A celebration of Jewish culture, and a voice of protest

As Mideast violence simmers, the Jewish community gathers in West Tisbury.

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Updated, Aug. 1

Artists, musicians, and members of the Island’s Jewish community gathered at the Jewish Culture Festival in West Tisbury last week, organized by Vineyard Chabad. 

The event, in its second time running since its inauguration last year, brought together about 700 people. Tickets were sold out a week before the event. Headlining the musical performance was Matisyahu, a globally recognized Jewish-American musician.

Inside the festival, a number of white tents housed several exhibitions, showcasing paintings, jewelry and other forms of art. Families mingled, and friends reconnected. People danced, laughed, and dined on Jewish cuisine from around the world. 

One longtime Islander, Barney Zeitz, was among the 10 featured artists, displaying his award winning glass, metals, and drawings within the group. The work he featured at the festival followed along his core themes of peace and unity. 

For Zeitz, the event presented an internal conflict that seems to offer some profound insights for the wider Jewish community, which is struggling to grapple with and discuss the war in Gaza.

“I brought my Psalms piece,” he said, lifting up a framed glass rectangle with glittering red and green figures against a textured blue background. “It’s from a Psalm that says, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.’”

The piece includes a loose string of outlined figures in dance-like movement, a visual representation of music and culture. Being in a cultural dance about 40 years ago to the song “Chichester Psalms” by Leonard Bernstein served as partial inspiration, Zietz said. “It’s really powerful, and very beautiful,” he said about the music.

But Zeitz also said he was conflicted about appearing at this year’s festival. “I was there to show my art, and my art is about community. I felt good about myself being there, but it was complicated,” said Zeitz. 

He said he had some ties to a group of about 10 protesters who set up outside the festival, in attending several of their weekly meetings.

Part of a larger group called Ceasefire M.V., these protesters — many Jewish Islanders themselves — held signs calling for the liberation of Palestine. 

Their intention, they said, was to stand in protest of the funders and performers of the event who’ve demonstrated support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in their brutal military campaign against Hamas in Gaza after Hamas’ horrific attack of Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 Israelis and still holds 111 of 250 hostages. The IDF’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has been harshly condemned by the international community for killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, including women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Zeitz said he’s attended meetings with Ceasefire M.V. for months, in order to “connect, dig a little deeper and educate” himself. He said the group watches documentaries and talks about them to understand “truthful and honest” Jewish history. 

“I go to these meetings, and I’ve seen at least seven documentaries. It’s all things I wasn’t aware of, really what happened and the real history,” Zeitz said about attending the group’s meetings. He said that he’s been able to begin “educating himself” overtime, and has even reconnected with a Palestinian friend of his to “apologize for being ignorant.”

Although connected to the Ceasefire M.V. group, when asked to attend this year’s Jewish Culture Festival and showcase his work, Zeitz accepted. He said he was unaware of their presence demonstrating at the festival, since he said he had missed several prior meetings.

Zeitz said he had also fallen blind to a point of protest for the small group outside: headlining performer Matisyahu, a Jewish-American reggae singer and global touring musician who has been criticized for his staunch support of the Israel Defense Forces, including its ongoing campaign in Gaza. 

Talia Weingarten, among the protesting group, said they were there demonstrating outside the event partially in response to Matisyahu’s presence. 

“We are here to reject the presence of someone who performs and fundraises for the Israeli Occupation Forces and the AIPAC lobbying group, condones violence against the Palestinian people and land in the name of Jewish safety, and denies ongoing genocide, as an extension of our Jewish values,” said Weingarten. 

But Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz, head of Vineyard Chabad, said the choice to bring Matisyahu had “nothing to do with Israel.” 

“It’s a Jewish culture festival so Matisyahu is the ideal choice and selection for such an event,” said Rabbi Alperowitz. “It’s a secular audience. Matisyahu is that perfect bridge between music that is well known around the Island, but yet has a Jewish twist and has a traditional and spiritual side to it.”

Weingarten and other protesters still felt it necessary to criticize the choice to bring Matisyahu to the event. She said that Matisyahu has made violent comments about Palestinians.

“We are here according to Jewish values and following in the footsteps of longstanding Jewish social justice traditions,” Weingarten said. “Acknowledging the cost of Israel’s 76 year occupation of historic Palestine and the ongoing conflict and violence unfolding in Israel and Palestine is inherent to what it means to be Jewish and to gather in this time. There can be no real Jewish safety or sacredness that rests upon the subjugation of the Palestinian people and their land.”

Inside the festival, small tables spread across the field and many paused to connect with one another and share a moment with Rabbi Alperowitz. Celebration could be heard past the actual grounds, and music lasted for several hours, well into the evening. 

Some people inside the festival were aware of protesters outside, although none seemed outwardly affected. Celebration continued with no extensive disruption. 

Alperowitz, when reached at the festival, said he hadn’t actually seen protesters, but heard about them from some festival-goers. 

“I do not believe that protesting Israel is antisemitic, but I do believe that doing so outside a Jewish Culture Festival might be,” Alperowitz said. “I talk not of individuals, but rather of the actions they performed and how they were perceived.” He spoke to The Times after the event, clarifying a comment he had made about protesters being “antisemitic.”

The protestors remained across the street, as requested by police, and did not cross over to the festival grounds. Ceasefire M.V. or M.V. for Palestine, the group at which Zeitz occasionally attends meetings, holds weekly vigils at Five Corners on Sundays.

Shortly after about 7 pm, Matisyahu performed at the festival. 

“It was great, he had a beautiful voice,” said Zeitz about his performance. He said he wasn’t able to leave his booth to watch the performance, but he could still hear the music from afar. 

Zeitz said he wasn’t sure how to feel about Matisyahu after hearing about his somewhat controversial reputation. Although his general policy, and ultimate reason for showing up at the festival, is that he “really just likes people.” 

“I was just being there as the only Jewish artist here that has done large public work,” said Zeitz about his appearance at the festival. 

Zeitz said he’s contributed his art to much of the Island’s Hebrew Center, with multiple commissions. He described the glass windows he created and the Jewish symbols which were incorporated into the creation. 

While getting to showcase a variety of his work and his major contributions to the Island community, Zeitz said it was fine with him that no pieces were sold at the festival. In that case, about 10 percent of profit potentially would have gone to Vineyard Chabad, organizing the festival. “It’s less complicated. I’m not taking money, or giving money to anything,” he said. 

Along with Zeitz, several other artists showcased their work at the festival. Elizabeth Sutton, displaying her painting and even demonstrating live painting, was happy to be there as part of the Jewish community. 

Yet when asked directly, Sutton said she felt the protesters were “disrupting a cultural celebration about being Jewish.” 

