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In Oakland, California, an 11-foot tall Hanukkah menorah was broken and thrown into a lake. In New Haven, Connecticut, a Palestinian flag was planted in a publicly displayed menorah. In Juno Beach, Florida, a menorah made of sand was destroyed.

As Jewish communities around the United States celebrated Hanukkah over the past week, numerous stories of vandalism and destruction circulated online as public menorahs — many of them sponsored by local outposts of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement — were targeted. Some of the incidents are being investigated as hate crimes.

The acts of vandalism come at a time when Jewish communities are on high alert as watchdogs say antisemitism has spiked around the globe since Oct. 7, when the Israel-Hamas war began. Many communities had planned gatherings explicitly drawing connections between the war and the Hanukkah holiday, which began Dec. 7 and concludes on Friday. In response to the uptick in antisemitism and fear, one Jewish father launched an online campaign encouraging non-Jews to display menorahs in their windows out of solidarity.

For decades, public menorah lightings have been commonplace in many cities around the United States, especially in ceremonies led by local Chabad rabbis. The Hasidic movement organized an estimated 15,000 lightings annually in recent years, and this Hanukkah it puts the number at more than 10% higher — an increase Chabad spokesman Rabbi Motti Seligson attributed in part to the war in Israel and Gaza.

“Jews from across the spectrum of observance are celebrating Hanukkah more visibly this year than ever before,” Seligson said. “They feel they don’t have a choice. It’s in response to Oct. 7.”

Boruch Klar, who runs Menorah.net, which bills itself as the “world’s largest manufacturer of public display menorahs,” said his company’s sales have steadily increased every year, 2023 included. He noted that the company’s sales to municipal and state offices, mostly in the United States, have increased 150% this year.

“The numbers are so high that I can’t actually believe it,” said Klar, a Chabad rabbi who sells menorahs as tall as 12 feet to army bases, shopping malls, sports teams and beyond. He said he sells thousands of menorahs each year but declined to give exact sales numbers.

The prevalence and size of public menorahs makes them easy targets for people seeking to vandalize Jewish property or just cause mischief. And since the holiday began, several incidents of vandalism and destruction of menorahs have been reported around the country — though not, Seligson said, at an appreciably higher rate than in the past.

“Hanukkah came as the perfect antidote to the adversity and the darkness,” Seligson said, noting that Chabad is not formally tracking vandalism incidents. “In the sum total, we’re seeing a lot more light.”

Still, the incidents of vandalism have been jarring to Jewish communities already on edge.

In Oakland, Chabad had assembled a 350-pound menorah that was displayed on a walking trail at the city’s Lake Merritt. Chabad hosted a candle lighting ceremony on Sunday, the fourth night of the holiday, featuring remarks from Mayor Sheng Thao.

On Wednesday morning, Rabbi Dovid Labkowski received text messages saying the menorah had been destroyed. He called the mayor’s office and rushed to the scene, he told J. The Jewish News of Northern California.

Pieces of the menorah had been cut up and thrown across the sidewalk and into the lake. Antisemitic graffiti was scrawled onto the base, including “we’re gonna find you” and “you’re on alert.” “Free Palestine” was written in Arabic near where the menorah had stood. Oakland police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

“I felt outraged,” Labkowski told the J. “There’s crime in this city, but it just hit a new level of antisemitism. Together with the crime — it just makes you feel hopeless.”

On Wednesday, a large interfaith crowd gathered to light a new menorah and show support for the local Jewish community.

In New Haven, a pro-Palestinian protester climbed the city’s 30-foot menorah and planted a Palestinian flag between the candles. The menorah was not damaged, but local authorities are investigating the incident, which was caught on camera.

The Jewish Community Synagogue in North Palm Beach had commissioned an artist to create a menorah out of sand in Juno Beach — which was destroyed and defaced with a swastika. After the incident, which is under investigation, the local Jewish community gathered to rededicate the menorah, which was rebuilt.

