Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).
This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
How Does All of This End? by Jeffrey A. Tucker and The Florida Versus California Showdown by Amelia Janaskie and tour of the Negev seeing the Cochin Jewish Heritage Center with Indian Jews in the Negev and Manfred Gerstenfeld, Dead at 84 By David Israel And 5 million Israelis vaccinated; PM: All adults will be inoculated by next month and Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says
— Fully vaccinated Americans can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing, according to long-awaited guidance from federal health officials.
The recommendations also say that vaccinated people can come together in the same way — in a single household — with people considered at low-risk for severe disease, such as in the case of vaccinated grandparents visiting healthy children and grandchildren.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the guidance Monday.
The guidance is designed to address a growing demand, as more adults have been getting vaccinated and wondering if it gives them greater freedom to visit family members, travel, or do other things like they did before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world last year.
"With more and more people vaccinated each day, we are starting to turn a corner," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
During a press briefing Monday, she called the guidance a "first step" toward restoring normalcy in how people come together. She said more activities would be ok'd for vaccinated individuals once caseloads and deaths decline, more Americans are vaccinated, and as more science emerges on the ability of those who have been vaccinated to get and spread the virus.
The CDC is continuing to recommend that fully vaccinated people still wear well-fitted masks, avoid large gatherings, and physically distance themselves from others when out in public. The CDC also advised vaccinated people to get tested if they develop symptoms that could be related to COVID-19.
Officials say a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of vaccine. About 31 million Americans — or only about 9% of the U.S. population — have been fully vaccinated with a federally authorized COVID-19 vaccine so far, according to the CDC.
Authorized vaccine doses first became available in December, and they were products that required two doses spaced weeks apart. But since January, a small but growing number of Americans have been fully vaccinated, and have been asking questions like: Do I still have to wear a mask? Can I go to a bar now? Can I finally see my grandchildren?
The guidance was "welcome news to a nation that is understandably tired of the pandemic and longs to safely resume normal activities," said Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC.
"I hope that this new guidance provides the momentum for everyone to get vaccinated when they can and gives states the patience to follow the public health roadmap needed to reopen their economies and communities safely," said Besser, in a statement.
But Dr. Leana Wen called the guidance "far too cautious."
The CDC did not change its recommendations on travel, which discourages unnecessary travel and calls for getting tested within a few days of the trip. That could seem confusing to vaccinated people hoping to visit family across the country or abroad.
The new guidance also says nothing about going to restaurants or other places, even though governors are lifting restrictions on businesses, said Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University who was formerly Baltimore's health commissioner.
"The CDC is missing a major opportunity to tie vaccination status with reopening guidance. By coming out with such limited guidance, they are missing the window to influence state and national policy," Wen said, in an email.
The CDC guidance did not speak to people who may have gained some level of immunity from being infected, and recovering from, the coronavirus.
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
Wednesday, Feb, 24 2021
Visit the Cochin Heritage Center and the ancient Synagogue in Nevatim. The Cochin Jewish Heritage Center offers you a visit to an exotic Jewish tradition: getting to know the rich heritage of the Cochin(India) Jews through a video about the community and its customs, a visit to a museum with original items, and to the special synagogue, brought piece by piece from India to Moshav Nevatim.
We also had two other stops on the trip, for which I don't have any pictures, but were fascinating as well:
The Negev visitors center in "Old Beersheba" State of the art technology informs and moves us as we learn about the glorious past dynamic present and promising future of the Negev
Kibbutz Hatzerim "The salty Negev desert becomes a blooming green" - an opportunity to get to know advanced and successful desert agriculture at an international level , a leader in growing and producing jojoba oil for the global cosmetics industry.
fascinating film about Kibbutz Hatzerim and its many unique breakthrough technologies.
"Grow more with less"
A fascinating explanation about Netafim, which was established in Kibbutz Hatzerim and today is leading an international technological revolution in 110 countries around the world in the fields of agriculture, water, fertilizers and more.