Even still, she continued connecting with customers and showcasing her work throughout the event. She said her main themes follow Jewish culture and female empowerment, and she also focuses on art therapy as a form within her work. 

After about four hours, the festival came to a close. Alperowitz said he was glad a group of diverse people on the Island were able to celebrate Jewish culture. 

Zeitz, satisfied with his decision to display his artwork amongst the Island’s Jewish community, said he is set to come back to Ceasefire M.V. meetings on Mondays to continue connecting with and learning from the group. 

This post was updated to accurately reflect a comment made by one of the protestors.

100 COMMENTS

  1. I would like to add some critical and clarifying comments that I made to the reporter, but were not included in the above article:

    While our decision to bring Matisyahu was not connected with his support for Israel, Chabad on the Vineyard proudly supports the IDF and does not shy away from Matisyahu’s support for Israel.

    Matisyahu’s support for the IDF as it fights against genocidal terrorists is echoed by the overwhelming majority of Jewish people around the world and is mirrored by bipartisan support in the United States and by decent people everywhere.

    Mainstream and moral perspectives do not become controversial simply because some radical anti-Israel demonstrators consider them so.

    Israel is fighting for its survival in the most hostile of environments. Every civilian death is a tragedy, and the responsibility for those deaths rests with Hamas, who started this war and can end it today.

    Finally, while I don’t believe that protesting Israel is inherently antisemitic, I do believe that singling out Israel, falsely accusing her of committing genocide, and parroting calls for the dismantlement of Israel—actions which this group has done at the festival and in an op-ed in this paper—are *actions* which are absolutely antisemitic.

    Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz
    Director, Chabad on the Vineyard

    • Thank you Rabbi Alperowitz. You took the words right out of my mouth. Thank you for explaining what many of us feel. I was unable to attend the festival due to illness but my non Jewish friends said it was a peaceful, loving and welcoming environment. Kudos and can’t wait until next year’s event.

    • Perfectly expressed, Rabbi Alperowitz. I can only hope everyone will consider your words carefully. Especially the last paragraph. Pure truth.

    • The parallels are not exact, but Israel’s relationship to the Palestinians is comparable to the U.S.’s relationship to the native peoples of this continent. If more people had a clue about the history, they would better understand what’s going on now, and why many of us use words like apartheid and genocide to describe it.

      • Not comparable in any sense, Susanna, because Jews are indigenous to Israel. Jews are the American Indians of the Middle East. The western white guilt that people like you bring to supposedly caring about Palestinians is as false as pretending you don’t know what happens to gay people in most Muslim countries. Terrorists started a war with Israel they knew they had no chance of winning against the IDF. What they knew they COULD win was the bleeding hearts of the liberal left who don’t much like Jews anyway. Never have. In fact, the antisemitism in the Democratic Party is undeniable. All Hamas had to do was put their own babies and their civilians in harms way as sacrificial lambs, and all the Susannas and Wintzs and Scotts and Kellers in places like the Vineyard would be screaming Genocide. And they all fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, teaching their own children in college the same hatred for Jews they feel in their bleeding hearts.

  2. ” ‘I believe that Matisyahu has made some extremely violent comments about Palestinians and Hamas, and we condemn that language,’ she said.”

    What precisely did he say? If it was important enough to disrupt the festival over, why the vagueness? The protester making this claim should share all quotes verbatim and allow others to judge for themselves. I read Matisyahu’s official statement on the war some time ago and felt it was fair.

    • From a 2012 interview of Matisyahu, ““There was never a country called Palestine. There was the British occupation, but there was never a government. Palestine was a creation that was created within Israel, as Israel had already come about”.
      Now who is the terrorist?

      • What’s your point? Half of Hollywood hates Israel and supports Hamas. Look at the imbecilic college students in this country. What river? Which sea? Nothing new under the sun. It’s pointless to argue with people who are wrong, ignorant, and antisemitic—and utterly unaware of it.

      • Matisyahu’s statement reflects a a lot of confusion about the history of Palestine.

        The singer’s confusion is understandable because Israeli citizens are not taught the real history of the violent, bloody birth of their Jewish state on land where Palestinians of three faiths had lived for 1300 years, and of the reality of the Nakba. In fact, this history is actively suppressed in Israel. Those who expose it, such as the historian Ilan Pappe (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine) and the researcher and documentary filmmaker Teddy Katz (Tantura), are driven out of their professions and, ultimately, the country.

        Virtually all traces of ancient Palestinian presence in villages, towns, and cities have been erased. Over 500 villages have been razed and overplanted with forests—an apt metaphor for the suppression of the actual story and its replacement with a more attractive one.

        Modern-day Occupied Palestine was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was split between two administrative districts (vilayets). Palestinians (indeed, all of the Arab peoples) had their own aspirations to throw off the Turkish yoke and form their own national states that predated the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War 1. The movie “Lawrence of Arabia” is about this struggle. Many of Palestine’s political leaders had extensive experience in government as they had been administrators under the Ottomans. The were fully capable of forming a state and governing it, as was recognized by the League of Nations.

        No part of the Ottoman empire had ever been a British colony. Britain, after making promises to the Arabs, in return for the Arabs’ help in winning the war in the Middle East, got a mandate from the League of Nations to help Palestine achieve statehood. Britain—often called Perfidious Albion—broke its promises to Arab nationalists and to the League of Nations itself. Instead, Britain used this “mandate” to install an alien group, Zionists, in Palestine; to arm them while disarming the native people; and to allow the Jewish Agency to form a proto- government which metamorphosed into the government of the State of Israel.

        I applaud Barney Zeitz for making the effort to learn more about the history of Palestine and of the destruction involved in crafting of the state of Israel as a Jewish National Home.

        The Jewish Culture Festival was a publicly advertised event. I am not aware of any law prohibiting peaceful protest of any individual or organization that denies Palestinians’ civil and human rights.

        I appreciate the Times’s balanced article showcasing the Jewish Culture festival while exploring these very important issues.

        • Matisyahu is not Israeli.

          He’s an American, born in Pennsylvania, and has displayed an understanding of Jewish history throughout his years in the public eye. The belief that everyone who disagrees with your spin is ignorant of reality? As snooty as it is wrong.

          A protest being legal doesn’t make it sensible, helpful, effective, or even sincere in its stated goal.

          If you found this article balanced, there’s a tower in Pisa you’d love.

