An Orthodox man was stabbed after reportedly bumping into a FedEx delivery man on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Monday afternoon.
The victim was stabbed at least four times, allegedly by the FedEx guy, on the corner of Fifth Ave. and 33rd Street around 1:40 pm.
The victim, identified as Jack Gindi, 28, was reported in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital. FedEx employee Madraque Tyquan Bailey, 22, was later arrested and led into a nearby police station in handcuffs.
“Just watched a @FedEx worker stab a guy multiple times right outside the Empire State Building,” a witness named Nate Ford tweeted.
The New York Post reported that the two men had an ongoing dispute but other outlets cited the bumping incident as the spark for the attack.
A cartoon in a Dutch newspaper that depicts an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian youth was condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as anti-Semitic.
The Jewish human rights organization announced on Monday that the cartoon printed in Volkskrant depicted Israel “as a murderous bully celebrating its 70th birthday by gunning down defenseless Palestinians at the Gaza border.”
“Instead of condemning Hamas for its pernicious and cynical abuse of civilians, the cartoon demonizes the Jewish state and her soldiers as blood-thirsty murderers celebrating Israel’s 70th birthday,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action, stated in a press release.
Rabbi Cooper added that the cartoon would only encourage terrorism and further validate anti-Semitism in Holland and the rest of the world.
Barnard College’s president Monday rejected the landslide student vote in favor of a referendum calling on the school to divest from several companies tied to Israel.
Sian Leah Beilock sent an email to the Student Government Association (SGA) representative council, which was then forwarded to the entire Barnard community, calling the measure inappropriate.
On Wednesday, SGA, who initiated the referendum, announced that it had passed. 741 students voted in favor of divestment (less than 30% of Barnard’s student body).
“For any referendum related to Barnard’s endowment to be considered by the Board of Trustees, it should meet two exacting standards. The issue under discussion must relate directly to Barnard’s mission, and there must be a clear consensus across the Barnard community that the recommended approach is the best means to address the issue at hand. The referendum you are currently considering does not meet these two standards,” Sian Leah Beilock wrote.
Beilock added that taking an institutional stand in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would “risk chilling campus discourse on a set of issues that members of our community should be able to discuss and debate freely.”
She added that choosing a side would be inconsistent with Barnard’s mission. “Second, there is clearly not consensus across the Barnard community on whether or how to address the issue. While a majority of students who voted support the referendum, this is less than 30% of Barnard’s student body. Thousands of alumnae have also voiced their opposition to the referendum. For these reasons, Barnard will not take action in response to this referendum,” the e-mail continued.
Beilock concluded her note wishing SGA “continuing success with your important work.”
The end of Beilock’s e-mail, which was also posted on the school’s website, included a Q&A section to provide context to the letter.
Some pro-Israel students see Beilock’s e-mail as the victory they have been fighting for. “We are proud to see that Barnard’s Administration not only rejected this referndum, but courageously and insightfully saw through the BDS facade and called them out for what they truly do: insight fear and hate, prevent discourse, and distort and simplify the complexity of the Middle East conflict. Thank you Barnard for standing by your values, your academic integrity, and your students!” Ofir Dayan, a member of Students Supporting Israel, wrote in an e-mail to the Forward.
(JTA) — The Scottish man who was found guilty of a hate crime for teaching his girlfriend’s dog to do the Nazi salute was fined 800 pounds, or about $1,100.
Mark Meechan, 30, who was convicted last month, taught the pug, named Buddha, to respond with the Nazi salute when prompted by statements such as “Heil Hitler” and “gas the Jews.” Meechan posted videos of the dog performing the trick on YouTube.
Meecham has said he will appeal his conviction, saying it sets a dangerous legal precedent against freedom of expression.
The original video, posted in April 2016 on his YouTube channel, Count Dankula, was viewed more than 3 million times before it was removed for violating YouTube’s policy on hate speech. Meechan said on the video that he trained the dog to annoy his girlfriend. He later posted a video in which he apologized for the original dog clips, saying it was a joke and that he has no such political leanings.
In the sentencing Monday, Sheriff Derek O’Carroll rejected Meechan’s explanation that the video was made as a private joke and pointed out that he had “not taken any steps to prevent the video being shared publicly.”
“You deliberately chose the Holocaust as the theme of the video,” O’Carroll said.
He added, speaking of the evidence: “I found it proved that the video you posted, using a public communications network, was grossly offensive and contained menacing, anti-Semitic and racist material.”
O’Carroll also said the right to freedom of expression was very important, but “in all modern democratic countries the law necessarily places some limits on that right.”
Two dozen neo-Nazi protesters flooded a small Georgia town outside Atlanta with law enforcement Saturday, before retreating to a hillside to burn a massive swastika and rune symbol, the New York Times reported.
The group, the National Socialist Movement, obtained a permit to demonstrate in Newnan, Ga., last month. Over 700 law enforcement agents from 42 different agencies flooded Newnan in the hours leading up to the rally.
The town had estimated 50-100 protesters showing up, but the group’s numbers were small, and 100 people gathered to counterprotest. A few small clashes ensued, but no one was injured. The town reported about ten arrests, but did not immediately say who was charged with what.
Jeff Schoep, head of the National Socialist movement, said at the rally that the group was “standing on behalf of white nationalism, white patriotism and our history as American people.”
After the protest, the neo-Nazis retreated to a hill about 60 miles from Newnan, Time reported. There they burned a massive wooden swastika, along with a wooden rune, the symbol of the National Socialist Movement.