5 million Israelis vaccinated; PM: All adults will be inoculated by next month
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday said his aim is to have the entire adult population of Israel vaccinated against COVID by the end of April.
Speaking after meeting the 5 millionth Israeli to receive the vaccine, the Prime Minister said that the country is "already working on bringing tens of millions of more vaccines" in order "to keep our economy open and avoid additional lockdowns."
"Israel is number one in the world - not only the world champion for vaccines, but the world champion for exiting from coronavirus and opening the economy. We will obey the rules and by the end of April, all of the adult population over the age of 16 will be vaccinated," Netanyahu said. (Haaretz)
Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein were on hand on watch as Janet Lavi-Azulay, 34, a pregnant woman from the central city of Petah Tikva, was given her first shot of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination that Israel is using for its immunization program.
Edelstein jovially pointed out that, due to her condition, it was unclear if Lavi-Azulay's vaccination was number 5,000,000 or 5,000,001.
Lavi-Azulay told the Kan public broadcaster that it was a "wonderful feeling."
As for getting the vaccine even though she is pregnant, Lavi-Azulay said, "The danger from the virus is much greater, that's for sure."
Israel has advised pregnant women to be vaccinated after several expectant mothers died from COVID-19 and dozens of others have experienced serious infections.
Netanyahu called on the public to ignore the "fake news" against being vaccinated and said authorities are working on obtaining tens of millions more vaccine doses for the country to ensure the economy stays open and there are no further lockdowns.
He predicted that by the end of April the entire over-16 population will be vaccinated, adding that there were a million more eligible Israelis who have yet to be immunized. Israel's total population is around 9.3 million.
"It is a world achievement," Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein seen during a visit at a Leumit Covid-19 vaccination center in Tel Aviv, with the 5 millionth Israeli who received a vaccination. March 08, 2021. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The prime minister also said he had been in contact with Pfizer and the company will soon announce a vaccine that is approved for use on children.
"Kudos to the citizens of Israel who reached five million vaccinated people," Edelstein said, after admitting that just weeks earlier he doubted that the country would reach the target in the foreseeable future.
"We can now open up nearly everything, the economy, culture, sport, leisure, tourism," Edelstein said, referring to lockdown restrictions to curb the virus spread, which were already significantly rolled back on Sunday.
In January, Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy predicted Israel would reach "herd immunity" when the combined number of vaccinated, those who have recovered from the coronavirus, and those infected reaches 5 million, according to leaks at the time from a cabinet meeting.
Of the five million who have now had the first vaccine dose, 3,789,118 have also had the second, according to Health Ministry figures released Monday.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak early last year, 803,260 people have been diagnosed with the virus and there are 37,698 active patients.
With Israel giving some 70,000-second vaccine shots a day, the country could reach Levy's herd immunity target by next week.
Much of the economy reopened Sunday as a national lockdown was further rolled back, including restaurants, cafes, school grades 7-10 in low- to medium-infection areas, event venues, attractions and hotels. Higher education institutions and religious seminaries were opened to vaccinated or recovered people and rules on gatherings and worship were relaxed.
The cabinet also decided to ease restrictions on international travel and sidelined a highly controversial committee that was deciding who could enter the country while the airport remained largely shuttered.
There will no longer be an approval process for returning Israelis. In the coming days, 1,000 people a day will be able to enter the country from four locations — New York, Frankfurt, London and Paris — with the number set to go up to 3,000 later this week. Foreign nationals will be permitted to enter the country in exceptional cases, but require permission from a government-run panel.
New coronavirus deaths and infections in Israel have continued to decline from highs in January, and the number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients has dropped to its lowest point since last year.
10:48 A.M. Israel sees lowest daily death toll in over three months
According to the Health Ministry, 14 Israelis died of COVID on Sunday, the lowest daily toll in over three months.
