WASHINGTON—Leaders of major American Jewish organizations are rallying around Kenneth L. Marcus, the nominee for assistant secretary of education for civil rights, as pro-Palestinian groups denounce him for opposing the BDS movement.
 
Marcus, an attorney, served in the Department of Education’s civil rights division and then was staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, before founding the Washington, D.C.-based Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law in 2011.
 
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights is mobilizing its members against the nomination, arguing that Marcus’s efforts against BDS activity on college campuses were intended to “repress college students from organizing for Palestinian rights.”
 
The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) recently announced that “over 100 faculty members” at unnamed universities had signed their petition against the Marcus nomination. The petition claimed that because of Marcus’s anti-BDS efforts, “students and faculty [on unidentified campuses] fear studying Palestinian history or advocating for Palestinian rights.” But JVP officials have not responded to multiple requests from JNS.org for a list of the alleged signatories.
 
 A number of Jewish organizations this week endorsed Marcus. 
 
“B’nai B’rith strongly supports the nomination,” the group’s director of legislative affairs, Eric Fusfield, told JNS.org. “Kenneth Marcus has been a champion of civil rights, especially combating anti-Semitism on college campuses. He understands this pervasive social problem in all its manifestations.” 
 
Fusfield added, “As someone who has worked with Ken on various projects for more than eight years, I can say that the federal government will be well served by having him in a key civil rights position.”
 
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) described Marcus in a recent tweet as “a good choice—knowledgeable about and committed to the mission of the office.” 
 
Marc Stern, the AJC’s general counsel, strongly defended Marcus against the accusations by pro-Palestinian groups. 
 
“Whenever I’ve heard Ken speak, he’s been focused on antisemitism or opposition to BDS,” Stern told JNS.org. “I’ve never heard him say anything remotely close to being anti-Palestinian. It seems as if these groups are saying that anyone who opposes their boycott of Israel is unqualified for office. The American Jewish Committee does not agree with that line of thinking, and we are confident that the U.S. Senate won’t, either [when it considers the nominee].”
 
“For years, anti-Israel groups have had virtually a free ride to promote BDS, spread anti-Israel libels, and intimidate Jewish students, without any fear of consequences,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “The haters are terrified that someone like Kenneth Marcus might come along and take appropriate steps against hate activity.” 
 
“That’s exactly why the Department of Education needs Kenneth Marcus,” Cooper said. “He will help make sure that campuses will not become de facto safe zones for bigots like the anti-Semitic tenured professor at Rutgers.” Cooper was referring to Michael Chikindas, a professor of microbiology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who recently called Judaism “the most racist religion in the world.” 
 
Prominent Jewish jurists are also backing Marcus. The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists this week distributed a call to its members to send letters to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in support of the nomination. Irit Kohen, president of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, told JNS.org, “We know Kenneth Marcus, recognize him as a professional with integrity who has dedicated his career to the fight for civil rights, and are sure he will succeed in his new position.”
 
“Being opposed to BDS is not a reason to disqualify someone from a position in the Department of Education,” said Thane Rosenbaum, a Distinguished Fellow at New York University School of Law and a longtime human rights activist, author and law professor. “In fact, it is a singular qualification because it demonstrates a commitment to justice, fairness and moral balance. BDS is an anti-Semitic campaign led by those who have cynically masqueraded their anti-Semitism as a bogus human rights issue.”
 
Mark Yudof, emeritus professor of law at University of California, Berkeley and a leader of the Academic Engagement Network, an anti-BDS group, called Marcus “intelligent, articulate, fair-minded and highly qualified to be assistant secretary.” Yudof told JNS.org, “He is not anti-Palestinian; rather he is dedicated to non-discrimination and equal treatment of all students, including Jewish and Palestinian students. He strives for a campus climate that is respectful and free of intimidation.”
 
Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which calls itself “the largest pro-Israel grassroots organization in the United States;” the National Council of Young Israel, representing more than 100 Orthodox synagogues nationwide; and the World Jewish Congress in North America have also issued statements endorsing Marcus. 
 
“I have known Ken Marcus for over twenty years. There is no one in Washington who could bring more intelligence, integrity and relevant experience to this position,” said CUFI board member David Brog.
 
