some hostages from Latin American families that are traveling all around the region, meeting with members of Congress meeting with government officials and others and the media to raise more awareness about the issue and pressure the governments, their own governments to to speak up, you know, on on on, on behalf on to bring that these hostages home.  Manya Brachear Pashman: Since recording this episode, many of those hostages with Latin American citizenship have been able to return home. Of course, there are still so many hostages– nearly 160. To push for their safe return, listeners can head to AJC.org/BringThemHome or follow the link in our show notes.  Dina, take us back to Europe–tell us about the situation in Spain.  Dina Siegel Vann: Spain has been a mixed bag, because you have President Sanchez and Foreign Minister Alvarez has come out from the very beginning with very strong signs of support towards Israel, recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization recognizes Israel's right to defend itself. But they they were in the process of creating a government and they need some of the more radical parties, independent parties, and, you know, some other parties like Soomad, who are very anti-Israel, they needed them to form coalition's and this parties were speaking, you know, in very vile terms regarding Israel, and really indulging on some antisemitic themes, and President Sanchez, didn't come out publicly as well as, you know, Foreign Minister Robotis to denounce them. But at the same time, they made clear that everybody understood that in foreign policy, what counts is the voice of the President and the voice of the foreign minister.  They met with the Jewish community, they expressed their their their solidarity, they express their concern about antisemitism, they met with the families of the kidnapped. So they have really tried to, you know, to keep a very balanced and very difficult position, vis a vis, their current situation. They formed a government yesterday, the government was finally formed. And maybe at this point, they will be more, they'll have more leeway to come out to protest this type of discourse.  But at the same time, you know, in Spain, you have seen some vandalism, you have seen some intimidation in schools against Jews and Israelis. So as I said, it's a mixed bag. And we are still monitoring this very carefully. Spain wants to be a leader, wants to be a convener when it comes to negotiating some sort of peace deal, they did it in the Madrid Conference a while back, they see their role, once again, as you know, as as a liaison, as a bridge between both worlds and therefore, you know, they always try to keep a very careful stance when it comes to both communities.   

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Today is day 37 of the war. Editor David Horovitz and reporter Canaan Lidor join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's episode. Over the weekend, Israel saw another five soldiers fall during the ground operation in Gaza. Horovitz fills us in on the status of the fighting alongside booby-trapped tunnels. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation and took reporters' questions last night. Horovitz brings highlights from Netanyahu's remarks, as well as what Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is saying about an expanded operation in Lebanon. Yesterday was Armistice Day in London and there were hundreds of thousands of anti-Israel protesters in the streets. Horovitz describes the disconnect felt in England right now. French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said there was “no justification” for Israel's bombing of “these babies, these ladies, these old people” in the war against Hamas and reiterated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Lidor gives background on why these statements represent such a betrayal for many French Jews. Lidor reports back from the Gaza envelope, where he spent time with struggling farmers near the border. For the latest updates, please look at The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog. Discussed articles include: Live blog November 12, 2023 IDF: No siege at Shifa Hospital, we'll help move babies to safety; 5 soldiers killed Beloved educator and son of former Netanyahu aide among 5 reservists killed in Gaza Netanyahu: We'll defy the world if needed to defeat Hamas; PA can't run Gaza after war Macron's comments on Gaza war are ‘factually, morally' incorrect, Netanyahu charges Macron: Israel must stop bombing babies, women, elderly; PM: Hamas to blame for deaths THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Palestinians seen at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, November 10, 2023. (Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we seeing a surge in anti-Semitic sentiment, or do we just live in an age where bigots have a bigger bullhorn? Here is what we do know: reported acts of hate against French Jews have soared since the Middle East erupted a month ago.  But the spike in anti-Semitism did not start a month ago. Pre-Covid, social media was awash with conspiracy theories and tropes about Jews controlling finance and the media. We ask about France's present and past.In 1990, the desecration of Jewish tombstones in the southern city of Carpentras outraged France and brought more than 200,000 onto the streets of Paris. How many – or how few – will turn out on Sunday for a march against anti-Semitism that is stoking bitter political divisions over the participation of the far-right National Rally (RN), whose roots go back to Nazi collaboration during World War II and who today stands squarely behind Israel?Read moreFrance's Jewish community faces a surge in anti-SemitismProduced by Charles Wente, Rebecca Gnignati and Imen Mellaz.