So far, 5,899 Israelis have died of the virus. (Haaretz)
Less than 3% of serious COVID cases are fully vaccinated, proving effectiveness of the vaccine
Only 175 of the 6,095 coronavirus patients hospitalized in serious or critical condition since the start of Israel's vaccination campaign have received a second shot
TOI STAFF Today,
Less than three percent of all seriously ill COVID-19 patients in Israel have been fully vaccinated, according to Health Ministry figures released Sunday, in the latest figures proving the success of coronavirus vaccines,
Of the 6,095 coronavirus patients hospitalized in serious or critical condition since the start of Israel's vaccination campaign, only 175, or 2.87 percent, had received the second vaccination dose, the figures show.
At the same time, 4,589 patients, or 75% of those in serious or critical condition, had not received a first dose.
Almost 5 million Israelis — 4,929,084 — have received at least one vaccine dose, and 3,716,439 have received both shots.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that 1,923 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases since the pandemic began to 800,721.
The rate of positive tests has continued its steep drop and now stands at 4.3%, after surpassing 10% in January.
There were 40,650 active cases, including 724 in serious condition, 262 listed as critical and 210 on ventilators.
The death toll climbed to 5,861.
According to the Health Ministry data, 25% of serious cases are now under the age of 50. Serious cases among younger people have become more common as new variants spread in recent months.
The promising figures come as Israel enters the next exit phase from its third nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
On Sunday, much of the economy reopened, including restaurants, cafes, school grades 7-10 in low-to-medium infection areas, event venues, attractions and hotels.
Higher education institutions and religious seminaries were opened to vaccinated or recovered people and rules on gatherings and worship were relaxed.
The cabinet also decided to ease restrictions on international travel and sidelined a highly controversial committee that was deciding who could enter the country while the airport remained largely shuttered.
There will no longer be an approval process for returning Israelis. In the coming days, 1,000 people a day will be able to enter the country from four locations — New York, Frankfurt, London and Paris — with the number set to go up to 3,000 later this week.
New coronavirus deaths and infections in Israel have continued to decline from highs in January, and the number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients has dropped to its lowest point since last year.
Despite the overall decline in severity of Israel's third-wave outbreak, coronavirus czar Nachman Ash said Friday that Israel may yet be forced to enter a fourth lockdown to combat the spread of the virus as the infection rate inched back up.
Bitton or Biton (spelled ביטון in Hebrew) is a fairly common family name among Jews of North African descent (known as Mughrabi). What does it mean? According to some, this name (sometimes pronounced Viton) is an adaptation of vita, the Judeo-Spanish word for life.
In light of its Spanish origins, we can assume that bearers of this name are descendants of the Jews who fled Spain as a result of the 1492 expulsion of all Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism.
Thus this name, like the many other Spanish names common among Jews from Arabic lands, tells the brave story of Jews who clung to the life-giving traditions of Torah, even though it meant giving up the material comforts and financial stability that life in Spain offered.
With the mass migration of Mughrabi Jews from their longtime home countries in North Africa following the establishment of the State of Israel, many Bittons settled elsewhere.
Today, there are many Bittons living in Israel, France, Canada, the US and around the world, including well known rabbis, elected officials, sports players, doctors, and business leaders.
And when we hear the name and recall its close association with life and how its bearers clung to a life of Torah, we are reminded of the verse, "[Torah] is a tree of life for those who cling to it, and those who support it are glad."1
Rabbi Menachem Posner serves as staff editor at Chabad.org, the world's largest Jewish informational website.
He has been writing, researching, and editing for Chabad.org since 2006, when he received his rabbinic degree from Central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch. He resides in Chicago, Ill., with his family.
a Miami-based art design studio run by Rivka Korf, a coffee lover and mother. Rivka uses her expertise and creativity to run a team that creates masterful compositions and illustrations for corporate and large nonprofit organizations.
Florida and California are remarkably similar for their warm climates, beaches, tourist destinations, immigrant populations, and more, but both states could not be more different with respect to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Florida operates on close to zero pandemic-related restrictions whereas California maintains strict lockdown policies.
