There’s A whiff of elections in the air, and it is being given impetus by the negative attitudes of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to an agreement with Hamas for the return of the hostages – plus the fact that some politicians are in the preparatory stages of lobbying for votes.
For instance, Transportation Minister Miri Regev stars in a frequently broadcast sweetness and light commercial in which she thanks all the bus drivers who are transporting millions of people around the country every week, with particular emphasis on IDF reservists who have returned to their civilian work
MK Michael Biton, of the Israel Resilience Party will also hold an open discussion on issues of the day at the social space center in the former President Hotel on Tuesday, January 21, at 3 Ahad Ha’am Street, Jerusalem. Also present will be Ariel Baziz, a member of the Jerusalem City Council. The meeting is set to begin at 7 p.m.
■ MUCH AS the bulk of the population serves in, loves and admires the Israel Defense Forces, relations between the IDF and civil society are often complex and even nasty.
Among the leading researchers into this relationship is Prof. Yagil Levy, head of the Open University’s Institute for Researching IDF-Civil Society Relations. He is also one of the most severe critics of certain policies and actions of the IDF. Also on January 21, he will be one of the keynote speakers on the subject at a conference at the Open University in Ra’anana.
Other speakers include Prof. Leo Corry, President of the Open University, plus academics from the university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa, Bar Ilan University, the Peres Academic Center, the Israel Democracy Institute, and the Van Leer Institute. Among the subjects to be discussed will be public discourse on the IDF look-out team after October 7, communications outlets during the war and the public’s right NOT to know, information and politics, the IDF’s identity struggle, and what contributes to the continuity of war. The conference will begin at 4 pm.
ONE OF the first people to attract the attention of the UN and other organizations to the evils of sexual violence against women that was perpetrated by Hamas, on October 7, 2023, was legal expert on human rights Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy who is the founder of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women.
In an address last week to the Lion of Judah Conference in Atlanta, Elkayam-Levy emphasized the urgent need to combat silence and denial surrounding the Hamas atrocities. She introduced a new term – “kinocide” – for the targeted destruction of families, highlighting it as a distinct Crime Against Humanity, and calling for independent documentation, a dedicated tribunal in Israel, and global awareness to ensure justice for victims and prevent future atrocities.
Elkayam-Levy urged the global Jewish community to lead efforts in advocacy, funding, and amplifying survivors’ voices to break the cycle of violence and hatred.
The conference brought together philanthropic women from Lion of Judah branches around the globe to celebrate Jewish pride and empower future leaders.
Her session focused on the vital importance of storytelling, advocacy, and documenting historical atrocities. She highlighted the silence and shame surrounding the victims and their families in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, particularly the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas.
Elkayam-Levy underscored the critical need for the civil commission’s work, citing the widespread silence and denial by international organizations in response to the October 7 atrocities – a denial that persists, she said. The human rights expert emphasized the commission’s dedication to raising global awareness, securing justice for victims, and driving meaningful changes in the international legal system and global community.
With regard to her term “kinocide” she explained, “By naming this crime, we aim to address the deliberate destruction of families in armed conflicts. Recognizing kinocide empowers legal systems, policymakers, and societies to confront these crimes, ensuring that the suffering of victims is acknowledged, justice is pursued, and the essential role of families as a pillar of human rights and dignity is reaffirmed.”
Elkayam-Levy also discussed the increasingly sophisticated denial of these atrocities, pointing out that respected scholars and journalists are contributing to this issue. She highlighted how such denial fuels the rising tide of global antisemitism. To counter this, she called for independent documentation of crimes and the establishment of a dedicated tribunal in Israel to ensure that the world never forgets the carnage perpetrated by Hamas against the Jewish people – the bloodiest massacre since the Holocaust.
Concluding her address with a message of hope, Dr. Elkayam-Levy called for unity and action within the global Jewish community. She urged them to transform the tragedy of October 7 – and the ongoing suffering of the 98 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza – into a force for preventing future kinocides and breaking the cycle of bloodshed and hatred. She emphasized the unique role that Jewish leaders, particularly women, can play in amplifying survivors’ voices, funding research and advocacy, and mobilizing communities against such atrocities.
Keynote speakers and distinguished guests included first lady Michal Herzog; Eric Fingerhut, President & CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA); Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women; Julie Platt, JFNA Board of Trustees Chairperson; released hostage Aviva Siegel, Israeli television personality Yonit Levi, and many others.
During the conference, Herzog was presented with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award for her ongoing work in exposing the systematic sexual crimes of Hamas.