Menorahs were also vandalized in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Olney, Maryland, the Chicago neighborhood of Lakeview and suburb of Northbrook, as well as in Brooklyn, where two public menorahs were damaged. The two Brooklyn incidents are being investigated as hate crimes, according to the NYPD.

Public menorahs have also been the scenes of dramatic incidents in Europe. In Poland, a far-right member of parliament shocked the chamber when he used a fire extinguisher to blow out the candles of a menorah in the government building. In the Dutch town of Enschede, the mayor refused to be seen with the Netherlands’ Israeli ambassador at a Hanukkah event. And a public menorah was found toppled in West Hempstead, London, on Thursday morning, with a “Free Palestine” sticker affixed to its base.

Read more at: jta.org

One hundred thousand Koreans will be able to utilize deposit tokens based on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year, within a pilot program jointly operated by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and financial authorities.

A CBDC is a new form of digital money issued by a central bank.

The BOK, Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced the plans, following the visit of Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, to the BOK on Thursday. The plans are a developed version of their earlier announcement made in October, that disclosed the central bank’s intention to take real-world experiments on CBDC.

Under the pilot project, 100,000 selected individuals can purchase goods with deposit tokens issued by commercial banks in the form of CBDC, similar to using a voucher at the store. Selected commercial banks will recruit participants around September to October of the following year, and will continue the project for three months.

The BOK explained that the digital currencies have the potential to significantly address challenges with existing voucher systems, such as special grants during COVID-19 and childcare grants offered by the government. The challenges include high transaction fees, slow settlement processes, limitations of post-transaction verification and concerns over fraudulent claims.

However, participants will be restricted to using the currency solely for its designated purpose of payment. Other uses, including personal remittance, will not be permitted at this time.

Additionally, technological experiments will be conducted to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of issuing and distributing these new forms of financial products.

Read more at: koreatimes.co.kr

Transgender orthodoxy may soon become a litmus test for parenthood, according to the logic of a new policy working its way through the Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.

A new rule in HHS’ Administration for Children and Families would apply the idea that any lack of “affirmation” constitutes a form of child abuse to foster care placements. Once that idea takes root in foster care, child protective services agencies might start applying it more broadly.

The rule would reinterpret the Social Security Act, which requires agencies to ensure that each child in foster care receives “safe and proper” care. The rule would lay out steps agencies must take to meet that requirement for “LGBTQI+ children,” defined as kids who “identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, as well as children who are non-binary, or have non-conforming gender identity or expression.”

Before agencies place a child with a foster parent, known as a “provider,” that person must “establish an environment free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status;” receive training “to be prepared with the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child related to the child’s self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression;” and must be able to “facilitate the child’s access to age-appropriate resources, services, and activities that support their health and well-being.”

As the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Rachel Morrison pointed out for The Federalist Society, the rule does not define “hostility,” “mistreatment,” or “abuse.” However, it does clarify that “a provider who attempted to undermine, suppress, or change the sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression of a child, including through the use of so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ would not be a safe and appropriate placement.”

The proposed rule cites medical associations such as the American Psychological Association to claim that efforts to “undermine, suppress, or change” sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression “are not supported by evidence and have been rejected as harmful.”

The rule does not acknowledge that gender ideology has infiltrated these medical associations and that many doctors—including those who once embraced gender ideology—have warned against confusing children on their gender and putting them on a path to mutilating their own bodies.

Dr. Stephen B. Levine, a psychiatrist and early proponent of transgender medical interventions, joined and briefly helped lead the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, which later became the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the central medical group that organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association rely upon.

A member from 1974 to 2001, Levine served as chairman of the eight-member International Standards of Care Committee that issued the fifth version of the standards. He ultimately resigned his membership in 2002 upon concluding that the organization “had become dominated by politics and ideology, rather than by scientific progress.”

In a document opposing the use of Medicaid funding for experimental transgender medical interventions for children, Levine explains that “there is no consensus or agreed ‘standard of care’ concerning therapeutic approaches to child or adolescent gender dysphoria.” He notes that gender identity “is not biologically based” and “empirically not fixed for many individuals.”