French Jews in fear a sudden & alarming rise in antisemitism. Future football world Cups FIFA is making some controversial decisions.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

French Jews in fear a sudden & alarming rise in antisemitism. Future football world Cups FIFA is making some controversial decisions.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

French Jews in fear a sudden & alarming rise in antisemitism. Future football world Cups FIFA is making some controversial decisions.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in central Paris on Thursday, in defiance of a controversial new ban on pro-Palestinian rallies in the country. French police and members of the gendarmerie worked to disperse the crowds with tear gas and water cannons, visuals showed. The ban had been announced earlier in the day, according to a message sent by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to the country's police, citing concerns about public order. “Pro-Palestinian demonstrations must be prohibited because they are likely to generate disturbances to the public order,” said the minister. He added that any organization of such protests will lead to arrests. Darmanin also called on the police to protect all locations visited by French Jews such as synagogues and schools, and said any foreigner committing acts of anti-Semitism on French soil will be “immediately expelled”. The ban follows a deadly and massive attack by militant group Hamas on Israel over the weekend that killed more than 1,200 people. The Israeli government has retaliated with overwhelming force in the coastal enclave of Gaza, which Hamas controls. Airstrikes have killed over 1,500 people in the densely inhabited area, and Israeli officials have shut off supplies of water and fuel to the entire population. As the conflict reaches unprecedented heights, protests in support of both Israelis and Palestinians have been seen around the world – some resulting in violent clashes. French President Emmanuel Macron in his address to the nation on Thursday called on the French people to stay united, saying that “it is this shield of unity that will protect us from drifting away and from all hatred.” Demonstrators in the historic Place de la Republique on Thursday whistled, clapped, and chanted in slogans in French including “We are all Palestinian” and “Palestine will live, Palestine will prevail.” The ban on pro-Palestinian rallies is “not normal under the rule of law,” one attendee named Ryan told Reuters. “In France, the great country that they say France is, you cannot demonstrate as is your right, freely. Unfortunately, freedom is no longer here, and we are forced to defy French law, as one would say, and demonstrate to show the truth,” he added. Another protester described the ban as a “great injustice” and told Reuters that he had been fined 135 euros (roughly $140) for wearing the keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf. France is one of a number of European nations, including the United Kingdom and Germany, where security measures have been stepped up amid fears of reprisals against members of the Jewish communities. - by Dalal Mawad and Eve Brennan, CNNSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On July 24, Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia of France wraps up his hectic weeklong tour of Ontario and Quebec. But it wasn't his first time in the country, or specifically Montreal—he came over 30 years ago for a family wedding. In an interview with The CJN Daily, Rabbi Korsia downplayed the impression that France's Jewish community faces an increasingly difficult future in the wake of terrorist attacks and physical violence in the past decade. Tens of thousands of French Jews have moved to Israel, while about 700 French Jewish families are now living in Montreal. The rabbi also supported Quebec's controversial new law, Bill 21, banning the display of religious headgear and other items for people who work for the provincial government. A similar veto has long existed under France's embrace of "secularism". He returns to France Monday night, after visiting a myriad of Jewish organizations, Sephardic synagogues and communal agencies operating in Montreal—a network that left him deeply impressed by what he views as a strong, unified sense of community, which he said does not exist for Jews in his native country. What we talked about Learn more about immigration of French Jews to Canada, in The CJN from 2014 and 2017. When Quebec Jews pressured a p_romoter to cancel show by French rapper Freeze Corleone, on antisemitism lyrics, in The CJN._ Discover the Initiative France Montreal run by Feder_ation CJA to absorb French Jewish immigrants including those from Belgium and Switzerland._ Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

