Jerusalem Post columnist and Jerusalem Report senior editor Amotz Asa-El has won the 2018 B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.

Asa-El is being awarded for his five-part in-depth series on transitions in the Jewish experience, dealing with geography, solidarity, faith, hate and genius.

He shares the award with Yair Sherki, a religious-affairs reporter for Israel News Company (formerly Channel 2 News) for his incisive five-part TV series Brooklyn Shel Kodesh (Brooklyn – The Holy Borough) on the ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn.

A certificate of merit has been awarded to Benny Teitelbaum of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) for four TV news reports on French and ultra-Orthodox immigrants to Israel and on an emotional mission to Israel by North America Jewish mothers.

The award will be presented at a ceremony on June 5 in Jerusalem with keynote speaker Elliot Abrams, a former US assistant secretary of state.

Since its establishment in 1992, the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism has become widely recognized as the most prestigious prize in the Israeli media industry for Diaspora reportage and was established to help strengthen the relations between Israel and the Diaspora.

She named her son Aleph. She has emceed Jewish communal events and been praised for her impeccable Hebrew accent. She made a haunting — and loving — Hebrew-language film of iconic Israeli author Amos Oz’s heart-wrenching memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness.”

In a world of celebrity Israel boycotters, from Roger Waters to Penelope Cruz, Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has been an Israel backer — even an Israel lover. But her decision last week not to travel to Israel to accept the $2 million Genesis Prize — regarded as the “Jewish Nobel” — has opened up a rift in the Jewish community and is testing the boundaries of what is acceptable criticism of Israel.

Some Jewish leaders regard her decision as “shameful,” scoffing at her explanation that she decided not to attend because she did not want to be viewed as endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Others, on the other hand, said it demonstrated that one can support Israel but not its “destructive policies.”

As the debate raged this week, still others suggested that Portman was giving voice to the growing divide in the Jewish community over the policies of the Israeli government.

“I think it’s a warning sign to the Jewish community — and especially to Israel — of the increasing pressure upon liberal Jews, even liberal Jews who are very supportive of Israel,” said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan.

“It’s a warning that should be taken seriously,” he added.

Rabbi Hirsch described Portman’s decision as “unfortunate,” noting that she had “already agreed to accept the prize when it was offered to her months ago. The reason she ultimately gave as to why she wouldn’t accept the prize didn’t make sense. To accept an award in the presence of the prime minister is not to endorse every action the prime minister takes. The prime minister represents the state. If you get an award, of course public officials are going to show up; what do you expect?”

Portman’s criticism of Israeli leadership — presumably over the recent Gaza border demonstrations and the situation with African asylum seekers— is not coming in a vacuum. It follows that of Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, who, in a New York Times op-ed last month, wrote that the Israeli government was capitulating to religious extremists.

“By submitting to the pressures exerted by a minority in Israel, the Jewish state is alienating a large segment of the Jewish people,” he wrote. “The crisis is especially pronounced among the younger generation.”

And earlier this month, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a staunch pro-Israel supporter, attacked Netanyahu at a J Street Conference for his plan to deport African asylum seekers and for using an address to Congress to speak out against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

But being the A-list celebrity that she is, Portman’s comments touched a deep nerve in Jewish life and created a firestorm of debate.

The Jewish Insider quoted an unnamed source as saying the Genesis Prize Foundation “went out of its way to accommodate Portman’s concerns about Netanyahu by agreeing that she didn’t have to sit next to him, didn’t have to have him present her with the award and was free to say anything from the lectern she wanted, including whatever critical comments she wanted to level at the current government. However, in the end she insisted Netanyahu not be invited to the event, a demand Genesis couldn’t accept both for contractual and moral reasons.” 

The award was established by wealthy Russian-Jewish businessmen in partnership with Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office and the Jewish Agency. Recipients are asked to distribute the money — the award was raised this year from $1 million to $2 million — to charities of their choice. In announcing Portman’s selection this year, the Genesis Prize Foundation said the money would be donated to Israeli philanthropic programs dedicated to advancing opportunities for women.

In accepting the prize last November, Portman — who was born in Jerusalem, moved to the U.S. at the age of 3, was raised in Syosset, L.I., and attended the Solomon Schechter Day School in Jericho, L.I. — said in a statement that she was “deeply touched and humbled by this honor. I am proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage; they are crucial parts of who I am. It is such a privilege to be counted among the outstanding Laureates whom I admire so much. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Genesis Prize Foundation and look forward to using the global platform it provides to make a difference in the lives of women in Israel and beyond.”

