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This Sunday November 20 at 7 pm, Congregation Sinai and Bluelight Cinema are sponsoring the Northern California premiere of “UNMASKED Judeophobia” at Bluelight Cinemas 5 at the Cupertino Oaks Shopping Center, 21275 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino, CA 95014.
Alan Dershowitz, Irwin Cotler, John Bolton, Anne Bayefsky and Natan Sharansky are but a few of the leading experts, historians and commentators from around the world featured in this insightful new documentary from the producer of “The Case for Israel: Democracy’s Outpost”. The film examines what lies beneath the growing campaign to isolate and delegitimize the State of Israel. UNMASKED conveys in very powerful and compelling ways the danger that civilized societies are facing by the resurgence of hatred towards Jews in general and Israel. Post-screening discussion with Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCSC.
Where: corner of Market & San Carlos Streets
South end of Cesar Chavez Park (near Convention Center LightRail Station)
Downtown San Jose, CA
For over a year, a group of anti-Israel protestors have gathered in downtown San Jose during Monday commute, calling for the destruction of the state of Israel. They have been unopposed until now. Please join South Bay Voice for Israel as we stand up for Israel’s right to exist and to live in peace and security.
Afterwards, lets meet and brainstorm ideas to mobilize the South Bay Community against the growing tide of anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel sentiment.
REMEMBER: If you choose to bring your own signs, please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians in general. Signs in violation of our policies do not help the pro-Israel cause; we condemn, and disassociate ourselves from, any such signs or messages. The other side will use any such signs to defame the entire pro-Israel community. Also we specifically dissociate ourselves from anyone delivering any hate speech, or threats of violence towards those on the other side, and we ask that those in attendance let us know of anyone violating these guidelines. Let the other side be the one to provide the “YouTube moments”.
We just received information about anti-Israel activities up the Peninsula.
It seems that anti-Israel protesters have entered local Trader Joe’s stores
throughout the Bay Area and bombarded customers and store managers with
propaganda. These activists have been vandalizing Israeli products by
disfiguring them with labels depicting an Israeli orange that is half a hand
grenade and stickers that read “Don’t Buy into Apartheid; Boycott Israeli
Goods.” You can get a sense of their activities from a nasty video on
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN1-OUP62CQ. We must counter this
vicious campaign of delegitimization of Israel, and and support Trader Joe’s
against this intimidation.
We urge you to respond as many Jewish communities have: let’s show our
support of Trader Joe’s by buying Israeli products along with our usual
purchases for the week. Let’s join with Peninsula Temple Sholom in
Burlingame, Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, and Peninsula Sinai
Congregation in Foster City. On Sunday, August 23, at 11:00 a.m. and then
again on Wednesday, August 26, at 7:00 p.m., visit your local Trader Joe’s
store and buy these products. Be sure to thank the Managers and Assistant
Managers for their support and for stocking Israeli products. Also thank
them for the forthright response of the Trader Joe’s company. Earlier this
summer, a spokesperson told the press, “Trader Joe’s will not be used as a
political tool, and we will not remove any products under pressure from any
group. We believe our customers are smart and capable enough to make their
own choices.”
We concur with the statement from the Peninsula group, “Our goal is to
support Trader Joe’s and to show our deep appreciation that they continue to
stock Israeli products and are not bowing to the pressure of anti-Israel
organizations and sentiments.”
The local JCRC and AJC have reported receiving information that there will be protest demonstrations outside various Trader Joe’s supermarket chain locations this Saturday, June 20, 2009 aimed at Trader Joe’s stocking of Israeli products. During such protests in other countries, anti-Israel agitators have entered stores and thrown the, “Made in Israel” products on the floor. Both groups are sending the same urgent message: Buy Israeli products at Trader Joe’s
From the AJC:
AJC has alerted the head office of Trader Joe’s to this possibility and urged them to be vigilant. Please consider visiting a Trader Joe’s store before Saturday and purchasing products from Israel. If a sizable number of us do just this, it will send a strong message of support to Trader Joe’s, it will also help Israel and thwart the agitators-there will be no or very few Israeli products left to de-shelve.
The JCRC is calling on the community to buy Israeli foods at Trader Joes anytime you shop, especially this week. A local activist group plans to go to various Trader Joes this Saturday and take Israeli products off the shelves, simply dumping them into carts. This disruptive action is intended to promote a boycott of Israel’s products, and Trader Joes along with other markets have been targeted.
You can enjoy delicious Israeli products such as couscous and feta cheese—buy some for your friends and neighbors too! Your purchases will confirm for Trader Joes that they carry products that reflect the tastes of their patrons, and also their patrons’ appreciation that TJ’s does not allow itself to be censored by political bias. Last week in Pittsburgh, a similar boycott action took place and the Trader Joes management asked the people to leave the store on the grounds that they were trespassing. These boycott efforts are being organized across the country around World Refugee Day, which is Saturday, June 20.