In California, virtually all public schools are closed, restaurants must follow unwavering capacity limits, travelers must quarantine for ten days, and on the list goes. Meanwhile, Florida's schools are all open for in-person instruction, state-wide restrictions do not exist for restaurants and there is no travel quarantine implemented by the state. All of these details point to Florida's current stringency score being low at 33.8 compared to California's 58.8.
While the media labels California Governor Newsom a "lockdown fanatic" for his authoritarian approach, they call Florida Governor DeSantis "DeathSantis" for being too relaxed. The two governors are polar opposites in how they handle Covid, but their outcomes are peculiarly similar.
In total, California experienced more cases per 100,000 people, while Florida had more deaths per 100,000 people. During the summer of 2020, cases and deaths spiked higher in Florida, but the course switched from November through January as cases and deaths peaked in California.
One reason why Florida has more deaths but not cases is that the elderly – those who are more vulnerable to the virus – account for a larger portion of Florida's population. In fact, Florida has the second-largest 65+ population at about 16.5%, but ranks #27 for deaths in the US. The elderly in California, on the other hand, comprise 14.8% of the state population. Still, California has worse outcomes within nursing homes at 2.27deaths per 100 residents, while Florida sees 0.72 deaths per 100 residents. The chart below provides a side-by-side comparison to show that the statistics are similar and that one state did not clearly do better than the other.
Rather, the outcomes suggest that lockdown measures might not have a significant impact on lowering the number of Covid cases and deaths. But a more comprehensive look at the economic and social well-being of the states potentially reveals a greater disparity.
First, the unemployment rate in Florida remains consistently lower than California's. As of December 2020, Florida's (preliminary) unemployment rate was at 6.1% while California's was 9%. This means that a staggering 1,700,383 people are unemployed in California, compared to 614,327 in Florida. (The gap between the states is still immense when the numbers are adjusted for population.)
The gross domestic product (GDP) of both states is similar, though Florida's annual rate is slightly higher. California ranks as the largest economy – in terms of GDP – of all US states and even exceeds the United Kingdom's. So, the drop in California's GDP is not only steeper than Florida's but also takes a greater toll on the entire United States economy.
Another revealing factor is inbound and outbound migration. According to 2020 data collected from two moving companies ( U-Hauland United Van Lines), Florida is among the topstates for inbound migration, and California ranks high for outbound migration. While these migration patterns follow previous 2019 moving trends, lockdown policies still might play into other factors for why people are leaving California, including taxes, cost of living, and affordablehousing. Florida conversely attracts movers for having no income tax, low housing prices, and agreeable climate.
Mobility may also indicate some level of economic activity by showing the degree of movement made by residents through cell phone data. The graph below specifically looks at travel to retail and recreation locations, which ultimately is telling. Between April and June 2020 and November 2020 up to now, Florida evidently experienced more movement.
This data indicates that Florida residents are more mobile than Californians and are thus generating more economic activity within the state. Not only does this have important implications for how policy influences human behavior, the data also shows that Floridians are more comfortable moving around in their state, which could be attributed to reliable information about Covid or higher risk tolerance among the population.
While Governor Newsom keeps his state at high level of lockdowns despite glaring consequences, Californians are becoming increasingly irate as they sign a petition for a recall against him. As of February 2nd, Newsom's approval rating rests at 46%, a sharp drop from September's rating of 64%. Meanwhile, DeSantis is in the green with an approval rating of 54%.
The states' contrasting lockdown policies may lead to a future that looks very different. More and more people flee California to places like Tennessee, Texas, and Florida as they continue to be restricted in their freedom to work and go to school. For example, California is home to numerous tech companies, employing millions of people, but with remote working and a desire for cheaper living conditions and less authoritarian governments, Californians may continue to exit.
California and Florida provide a clear example for the dubious efficacy of Covid-19 restrictions. Their disparities elucidate the enduring costs of lockdowns with regard to the economy and livelihoods of residents. The states also pave the way for us to better understand whether authoritarian measures truly work in controlling a virus and, on a greater scale, the trajectory of human behavior.