        • The first amendment includes both freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Of course there is no “law” preventing your protest. The 1st amendment equally protects your right to assemble and other people’s right to express their thoughts that your protest is distasteful and/or offensive. Also, I must have missed the point at which anyone said you were breaking any law.
          Additionally, a representative of your group complained that this artist said Palestine was never a country. A claim you just affirmed. I won’t comment on her comments that it is offensive to insult Hamas because I feel that has been addressed, other than to state those comments would obviously be considered absurd and hurtful to the majority of Jews both domestically and internationally. Not to mention how insulting they are to Palestinians who suffer under their oppressive regime.
          I think we all want a ceasefire and the majority of us want peace. A ceasefire requires an agreement by two sides. I believe it is possible. I do not believe it is achieved by harassing Jewish people gathering at a non-political, non-Israel focused celebration of Jewish culture. I would love to hear how you feel this will help the ceasefire process. I personally found myself wondering if your group would show up to protest the documentary on the sexual violence of October 7th. I then wondered if I would have to explain your groups presence at the planned children’s programming. I know you may respond with some version of I am lucky that my children and I are not in Gaza. And you are correct I am lucky. Their suffering is unacceptable and unimaginable. However, may I suggest that you in turn are lucky that you can show up to a non-political celebration of your culture and not be met by protesters?

        • Besides a history lesson, will you tell us what you advocate for a solution? Are you in favor of the end of Israel as a jewish state? If so, why? Because it was created in a barbaric fashion? Are you for the dissolution of the United States? We were pretty barbaric in our murder of native americans and the taking of their land. We were pretty barbaric in our enslavement, torture and murder of african americans. Germany didn’t get dissolved and it murdered 12 million civilians, not to mention the millions who died in the war they started. So who gets dissolved? Just the Jews? As I’ve said before, I am for a two state solution. Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace. How about this…Saudi Arabia is swimming in oil money. They are going to invest over 100 billion to build a new city in the desert. Let’s get them to rebuild Gaza instead. Then install a United Nations peacekeeping force to keep the peace. If you are not for a two-state solution, and you are for the elimination of Israel, on what basis do you “ellminate” a UN recognized country? Please tell us where you stand on a solution. I have no problem criticizing what Israel is doing. But I am very suspicious of somebody who never expresses fault with what Hamas has done. What is your vision for peace?

          • I appreciate your comment and your courage to say it. The only realistic way forward is coexistence. Many of the people who were killed on October 7th had dedicated their life to it. I’m so exhausted of these people calling for more violence and division taking a delusional moral high ground.

          • What right does a Jewish State have to exist.
            The same right as a Christian state?
            A Muslim state?

          • Well, it would help if Israel, aka Netanyahu’s government, would stop supporting illegal settlements on the West Bank. You might also look up Combatants for Peace and their U.S. affiliate, and the Parents Circle–Family Forum and *their* U.S. affiliate.

          • It’s a made-up, wrong, and Jew-hating history, Susanna, just like the arrogant garbage you made up when you invented a false history without going back to the beginning. Israel is the ancient homeland of the Jews, despite the antisemitic re-writing of reality by MV’s antisemites.

          • Lol, Jackie. I’m creative, true, but I’m not capable of “inventing a false history” of the Levant. No one on Martha’s Vineyard authored the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) or issued the Balfour Declaration (1917) or created the British and French Mandates as part of the Treaty of Sèvres after World War I. And as to “going back to the beginning” — that would overhaul the map of the entire world. Maybe I should go back to Normandy, where a bunch of my ancestors came from, or to Spain, where another bunch of my ancestors came from?

          • Jackie, pay attention:
            History doesn’t hate anything.
            Only people hate.
            You are calling me a Jew-hater.
            I am surprised that this slanderous hate speech is allowed in the MV Times.
            Control yourself.

          • Susanna, maybe you should go back to early Judaism and actual history of Israel before you again say something wrong. You have an interesting concept history, beginning in modern times.

        • This is such an ignorant comment, I wouldn’t know where to start to correct it, but it suffices to say that, yes, the British did rule this area before the U.N. resolution that established Israel’s legitimacy, after which followed recognition by the United States and dozens and dozens of other nations. Later, many peace treaties with Middle Eastern countries were struck, too, which brings us right up to about the present.

          • Your comment is more or less incomprehensible.
            For starters to seem to confuse the period of the British mandate with the period before the British mandate.

            As for “wrong Jew-hating history,” I didn’t write the history.
            It is, simply, the history.
            Read a history book.

        • While the history of the area that you term Palestine is way too complicated and nuanced to do it justice in short comments, I note the following:

          1. You describe “Palestinians of three faiths” dwelling in the land for 1,300 years. Presumably you refer to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Not withstanding the fact that there were and are members of other faiths also present (e.g., Druze, Samaritans and others), the fact that you begin your history of Palestine in the seventh century is interesting. The seventh century is, of course, when the first Islamic caliphate conquered the land from the (Christian) Byzantine empire (640 CE). Islam itself had been born a few decades earlier. Prior to that conquest, though, Palestinians of two of those three faiths—Christians and Jews— had already dwelt in the land for hundreds of years. Christianity consolidated as a religion distinct from Judaism in the first centuries of the common era, and became the state religion of the ruling Roman Empire in 313 CE. By then, Jewish “Palestinians” had lived in the land for well over 1,000 years. So yes, Palestinians of three faiths have lived there together for 1,300 years, but two of those faiths have actually lived there together for 1,800 years, and one of them has lived there for 3,000 years. One can argue the extent to which any of that ancient history is germane to current geopolitical challenges, but if you choose to anchor your argument in history, you should do so with fidelity to history.

          2. T. E. Lawrence and the British government did attempt to help local Arab populations gain political independence in exchange for their help in battling the Ottomans during World War I. In fact, Lawrence helped install the Hashemite dynasty, hailing from what is now Saudi Arabia, as rulers of the then-new territories of Transjordan and Iraq. That same Hashemite dynasty still rules Jordan today, despite its alien origin. Do you find that objectionable, and if not, why not?

          3. Zionists and other Jews were not alien groups in the land. Some had been there for many centuries, as noted, and others for decades or more. Those newer arrivals came legally and typically purchased land from the legal titleholders. Do you consider naturalized American citizens to be aliens? How about the natural born children of naturalized American citizens? Of course you don’t. Yet you term Zionists who returned and built lives in the ancestral Jewish homeland aliens, and you also call their natural born progeny aliens. That seems curiously inconsistent.

          4. The British cultivated Jewish allies in Palestine during WW I just as they cultivated Arab allies, and they agreed to assist with their national aspirations just as they did with the Arabs. They certainly didn’t “install” the Jews, and they did not follow a systematic policy of arming the Jews and disarming the Arabs. British policy in the interwar years tilted back and forth between the Jewish and Arab communities, in part in response to outbreaks of severe violence by Arabs against Jews.

          5. In 1939, the British vastly curtailed legal immigration by Jews to Palestine, thus severing a potential lifeline for the doomed Jewish population of Europe. They also blocked further land sales in Palestine. In spite of that, a Jewish legion of the British Army was raised in Palestine and fought side-by-side with the Allies in WW II. The Arab Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, on the other hand, a Muslim religious figure, militant Arab nationalist, and rabid Jew-hater closely allied himself with Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. Such choices have consequences.