This Yom HaShoah remember the lives of the 6 million Jews and 5 million others who perished in the Holocaust, the struggles of the survivors and the lessons it has to teach us around the SF Bay Area.
Commemorate and Observe with Your Bay Area Community:
Seventy Years After: Looking Back to 1939
Monday, April 20th, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Congregation Beth David
19700 Prospect Road, Saratoga, California
Join the community as we commemorate the Holocaust with words, music, and personal testimony.
At the beginning of 1939, Hitler made an infamous speech predicting the annihilation of the Europe’s Jews. The drastic changes that occurred in just this one year, leading to the official start of the war in September, are the focus of this year’s remembrance. Music will be performed by a community choir made up of members of South Bay synagogues, and directed by Cantor Devorah Felder-Levy. Held at Beth David. We hope to see you there.
Come at 7pm to be a minyanaire and help in the mitzvah of making a minyan.
The World Zionist Organization sends a message to Jews of the Diaspora on how to use Facebook to support Gilad Shalit’s family who are putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Olmert to bring Gilad home after almost 1000 days since he was taken captive. t
Bring Home Gilad Shalit
An important message from Dr. David Breakstone, Head of the Department of Zionist Activities at the World Zionist Organization, and Senior VP for Masorti Olami and MERCAZ Olami:
Somehow it seems that we Jews are never able to completely let go and just enjoy ourselves. Even Purim, the occasion when we come closest to receiving a religious commandment of abandonment, is marred by recollections of suffering past and present. As we read the Megillah this week, we cannot help but be aware that this is already the third year running that Gilad Shalit is not going to have the opportunity to do so. Nor will his parents, relatives and friends be able to experience the real joy of the holiday.
A few days ago, approaching 1000 days of Gilad’s being in captivity, they pitched a tent opposite the Prime Minister’s residence where they are now maintaining a vigil 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to put pressure on PM Olmert to bring Gilad home before he leaves office in another several days. They have already been visited by thousands of Israelis who are coming to express their support for the family’s efforts, and to boost their morale in the process.
As an act of solidarity with the Shalit family, the Department for Zionist Activities has set up a Facebook group called: BringHomeGiladShalit and is organizing an “event” that began this afternoon through which Jews of the Diaspora will be able to visit them as well in a virtual tent that will cover the globe. On Thursday, March 19, if Gilad is not yet home, the staff of the Department will be visiting the Shalit family in person, hoping to be able to let them know that tens of thousands of Jews around the world feel their pain and support their efforts.
We are asking you to get out this information to as many people as you possibly can, encouraging them either to join the Facebook group and attend the virtual event at
It will be our privilege to serve as your personal messenger to the Shalit family, and to bring them the support and best wishes of all those you are able to reach with this important message.
With prayers that next year we will be celebrating at this time together with Gilad.
Dr. David Breakstone
Head of the Department for Zionist Activities
World Zionist Organization
3. Join Hillel of Silicon Valley Sunday (1/18) at 12 PM in San Jose (counter protest)
4. Keep writing letters and opinion pieces!
Listen and Call KGO
Thursday, January 15th (Tonight!) @ 10:00 PM
The topic will be on Israel and Gaza. In recent days radio shows have received significantly more anti-Israel callers than pro-Israel callers. Make your voice heard tonight and support Israel!
Saturday, January 17th @ 7:00 PM
DEBATE: Consul General Akiva Tor will debate UC Berkeley professor Hatem Bazian
Thanks to Hazak and the SVJFF, Congregation Beth David has arranged a private screening of the movie Defiance at Camera 12, 201 S. Second Street, San Jose. Jews’ Next Dor is going, $10 a person, you can purchase your ticket(s) for $10 each online(http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/50737). Short discussion follows this blockbuster film, led by members of the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. We’ll meet at 6pm, movie begins at 6:30pm.
Defiance is based on an extraordinary true story of family, honor, vengeance and salvation in World War II Poland. Three Jewish brothers escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis by taking refuge in the dense woods they have known since childhood. There they begin their desperate battle for survival, and plot to save thousands of other Jews as brutal winter descends. Suitable for adults and mature teens (MPAA Rating: R; 137 minutes).
Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell star in this epic drama, one of the greatest examples of Jewish resistance during World War II. Many believe this film will be an Oscar® contender.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage Staff blog has previously written (see here, here and here) about the new movie Defiance, which officially opened Monday night. In conjunction with the opening, a local news team presented the “Real Story Behind Defiance.” Take a look.
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