The Anti-Defamation League told JNS.org that it has not yet decided whether to take a position on the nomination. But the ADL’s general counsel, Steven C. Sheinberg, recently wrote on his private Twitter account that Marcus is “an absolutely stellar choice!”
 
Marcus’s confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

​In the wake of an attack by a teenage Palestinian terrorist that left two Israelis wounded last Friday, Jewish organizations and community leaders are calling for the withdrawal of a congressional measure targeting Israel’s treatment of Palestinian minors.
 
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and nine other Democrats in the House of Representatives last week introduced H.R. 4391, which would restrict U.S. aid to Israel if the Israelis undertake the “military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children.” The legislation specifies that any Palestinian under the age of 18 should be considered a child.
 
Last Friday, a 17-year-old Palestinian deliberately ran over two Israeli civilians near the town of Efrat. One of the victims was a 70-year-old American immigrant. The attacker then exited his vehicle and attempted to stab several Israeli soldiers, who shot and wounded him. 
 
The soldiers’ shooting and detention of the teenage terrorist are among the types of actions that would trigger the sanctions mandated by the McCollum bill.
 
“I urge Congresswoman McCollum to withdraw her bill, before it helps inspire other young Palestinians to copy the 17-year-old attacker near Efrat,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 
 
“Palestinian youth do need a ‘protection act’—they need protection from Hamas that uses them as human shields for terrorism and who send them to dig terror tunnels,” Cooper added. “They need protection from the brainwashing of the Palestinian Authority that teaches them to deny the rights and humanity of their Jewish neighbors.”
 
“The bill is dangerously presumptuous,” B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin told JNS.org. “It puts Israel in peril. This measure seemingly ignores the assaults on Israelis. It basically calls on Israel not to respond to acts of terror. At a time of heightened awareness to acts of terror everywhere, such legislation is surprising and disheartening.”
 
Even if last Friday’s attack had not occurred, “this is an unwise piece of legislation,” Steve Grossman, former president of AIPAC and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told JNS.org. “If the sponsors don’t withdraw it on their own, I urge them to do so—and if not, I hope the members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will report it out unfavorably and make it clear to their colleagues that the bill is unwise and they do not support it.”
 
“Israel has a solid system of checks and balances in place” to address any instances in which Israeli soldiers act inappropriately, Grossman said. “Israel, unlike virtually every other country in that region, has a robust and independent judiciary, which steps in if actions go beyond what is appropriate. It’s a central feature of Israel’s open and democratic society and it functions very effectively.” Therefore, Grossman said, “I agree with those who are saying the bill should not see the light of the day. This legislation is hostile to Israel, and hostile to appropriate public policy.”
 
The purpose of McCollum’s bill is “to paint Israel in a negative light by presenting issues out of context, and misrepresenting the facts in the Middle East,” said Betty Ehrenberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress in North America. “The truth is that it is the Palestinians who abuse children by putting them in harm’s way and sending them out to commit stabbings, to throw rocks that have killed and wounded, and trained them to be suicide bombers.”
 
The McCollum bill’s nine co-sponsors are Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin; Earl Blumenauer and Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon; André Carson of Indiana; John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan; Danny K. Davis and Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois; Raul Grijalva of Arizona; and Chellie Pingree of Maine.
 
According to an analysis prepared by the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor, “the entirety of the [McCollum] bill is premised on factually inaccurate claims from anti-Israel advocacy NGOs” such as Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P). Portions of the text of the bill appear to have been lifted directly, without attribution, from a DCI-P report issued last year or from the DCI-P website.
 
At least three members of DCI-P’s board—Shawan Jabarin, Nasser Ibrahim and Dr. Majed Nasser—have been affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.

The phone interview with his hometown newspaper almost over, Daniel S. Mariaschin had a question of his own.
The CEO and executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International has a strong affinity for Keene and the Monadnock Region. He grew up here, graduated from Monadnock Regional High School in 1967, and spun records at weekend record hops at the school, leading to a job at radio station WKNE.

Thus, he wanted to know: How is the Monadnock-Keene Thanksgiving Day football game shaping up?

After all, 50 years ago, he was part of the pageantry that is high school football, playing trombone in the high school band. “Claudia Howard,” he says, in an ode to one of Monadnock’s earliest music teachers. “She put a band on the field.”