          6. The Israeli War of Independence in 1948 certainly was a Nakba—a catastrophe— for the Arab population of the land. If the Arab population indeed had capable political leaders as you say, and I have no doubt that it did, they should have used the UN partition vote of 1947 as an opportunity to create a Palestinian Arab state in its allotted territory of the British mandate. They did not. Instead, external Arab forces invaded on the day the British vacated, thus launching the war and the Nakba. I am certainly not arguing that the conduct on the Israeli side was without reproach, nor should one so argue for the Arab side. Atrocities were unquestionably committed by both sides. That is almost invariable in war, repugnant though it is. One might argue that the firebombing of Dresden or the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate military operations that saved hundreds of thousands of Allied lives. Or not. Either way, we Americans are responsible for those. Our soldiers also perpetrated the Sinchon massacre during the Korean War and the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. Abu Ghraib was done by US GIs, and the U.S. wars post-9/11 left by at least one count some 420,000 civilians dead (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll). It is all absolutely horrible.

          Genocide Watch currently lists 12 Genocide Emergencies worldwide and five genocide warnings (https://www.genocidewatch.com/_files/ugd/df1038_c0b09883aa28417ba4e5d832c80aef98.pdf). You protest nothing but Israel, and you protest Israel’s war in Gaza without so much as a passing nod to Hamas’ genocidal intent— or Hezbollah’s or the Houthi’s or Iran’s. Hamas’ explicit objective is to annihilate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. Hezbollah considers Israel an illegal usurper that needs to be obliterated. The Houthi’s slogan reads, in part, “… Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam”. The motto of Iran reads, “Death to U.S., and death to Israel”. All of these groups are widely recognized as terrorist entities, and the words, proudly, are theirs. But your exclusive focus is on Israel, which was attacked last October 7th by a terrorist organization with explicitly genocidal goals, and you apparently agree with that organization that Israel’s very existence is illegal. One wonders: What do you propose to do with the 9.3 million white, black, and brown Jewish and non-Jewish Israeli citizens currently living in the country? To whom shall we entrust their fate once “from the river to the sea, Palestine [is] free”? To whom shall we entrust the fates of Jewish members of CeasefireMV when we “globalize the Intifada (revolution)”?

      • Just as I suspected. That quote from Matisyahu is not “extremely violent”.

        Extreme violence is what was done on October 7th, and what Hamas has sworn to do again if given the chance.

        They remain the terrorists.

        • Katie–I agree that what happened to innocent people in Israel
          on Oct 7th was extreme violence.
          I think extreme violence also includes dropping
          2000 pound bombs on schools ,hospitals and residential
          apartment blocks.
          Do you disagree,?

          • Yes, this war is violent. All wars are violent. That’s why most people, including me, desperately wanted peace in the region.

            After October 7th, war was inevitable, however unwanted. I wish that day, and everything that’s followed, could be erased. Too much pain.

      • My reply timestamped 3:13 was meant for James Kozak. I’m not sure why it ended up under the wrong comment.

  3. Kudos to the MV Times for appropriately covering this festival this time—at least minimally—than the “if it bleeds, it leads” travesty of the previous article that centered a small protest as if it were what was actually important—and newsworthy—about the cultural festival, a very successful event. Thank you for actually writing up something that is minimally substantial.

    While the idea that artistic censorship is somehow a positive thing in the minds of some Americans (?), the other feature of this argument, regardless of whether you are Jewish or not and are making it, that we are “harmed” on Martha’s Vineyard “harmed” by bringing Matisyahu, a good artist who is popular, is kind of risible (if it weren’t so offensive). It’s a simple thing, but we are in the USA and if you don’t like who plays at a concert, you can skip it. You can protest if you like, but these are the same people who won’t enjoy Woody Allen’s films (although they are fine listening to Wagner or reading T.S. Eliot). I find this idea that we on Martha’s Vineyard need to be censored from “harmful” artists super offensive and cringeworthy.

    • Funny, I was debating whether to scold this newspaper for the hatchet job, so inappropriate to the event. The article starts with 3 paragraphs describing celebrating Jewish culture. Then, the next 14 paragraphs are an excuse for an antisemitic protest at this event. There’s nothing complicated about it. Nor is it difficult to find a secular Jew who’s ready to jump on the wagon of popular but inappropriate antisemitic protests.To the antisemites, Jewish or not, if you don’t know that Israel’s self-defense and self protection are not “genocide” you also probably do not know you’re an antisemite when you side with Hamas.

      I have to wonder, after hosting so much blatant antisemitism, incorrect “history”, personal attacks and lies, disgusting tropes, hateful letters, has the MV Times felt they simply could not allow an entire article with a positive Jewish perspective? It’s pretty simple. This article is so inappropriate and so anti-Israel— when the topic was supposed to be about celebrating Jewish culture. It seems the Times was shamed into describing the event after the first attempt at covering this event was glorifying the antisemites protesting.

      • I knew Jackie would respond the way she did and she got it exactly right. The most disappointing part is the self loathing Jews who continue t support so called Palestinians and say little about Hamas.

      • Exactly. Shame on the MV Times for its coverage of this beautiful event. Truly disgusting- I will be canceling the subscription we just renewed it.

        • Nothing actually funny about it, Hess, except to antisemites. (Do please learn how to spell that word, antisemitic, if you have the chutzpah to repeatedly comment with your hatred of Israel and the Jewish religion.) The newspaper often censors my harsh criticisms of their promotion of antisemitic views and the allowance of so many antisemitic letters, comments, articles, and at least one outrageously antisemitic editorial. I remind you again that even a Thanksgiving message had an anti-Israel sentiment, as did the High School View. Get ’em while their young.

          This is the second awful article supposedly covering the event celebrating Jewish culture, but turned instead into a hatred of Israel and Jewishness, based on falsehoods. Even the headlines can’t manage to allow for a celebration of Judaism:

          “A protests over an International musician’s stance on Israel” (no mention of celebrating Judaism);
          and
          “A celebration of Jewish culture, and voice of protest”.

          Gotta get the protest nonsense in there. The Times’s second attempt at not being too Jew-hate-y was a tad better, but they just had to make the article about hating Israel, according to the morons in the antisemitic group CeasefireMV, as if we need to hear their ignorance and hate yet again.

          The Times cannot stop itself from promoting and favoring the antisemitic protests.

          I understand that if my comments are too critical of the garbage published here, I will be disappeared.

        • Albert I think it’s kind of weird..
          But then again, if you grew up in New Jersey and
          spent a lot of time analysing which of your friends
          would turn you over to the nazis WHEN they came to get you,
          you might carry some of that paranoia throughout your
          entire life and make some weird comments occasionally.