Author Laura Hobson Faure on how French Jews accepted, negotiated and even rejected American Jewish aid after the Holocaust. A “Jewish Marshall Plan”: the American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France, winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Writing Based on Archival Material. Laura Hobson Faure is a professor at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University-Paris 1, where she holds the chair of Modern Jewish history and is a member of the Center for Social History (UMR 8058). Her research focuses on the intersections between French and American Jewish life, during and after the Holocaust. She is the author of A “Jewish Marshall Plan”: the American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana University Press, 2022) which won a National Jewish Book award, and Rescue: The Story of Kindertransport to France and America (forthcoming, Yale University Press). She also co-edited L'Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants et les populations juives au XXème siècle. Prévenir et Guérir dans un siècle de violences (Armand Colin, 2014) and Enfants en guerre. « Sans famille » dans les conflits du XXème siècle ( éditions CNRS).

A number of years ago Emily Lawrence Gazal brought her family from Bondi in Sydney Australia to live in Chatou 20ish minutes from the centre of Paris. Emily knew her great grandmother was French but her grandmother would tell her no more. She didn't really know the story further down that branch of her family tree. Interestingly the other branches for Emily are all English speaking, which is sometimes the way. As English-speaking Australians, we often know more about the anglophone history than the non-English speaking.Emily's grandmother's name was Lorraine so Emily took a guess that the family was from the Alsace-Lorraine area and may have named her after the region they were originally from. Emily was right and commenced a journey of uncovering the secrets of her family history her grandmother had kept hidden. I was fascinated to chat to Emily about this journey of discovery. After checking out the situation on Ancestry.com where nothing was evident, she wrote to the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages in New South Wales and received a surname. She also got a naturalisation certificate. Emily then went on a French ancestry website and found a similar name and putting 2 and 2 together, worked out that her great great grandfather was Jewish and when moving from France to Australia changed the family name slightly.Emily ended up visiting the village in Alsace that her family came from, Ribeauvillé. She met with an archivist there who did more research on her family and found out some details that were immense discoveries for Emily. It turned out that she had family, the siblings of her great great grandfather Vernon, who had been highly regarded in the community and others who were taken away to Auschwitz and killed. I love the importance Emily places on her French family history. Strengthening our ties with the past actually helps us learn more about ourselves. Emily still has questions, such as why did her grandmother hide her Jewishness? Emily now feels connected to the area they were from as well as feeling connected to the French Jews she encounters.**Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.**Other Loulabelle's links:FrancoFile Fix on YouTubeLoulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist Loulabelle's FrancoFiles InstagramLoulabelle's FrancoFiles website

While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A 'Jewish Marshall Plan': The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana UP, 2022), Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A 'Jewish Marshall Plan' examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish family life, legal pluralism, and the migration experiences of Jews in France and the United States. She is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, and is completing a book titled An Impossible Divorce? East European Jews and the Limits of Legal Pluralism in France, 1900-1939. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A 'Jewish Marshall Plan': The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana UP, 2022), Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A 'Jewish Marshall Plan' examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish family life, legal pluralism, and the migration experiences of Jews in France and the United States. She is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, and is completing a book titled An Impossible Divorce? East European Jews and the Limits of Legal Pluralism in France, 1900-1939. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A 'Jewish Marshall Plan': The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana UP, 2022), Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A 'Jewish Marshall Plan' examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish family life, legal pluralism, and the migration experiences of Jews in France and the United States. She is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, and is completing a book titled An Impossible Divorce? East European Jews and the Limits of Legal Pluralism in France, 1900-1939. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A 'Jewish Marshall Plan': The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana UP, 2022), Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A 'Jewish Marshall Plan' examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish family life, legal pluralism, and the migration experiences of Jews in France and the United States. She is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, and is completing a book titled An Impossible Divorce? East European Jews and the Limits of Legal Pluralism in France, 1900-1939. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