Mariaschin today wields one of the most powerful voices in the world advocating for the Jewish community. The 68-year-old has led B’nai B’rith International for a quarter-century and is director of its Center for Human Rights and Public Policy. He meets regularly with heads of state from every corner of the globe. He’s had audiences with three popes. He received the Cultural Pluralism Award from the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in recognition of his work in Central and Eastern Europe. And that’s just a resume sampler.

Though he lives just outside Washington, D.C., in Chevy Chase, Md., his roots are planted in the Monadnock Region. His parents are buried here. “I really consider Keene to be my home,” he says.

B’nai B’rith, which means “Sons of the Covenant,” is the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, founded in 1843. Mariaschin is its longtime leader, representing B’nai B’rith on numerous national and international delegations. He’s been at the forefront of Holocaust education programs, particularly in Lithuania, the home country of his parents, who immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s.

Recently, he’s been involved in negotiations with several countries in Eastern Europe regarding the return of Holocaust-era assets and compensation for private property taken by the Nazis and Communists.

About 15 years ago, he was part of a negotiating team that successfully brought back to Israel more than 400 Torah scrolls that had been hidden by the Nazis in a warehouse in Vilnius, Lithuania. Although most couldn’t be repaired, he says, retrieving them gave him a great deal of satisfaction, one of many in a long and productive career.

“The opportunity to be able, face to face, to meet with foreign ministers and prime ministers, presidents of countries, to have a dialogue about issues that we’re concerned about with people at that level, I think, has been the best opportunity in this career,” he says.

“The chance to convey our positions on issues — I can’t tell you in every case I was persuasive and I convinced people to vote our way — but just the chance to convey our positions was very gratifying, very rewarding.”
Mariaschin is a prodigious writer. He’s written articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times and Newsday.

Some of his most heartfelt writings are personal. He’s published essays about his parents, Saul and Rose, and former teachers. It whisks him back to his youth and his upbringing in the Monadnock Region.

Last year, he wrote a moving piece for The Sentinel titled “Remembering Mrs. Phippard,” about a teacher at Mount Caesar School who asked him to speak to his 3rd-grade classmates about the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah — how that simple act had a profound effect on him.

In recent years, he penned Mother’s Day and Father’s Day tributes to his parents — his mother died 32 years ago and his father 43 years ago. Growing up in the 1950s, table talk at dinner was almost always about world affairs, discussions that served as building blocks in his own career. And the family had a voracious appetite for reading.
Every morning his father read the American Herald Tribune, and the family’s written news intake was supplemented by radio. They didn’t have a TV until he was older. As a young child, he says, “I recall hearing my parents talk about big news events of the mid-’50s and late ’50s.”

Mariaschin’s parents originally settled in New York City before moving to Keene and opening the Blue Shop, a women’s clothing store in the Colony Block of Central Square. His two older sisters graduated from Keene High and today live about 10 minutes apart from each other in Israel. Mariaschin saw them just last week and says his oldest sister, Sondra, will be coming to Keene for her 60th class reunion next year.

The family moved to North Swanzey, near Dillant-Hopkins Airport, before Mariaschin entered 1st grade. He remembers four Jewish families lived in Swanzey and about 25 Jewish families altogether lived within a 25-mile radius.

He attended Hebrew school three days a week at Congregation Ahavas Achim, then at 91 Court St. in Keene. Though his father was a lay person, he was learned in Hebrew and often taught classes when the congregation had difficulty finding a permanent rabbi.

“He was a regular kid,” says Aaron Lipsky, a retired Keene lawyer and three-term mayor of the city, of Mariaschin. “He was a friendly, outgoing person, as you would expect from somebody who has gone on to head a major international religious organization.”

Last year Lipsky spearheaded the creation of an exhibit celebrating Jewish history in the area, “From Peddlers, to Shopkeepers, to Professionals: A History of the Jewish Community in Cheshire County.” On display at the Historical Society of Cheshire County earlier this year, it focused on the original immigrant families, and their descendants, who founded Congregation Ahavas Achim.

Mariaschin didn’t fit the exhibit’s thesis, but he was included because of his prominence in the national Jewish community. “We decided that he was certainly worthy enough … that his story was exceptional in regard to his achievements,” Lipsky says.