Levine also warns that social transition “is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention that radically changes outcomes” and makes it far less likely that young children will “desist” from a transgender identity.

Contrary to the transgender activists’ claims, many doctors have raised serious concerns about the long-term effects of “gender-affirming care.” Cross-sex hormones can weaken children’s bones and make them more prone to heart disease. So-called puberty blockers, often billed as fully reversible, involve introducing a disease into a child’s body and make puberty harder to start again, should the child change his or her mind.

European countries, long considered more “progressive” than the U.S., have found a lack of evidence for medical interventions on children and are recommending a “watchful waiting” approach for minors.

Ultimately, gender ideology rests on the claim that a nebulous gender identity is more important than an individual’s biological sex. If a biological male claims to identify as female, society must consider him a woman and allow him to enter women’s restrooms, prisons, and sports teams, even though some men pose a threat to women in intimate situations and enjoy biological advantages in many sports. Similarly, this ideology encourages bodily alterations to make a male appear female and vice versa, despite the lack of evidence that such interventions actually improve well-being over the long haul.

This idea is particularly harmful for children who are just learning what it means to be male or female. If a boy likes to play with Barbie dolls, that does not mean he is really a girl. If a girl likes to play with G.I. Joes, that does not mean she is really a boy. Yet the ideology behind transgender identity urges parents to abandon all sanity and declare that such kids are transgender.

Before you object, think about how nebulous “gender identity” actually is. It doesn’t rely on a specific set of standards that may be verified objectively. Instead, it relies on an individual’s claim that he or she experiences painful and persistent dissonance between an “identity” and his or her biology. Any attempt to resolve this dissonance through mainstream talk therapy is ipso facto a form of “conversion therapy” to be condemned as “harmful.”

Yet Levine argues that “affirming” a transgender identity is a “powerful psychotherapeutic intervention” that will set kids on the path to mutilation and sterilization—long before they have any concept about what their own fertility means.

Read more at: dailysignal.com

A radical surrogacy law advancing in Michigan seeks to redefine parenthood to eliminate genetics and biology and cut off children from their mothers and fathers.

Michigan, which in 2022 ensconced a “right” to abortion-on-demand into its state constitution, may be on the verge of another adaptation to the sexual revolution: adopting commercial surrogacy.

The Great Lake State, along with Nebraska and to some degree Louisiana, are the three states that still outlaw commercial surrogacy. “Commercial” surrogacy is distinguished from “altruistic” surrogacy, where the latter is nominally a volunteer undertaking. I say “nominally” because (a) how does one really monitor financial exchanges in such quasi-private contexts and (b) when does “compensation for care” (e.g., medical “expenses”) blur into pay?

Are you surprised that the vast majority of states allow trafficking in children? If you are, you’re soooo 1987, when New Jersey’s “Baby M” case was decided. As bioethics activist Jennifer Lahl has observed, America is the “Wild West” when it comes to artificial reproduction.

Amid the controversies over abortion from the 1970s-90s, many state legislators decided to steer clear of any involvement in the emerging field of artificial reproduction, including surrogacy. And Roe fostered a perspective of treating childbearing as an “individual liberty interest” with which states should not interfere, a mindset that has perdured in the various post-Dobbs state constitutional amendments enshrining abortion-on-demand.

So, while those pushing commercial surrogacy in Michigan would like simply to suggest the state is catching up with all the others, in fact, the legislation advancing in Lansing is extreme.

Just as Obergefell redefined marriage to eliminate sexual difference, Michigan’s proposed surrogacy law redefines parenthood to eliminate genetics and the bodily. The only “parent” in law in Michigan would be the person(s) commissioning the baby.

If there are two, they wouldn’t even need to live together or have any formal relationship to be listed as “Parent One” and “Parent Two.” (Yeah, sexual differentiation in parentage goes away, too). Parenthood becomes a state of mind.

We need to make ourselves fully aware of what that means.

