Three Things Every Jew Needs to Hear at the Seder This Year
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We are now living in a world where some Americans celebrate the rape and murder of innocent concert-goers at the Nova Music Festival in Israel.
When is the rape, torture and murder of over 360 young people at a concert in the name of a violent Islamist ideology - and the taking of over 40 young concert-goers hostage by radical Islamists - not a tragedy? Apparently, when they’re Jews.
For much of the world, the sadistic rape and sexual torture, murders and kidnappings at the Nova Music Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023 - as part of Hamas’ wider attack on communities in southern Israel - is being treated very differently from any other mass tragedy. Jewish and Israeli victims are disbelieved, blamed, and treated with an utter contempt to which no other victims of terrorism are subjected.
Take my own city of Chicago. When the Simon Wiesenthal Center hosted a screening of the documentary Nova about the attack here on March 12, 2024, a large mob of masked protestors blocked the movie theater’s entrance. Not content with preventing people from watching the documentary, protestors attacked a Jewish man in his 50s. “A group of them was swinging me around and threw me into a parked car,” the victim later described. “I was completely surrounded by maybe six or seven (protestors) that started punching me in the head.”
Nowhere has the hatred and vitriol against the Nova Festival’s victims and those would mourn them been as evident as in New York.
On June 11, Nova: Oct. 7 6:29am - The Moment Music Stood Still: The Nova Music Festival Exhibition a major exhibit opened in Manhattan. The powerful experience allows visitors to bear witness to what happened during Hamas’ attack at the concert. Scooter Braun, a phenomenally successful Jewish music manager whose clients include Justin Bieber, Black Eyed Peas and Ariana Grande, saw the exhibit in Tel Aviv and was instrumental in importing to New York. He wants as many people as possible to understand what happened and to humanize the tragedy.
Porta-potties riddled with bullet holes at the ‘Nova 6.29’ exhibit (Courtesy Tribe of Nova)
But the Nova exhibit was met with a startling show of raw hatred. A huge mob marched through the city, screaming “long live the Intifada,” “Israel, go to hell,” setting off flares, and waving the flag of the Iranian-backed Islamist terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. One bystander was told “I wish Hitler was still here, he would have wiped you all out.” The hard-core anti-Israel New York organization “Within Our Lifetime” ran these protests, dubbing them a “Day of Rage.” Thousands of demonstrators rallied to their cause, gathering in Union Square before marching to Wall Street, where the Nova exhibit is located. Protestors screamed “Long live October 7” and “The Zionists are not Jews and not humans.”
Braun was the driving force behind the wildly popular One Love Manchester concert of June 4, 2017, which gave people around the world a way to mourn young concert-goers who were murdered by an Islamist suicide bomber who blew himself up at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22, 2017. Two weeks later 55,000 people attended the memorial concert that was broadcasted live around the globe. There were no protests, no hate-filled mobs screaming that the 22 Ariana Grande fans deserved to die. For Scooter, the contrast between the way the world embraced and memorialized the victims of the Manchester concert and the 360 young people murdered at the Nova festival couldn’t be starker.
Scooter Braun
New York Congressman Richie Torres attended the exhibit and summed up the mob’s hateful intention. He posted on X: “Anti-Israel bigots are protesting the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, which seeks to commemorate the lives of the hundreds of young Jews barbarically murdered by Hamas on October 7th. These bigots deny the massacre at the Nova Music festival, calling it ‘Zionist propaganda.’ October 7 denial is but a modern mutation in the ancient DNA of antisemitism. The antisemites who deny, downplay, or defend the barbarity of Hamas are revealing themselves to be barbaric.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams called the protests “pure antisemitism.”
After Hamas’ October 7 attacks, Scooter - whose grandparents survived the Holocaust - traveled to Israel to see the aftermath of the terror attack for himself. “When I landed at 8:30 pm I was at Kibbutz Be’eri (the site of massive casualties) within an hour, and I saw everything,” Scooter explained. “And this was December, so there was still blood on the ground. It was horrifying. But I knew this kind of evil existed. On the third or fourth day, my friend…brought me and my friend…and my dad and my brother to a Nova healing camp. I walk in, and I see all these 19 to 24-year-old kids singing, dancing, crying together, writing songs, writing poetry and talking about peace one day. And these are kids who were survivors. They saw their friends killed. They saw their friends raped. They all had horrifying stories, but they were holding onto each other in this place with therapy to get through it.”