Except for one incident, Mariaschin doesn’t remember being a victim of anti-Semitism in the area. That case was deftly handled by Mrs. Kellom, his 5th-grade teacher at Cutler School, which housed grades 5 through 8. “In hushed tones, she told me that the janitor had found a swastika on the wall of the boys bathroom,” Mariaschin says. “She wanted me to know that, and wanted me to know it had been washed off and taken care of.”

To this day, Mariaschin says, he appreciates being informed of what had happened, and the steps that were taken. Otherwise, he describes it as a normal childhood with good friends.

“Parents of those friends, as I look back, were really very open-minded,” he says. “I would say they wanted their children to be inclusive of me. Most of my colleagues come from big cities and large Jewish communities in the work that I do. … I come from an upbringing that was very positive because of my parents, and on the other side to have such good friends, good teachers, who had an understanding and who were sensitive of who I was — as I look back, I think I was fortunate.”

Growing up in Keene, he asks rhetorically, who were your friends? Catholics and Protestants. It gave him an early foundation in interfaith relations, highlights of which would later include meetings with Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

In high school, Mariaschin was a disc jockey at weekend dances, which led to a job at WKNE. He worked weekends, summers and holidays from 1966 to 1972, through his college years at the University of New Hampshire. He worked on-air morning drives, evening drives, farm reports, police logs, district court reports. He did “Coffee at the Crystal” (restaurant), which were 15-minute interviews with local residents. He did Monadnock Scrapbook in the evening. He did some political reporting for CBS when the presidential primary rolled around.

“This was like being a kid in a candy store,” he says.

It was a training ground for later appearances as a foreign affairs analyst on television and radio, and as a lecturer on foreign and defense affairs at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and military installations across the country.

At UNH, he majored in history, charting a course for law school and eventually politics. He rang doorbells campaigning for Perkins Bass, Bernie Streeter, William Johnson and Walter Peterson. He figured someday he would run for the state Legislature and, ultimately, Congress.

He had a change of heart as a college junior, when serving the Jewish community became foremost, even to the point of considering rabbinical school. After UNH, he earned his master’s degree in contemporary Jewish studies from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.; later, in recognition of his lifetime accomplishments, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from UNH and the American Jewish Communal Leadership Award from Brandeis.
He worked for several organizations before joining B’nai B’rith, starting with the Jewish Community Council of Boston. Other stops included serving as director of the New England Office of the American Zionist Federation, the Anti Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and director of the Political Affairs Department of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

He dabbled in politics for a couple of years, serving as director of communications for former secretary of state Alexander M. Haig Jr. during his 1987-88 presidential campaign, but returned to Jewish advocacy thereafter.

He looks back at his career not through a series of individual achievements, but wrapped as a bundle.

“I set out in 1971, didn’t know what it was I would do, but the impulse was to serve in some way the Jewish people. Then it took on different iterations, started in Boston, went to New York. I satisfied my own political interest working for General Haig, then came to Washington,” he says. “I don’t measure it in accomplishments; I measure it in that I’ve been fortunate and I’ve been blessed to do what I want to do.”

He thinks back to those long-ago, current-affairs discussions over dinner that he coveted with his parents. If they could join him for dinner now, he is asked, what would they say?

“They probably would have said I made the right choice.”

Sunday 29 October 2017, during the opening of the exhibition Identity Cards and Forgeries in the National Holocaust Museum (currently in the process of development) in Amsterdam, the ‘Jewish Rescuer’s Citation’ was posthumously awarded to Alice Cohn. This international award is an initiative of The Committee to Recognition the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust and the B'nai B'rith World Center - Jerusalem, it is conferred to Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust. To date, 171 Jewish resistance fighters in eight countries have been honoured.

Alice Cohn is the first Liechtenstein citizen to receive the award. Cohn receives the award for rescuing a 3-year-old girl from the nursery at Plantage Middenlaan, and most importantly for her long-standing resistance work at the ‘Forgery Agency’ in Utrecht. She forged hundreds of identity cards, food stamps and other so-called ‘wild papers’ while she was in hiding herself as Jewish woman. Thus saving the lives of many. Alice Cohn's daughter and son took receipt of the award in the presence of the 96-year-old Rutger Mathijssen, who founded the ‘Forgery Agency’ together with Alice Cohn and Siem Buddingh.

