NYU to Honor SJP
Even though New York University President Andrew Hamilton has condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), the school honored on April 17 its anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which supports BDS, JNS.org reported.
SJP received the President’s Service Award, “given to students or student organizations that have had an extraordinary and positive impact on the University community, including achievements within schools and departments, the University at large, local neighborhoods, and NYU’s presence in the world,” according to NYU’s website.
A pro-Israel group at NYU called Realize Israel criticized the decision. It said on Facebook that SJP “spent the last several years making Jewish and pro- Israel students feel unwelcome and unsafe on campus.”
In addition, Judea Pearl, the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, asked NYU to rescind his Distinguished Alumnus Award because of the SJP award.
500 Doctors Sign Letters Urging Vaccinations
About 500 North American doctors serving Jewish communities signed a letter urging all children and healthy adults to be vaccinated, JTA reported.
“We the undersigned doctors who faithfully serve the Orthodox Jewish communities of North America, strongly urge all members of our community to receive all recommended vaccinations,” the letter begins.
Doctors in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Wisconsin signed the letter, as did doctors in Toronto and Montreal.
The letter mentions a “dangerous misinformation campaign being spread” and rejects “any unproven unscientific statements that contradict all available current science-based studies.”
There have been 555 confirmed measles cases in 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on April 15 — a 50 percent increase over the total recorded in all of 2018. Most cases are occurring around New York City in its haredi Orthodox community.
Soccer Teams to Join March of the Living
The New England Revolution and the Chelsea Football Club said April 17 that they will send about 30 members to participate in the May 2 March of the Living in Poland, JTA reported.
During that event, about 10,000 will march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau to pay tribute to lives lost in the Holocaust.
Chelsea, a top-level British soccer club, participated in the event last year. Major League Soccer’s Revolution will be the first team from the United States to participate.
The two teams also will compete in a May 15 charity event in Boston to raise money for the World Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League, Holocaust Educational Trust and Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
Golan Heights Now Part of Israel in New US International Map
The Trump administration on April 16 unveiled new international maps that include the Golan Heights for the first time as part of Israel, JNS.org reported.
“Welcome to the newest addition of our international maps system after @POTUS issued a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt tweeted.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights a few weeks ago. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, but the international community has never recognized it.