When the young survivors he met in Israel brought him to see a Nova memorial, Scooter resolved to bring this incredibly moving installation to a global audience. “I need to bring this to New York and L.A. People need to see this….” Scooter assembled a hardworking team of volunteers to recreate the Nova memorial on a wider scale in New York.
NY Mayor Eric Adams at the Nova exhibit
“We basically told the story of Nova, and it has nothing to do with politics,” Scooter explains. “It’s just about a massacre at a music festival that should have never happened… that you should be able to have empathy for all people.”
The vitriolic anti-Israel protests targeting Nova: Oct. 7 6:29am is a brutal wake up call. When British citizens are murdered in a concert in Manchester, it’s a tragedy. When Israeli Jews are murdered by the hundreds in Israel, many people around the world see it as justified. (Even Ariana Grande has failed to speak out against anti-Israel terrorism; she even earned a shout-out from the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency for supporting their anti-Israel cause since the October 7 attacks.) We’re all hearing the message loud and clear: to borrow the title of a recent prescient British book about antisemitism by David Baddiel: Jews Don’t Count.
Instead of closing as scheduled on June 16, Nova: Oct. 7 6:29am is staying open for an extra week as an answer to the hatred that’s been directed at it. “In response to these protestors,” Scooter Braun has announced, “I called the team and extended it in New York for another week because we’ve decided to show people that we’re not going to allow hatred and fear to divide us. In fact, we’re going to go longer now in New York just so people can bear witness and understand what this is really about. And we’re not going to let this loud minority divide us. And in fact, I’ve invited those protestors if they’re willing to come in and see the exhibit for themselves.”
Nova: Oct. 7 6:29am - The Moment Music Stood Still: The Nova Music Festival Exhibition is at 35 Wall Street, New York, through June 22, 2024. Tickets and further information can be found at https://www.novaexhibition.com/ All proceeds from ticket sales go to support the victims of the Nova Music Festival attack.
I'm sorry, but in your young-people's lives, there may very well be cataclysmic events, a world conflict between good and evil, triggered by Muslim-majorities taking power in the UK, Canada, and France. And, possibly in NYC, assuming Mamdani takes power. Even if not, there appear to be so many hundreds of thousands of young people there, who are sufficiently deluded, and hate Jews and Israel sufficiently. There's never any shortage of self-hating Jews, of course. I know all this sounds far-fetched to some, but Islam is hell-bent - a truly applicable phrase - on murdering everyone in its path: Hitler's vision, on steroids. And, quite possible if one looks soberly at the cowardly leaders in the UK/Canada/France, and their desire to grovel, appease, and capitulate and stay in power.
Never forget. Looking forward to a good home cooked dinner, cracking open a bottle of wine, and lighting the Shabbos candles this Friday night like every Shabbat....Am Yisrael Chai.....
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The goal here is to not become overwhelmed; despondent.
Remember: We have experience handling this type of threat. We have "been there, done that" many, many, many, many, many times before.
The only answer that has ever been the correct, most helpful one is to remain steadfast in your belief in and love of HaShem.
You are on a trajectory. The path is clear and laid out in advance of you.
You are travelling through a portion of the path where the scenery is not beautiful.
Remain stead fast. It will not last forever. Hold on to see what is around the next "bend."
Remain steadfast, and endure to the end.
Bless HaShem.
Please do not become fearful. Fearfulness reduced the mind to think, and make righteous, truthful, and proper decisions.
If Erika Nissanoff's mother, of Aish article: The Youngest Holocaust Survivor," can 1 ) Have Erika delivered by a Nazi doctor; 2 )Work in a hospital run by Nazis, 3 ) And, carry her daughter around a hospital while working in order to be the one to properly care for her,
Then 4 ) You can afford yourselves to have just a little bit more courage, and resolve.
Be strong! Be strong! And may you be strengthened. (Or, as found in other texts: May we strengthen each other.)
This world is on a trajectory of disaster.
While assessing responsibility is important, pointing fingers will not help.
It is our job to stop this world from plunging into disaster and chaos.
Our world has currently been existing in a state of imbalance where wrong has been made right, and truth has been traded for lie.
Our world needs us to restore balance and order, and godliness.
This has always been our job, this will always be our job.
And frankly, it will not be accomplished except through: Love and kindness, mercy and compassion, understanding and forgiveness, righteousness and justice.
And the Jewish Nation honestly assessing and acknowledging their part to play.