For a child to come into existence requires genetics, gestation, and upbringing, what Catholicism once used to call procreatio et educatio. You need a man for sperm; a woman to provide an ovum. You need a woman – who may or may not be the woman who provided the ovum – to bear that fertilized ovum for nine months. And you need somebody to raise that newborn.

That used to be understood as what mothers and fathers do.

Read more at: lifesitenews.com

The H5N1 virus was detected on a poultry farm in northwest Belgium

An outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza has been reported on a poultry farm in the northwestern part of Belgium, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).

In a Monday statement quoted by Reuters, the Paris-based organization said that the outbreak was detected in the city of Diksmuide near France and that at least 95 birds died of the infection while the rest of the flock, consisting of 20,100 birds, had been culled.

Previously, German authorities also reported on Friday that 11,500 turkeys had to be slaughtered after an outbreak of the highly pathogenic virus was detected at a farm in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

In the Netherlands, outbreaks have been detected at a laying hen farm, prompting the culling of approximately 110,000 chickens, and at a petting zoo, where some 90 birds that posed a risk of spreading the virus were slaughtered.

Another outbreak was also reported by the French Ministry of Agriculture last week at a turkey farm in northwest France, prompting authorities to raise the national alert level for bird flu from ‘negligible’ to ‘moderate.’

In recent years, the H5N1 avian influenza has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds worldwide. In Europe, outbreaks typically occur in autumn and winter, and this season has also already seen cases detected on farms in Italy, Croatia, and Hungary, in addition to those previously mentioned.

Read more at: rt.com

Democrat-run San Francisco is facing its deadliest year in history for drug overdoses. During the full month of August — all 31 days — San Francisco was hit with an overdose death every nine hours.

Well, this is what happens when you vote for Democrats who declare your city a sanctuary city, refuse to put convicted criminals in jails, and support a Southern border that is wide open to third-world invaders who bring with them sex trafficking and deadly narcotics.

It’s terrible, no question. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt or die, and my heart breaks for people caught in the horrors of addiction, but this is what the people of San Francisco vote for.

No one who ran for office in this once beautiful city hid their desire to import third-world illegals, look the other way with drug cases, or release criminals. And what happened?

The idiots of San Francisco voted overwhelmingly to destroy their city. Oh, yeah, they are showing us MAGAtards a thing or two — as we live here where life is safe, clean, and tolerant.

“San Francisco is facing its deadliest year ever for drug overdoses,” reports the far-left Guardian. “a trend blamed on the surge of powerful synthetic fentanyl in the US’s illicit drug supply.”

The report continues: “August was the deadliest month on record – with an overdose death every nine hours.”

“It’s going to be an almost 25% increase over last year – that’s crazy and unfortunate,” said one addiction specialist.

Democrats open the border…

Cartels smuggle in fentanyl and meth.

These drugs are deliberately dosed to murder Americans…

Nevertheless, San Francisco politicians do nothing to reverse its sanctuary policy, nothing to pressure His Fraudulency Joe Biden to secure the border; San Francisco residents approve of this in overwhelming numbers with their votes, and John eats cookies and watches Star Trek* because San Francisco is not my problem.

Democrats release convicted felons…

Felons deal the drugs deliberately dosed to murder Americans…

Read more at: breitbart.com

“Polarization” caused by the Israel-Hamas war is leading to a “huge risk of terrorist attacks”, the European Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner has warned.

European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has made a warning about terrorism in the run-up to Christmas — what she calls the “holiday season” — and although not citing any specific intelligence or threat, nevertheless saying the risk level is “huge”.

Speaking before a meeting of European Union interior ministers, Johansson said: “With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union”.

Johansson said the rising tide of violence had already started and cited Saturday’s terror attack in Paris in which one tourist was killed and two injured near the Eiffel Tower.

The remarks by the top European politician comes just days after Germany’s federal political police warned the Hamas attack against Israel was inspiring a rise in antisemitic and anti-Western extremism. Lone wolf attacks are a real threat, the bureau said, adding that cross-group dynamics in the global Islamist scene had shifted in the wake of the Hamas attack.

