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Raging fire brings out best of humanity. Help is pouring in for the displaced residents of Fort McMurray after a ravaging fire forced tens of thousands out of their homes – which they may never see again. Jewish organizations and synagogues have risen to the occasion (including the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, Toronto-based Ve’ahavta, and IsraAID) to raise funds for the approximately 90,000 who were evacuated.
Another Israel-Hamas war on the horizon? Many analysts are pondering if the IDF and Hamas will soon engage in another war as tensions on the Gaza border continue to escalate – though both do appear eager to contain the violence. According to the Times of Israel’s Mideast analyst Avi Issacharoff, it could take only one single incident to push both over the brink, particularly after Israeli artillery fire killed a Palestinian woman in the northern part of the Strip yesterday.
Adding fire to the fuels of hatred. As people around the world paused to commemorate the millions killed during the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah yesterday, a group of young Ukrainian anti-Semites burned an Israeli flag outside a Holocaust memorial in Kiev, where 30,000 Jews were murdered during the course of two days in September, 1941. Kiev’s mayor condemned the incident and the “young vandals” who perpetrated it, calling on authorities to bring them immediately to justice. An investigation is ongoing.
$40 million to watch Hitler parody videos. A former Jewish employee of BNP Paribas bank has won a $40 million lawsuit after he was forced to watch a training film that spoofs a movie about Adolf Hitler, Downfall. The employee said watching the Nazi imagery made him “increasingly nervous and nauseous and dizzy,” and complained to his employers, who in turn gave him an “unusually and suspiciously poor performance evaluation,” the suit alleged.
New U.S. military package could lose thousands of Israelis their jobs. An Israeli industrial official says thousands of Israelis could potentially lose their jobs if a new demand by the Obama administration is approved. According to its military bill to Israel, President Barack Obama stipulates that Israel only use aid it receives from the U.S. to purchase weapons and systems from U.S. arms manufacturers only. According to Shraga Brosh, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, this would be a “critical blow” to the Israeli defence industries.
Drag queens in the last place you’d expect. At Jerusalem’s only gay bar, a group called Allah Nash (a play on the Hebrew word for cross-dressing and the Arabic word for God) put on a musical show unlike anything else available in the city. Read more about the challenges they face here.
Shabbat gets an unlikely advocate – in Katy Perry. Popstar Katy Perry is urging the world to take a day of rest very much “like Shabbat” – only from social media. “I wish there was a thing like Shabbat that wasn’t particularly religious-based, that was kind of a worldwide day where we’re not on our phones — like a movement,” she told Cosmopolitan recently. “I just think something like this would be really great for our minds, especially because kids today — if they weren’t born in the 80s — don’t even know what a life without internet is like. And I think it’s going to be really difficult for our focus and our attention spans moving forward. So I’d love if the world implemented an actual day of real rest.” Preach on, sister.
Hear Yitzhak Rabin in his own words. A new autobiographical film on the former Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 is narrated by the man himself. The film opens in Toronto at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on May 10th.
No rooting for Stoudemire this time. Ever since Amar’e Stoudemire began identifying as Jewish oh so many years ago (hosting Shabbat dinners, meeting with former Israeli president Shimon Peres, mulling over becoming an Israeli citizen) he’s become a bit of a celebrity in the Jewish community – in both Israel and the Diaspora (including here in Canada). However, Stoudemire is currently a member of the Miami Heat, which means he is our sworn enemy as long as he’s playing against the sacred Toronto Raptors. Obviously the veteran isn’t a real factor in the series, but he’s still against us (for now) as long as I’m concerned. Series tied 1-1.
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