  4. I’m fine with the article but want to point out that I was talking about the large commission work that I’ve done for temples and have given 10% to organizations and that if something was sold outright the common was higher. I mostly work on commission and public projects and want to make clear the difference from the usual selling in a show or gallery.

    • What you are learning from CeasefireMV is lies, lies, more lies, and an insane hatred for Israel, a diseased misunderstanding of history of your own people, and a self hatred that brings shame to those who came before us and lived and died so that we may live. It has nothing to do with peace and unity— just the opposite. Written on your palm is the imprint of those who brought you here. It is a sin to ignore this.

      • Jackie– It’s pretty pathetic and weird that you are going after
        Barney with such vile accusations and hatred.
        As you decry hatred towards Jews.
        Yes, it seems you are good republican now.
        You have lost any sense of reason and shame you may have had.

  5. One of the protesters , Weingarten was quoted that the singer made violent comments about Hamas. Does Weingarten support and defend Hamas.
    That’s all that needs to be said.

    • Unfortunately, Ceasefire MV has been spreading pro-Hamas rhetoric since the beginning. The organizer wrote a letter to this paper comparing ultra-wealthy terrorists to slaves in the U.S. breaking free.

      I’ve never been able to forget how many posters on this site were able to let that lie go without challenging it. There was no demand for truth that day. The silence read as support.

      It sounds like this protester wants us to use respectful-of-terrorists language when dicussing Hamas. The insanity never stops. Of course there should be no violent speech directed at Palestinians who are uninvolved with the war. There should be no hateful speech directed at any innocent person.

      But to imply that we need to be more gentle with those who murdered babies in their homes and raped Israeli women to death?

      I don’t know what to say any longer.

          • Weird, Katherine. Most rabid antisemites spreading lies about genocide object to my support of Israel’s right to exist. I wish I could apologize to the rabbi for your disgusting attack on him in last week’s comment section. Only you can do that, though. What was that you said about slander? Is there some Jew-hating magazine you subscribe to or is your mishmash of hate gleaned entirely from the Hamas-loving ceasefiremv mastermind? I can’t imagine you make up your lies all by yourself. What a waste of a talented mind and pretty good writer.

      • Katie Lane demonstrates a standard ZIonist tactic: smear those with whom you disagree with the absurd lie that they are antisemites who “spread pro-Hamas rhetoric.” We’ve said it before, but I will repeat it once again for the record: we of CeasefireMV do not condone war crimes, atrocities, massacres, or genocide no matter who perpetrates them or what their excuse is. Any questions so far?

        There is a lot to be said about the October 7 attack. I condemn whatever sexual violence was committed by Hamas militants — and the impartial, professional investigation conducted by a UN-appointed commission concluded that there was credible evidence of sexual violence, although they could not verify any actual occurences of rape (a subset of sexual violence). The allegations of mass rape, in their view, are unsubstantiated. The lurid stories of beheading babies are complete garbage. Nevertheless, again, Hamas did go on a killing spree, did abduct civilians, and the perpetrators deserve to be held accountable to the International Criminal Court (as do Netanyahu and Gallant).

        It should be possible to hold the above facts in one’s head while at the same time recognizing that the Israeli state is carrying out genocide and horrific war crimes that are unparalleled in this century. The IDF is itself practicing terrorism (with a huge budget, thanks to the USA); their Israeli leaders are war criminals. You have to be either a liar or woefully misinformed to deny this.

        No matter how heinous one believes Hamas’ October 7 attack was — indeed, no matter how murderous and barbaric it was objectively — there is still no justification for genocide. International law does not recognize revenge as a valid excuse.

        We should also bear in mind a couple more facts about October 7:

        (1) The Netanyahu government was aware that an attack was planned, and chose to do nothing about it (see, for example, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html).

        (2) An unknown but probably substantial number of Israelis were killed on October 7 either by friendly fire or by application of the Hannibal directive (see https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-ordered-hannibal-directive-on-october-7-to-prevent-hamas-taking-soldiers-captive/00000190-89a2-d776-a3b1-fdbe45520000).

        (3) The Israeli regime could get the hostages back in return for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire, and steadfastly refuses.

        (4) Finally, it ludicrous to think anyone other than Israel just days ago assassinated the head of the Hamas negotiating team.

        Think about all that and connect all the dots: the Israeli government shows less concern about the well being of the hostages than does Hamas. Indeed, most of the world recognizes that Israel is a bloodthirsty, lunatic, rogue state with no regard whatsoever for international law or human rights. It has no interest in peace, and indeed, has a deranged concept of what its own long-term security interests are. It is unclear how and when their insane campaign will be stopped, but it looks like it will not end well for anyone, Israel included.

        • Mintz. No war crimes; no genocide; no apartheid; no one cares about ICJ nor ICC or the UN. History is very clear. Jews were there 3000 years ago. Many iterations in all those years including Ottoman Empire but Israel became a legitimate country in 1948 and so called Palestinians are an invented people. No one can name one Palestinian government or leader or parliament or king or any vestige of a country called Palestine. Poorly understood ideological leftists continue to prevail on this site to spew banal narratives.

          • andy– yet you believe the holocaust happened.
            Why do you believe that ?
            No war crimes ?
            no genocide?
            no apartheid ?
            The nazi’s claimed all the same things at the
            Nuremberg trials and they did not care about any
            international courts, or the league of nations.
            Are you really sure the Holocaust actually happened ?
            There is more empirical, documented evidence
            that the IDF  has committed war crimes that was
            ever presented at Nuremberg.
            I care about international courts.
            Billions of law abiding citizens around the world
            do also. 
            Wilfully ignorant rightist continue to prevail
            on this site to spew banal narratives.
            Of course, you don’t have to read this
            link which documents war crimes , apartheid,
            and possible genocidal intent.
            You know what the accusations are–
            https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/
            And they are all antisemetic lies–Right ?
            By the way, I am deliberately misspelling
            antisemetic – In honor of Albert’s spelling
            error. I can only hope that Jackie
            will continue to enforce the spelling errors
            and continue to criticize people for grammatical
            and punctuation errors. She is after all has
            a superior knowledge of it all.

        • It is not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel. However when one indicts Israel for war crimes and genocide they are anti semitic because they label without discovery. Israel does more than any other country in a war to warn citizens to evacuate; to seek shelter to empty out houses or marketplaces. Phone calls; emails and very specific communication to tell them they are coming and in an area twice the size of DC and Hamas hiding behind children. The most heavily populated per capita place holding hostages and hiding in tunnels. Anti- semitism prevails on this site by a few radical leftists and they don’t know it.