Identity Cards and Forgeries
Alice Cohn lived during the war years in Utrecht, mostly hidden in an attic room from where she did her resistance work. Because she permanently left the Netherlands after 1945, her history is completely unknown to date. The life and work of Alice Cohn during her stay in the Netherlands is part of the new exhibition in the National Holocaust Museum in formation. In addition to Alice Cohn's story, the exhibition also sheds light on that of Jacob Lentz. Being a civil servant at the Ministry of the Interior, he introduced the term ‘personal identification card’ and obsessively developed a highly sophisticated identity card. With the card bearing a photograph and fingerprint of the holder, is was the most difficult to forge compared to all other occupied countries in Europe. This identity card was introduced at the beginning of World War II. It appeared to be a powerful bureaucratic instrument that led to the death of many. An impressive installation of the visual artist Robert Glas shows how ingeniously Lentz worked. The exhibition is on display until 4 March 2018 inclusive.

National Holocaust Museum in formation
The National Holocaust Museum is a museum that is currently in the process of development. Together with the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the Children's Museum and the Portuguese Synagogue, it constitutes the Jewish Cultural Quarter. The completion of the National Holocaust Museum shall be achieved in stages.

​Jewish groups expressed dismay at some of the provisions of a tax overhaul that President Donald Trump and Republicans hope to complete by the end of this year.
The overhaul, broadly, slashes taxes and compensates for them to a degree by reducing deductions.
Congress launched hearings on the reforms this week after Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, unveiled them last week. It will be the first major overhaul of the taxation system in three decades. Its purported hallmark is simplicity: Ryan has said that a filer could send in a return on a postcard if he so chooses.
Of concern to Jewish groups are the removal of deductions, possible reductions in spending for social safety net programs, and the removal of a ban on tax exemptions for houses of worship.
In statements and memos, Jewish groups expressed concerns that the repeal of deductions could harm the sectors that rely on them. B’nai B’rith International, which advocates on behalf of the elderly, decried the elimination of deductions for medical expenses. Most of the Americans who take advantage of the deduction, which applies if one’s medical expenses exceed 10 percent of one’s income, are older than 65, the group said.
“Medical expenses that can be deducted from federal taxes include prescription drugs, insulin, glasses, hearings aids, payments to doctors, dentists and surgeons, nursing home fees and some long-term care insurance premiums,” it said in a statement released Friday. “We are very concerned about the impact eliminating this deduction could have on seniors, particularly low-income older Americans who have used this tax savings to save money on their vital medical needs.”
In a memo to its constituent Jewish federations, the Jewish Federations of North America singled out the proposed elimination of a tax credit for small businesses that build accommodations for the disabled.
“JFNA will actively oppose the repeal of this provision,” the memo said.
Also of concern to JFNA are changes likely to affect charitable giving, including a provision that doubles the “standard deduction” — the amount that filers can choose to claim if they forego itemized deductions.
“Because fewer taxpayers would itemize and benefit from the tax incentive for charitable contributions, overall giving would be expected to decrease,” the memo said.
The JFNA memo also said the umbrella body would lobby against eliminating the amendment that keeps houses of worship from opposing or endorsing candidates. Trump has vowed to kill the “Johnson Amendment,” named for Lyndon Johnson, who led its passage in the 1950s as a senator. A broad range of liberal Jewish groups want it preserved.
“JFNA will join with the overwhelming majority of charities, including religious groups, opposing this change that would weaken the fabric of this important protection from partisan politics that has enabled charities and houses of worship to remain focused on their mission,” the memo said.
B’nai B’rith, the National Council of Jewish Women and Bend the Arc in statements addressed concerns about the broader implications of the bill, saying the cuts — some estimates say they could slash revenue by as much as $1.5 trillion over the next decade — could destroy social safety net programs.
“This could seriously harm our more vulnerable populations, as increasing the deficit would provide cover for lawmakers to argue for cuts to important federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to make up for the shortfall,” B’nai B’rith said.
Bend the Arc alluded to corporate tax cuts and reductions in top level income taxes in the proposal, saying the plan “would exacerbate inequality, robbing vital programs for ordinary Americans to pay back millionaire campaign donors with tax cuts.”
NCJW said the plan was “severely skewed toward the rich.”