|
The Algemeiner newspaper
held their 10th annual J100 Gala last night,
beginning with a moment of silence in memory of all those
who were murdered on October 7th in Israel. Ambassador Gilad
Erdan,
Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations,
said “The Jewish people have experienced the worst tragedy
since the Holocaust. Over 1,400 have been slaughtered,
thousands more injured, and still over 200 hostages. Among
them, babies and Holocaust survivors are being held by Hamas
terrorists. This battle is not only being waged from the
air, land, and sea. There is another battle and it's being
waged in your living room, on your smartphones, on your
hearts, and your minds. We are being fed lies by the media.
Last week, Hamas claimed that 500 Palestinians were killed
by an Israeli airstrike on a hospital. Immediately, nearly
every news channel began repeating Hamas' lies, taking their
word before even checking the facts. Following the release
of evidence, it became clear that not only was the number of
casualties grossly exaggerated, the explosion was caused by
a terrorist rocket. They are not only murdering our
children, they are murdering their own children. The
Algemeiner, is a beacon of truth where the lies are being
exposed. The Algemeiner is fighting the good fight for the
sake of Israel and for the sake of the truth."
Actor Dean Cain, politician Natan
Sharansky (introduced by chess grandmaster Gary
Kasparov),
and journalist Irit
Tratt were
the evening’s honorees. “Some things in life are
complicated. Other things are pretty simple. What has
happened in Israel is quite simply, good versus evil,
humanity versus evil. There can never be an excuse to murder
innocent people, including 30 beautiful children”, shared Dean
Cain.
He continued “I wear many hats in my life. Sometimes I wear
a costume under my shirt - not tonight - but there are few
things that I'm more proud of than producing an Emmy
award-winning documentary called Hate Among Us, which
documents the rise of antisemitism in Europe and the United
States. That was done in 2019. I wish we had been wrong. I'm
also very proud of my work with From The Depths, with my
good friend Jonny Daniels. We've taken numerous
members of the United States Congress to visit sites of the
Holocaust like Auschwitz. I took my own son because I
thought it was very important for him to learn what he
didn't study in school. We all stood there in Auschwitz and
we promised that we would never be indifferent again. We
promised never again. But it did happen again. I'm here
tonight to tell the world that we will not be silent. We
will not be indifferent. Israel, we stand behind you, beside
you, next to you, and with our Jewish friends here in
America and around the world. God bless America. God bless
Israel. God bless the brave servicemen and women of our
countries.”
“For us growing up in the Soviet Union, the
only Jewish thing which existed was antisemitism”, said
Former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan
Sharansky.
“Today, many political leaders and academics talk about
Israel as an apartheid state. That Israel does to
Palestinians what Nazis did to Jews. That Palestinian
refugee camps are the Auschwitz of today. Cartoons of the
Israeli Prime Minister eating Palestinian children as blood
drips from his chin. I say, wait a minute, that is
antisemitism. Those are the pictures and the rhetoric we
were shown in the Soviet Union of Jews. They say we all love
Jews, we will do everything for Jews, we are not antisemitic.
They say they are against pogroms. But they are paving the
way to the legitimacy of pogroms. That is something that we
have to learn here today. We don't need more lectures and
more definitions; anti-zionism is antisemitism today!”
Algemeiner Honorary Chairman Dovid
Efune,
a veteran journalist of four Gaza wars, shared “Today,
the decision to wear a kippah or a star of David in public,
to attend a synagogue, or keep a Jewish school open,
requires courage. We must not give one inch in the battle
for identity… There is also a raging battle for truth on the
front lines on which The Algemeiner stands. We are
witnessing in real time the propagation of monstrous blood
libels on a scale the world has never seen. We are gathered
here now, all of us as soldiers in this battle for truth. We
are one people with one heart. Israel's tears are our tears.
It's anger is our anger. Its fight is our fight. We will be
its voice.”
The Gala herolds the annual highly
anticipated J100
List of
the top 100 individuals positively influencing Jewish life,
referred to as the Jewish answer to TIME100. This
years list includes Ina Garten (who shared Rosh
Hashanah recipes on the high holiday), Ambassador Nikki
Haley (a stalwart supporter of Israel), Ben Platt (who
spoke out against protestors in front of the Broadway play
‘Parade’, a true story of a Jewish businessman), Sunny
Sandler (Adam Sandler's daughter and star of her fathers
hit film ‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah), and Jessica
Seinfeld (who has been vocal against Kanye West’s
antisemitic remarks).
Dana Arschin, Emmy
award-winner and TV journalist, hosted the Gala. Publisher Simon
Jacobson, and
Dovid and Mushka Efune, were co-chairs, and Bernard-Henri
Lévy served as honorary chairman.
Now celebrating its 51st anniversary, The
Algemeiner is a global news destination published online and
in print that serves as an independent media voice covering
the Middle East, Israel, and matters of Jewish interest
around the world. The Algemeiner has been identified as the
"fastest growing Jewish newspaper in the US" by CNBC. It has
been described by former Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor as
“the voice of the Jewish people and Israel” and hailed as
“brave and relentlessly accurate” by longtime New Republic
editor Marty Peretz.
|