        • ”Think about all that and connect all the dots: the Israeli government shows less concern about the well being of the hostages than does Hamas. Indeed, most of the world recognizes that Israel is a bloodthirsty, lunatic, rogue state with no regard whatsoever for international law or human rights. It has no interest in peace, and indeed, has a deranged concept of what its own long-term security interests are. It is unclear how and when their insane campaign will be stopped, but it looks like it will not end well for anyone, Israel included.”

          That statement alone shows your blatant anti semitism.

      • Golda Meir said ”this will end when Palestinians love their children more than they hate Jews”

  6. Our Islands newest member, Chabad, has only brought educational classes on world issues, festive events, and has opened its doors to all members of the Island. I have been to a few events and there is no indoctrination or hint of any type of persuasion. Just peaceful people celebrating their minority identity.

  7. “I believe that [the singer] has made some extremely violent comments about Palestinians and Hamas, and we condemn that language,” said Weingarten.

    Wait, did I just read this correctly? Is this person and this group on the side of *Hamas* in this situation? “Palestinians and Hamas” she said — I’ve seen it all. And she’s Jewish. Anyone associated with that group should be ashamed of supporting Hamas. They “condemn” language that is “harmful” to Hamas? Someone, please speak some sense to these people. You can feel for the Palestinians and hope for peace, but supporting Hamas is a bridge too far, Ceasefire MV. Hey, thanks to the MV Times for printing the direct quote we’ve all been waiting for…

  8. If Zeitz was so conflicted about being at the event and admits he was there to show his art, I’d suggest he find another venue to showcase himself. There are art shows all over the island.
    What a shame this newspaper focused so much on one person who thought the event was all about him and the stuff he makes.

    What is Jewish culture? The MVTimes doesn’t care to explain. Instead, it chooses to give yet more time and space to the ignorance and hatred of Israel and how some people, including a few Jews, choose to buy the antisemitic message of terrorists trying to annihilate Israel. It’s not complicated at all, although I imagine the internal conflict of emotionally siding with Hamas’s goals can be disturbing for those who tell themselves they’re all about peace and love and other such unreal nonsense when it comes to the existence of the Jewish people. These “conflicted” folks would be fine if Israel did not exist. America is next on the list, as soon as Israel is gone. But it won’t be gone. Am Yisrael chai. Bring home the hostages and shut up the ignorant antisemitic protesters. Please. As for the escalation of the Israel-hatred on other fronts, really, what did the ignorant pro-Pal peaceniks think would happen? Without an understanding of 10/7 and ancient history, there is no understanding at all of what is going on. Fighting to exist, fighting to bring home one’s own people, and standing tall against the ignoramuses who blather on about genocide, is valid. So tired of this newspaper highlighting ignorance while playing down reality. Barney, you’re wrong. And you do a disservice to the rabbi, your own people, and our longing for peace.

  9. The MV Times and its writer should be ashamed at posing behind a supposed news article about a Jewish (not Israeli) Cultural Festival to actually write an opinion piece about the war in Gaza. Imagine if instead you wrote a article talking about the thriving Jewish community on the Island and how it celebrates its culture.

  10. Here are some remarks that Matisyahu posted about the war:

    “There have been many false accusations made against me recently so I feel it is necessary to make a statement. Anyone who has listened to my songs or seen a performance over my 20+ career will see the same thread of positivity and peace.

    In the chorus of ‘One Day’ it states ‘NO MORE WAR.’ It is a dream and while today it is not reality, it is truly what I pray and work for.

    As our tour continues, shows are still being protested and a venue this week was vandalized in an attempt to cancel the show, which we did not allow.

    I dream of a day when Israelis and Palestinians read of this conflict in history books and no longer have to live it day by day, I feel the pain of our sisters and brothers as they mourn thus current disaster.

    We want peace in our lifetimes. I do not have the answers to the centuries-old conflict, nor want another person to die or have their life torn apart; Israeli or Palestinian.

    How do you defend yourself against a terrorist organization that calls for the total annihilation of the Jewish people and uses innocent civilians as human shields?

    How do you educate millions of people who do not know that the Jewish people have been in the land of Israel for thousands of years, long before the founding of Islam, before the Christian Crusades, before the Arab conquest?

    But history alone is not enough. How do you reason with those calling for a cease-fire but not mentioning the return of hostages?

    My message is to stand up against hate. Sadly, there are several unprovoked atrocities and wars happening around the world, yet many opinions and criticisms stand against the Jewish people who simply want to live in peace in their native homelands.

    This is the reality of anti-Semitism. I am standing up in defense of the Jewish people, as I wish many had done prior to World War II and the extermination of millions before it was too late. Who else will stand with me?”

    Strange that this is the same man spewing “extremely violent” thoughts, according to some. Clearly he recognizes that Palestinians exist, and that innocent people of every background deserve peace.

    This is the long-held wish and belief of many. It is not a current reality because of Jew-hating fanatics who make up terrorist organizations.

    And the people who support them.

  11. I am reposting this comment because the formatting in the original for some reason cut off the right side of the text. This comment is in response to Katherine Scott and CeasefireMV for Palestine:

    While the history of the area that you term Palestine is way too complicated and nuanced to do it justice in short comments, I note the following:

    1. You describe “Palestinians of three faiths” dwelling in the land for 1,300 years. Presumably you refer to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Not withstanding the fact that there were and are members of other faiths also present (e.g., Druze, Samaritans and others), the fact that you begin your history of Palestine in the seventh century is interesting. The seventh century is, of course, when the first Islamic caliphate conquered the land from the (Christian) Byzantine empire (640 CE). Islam itself had been born a few decades earlier. Prior to that conquest, though, Palestinians of two of those three faiths—Christians and Jews— had already dwelt in the land for hundreds of years. Christianity consolidated as a religion distinct from Judaism in the first centuries of the common era, and became the state religion of the ruling Roman Empire in 313 CE. By then, Jewish “Palestinians” had lived in the land for well over 1,000 years. So yes, Palestinians of three faiths have lived there together for 1,300 years, but two of those faiths have actually lived there together for 1,800 years, and one of them has lived there for 3,000 years. One can argue the extent to which any of that ancient history is germane to current geopolitical challenges, but if you choose to anchor your argument in history, you should do so with fidelity to history.

    2. T. E. Lawrence and the British government did attempt to help local Arab populations gain political independence in exchange for their help in battling the Ottomans during World War I. In fact, Lawrence helped install the Hashemite dynasty, hailing from what is now Saudi Arabia, as rulers of the then-new territories of Transjordan and Iraq. That same Hashemite dynasty still rules Jordan today, despite its alien origin. Do you find that objectionable, and if not, why not?

    3. Zionists and other Jews were not alien groups in the land. Some had been there for many centuries, as noted, and others for decades or more. Those newer arrivals came legally and typically purchased land from the legal titleholders. Do you consider naturalized American citizens to be aliens? How about the natural born children of naturalized American citizens? Of course you don’t. Yet you term Zionists who returned and built lives in the ancestral Jewish homeland aliens, and you also call their natural born progeny aliens. That seems curiously inconsistent.