In announcing last week her decision not to attend the awards ceremony in June — the ceremony was then canceled — Portman said in a statement that she “did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to be giving a speech at the ceremony. By the same token, I am not part of the BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement and do not endorse it. Like many Israelis and Jews around the world, I can be critical of the leadership in Israel without wanting to boycott the entire nation. I treasure my Israeli friends and family, Israeli food, books, art, cinema, and dance.

“There is no question this is symptomatic of a larger problem.”

“Israel was created exactly 70 years ago as a haven for refugees from the Holocaust. But the mistreatment of those suffering from today’s atrocities is simply not in line with my Jewish values. Because I care about Israel, I must stand up against violence, corruption, inequality, and abuse of power.”

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that while her decision as “regrettable, it is part of the climate we see today on campuses like Barnard [College] and elsewhere where resolutions are being adopted that are pro-BDS even though they are likely not to be implemented” by the administration.

“It is the bellwether of a problem that we have to recognize and that we are trying to address. I don’t believe we should continue to play up Natalie Portman as much as look at the issues we are confronting regarding anti-Israel activities that often morph into anti-Semitic activities — and the general rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. and abroad.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, referred to the Portman controversy during an address at the University of Maryland on Tuesday. He said he would have attended the ceremony but also recognizes “Portman’s love for Israel. Those who demonize her and question the legitimacy of her views are poisoning the atmosphere.”

“I don’t know if this [action] will be a catalyst for change, but it is an indication that Israelis and American Jews might be more willing to voice their concerns over Israeli government policy.”

Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, termed Portman’s decision “an extremely powerful and important Zionist statement that one can support the State of Israel and oppose the destructive policies of the Netanyahu government.  … This is the most rightwing government in the history of the country, and it is threatening democracy and expanding the occupation in such a way that it is violating the human rights of Palestinians and threatening the security of Israelis.”

Similar comments were voiced by other left-wing organizations here.

“We’re thrilled she spoke out,” said Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace. “The more people are willing to talk about these issues publicly, the easier it is for others to do the same — and it is a real indicator of the changing perception of Israel. … We really commend her for her bravery in saying the things she did.”

Libby Lenkinsky, a vice president of the New Israel Fund, said she was pleased that Portman was “using her celebrity platform to say you can love Israel and support Israel and not support all of its government’s policies. … What is important is that she said she loves the people on the ground and doesn’t support the policies of this government or BDS.

“I don’t know if this [action] will be a catalyst for change, but it is an indication that Israelis and American Jews might be more willing to voice their concerns over Israeli government policy.”

On the other hand, Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, was critical of her decision, saying “it as pathetic and shameful that Natalie Portman has such a fear of maintaining her status in the anti-Israel entertainment world that she would stoop to issue false and obscene attacks on Israel to benefit her image among her extremist colleagues. … Her statement portrays Israel as worthy of being boycotted, so she aids the BDS movement. Why has she said nothing about the Palestinian Authority promoting hatred and violence against Jews in every aspect of their culture?”

Rabbi Heshie Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere, L.I., pointed out in a letter to the editor in The Jewish Week that another vocal critic of Netanyahu’s, David Grossman, sat on the same stage with the “democratically elected prime minister” when he received the Israel Prize for literature this year and even shook Netanyahu’s hand.

“She does not support a democratic Israel,” Rabbi Billet wrote of Portman. “She only supports herself … and is unworthy of calling herself a friend of Israel.”

“The more people are willing to talk about these issues publicly, the easier it is for others to do the same.”

Portman was to have been the fifth winner of the Genesis Prize, joining actor Michael Douglas, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, violinist Itzhak Perlman and sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor.

Dan Mariashin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, said the award is clearly apolitical and honors those who “serve as an inspiration.”

“To make a political issue out of something that is nonpolitical does not make much sense,” he said. “She said she opposes BDS, but this decision plays right into the hands of the BDS campaign. It has been welcomed as a victory by none other than Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement. … She may not see this as a mistake, but if she is against BDS, one would have thought that she would have seen there would be some in that camp who would welcome it.”

But Logan Bayroff, a spokesman for J Street, suggested that “rather than criticizing and attacking her for listening to her conscience, they should recognize that her concerns about Prime Minister Netanyahu and the State of Israeli democracy and policy today are shared by many American Jews and supporters of Israel around the world.”