The war needs to stop.
Just as Hamas is using the population as a shield, the Jewish nation is using Hamas as the excuse not to stop.
You cannot cross every "t" and dot every "i," unless you are resolving to let die millions of people.
The innocent are caught in the crosshairs, and are being made to suffer.
The children are dying; and, will continue to if the Jewish Nation insists to achieve a not possible goal of rooting out every last bad player.
This is the price: Endless reputational damage to the Jewish Nation.
Erev Rav was a group that included Egyptians and others who had joined the Tribes of Israel on the Exodus. According to Jewish tradition, they were accepted by Moses as an integral part of the people. Their influence is said to have been involved in the golden calf and other incidents where the people questioned Moses and his laws.
These are the same lost, twisted, disoriented, demented people that exist till today. They still want their own version of the Torah. A BLT in one hand a PrayerBook possibly in the other hand. Many of the protesters aren't even truly Jewish. Father could be Jewish but mother not making them a Non-Jew.
I RECALL THE DAY WHEN PROTESTS HAD TO HAVE A LICENSE TO CONGREGATE OR MARCH WITHIN CERTAIN GUIDELINES.
ANY CITY CAN CONTROL THESE MOBS WITH JAIL, HEAVY FINES, IF THEY BREAK THE LAWS.
IGNORING THESE INFRACTIONS RUBBERSTAMPS THIS ABUSE AND DEMONSTRATES THAT SOME CITIES CONDONE THE HOSTILITY. THE SAME APPLIES TO PUBLIC COLLEGES AND TO PRIVATE COLLEGES, THE SAME CONDITIONS SHOULD APPLY.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT FREE SPEECH, BUT ABUSIVE , DERANGED, HATEFUL SCREECH AND MUST BE CURTAILED.
If Some of his clients like Justin Bieber came, that would attract many young people who need to understand that supporting Hamas is supporting wild animals. America doesn't need to support Barbarism, which has been shown to be Islamic. I represented Moslems in Immigration. Their religion urges them to lie.
Once more the classic democracies of the West have lulled themselves into a false sense of security and refuse to take proactive steps to stop the retrograde hordes promoting Islamic fascism across the US, UK et al. Will it take another 9/11 or Pearl Harbor to wake the slumbering appeasers to the perils of Islamic radicalism?
Melanie Phillips said that the free western democracies are living in a "post-religion era" and have no idea how Islam is the root of age-old thirst for domination and violence. It's encouraging to hear that a lot of youtubers and instagrammers and tictockers are starting to talk about this.
When Jew-haters appear in public and spew their venom, Jews must use FORCE against them.
Shout defiance!
From the River to the Sea!
Israel shall always be!
Anyone who cannot condemn torture, rape, and murder simply because the victims are Jewish brings the curse of Gen. 12:3 upon their own heads.
What more can be expected from those spiritually detached from the Divine?
Ignorance abounds; truth is traded-out for falsehood routinely.
We are living in a time and an age of depravity.
How can people that have let themselves become depraved/detached from the Divine know what the truth is, or be expected to stand up for it?
It is an evil age if there ever was one.
Sorry for humanity's young children.
It is the age of the bully; the liar; and, the thug.
The basest, most evil persons thieve on the rights of the truthful, and righteous, and the just.
All one can do is continue in the path of true faith, righteousness, and truth; and, pray to HaShem.
Let HaShem's opinion of you matter most, maybe even only.
Be steadfast.
Stay safe. Be well.
(And, continue to document. The haters of truth especially hate documentation.)
You are so insightful and articulate! Steve Finer
Ignorance and hate grow on sturdy stems, supported by administrative twisted “liberal” encouragement. The overall plan—-encouraging divide-and-conquer splintering of the US into wider-and-wider ethnic, racial, and gender identities, and encouraging the replacement of critically based education with anti-Western and anti-Semitic propaganda, etc.—-is already in play.
Those sturdy stems are bearing larger and larger poison fruit: All kinds of evil are creeping from under more-and-more rocks. The “plan” is working. Jews, as usual, are feeling the first signs of a torn-apart country and world.
Once again, ignorance and hate grow on sturdy stems supported by hegemonies that have supplanted the best in human nature using cheap candy trickeries. The US has been infiltrated---at least over the past 30 years---with poisons that not only have subsumed the purpose of education---which is to explore and expand our knowledge for the sake of wisdom---with political propaganda for the purpose of destroying Western civilization, along with it's Judeo-Christian roots. All the poisons have already dripped down into pre-school levels.