    4. The British cultivated Jewish allies in Palestine during WW I just as they cultivated Arab allies, and they agreed to assist with their national aspirations just as they did with the Arabs. They certainly didn’t “install” the Jews, and they did not follow a systematic policy of arming the Jews and disarming the Arabs. British policy in the interwar years tilted back and forth between the Jewish and Arab communities, in part in response to outbreaks of severe violence by Arabs against Jews.

    5. In 1939, the British vastly curtailed legal immigration by Jews to Palestine, thus severing a potential lifeline for the doomed Jewish population of Europe. They also blocked further land sales in Palestine. In spite of that, a Jewish legion of the British Army was raised in Palestine and fought side-by-side with the Allies in WW II. The Arab Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, on the other hand, a Muslim religious figure, militant Arab nationalist, and rabid Jew-hater closely allied himself with Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. Such choices have consequences.

    6. The Israeli War of Independence in 1948 certainly was a Nakba—a catastrophe— for the Arab population of the land. If the Arab population indeed had capable political leaders as you say, and I have no doubt that it did, they should have used the UN partition vote of 1947 as an opportunity to create a Palestinian Arab state in its allotted territory of the British mandate. They did not. Instead, external Arab forces invaded on the day the British vacated, thus launching the war and the Nakba. I am certainly not arguing that the conduct on the Israeli side was without reproach, nor should one so argue for the Arab side. Atrocities were unquestionably committed by both sides. That is almost invariable in war, repugnant though it is. One might argue that the firebombing of Dresden or the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were legitimate military operations that saved hundreds of thousands of Allied lives. Or not. Either way, we Americans are responsible for those. Our soldiers also perpetrated the Sinchon massacre during the Korean War and the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. Abu Ghraib was done by US GIs, and the U.S. wars post-9/11 left by at least one count some 420,000 civilians dead (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/WarDeathToll). It is all absolutely horrible.

    Genocide Watch currently lists 12 Genocide Emergencies worldwide and five genocide warnings (https://www.genocidewatch.com/_files/ugd/df1038_c0b09883aa28417ba4e5d832c80aef98.pdf). You protest nothing but Israel, and you protest Israel’s war in Gaza without so much as a passing nod to Hamas’ genocidal intent— or Hezbollah’s or the Houthi’s or Iran’s. Hamas’ explicit objective is to annihilate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. Hezbollah considers Israel an illegal usurper that needs to be obliterated. The Houthi’s slogan reads, in part, “… Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam”. The motto of Iran reads, “Death to U.S., and death to Israel”. All of these groups are widely recognized as terrorist entities, and the words, proudly, are theirs. But your exclusive focus is on Israel, which was attacked last October 7th by a terrorist organization with explicitly genocidal goals, and you apparently agree with that organization that Israel’s very existence is illegal. One wonders: What do you propose to do with the 9.3 million white, black, and brown Jewish and non-Jewish Israeli citizens currently living in the country? To whom shall we entrust their fate once “from the river to the sea, Palestine [is] free”? To whom shall we entrust the fates of Jewish members of CeasefireMV when we “globalize the Intifada (revolution)”?

    • Re: “While the history of the area that you term Palestine is way too complicated and nuanced to do it justice in short comments, I note the following: . . . ”

      Yes, the 3,000-year history of the region is complicated, and yours is not a short comment. Most of it is pointless verbiage, especially the insulting fantasies that follow “you apparently agree . . .”

      My account presents, concisely, the facts that correct the historical misunderstandings expressed by Mishayahu.

      I am not the only one who has noticed that those who do not want to see genuine progress toward peace in Occupied Palestine always choose to say it’s all too complicated for anyone to understand–or, by implication, to fix via a solid negotiated settlement. Actually, it is not that complicated. The problem is that the Zionists have never wanted any settlement with the region’s Arab inhabitants.

      Now it is most certainly too late for peace in Occupied Palestine. The genocide has gone too far, Netanyahu needs a war to save his own political skin, and Congress critters need AIPAC money. The Zionists are dragging the USA down with them.

      • Katherine, I believe Matisyahu means gift of Yahweh in Hebrew. Matthew, this performer’s English name, is a derivative.

        Mishayahu, to my knowledge, is gibberish. It further indicates that you didn’t look into who Ceasefire MV was protesting before serving us a false history/painting Jews, including him, as ignorant of their own past. Wholly (and holy) condescending.

        Easy to be concise when you’re not striving for accuracy or concerned about Jewish Americans whose livelihoods have been impacted by baseless protest. This article has been up for nearly a week, and no one has produced a single violent quote to justify targeting the festival. Not surprised. At all.

        If they had, I would still object to going after a peaceful celebration of 700 people. Anyone who cannot discern between joyous Jewish culture and political, war-specific matters is indeed an antisemite. If that label seems threadbare, it’s because this prejudice is socially contagious and therefore ever-present nowadays. Examples abound.

        I’ve never understood snarking at others for their ability to recognize what’s in evidence, but I suppose it’s simple. Some resent having their biases canceled out by reality. You take aim at Jackie for condemning Jew-hatred, yet you offer nothing to prove her wrong about its prevalence. She has become a target on this forum for speaking demonstrable truth.

        Ironic, then, to bring up microcosms. That pattern matches the world’s approach at large to Jews who defend their right to life and respect. What cannot be countered is mocked.

        A group bent on Israel’s so-called dismantlement will always be indefensible. It’s a relief to see Islanders addressing the insincerity and logical failures of Ceasefire MV. Thanks to everyone who took a stand against this messaging. The more this bunch speaks, the more is revealed and confirmed about agenda.

        I’ve been trying to find time to cobble together a post on that, going into specifics, but may not succeed before the buzzer. That’s often the case with important topics, as work keeps me busy. Wish the comments stayed open longer.

        • Thank you, Katie. The antisemitic hate and lies from the loud-mouth antisemites contributing here are well ingrained. They even have a made up history. They’ll never budge or listen to reality. Their rage at anyone who notices is a signal to me that they’re stuck in their hate and have no interest in listening, softening, or learning. There are people who are reading but not commenting who understand what their sort of antisemitism means. Their reputation as antisemites is permanently fixed, no matter other areas of who they are. That’s why they attack me. I said it out loud. They know I know what they pretend no one else can see. We see. We all see. Truth hurts the antisemitic lies of “ethnic cleaning, war crimes and genocide”.

    • “Re: “While the history of the area that you term Palestine is way too complicated and nuanced to do it justice in short comments, I note the following: . . . ”

      Yes, the 3,000-year history of the region is complicated, and yours is not a short comment. Most of it is pointless verbiage, especially the absurd fantasies and projections that follow “you apparently agree . . .”