Instead of refusing to attend the awards ceremony, David Halperin, executive director of the Israel Policy Forum, suggested that Portman should have accepted the award and voiced her concerns at that time, speaking “directly to the Israeli people.”

“This should be a cautionary tale to those Israelis who are dismissing the growing rift between the Israeli government and Israel from progressives and younger American Jews in particular,” he added. “There is no question this is symptomatic of a larger problem.”

A procession of Pitt community members dressed in black marched from from Trees Hall to the Bigelow Lawn Wednesday night. The mourning colors were worn not just to remember one death, but millions. Pitt’s historically Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, held its second annual Walk to Remember with B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish service organization, to honor those who died in the Holocaust and take a stand against rising anti-Semitism.

About 40 members of AEPi and the local community walked in silence Wednesday, followed by a 24-hour commemoration outside the William Pitt Union. AEPi members and anyone else who wanted to volunteer took turns reading the names of Holocaust victims and their places of origin and death from 6 p.m. Wednesday until 6 p.m. Thursday. The event occured in conjunction with Yom Hazikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah — colloquially known as Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day — which is held annually and lasted from sunset Wednesday to nightfall Thursday.

Gabriel Kaufman, a junior majoring in finance and marketing and member of AEPi, said the event is important not not only to the local Jewish community but to people of all faiths at Pitt. Kaufman was one of the readers at the event and vice president of the planning committee for it.

“Obviously, not everyone is Jewish, but it’s hard to wrap your head around the evil that existed in Europe between 1939 to 1945, and even before that,” he said. “We stand not only against anti-Semitism but against all atrocities that happen in the present or may happen in the future.”

As the years since the Holocaust increase, younger generations are forgetting about the significance of the atrocity and its lasting impacts more and more. A recent study by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany found that two-thirds of American millennials cannot identify Auschwitz — the largest Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Kaufman reinforced the relevance of remembrance today, even 73 years after the Holocaust. He said the march and name reading is to protest and bring awareness to anti-Semitism and to recognize the impact the Holocaust had on his and his fraternity brothers’ families.

“We’re standing against any future atrocity, any form of racism we’re standing against,” he said. “We realize that’s prevalent in the world and we want to bring a whole new meaning to the words ‘Never Again.’”

According to Aaron Chumsky, a sophomore math and economics major and the Jewish identity chair of AEPi, the frat began working on the event after Winter Break, planning dates and times and reaching out to organizations such as the Pitt police.

“I think it’s important that we celebrate our Jewish identity and that does involve honoring the many who perished during the Holocaust. And also showing that we stand against actions like that and actions of discrimination that are still going on today,” he said.

The gravity of the event and the meaning behind it was not lost on attendees and bystanders, such as Ryan Gill.

Gill, a first year majoring in pharmacy, didn’t go to the march on Wednesday but did attend part of the name reading of Thursday. He described the long time AEPi spent to read all the names as “eye-opening.”

“I was only here for maybe a half hour or so, but he was reading the list and it hit me hard. How many people really died and were killed,” he said.

While Holocaust Remembrance Day only comes once a year, organizers such as Kaufman hope that people take away some of the lessons from the event and think about the effect that it had on Jewish people everywhere.
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“And all of our brothers come from different backgrounds, I know that a lot of people have Polish roots. A lot of people have Russian roots like myself — my Mom’s Russian,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from. All Jewish people were affected by the Holocaust.”

A bipartisan slate of House members is set to introduce a bill that would grant money to Holocaust education in schools.

The Never Again Education Act would establish the Holocaust Education Assistance Program Fund in the U.S. Treasury. A 12-member board would disburse the money to schools.

A draft of the bill, which is to be introduced Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives, says the fund would be privately funded.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., is the lead sponsor of the measure.

“Today, those who deny that the Holocaust occurred or distort the true nature of the Holocaust continue to find forums, especially online; this denial and distortion dishonors those who were persecuted, and murdered,” the draft of the bill says. “This makes it even more of a national imperative to educate students in the United States so that they may explore the lessons that the Holocaust provides for all people, sensitize communities to the circumstances that gave rise to the Holocaust, and help youth be less susceptible to the falsehood of Holocaust denial and distortion and to the destructive messages of hate that arise from Holocaust denial and distortion.”

The bill would also create a website that would include Holocaust education resources.