Groups that once professed to hate each other, for reasons such differing interpretations of the Quran or methods in spreading their beliefs — such as Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State — are now expressing mutual support in ways that “previously seemed hardly conceivable”, said Germany.  The director of the body said: “now a new [situation] is emerging: in the jihadist spectrum, we see calls for assassinations and to [link up between] Al-Qaeda and [Islamic State] over the Middle East conflict. This danger now affects highly emotional people who are inspired by trigger events. This can lead to the radicalization of perpetrators acting alone who attack ‘soft targets’ with simple means.”

The report came as German police arrested two migrant teenagers who they accused of plotting to attack a Christmas market in Cologne. The “polarization” that Home Affairs Commissioner Johansson claims is being caused by the Hamas attack on Israel is certainly being felt in Germany, for instance, with one monitoring group reporting antisemitic hate incidents are up 320 per cent since the terror attack against the Jewish state.

The report stated: “Jews are hiding signs and symbols: a cap over the kippah, the Star of David pendant under the scarf, they no longer speak Hebrew on the street… Jewish life in Berlin has become less visible, less openly lived.”

Read more at: breitbart.com

Pope Francis has signed an interfaith statement asserting that humanity faces a “global climate crisis” that demands phasing out fossil fuels.

The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 manifests the signers’ “shared concern for the escalating climate impacts that imperil our cherished planet, as well as our common commitment to jointly address this global crisis.”

“Our faith instills in us a sacred duty to cherish not only our human family, but also the fragile ecosystem that cradles us,” the text states.

The pope signed the Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 — which “recognizes the intrinsic rights of ecosystems, encompassing water, oceans, and seas, to exist, thrive, and rejuvenate” — as fruit of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai.

Curiously, the interfaith text makes no mention of God, Jesus, the Creator, or divinity but instead makes repeated references to “Mother Earth,” calling her “a source of life that must be protected.”

As a call to action, signers of the document commit to urging business and policymakers “to adopt a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels, embracing clean energy sources that nurture the Earth and safeguard its inhabitants unconditionally.”

Read more at: breitbart.com

A Texas judge has ruled a baby can be killed in an abortion just because the baby is disabled.

Katie Cox is suing Texas , saying she is seeking an emergency exception in the state’s law protecting babies from abortions for a pregnancy that is destined to end in the death of the baby.

The lawsuit claims the baby has Trisomy 18, which is not proven because prenatal tests often fail.

“It is not a matter of if I will have to say goodbye, but when,” she said in the lawsuit. “I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy.”

Cox’s baby is approximately 20 weeks old.

And today, a judge ruled she can legally get an abortion despite the fact that Texas law only allows abortions to save the life of the mother. Cox lawsuit claims that not having an abortion could make it so she can’t get pregnant again, even though the abortion could cause the same problem.

In an emergency hearing Thursday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against the state that would allow Cox to immediately have an abortion.

“The idea that Mrs. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said. “So I will be signing the order and it will be processed and sent out today.”

The ruling ignores the fact that abortion is linked to infertility and women have been unable to have children because of previous abortions.

A texas pro-life group talked about the case and said abortion is unnecessary.

Read more at: lifenews.com

A Christmas tree festival in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, is being criticized for two displays that have disturbed locals.

The National Railroad Museum’s Christmas tree festival features nearly 70 trees. However, two of the trees, from the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin and the Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity, brought quite a shock to the community, Fox News reported Wednesday.

The Satanic Temple’s tree is decorated with pentagrams while the Gender Diversity tree features trans flags and ornaments that reportedly say, “Protect Trans Kids.”

In a social media post November 12, The Satanic Temple – Wisconsin shared photos of its tree at the museum and urged people to go view it.

“Zoom in to see our awesome ornaments, many of which were hand made by our members!” the post reads:

“Why are we afraid to stand up and say no. This is absurd. The devil has no rights,” one social media user commented on the Fox report.

Local news reports said museum CEO Jacqueline Frank admitted several community members voiced their concern about the trees while others seemed pleased the event highlighted inclusivity.

Read more at: breitbart.com