Islamism is just one more tool being used, along with various familial and social uprooting instruments, i.e., the fracturing of people and gender into a multiplicity, towards an eventual G-dless and universal polity, where the State wins control.
I realized something that goes beyond anything rational when I watched Sheryl Sanberg interviewed by Bari Weiss. She actually made a documentary about the women who were brutally attacked on October 7. So she is seriously disturbed and affected by the rampant hatred of Jews___and what I am going to say goes beyond politics. I repeat__ it is not political…. After everything that happened she said that she supported Joe Biden ?????
I honestly don’t get it. What has happened to basic common sense in the Jewish World.
Some of us simply cannot vote for the other candidates. Biden, with all his faults, won the 2020 election. Like HRC, were he to lose, he would graciously congratulate his opponent. American women are also outraged by the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v Wade. Trump’s 3 appointees made that possible. Those of us who live in the US generally believe that American concerns should come first. Biden is not anti-Israel.
Unfortunately, your comments are erroneous. Donald Trump has done more for the Jewish :People than any other President in history.
Perhaps the former president has done more for Israel, although even that is questionable. (US vote for Israel at UN in 1948 by Truman admin, 1970’s Camp David Accords under Carter, Clinton’s attempt to bring about Oslo Agreement.) And the last administration did nothing much for American Jewish people, unless you count tax cuts for the wealthiest. I know my donations to charity (mostly Jewish charities) are no longer tax deductible. The cavalier attitude toward Covid deaths, the refusal to outright condemn the Tiki Torch barbarians in Charlottesville, his threats to stop US funding of NATO: as an American Jew, I find those actions not to have done more for the Jewish People or the American People than other presidents.
This writer has everything crooked!
Too many Jews still cling to the ghosts of past Liberalism, still seeing their political choice as being a safeguard against the far-Right. What they don't see is that their choice now is as dangerous in its totalitarian power base as what they are seeking to avoid. Their old vision had room for freedom of thought and religion; the new Democrat party has only one interest---complete power and control---and that is as anti-Jewish as you can get.
Some of those who have made bad choices are reprobates, like Sanders, Schumer, etc.. They are seriously looking towards replacing G-d with the "State".
I would appreciate continuing the dialogue I started above. I don’t think you will find any factual errors. I would seriously like to understand your perspective.
universities are the new propaganda machines. don't call them "ivy league" anymore. "anti league" schools might be more appropriate. allowing this propaganda sponsored by Iranians is tantamount to condoning their actions. people found a convenient way to express their antisemitism in a "respectable" manner. if they were supporting the kkk or protesting against the black's no one would be silent. it should motivate Jews to respect Judaism because we can only rely on hashem. it shows you esav soneh yaakov.
very well said!
Why not just call them “Poison Ivy League?”
The same thing is happening all over Europe, with a vicious mob taking over the streets and attempting to destroy anything that they disagree with. It is an attack on western civilisation and leading to anarchy, and destabilisation of government and civil order. Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters have infiltrated many areas of government, universities, colleges, etc and are inciting this violent behaviour. Apparently they are well funded by some of the Middle East States. Western governments need to take urgent action to clamp down on this or western civilisation will face collapse.
It seems as though Europe has allowed anti-European---anti-Western---people to have their say for two reasons: 1) a kind of mea culpa for having colonized them in the first place, and 2) a kind of mea culpa for the Holocaust (how you allow yourself to be destroyed by people who hate you and add nothing to your culture with those who strove to be part of your culture, while making enormous contributions to it is beyond logic).
The first signs of Europe and the world dying come from the traditional warning canaries---Jews.
Can this Nova presentation come to Washington DC?
Just can't imagine why lgbtqi etc's are behind hamas and palestinians if at all that could exist on its own. They would be murdered when they would be living in that stretch of sand by the same people who committed atrocities at Noa and the kibutzim!
Mr.Braun...bring the exhibit to Los Angeles, perhaps tour the continental U.S.! Let those who cheer murderers show their faces, that G*D may see!
G-d doesn’t need to see their faces to know who they are. But what it does prove is that these so-called protesters are hoping to avoid any future reckoning for their actions by civil authorities.
Call them terrorists, not protesters. Its way beyond protesting. National Gurad should be called and given green light to shoot. Water canonons first. Bear in moind they are being supported by evil powers. Its not inocent "protesters".