Your daily spiel for Monday, April 4

Your Daily Spiel is The CJN‘s daily roundup of trending stories in the Jewish world

CANADA

In a bid to promote peaceful dialogue about Israel at York University, Hasbara at York brought graffiti artists to paint pro-Israel murals in the school’s central square. Hasbara president Ariella Daniels said the event was not a response, or even related, to the controversial pro-Palestinian mural that remains hanging at York’s student centre.

Vandals hit 13 locations throughout Laval, Que. with anti-Semitic graffiti last week, including swastikas, white power symbols and a Star of David with an ‘X’ over it. It is the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents to take place in the greater Montreal area. An investigation is ongoing.

A Toronto man has set up a fundraiser to provide needy Israeli kids with bicycles donated by members of Toronto’s Jewish community. “Religious kids don’t play much sports, so their greatest joy is a bicycle. It’s recreational and also for transportation to yeshiva or cheder or whatever,” Yehoshua Wolman said.

45 faculty members at McGill University in Montreal have signed a letter endorsing the BDS movement against Israel. The members said they strongly disagree with principal Suzanne Fortier’s response to the BDS motion that was defeated earlier this year by members of the students’ society.

UNITED STATES

Bernie Sanders says he was not comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler when he likened the Nazis persecution of Jews to rising Islamophobia, saying he knows firsthand “what a lunatic can do by stirring up racial hatred” during a campaign stop in Milwaukee this weekend. “I did not compare Trump to Hitler,” he told host George Stephanopoulos the next day. Really? It kind of seems like you did there, Bern…

The United Nations has removed three panels from an exhibit on Israel at its New York headquarters. The censored panels deemed “inappropriate” are on the subjects of Zionism, Jerusalem and Arab-Israelis. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, condemned the decision, saying “By disqualifying an exhibition about Zionism, the UN is undermining the very existence of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Holocaust survivor Roman Kent was honoured by Limmud FSU in Manhattan last week for his work in helping fellow survivors, and also, Righteous Gentiles in need of assistance themselves.

ISRAEL

Four days after Mahmoud Abbas said he was “waiting” on an invitation to speak from Benjamin Netanyahu, the latter declared he’s free anytime this week. “I’m inviting him again. I’m clearing my schedule this week. Any day he can come, I’ll be here,” Netanyahu said. “[Abbas and I] have a lot of things to discuss, but the first time is ending the Palestinian campaign of incitement to murder Israelis.” He added that his door “is always open to those who want to pursue peace with Israel.”

In an interview with the Times of Israel, Paul Ryan – a speaker of the House of Representatives and Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012 – referred to Israel as an “indispensable ally” to the U.S. in the fight against terror. “Almost everything that Ryan says in our interview — on Iran, on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on fighting terror, and on US-Israel ties — will be music to Netanyahu’s ears,” editor-in-chief David Horowitz writes.

The IDF recorded a drastic decrease in Palestinian terrorism during the month of March, which saw an overall six attacks (shootings, stabbings, car rammings) as opposed to 56 such attacks in Feb., 45 in Jan., and 40 in Dec.

Construction workers unearthed a 1,500-year-old Byzantine Church in Gaza, the Palestinian tourism ministry said Monday.

WORLD

Just in time for Passover, the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-3A satellite released a satellite image of Egypt’s Nile river (see above) last week. The agency uses a radiometer to measure infrared energy, which is why parts of the river are depicted in a deep red colour. For Jews especially, the image resembles the Bible’s first plague where the waters of the Nile river turned into blood. It seems like it was purely coincidental, though.

In Paris, vandals tore down signs promoting an Israel exhibit at the Louvre. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement that the signs were ruined by BDS activists.

After being ordered to wear head scarves once it resumes flights to Tehran after an eight-year hiatus, flight attendants working for Air France are threatening to refuse flying to Iran. “It is not our role to pass judgment on the wearing of headscarves or veils in Iran. What we are denouncing is that it is being made compulsory. Stewardesses must be given the right to refuse these flights,” a spokesperson for the flight crews’ union said. A spokesperson for Air France, looking to reap the financial benefits from the resumption of flights to Iran, said, “Tolerance and respect for the customs of the countries we serve are part of the values of our company.”

A pro-Israel blogger claims that he reported a “news” article posted on an Egyptian media outlet as hate speech to Facebook, only to be told the post doesn’t violate its community standards. According to the blogger, the post promoted a story about “Passover blood libel” as “straight news,” claiming that Jews use blood to make matzah. This isn’t the first time someone’s made the claim that Facebook is insensitive toward its Jewish community.

SCIENCE

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute in Israel have developed a groundbreaking prostate cancer treatment based on twenty years of research. The treatment was recently used on 80 prostate cancer patients, all of whom have yet to see the cancer remerge.

IceSense3, an Israeli medical device developed by IceCure Medical, is already being used by American doctors to remove benign breast lumps. The company hopes to be able to destroy malignant tumors as well.

CULTURE

The Major League Baseball season is officially underway. If you’re interested in the Jewish athletes and managers looking to make a run this year, click here.

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles later this month, might I recommend checking out Yeethoven, where a 70-piece orchestra will “splice together” repertoire from Kanye West and Ludwig van Beethoven. The concert is being co-curated by conductor Yuga Cohler and Jewish arranger Stephen Feigenbaum and will be hosted by the Young Musicians Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRCywJaUEIE

Did you see this week’s cover of the New Yorker yet?

Shakespeare’s Dark Lady, a new book by John Hudson, claims the iconic playwright’s works were actually completed by Jewish, Hebrew-speaking author Amelia Bassano. Hudson says she left “clues” throughout the texts that reveal her true identity.

With a few weeks left until Passover, here’s a special Pesach “flight” that tells a more modernized version of the story.

Click here for Friday’s edition of Your Daily Spiel

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