There is a sense in the air that the pandemic is winding down, and the toxic culture of division, fear, and hatred along with it. Cases are down dramatically. Deaths too. Hospitalizations are no longer irregular. Restrictions are being repealed. You can follow all the action daily at the CDC's new and unusually competent landing page on the virus (it only took them a year to build this).
Despite all the talk of a new normal and infinite mandates, there is hope that it could all unwind quickly, pushed by force of public impatience and frustration with restrictions, and a political scramble to avoid responsibility by running away from all that they did for the last year.
The list of signs and symbols could be made very long.
The politicians who overreached are suddenly being held accountable, with both Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom on the hotseat. Calls for governors and mayors to resign consume state and local news. There is clearly major political tumult building.
The Great Barrington Declaration scientists can hardly keep up with the requests for respectful interviews, now that it is becoming clear that they were right all along.
The experience in open states like Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, and so on, makes it impossible to ignore the grim truth that the lockdowns achieved nothing for public health but did harm health, businesses, liberties, law, and civilized life.
The push to open economies, by the same people who locked down the economies, such as Boris Johnson in the UK, is an implicit repudiation of the nonsensical ZeroCovid movement. Everyone seems now to agree with what AIER has been saying for a year: humanity must deal intelligently with pathogens and stop pretending that political forces can control them.
AIER visiting senior fellow Naomi Wolf had a hit just last evening on the Tucker Carlson show, and they spoke as allies in the reopening efforts after years of ideological sparring.
There is growing weariness of Anthony Fauci's daily word salads that have massively mixed up the public health messaging for a full year, to the point that Meghan McCain has called for his firing.
A year ago, Slate was making sense until the virus became political and they joined the lockdown mob. Now the publication is back to making sense again, with this excellent piece.
British medical journal The Lancet is publishing excellent short pieces on the cost of lockdowns, including this riveting letter from Martin Kulldorff.
A prestigious European journal of public health has published a blistering attack on the very idea that a power government should ever be trusted with virus mitigation.
The people who have committed their careers and lives to this pandemic and the policies surrounding it might soon need to find a new raison d'etre. Then the clean up begins – how did this happen, who did it, how to make sure it never happens again – and does not end perhaps for decades.
It's been fascinating to see the early drafts on the reasons why. There will be some perfunctory efforts to credit lockdowns, masks, human separation, and closures for somehow making the virus go away. The trouble is that there is no evidence of this. There is evidence for many other explanations having to do with herd immunity and "seasonality" (another way of saying the pathogen comes and then goes) and possibly more precision in testing.
For example, this new article by the very sensible Jennifer Beam Dowd of Oxford names many factors (while downplaying the role of vaccines) but says of masks and so on that it is "challenging to identify their specific effects, and cases are dropping in almost all states even with a wide range of policies."
Indeed!
The reckoning will be taking place for months if not years. In the end people will be left wondering why we took such extreme measures that wrecked so many lives when the endemic equilibrium comes in time regardless of all these measures. We tried a crazy experiment in social and economic control and we are left with scant evidence that it made much difference on the virus but vast evidence that they demoralized and ruined life for billions of people.
What about the opening? There will continue to be those who will cower in fear, still dealing with the deep psychological trauma that comes from watching TV journalists scream panic for the better part of a year. But there will be an emerging majority that will be more than willing to go back to real life.
My go-to book on the pandemic and the response has been Albert Camus's remarkable novel The Plague. He wrote it as partially autobiographical about his own quarantine. It was published in 1947. It still stands as a brilliant account of the sociology and psychology of fear during pandemic and lockdown.
As we approach the end of the novel, the plague begins to lift, not because of anything that the townspeople did or because of the restrictions on their lives. It lifts because the virus ran its pandemic course. What's striking is how quickly the dawn of normalcy happens, followed by a new appreciation for life, fun, revelry, and exuberance.
As people begin to see the end, Camus records the fictional scene.