Focusing on mental health
■ AS SOMEONE deeply interested in mental health, Michal Herzog will participate in a conference on mental health issues deriving from the war that will be held at the Dubnov Gallery in Tel Aviv on Sunday, February 16, at 7:30 p.m. Other participants in the conference will be Health Minister Uriel Buso; Barzilai Psychiatric Hospital head Prof. Hezi Levy; Eyal Golan, the brother of Nova Festival survivor Shirel Golan who later suffered from severe post traumatic depression and committed suicide; Tali Nir, CEO of the 121 NGO; and journalist Rina Matzliach.
Since his sister’s death, Eyal Golan has become her voice, demanding that the Israel health authorities do more for patients with mental illnesses. He is convinced that if the extent of Shirel’s depression had been recognized sooner and if she had been given better treatment, she would not have taken her life.
Mental health has become a very serious issue since October 7. The medical profession and society in general are paying much more attention to people with mental problems because of the effects on the mental health of so many more people who survived the Hamas massacre but witnessed it, so many people who lost loved ones, and others who live in a state of anxiety over relatives kidnapped by Hamas.
Mental problems are also caused by the general state of uncertainty in Israel; economic hardship; the fear of losing one’s home to greedy real estate developers; terror attacks by lone activists; loss of sidewalk safety to motorcyclists, electric scooters, bicycle riders and skateboard show-offs; and a number of other forces.
■ RETIRED LITERARY agent Robbie Anna Hare has not lost her interest in the business and recently came across an article by Gil Troy, who is a popular columnist with The Jerusalem Post, but is frequently published by other newspapers and periodicals in the US and Canada.
Hare, who years ago saw the genesis of what Troy wrote in his article, could not resist passing on what she read in the Jewish Journal.
Just a small excerpt is reprinted here, but the article, which is definitely worth reading, can be found on the internet.
“Much of the publishing world has turned hostile to Jews. Writers giving off a whiff of Zionism or appreciation for Western civilization often find themselves canceled. Equally devastating is the silent boycott, the quiet killer that has many well-known authors with great manuscripts muscled out, unable to get publishing contracts with no real reason given, even before colleagues start banning their works.
“If Adam Bellow and David Bernstein hadn’t had the wisdom to found [Post Hill Press’ Jewish imprint] Wicked Son in 2020, we would be begging them today to launch a bold, open-minded imprint, willing to publish books about Jews and Israel, from left to right, religious and nonreligious, without the suffocating political correctness of today’s Academic Intifadaists.
“Let’s not exaggerate. America today is not Germany, 1939. And Jewish-themed books do get published by corporate trade publishers and feisty Israeli-based imprints, including Toby Press and Gefen Publishing. Still, in a matter of months, a century of progress against Jew-hatred vanished. Bloodthirsty cries of ‘From the River to the Sea,’ ‘Go Back to Poland,’ ‘The Only Good Zionist is a Dead Zionist,’ and ‘Globalize the Intifada’ resurrected the once-genteel bigotry baked into publishing, the media, the academy. Media bias and the Academic Intifada have attracted more headlines.
“But it’s equally dismaying to read that more than 6,000 authors, ‘including winners of the Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award,’ boast of launching ‘a mass boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people.’ It’s hard to believe that the University at Albany canceled a panel because two book festival authors wouldn’t appear alongside an equally progressive feminist colleague they deemed ‘Zionist’ – the panel’s topic: ‘Girl’s Coming of Age.’ And the hits keep coming: A bookstore that won’t host a discussion of an anti-Israel screed because the interlocutor is a ‘Zionist,’ a publishing trade publication that rejects an advertisement for a book because of that radioactive I-word, ‘Israel’ in the title.
“Those slights are the ones that made headlines. Jewish intellectuals from coast-to-coast keep trading stories of agents firing their authors for being too Zionist, of publishers rejecting excellent, bankable manuscripts from Jewish or pro-Israel authors without explaining why, and of an unspoken Woke strike – how the underpaid, overworked, fresh-out-of-college literary types who keep corporate publishing going simply won’t touch pro-Israel books or books by ‘Zionist’ authors, leaving them orphaned when it comes to marketing, publicity, or simply getting extra copies sent out. Talk about the chilling effects of cancel culture! It sometimes feels like the bad old days when New York’s tony Union Club blackballed German Jewish merchants, or when no country club in Los Angeles would accept Jews.”
Bellow and Bernstein, who each had extensive experience working with numerous publishing companies, did not set out to become Jewish publishers per se when they formed their partnership.
Troy gives a wonderful account of how and why they started, and how their enterprise got its name.
At a Passover Seder, when reading the section about the four sons, including the son who distanced himself from the community, one guest remarked, “Well, at least he’s there – and he’s asking a question!” “That reminds me of us!” Bellow thought. “After all, I quit Hebrew school the day after my bar mitzvah. And yet I’m still publishing Jewish books.”
Anyone who reads the whole story will realize that you don’t have to wear an army uniform to be a Jewish hero.
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