Your Daily Spiel is The CJN‘s daily roundup of trending stories in the Jewish world
CANADA
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion outlined Canada’s new approach to foreign policy yesterday, vowing to re-establish ties with Iran, and become a more active member of the United Nations.
In a bid to promote dialogue on mental health, three Torontonian women started The Dialogue Projects, where people (mostly women) share stories on illness, suffering, psychological confusion, substance abuse, and other issues. “When people feel like they are part of a family, part of a community, when they have something where they can identify their own experience, [the stories] start piling in like a domino effect,” says Caroline Kassie, one of TDP’s founders.
UNITED STATES
According to a new study, the Associated Press collaborated with the Nazis up until 1941 when the United States entered World War II. Historian Harriet Scharnberg, in an article published in German in the academic journal Studies in Contemporary History, shows that The AP was able to remain in Germany due to its two-way cooperation with the Nazi regime.
ISRAEL
Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog has been named as a suspect in a corruption probe related to funding irregularities during the 2013 Labor Party primaries. Herzog, who heads the Zionist Union, quickly dismissed the allegations as “delusional political muckraking.”
Jean-Claude Van Damme, like many actors before him, posted a photo of himself enjoying his trip to Israel, which of course quickly lead to a smorgasbord of anti-Israel comments. Following all the negativity, Van Damme changed the caption accompanying the photo from “Shalom from Jerusalem, Israel!” to “Shalom from Jerusalem!” I thought you never cowered away from a fight, Jean?
Hello from Jerusalem!!#TeamJCVD #JCVD #MEGAPOSITIVE
Posted by Jean-Claude Van Damme on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Hamas’ Arabic-language Twitter account has been shut down, two weeks after its English-language account was suspended, begging the question: what the hell took Twitter so long? Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, blamed the suspension on “pressure by Zionist groups.” The account had over 140,000 followers.
WORLD
A Scottish rabbi has created the world’s first Jewish tartan, which proudly represents Rabbi Mendel Jacobs’ Jewish and Scottish heritage. Jacobs said he selected blue and white as the main colours because they appear on both the Scottish and Israeli flags, along with a central gold line representing the gold “from the Ark in the biblical Tabernacle and many ceremonial vessels.”
A photo of EgyptAir hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa and his British 26-year-old hostage posing for a selfie is (obviously) going viral. Ben Innes said that, after he took a close look at Mustafa’s fake explosive belt, “I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing to lose anyway.”
German airline Lufthansa was ordered to pay nearly $1,400 (US) for “moral damage” to a Brazilian Jewish passenger for not serving him the kosher meal he had requested.
Belgium’s Vice President Jan Jambon acknowledged today that, following last week’s attacks in Brussels, celebrations broke out throughout the country.
CULTURE
World’s richest Jew Mark Zuckerberg has an answer on how to defeat terrorism crisis that we’ve, somehow, all managed to overlook: love. “I believe the only sustainable way to fight back against those who seek to divide us is to create a world where understanding and empathy can spread faster than hate,” the Zucks wrote on Facebook. “Where every single person in every country feels connected and cared for and loved. That’s the world we can and must build together.” Forget the sanctions, military operations, and strategies to defeat ISIS and let’s shower our opponents with love and kisses! That’ll show them.
This morning we activated Safety Check in Pakistan after a bomb targeted children and their families in a park in…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, March 27, 2016
Ever been to a bar or bat mitzvah party but realized that you were drastically unprepared? Click here for the definitive rookie’s guide to attending such a celebration.
There’s already a long list of musicians and artists arriving this summer to perform in Israel, from Elton John to Avicii to the Eagles of Death Metal, and now rapper Wiz Khalifa has joined the mix. Khalifa will play Israel, for his first time ever, in June.
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