Maloney will launch the bill on Tuesday at the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights in New York City, accompanied by representatives of Hadassah, B’nai B’rith International and the Association of Holocaust Organizations. The Anti-Defamation League endorsed the bill.
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Also sponsoring the bill are Reps. Peter Roskam, R-Ill.; Ted Deutch, D-Fla.; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.; Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Kay Granger, R-Texas; Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.; and Dan Donovan, R-N.Y. Lowey and Granger are top House appropriators, which suggests the bill likely will pass.

Last week’s Palestinian “March of Return” on the Gaza border with Israel produced predictable responses from the European Union and the United Nations.

In a statement, the UN condemned the killing of Palestinians “after (the) peaceful protest turned violent.” It called for an “independent and transparent investigation” of the clashes along the border.

A UN meeting, hastily called on Passover eve, was addressed by representatives of nine countries, as well as the Palestinians’ “Permanent Observer.” During the meeting the word “Hamas” was not mentioned once.

The EU’s senior diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called for an investigation into Israel’s response to the protests. She then used the timeworn line “while Israel has a right to protect its borders, the use of force must be proportionate.” This cliche is invoked whenever Israel needs to use force against terrorists or violent protesters. There was nothing in her statement about Hamas or its role in concocting the crisis, nor its use of human shields or calls for Israel’s destruction.

In their statements, both the EU and the UN called for a resumption of negotiations. Negotiations with whom? Hamas is dedicated to Israel’s demise. It cannot be negotiated with. That call is a misplaced, throwaway line.

There has not been much media analysis of Hamas’ cynical and manipulative effort to exploit the protests in order to raise the profile of the Palestinians after they have been displaced by other crises in the Middle East.

The Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party jumped on the bandwagon, even though it has again had a falling out with Hamas after a brief “reconciliation.” Fatah commented that the Palestinian flag is “soaked in the blood of the martyrs.”

One might say that the EU and the UN are back in their comfort zone on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The tired warnings about the use of “disproportionate force” and the right of the Palestinians to “freedom of expression” may resound in some Western capitals, but they are increasingly falling on deaf ears in the Gulf and a number of other Arab countries.

These countries know what the Europeans and others will not acknowledge: Hamas is a corrupt actor and its radical Islamic extremism has many of the region’s Sunni regimes in its crosshairs. They also know that the Iranians are pleased to stir the pot against them by using Hamas or other proxies wherever the opportunity presents itself.

How is it possible that the EU, which has designated Hamas a terrorist organization, could not even mention the organization by name when it issued a statement about the Gaza march, which was organized by that very group? Or that Hamas’ daily calls for the destruction of Israel can’t even be hinted at when discussing the motives behind the demonstrations?

Europe is stuck in a time warp when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A friend of the Palestinians on many issues — dating back to its Venice Declaration of 1980 endorsing Palestinian statehood, which it negotiated with Yasser Arafat’s PLO — the EU cannot bring itself to castigate the disingenuousness and obfuscation of the Palestinian Authority. They are doing the same regarding Hamas’ attempts to sacrifice human lives in order to advance its nihilistic and destructive ambitions.

The EU’s double standards on Israel are another tiresome exercise in hypocrisy from Brussels. The Gaza march was not a matter of Palestinian “freedom of expression.” Indeed, what kind of free speech does either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas allow their own people? And even with the EU’s loose border controls, none of its member countries would allow a terrorist-directed and organized “peaceful march” to cross its borders.

As for the UN, its record of anti-Israel bias, especially at agencies like UNESCO and the Human Rights Council is well known and well documented.

For the moment, Hamas has figured out a way to recapture the headlines. It has done so in part because the UN and the EU have once again signaled that Hamas will escape international opprobrium. Left alone in the multilateral area, Israel is again cast as the villain.

By not specifically criticizing Hamas and its role in the march, by not acknowledging the direct involvement of Hamas operatives acting as agents provocateurs on the ground, by not pointing out Hamas’ desire to make “martyrs” of women and children, and by not speaking about that organization’s destroy-Israel-at-any-cost raison d’etre, the UN and the EU exacerbate the crisis — as they have so many other times.
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It’s time to stop indulging those who are seeking Israel’s destruction, who look to Teheran for aid and comfort, and who are attempting to bring further chaos to a region that is already wracked by destruction and disorder. The message to the UN and the EU is this: Call out Hamas for what it is or lose whatever remaining relevance you have.