No doubt the plague was not yet ended—a fact of which they were to be reminded; still, in imagination they could already hear, weeks in advance, trains whistling on their way to an outside world that had no limit, and steamers hooting as they put out from the harbor across shining seas. Next day these fancies would have passed and qualms of doubt returned. But for the moment the whole town was on the move, quitting the dark, lugubrious confines where it had struck its roots of stone, and setting forth at last, like a shipload of survivors, toward a land of promise….
And so on goes the opening, slowly at first, then quickly, then all at once. The decisive turn is when the public returns to thinking rationally, refuses to be locked up anymore, and decides to trust themselves and the medical profession rather than the powerful elites who only pretend to manage disease. The trauma lasts, of course, but the healing also begins.
Last April, in a more naive time, I truly did imagine that these lockdowns and restrictions could not last. I had underestimated both the public panic and the government's willingness to double- and triple-down on unworkable policies.
I also overestimated what I had previously imagined to be a widespread commitment to liberty and property that would have inspired some public revolt early on. So here we are a full year later, with the reports of lockdown carnage pouring in by the day and hour. It's a gigantic mess, to be sure, but the end does seem to be in view, and thank goodness for that. Let the blowback begin.
Jeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research.
He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and nine books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.
Manfred Gerstenfeld, Long Time Contributor to the Jewish Press, Dead at 84
Manfred Gerstenfeld Austrian-born Israeli author and pundit, the former Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Director of its Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism program, died in Jerusalem on Thursday, February 25, at age 84.
Gerstenfeld, who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Journal for the Study of anti-Semitism and the International Leadership Award by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was a frequent contributor to the Jewish Press. Click here for free access to 76 essays he published here over the years.
Manfred Gerstenfeld was born in Vienna in 1937 and grew up in Amsterdam where he received a master's degree in organic chemistry at Amsterdam University. In 1999 he earned a Ph.D. in environmental studies from the same school. He also studied economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and held a high school teaching degree in Jewish studies from the Dutch Jewish seminary.
In 1964, Gerstenfeld became Europe's first financial analyst to focus on the pharmaceutical industry. He made aliyah in 1968, served as an officer in the IDF, and became the managing director of an economic consulting firm that was partly owned by Bank Leumi. He was a board member of the state-owned largest holding company, the Israel Corporation, and a number of other Israeli companies.
Gerstenfeld was considered one of the deepest and most influential thinkers in the study of anti-Semitism. Belgian-born activist Isi Leibler wrote in 2015 that Gerstenfeld is "the most qualified analyst of contemporary anti-Semitism with a focus on anti-Israelism."
Anshel Pfeffer of Haaretz wrote in 2013 that Gerstenfeld is "without doubt the greatest authority on anti-Semitism today."
Gerstenfeld was a merciless foe of European anti-Semitism. Following a 2011 study that showed a high rate of European respondents believed "Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians," he estimated that 150 million citizens of the European Union, out of 400 million overall, hold views that demonizes Israel. He also argued that Holocaust inversion—the portrayal of Jews as Nazis, crypto-Nazis, Nazi sympathizers, Holocaust perpetrators, or Holocaust copycats—had become a mainstream view in the European Union.
Gerstenfeld used Norway as an example, with its population of some 700 Jews, which he argued was the most anti-Semitic country in the West. He pointed to a poignant example in 2011, when three separate Norwegian universities refused to allow Prof. Alan Dershowitz an opportunity to deliver lectures on Israel—free of charge. Gerstenfeld suggested Norway's elite was saturated with anti-Semites.
Gerstenfeld delivered numerous warnings about the growing cancer of anti-Semitism in ideological movements such as Amnesty International and other human rights groups, the feminists, the LGBTQ, the post-colonialist liberation movement, inter-sectional groups, extreme Vegans, the anti-nuclear movement, and the climate movement.
Gerstenfeld was a fierce anti-BDS warrior and believed in discrediting pro-BDS academics by exposing plagiarism in their works—which was more effective than engaging in ad nauseam debates with them.
Finally, he had a special place in his heart for Jews who vilify Israel, most notably Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whom he dubbed a masochist and useful idiot.
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