While the role the United States played in France's liberation from Nazi Germany is widely celebrated, it is less well known that American Jewish individuals and organizations mobilized to reconstruct Jewish life in France after the Holocaust. In A 'Jewish Marshall Plan': The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana UP, 2022), Laura Hobson Faure explores how American Jews committed themselves and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring much needed aid to their French coreligionists. Hobson Faure sheds light on American Jewish chaplains, members of the Armed Forces, and those involved with Jewish philanthropic organizations who sought out Jewish survivors and became deeply entangled with the communities they helped to rebuild. While well intentioned, their actions did not always meet the needs and desires of the French Jews. A 'Jewish Marshall Plan' examines the complex interactions, exchanges, and solidarities created between American and French Jews following the Holocaust. Challenging the assumption that French Jews were passive recipients of aid, this work reveals their work as active partners who negotiated their own role in the reconstruction process. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish family life, legal pluralism, and the migration experiences of Jews in France and the United States. She is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University's Avraham Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry, and is completing a book titled An Impossible Divorce? East European Jews and the Limits of Legal Pluralism in France, 1900-1939. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

France just released its latest national plan for combating antisemitism. AJC Paris Director Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache joins us to break down this new initiative, share how French Jews are impacted by rising antisemitism, and give us a behind-the-scenes look at the role AJC played in helping craft the plan. In April 2015, AJC praised the French government for launching its first comprehensive plan to fight antisemitism and racism, and a year earlier for establishing the position of Inter-ministerial Delegate to Fight Racism and Antisemitism, reporting directly to the prime minister.  *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. ___ Episode Lineup:  (0:40) Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache ___ Show Notes: Read: AJC Paris Welcomes Updated National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Antisemitism, and Discrimination in France Listen:  Our most recent podcast episode: Breaking Down the Headlines from Israel: From Secretary Blinken's Visit, to Terror Attacks, Protests, and More Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, tag us on social media with #PeopleofthePod, and hop onto Apple Podcasts to rate us and write a review, to help more listeners find us.  

In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire have often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people from Ho Chi Minh to French Jews, Grégoire has been particularly celebrated since 1989, when the French government placed him in the Pantheon as a model of ideals of universalism and human rights.  In The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism (U California Press, 2021), we gain access for the first time to the full complexity of Grégoire's intellectual and political universe and the compelling nature of his persona. His life offers an extraordinary vantage from which to view significant issues in European and world history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It provides provocative insights into many of the twenty-first century's prevailing tensions, ideals, and paradoxes. Focusing on Grégoire's idea of "regeneration," that people could literally be made anew, Sepinwall argues that revolutionary universalism was more complicated than it appeared. Tracing the Revolution's long-term legacy, she suggests that while it spread concepts of equality and liberation throughout the world, its ideals also helped to justify colonialism and conquest. Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall is a Professor of History at California State University – San Marcos and a French and Haitian history specialist. Brigid Wallace a Graduate Student of History @Lehigh University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire have often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people from Ho Chi Minh to French Jews, Grégoire has been particularly celebrated since 1989, when the French government placed him in the Pantheon as a model of ideals of universalism and human rights.  In The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism (U California Press, 2021), we gain access for the first time to the full complexity of Grégoire's intellectual and political universe and the compelling nature of his persona. His life offers an extraordinary vantage from which to view significant issues in European and world history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It provides provocative insights into many of the twenty-first century's prevailing tensions, ideals, and paradoxes. Focusing on Grégoire's idea of "regeneration," that people could literally be made anew, Sepinwall argues that revolutionary universalism was more complicated than it appeared. Tracing the Revolution's long-term legacy, she suggests that while it spread concepts of equality and liberation throughout the world, its ideals also helped to justify colonialism and conquest. Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall is a Professor of History at California State University – San Marcos and a French and Haitian history specialist. Brigid Wallace a Graduate Student of History @Lehigh University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Yonit and Jonathan are back from Passover break and seder with a lot on their plate – We tackle Israeli PM Naftali Bennett's huge takeout bill, the results of the French Presidential election through the eyes of French Jews and French expats in Israel, and our mutual addiction to the series WeCrashed about Israeli entrepreneur Adam Neumann. We're joined by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ronan Farrow to discuss his recent piece for The New Yorker on NSO group, his groundbreaking reporting on the Harvey Weinstein case, his experiences in Jerusalem, and what it's like to be a college student at age of 11. We also discuss Jonathan's new book coming out in June, "The Escape Artist" – the story of the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world. You can pre order the book here:  https://linktr.ee/JonathanFreedland   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.