      My account presents, concisely, the facts that correct the historical misunderstandings expressed by Mishayahu.

      I am not the only one who has noticed that those who do not want to see genuine progress toward peace in Occupied Palestine often choose to lament it’s all too complicated for anyone to understand–or, by implication, to fix via a solid negotiated settlement. Actually, it is not that complicated. The problem today, and since the beginning of the political Zionist project in Palestine, is that the Zionists have never wanted any genuine settlement with Palestine’s Arab inhabitants. The wanted to get rid of them: Make Palestine “Arab-rein.”

      Now it is most certainly too late for peace in Occupied Palestine. The genocide has gone too far, Netanyahu needs a war to save his own political skin, and Congress critters need AIPAC money. The Zionists are dragging the USA down with them.

      • A Zionist is a person who believe there is a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. It’s not the insult you think it is. Bernie Sanders is a Zionist. Are you advocating that a country of 9 million people be absolved? Where would those people go? How would this process work? Would you just turn it over to Hamas? That would result in mass murder and not just of Jews. Is this is what you want, you don’t want a ceasefire. You want a war won by if not Hamas, the Palestinian people. What would that look like in your mind? Israel is around 80% natural born (the US is around 85%) These are not rhetorical questions. I’ll wait for your answer.

        • Yes, Aislinn, Mintz has stated he wouldn’t mind seeing Israel “dismantled”, although he avoids describing how he’d like to see the dismantling done. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. It’s Jew-hatred. Jew haters are so confused about what Zionism means that they will sometimes claim to be Zionist and then attack a Jew for being a Zionist. Ignorance and confusion keep these antisemites stupid. People who are born to Jewish parents and hate and deny their Jewishness are known as self-loathing Jews. I am not a religious person, but I am a proud Jew. People who embrace their Jewishness view the self-loathers as apostates and kapos (prisoner functionaries) who would be rounded up and killed with the rest of us Jews should the unthinkable ever come to pass again. That’s why we say “never again” to those who lie, hate us, accuse us of genocide, and to those who remain silent on the matter, trying to remain “neutral”. There’s no such thing as neutrality. Antisemitism makes no sense to me but that’s why it is important for intelligent comments like yours to confront these antisemitic views based on lies and hate.

      • Please Katherine, tell us how Israel made peace with Egypt. Please tell us how Israel made peace with Jordan. Please describe to us why the palestinians rejected peace in 2000. Please tell us why that was not a “genuine settlement”. Please tell us why the continual killing by both sides is preferable to peace. When Arafat rejected that plan, he condemned his people to continued war, suffering and death. I described my vision for peace. Do you the guts to present your vision? You keep using the term genocide. Hamas killed 1200 people in one day. The israelis, in round numbers have killed less than 150 people per day since October 7. If the Israelis are aiming for genocide, they’re doing a really crappy job. I will say it again. EVERY SINGLE DEATH ON BOTH SIDES IS HORRIBLE. The only way to stop the killing is for a lasting peace. There is no diplomatic way to end the state of Israel. If you think the only way forward is the elimination of Israel, there are going to be millions more dead. The added anti-semitic mention of AIPAC was a nice touch. It’s the little things that let us know what you really think, because you don’t have the guts to say it.

        • Mr. Chatinover’s the facile falsification of history and his rhetorical questions based on false premises are ridiculous. When has there ever a proposal at any point in the “peace process” to recognize the Palestinian right of return and implement a plan either for compensation or repatriation, as set forth in Article 11 of UN Resolution 194? (There’s rhetorical question for you. Answer: never.)

          And can he really be arguing that because he thinks the average number killed “less than 150 people per day,” it isn’t genocide? There are so many horrible problems with that sickening pseudo-logic, it’s hard to know where to start.

          For one thing, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide doesn’t mention any minimum numbers of corpses in its definition. Look it up. Secondly, Mr˙Chatinover’s “less than 150 people per day” is preposterous. A responsible estimate, as recently published in The Lancet, is of the order of 186,000.

          Bashing AIPAC is not antisemitic. What is truly antisemitic, and profoundly offensive, is the identification of Judaism with the genocidal Israeli regime.

          Perhaps the most comically outlandish thing that’s yet been said in these comments is that Kate Scott doesn’t “have the guts” to say what she really thinks. I don’t think you’ve met. Perhaps we should arrange a public debate. One or two of you Zionist fans of genocide versus one or two of us from CeasefireMV. Do you dare?

          • I think you should challenge Elon Musk to the dare, your historical acumen, like his, is that of a lightweight. But at least Musk went to visit Israel; he also went to the museums at Auschwitz-Birkenau to educate himself as to what one form of genocide looks like that Jews know well. Everyone tosses around the word “Zionist” as if it’s an insult–I mean, if you’re the Ayatollah, yeah, that’s true. People who support the state of Israel are Zionists. Which means you can be one and still criticize the actions they take militarily. What you are really talking about when you talk about “Zionists” seems to be something else, something peculiarly ahistorical. This is the same ahistorical notion held by the leaders of Hamas and those of Iran. As Americans, let’s keep better company.

      • So, Katherine, you support Hamas? Is that how white western savior complexes deal with personal guilt? Native born islanders especially, unless Wampanoags, are occupiers of land stolen from American Indians. Talk about genocide and apartheid and ethnic cleansing. We’re all occupiers, except for the truly indigenous— like Jews in Israel. Reality is funny that way.

  12. For two consecutive weeks the MV Times has turned its coverage of the non-political Jewish Festival into a political story promoting the views of anti-Israel Jews. By choosing to frame the coverage in this way, the MV Times shows that its reporting on Israel and other Jewish-related topics can’t be trusted.

    • Mark, I trust this newspaper to promote antisemitic views because that is exactly what it does. I believe they do it with a fake earnestness to give voice to all sides. It’s shameful. I appreciate your comments. I do not appreciate the comments from blatant antisemites who tell the “genocide and ethic cleansing” lie and then go on to blather idiotically about what Judaism and Jewish history mean. It’s the arrogance of hate. And then they whimper SLANDER when their Jew hatred is noticed and remarked on. As to the attention seeking organizer and self-loather, it’s best to ignore him once his antisemitic views are exposed as such.

  13. Can anyone answer this. These protestors probably only protest Israeli actions. Right now there are hundreds of children dying every day in Ukraine and these protestors are silent. That makes these protestors anti semitic. Ask them why are Palestinians more revered than other peoples in the world? 103,000 of our children died from fetanyl last year. Why aren’t they protesting that? It’s called antisemitism.

    • Re ” These protestors probably only protest Israeli actions. . . . That makes these protestors anti semitic.”

      This is cuckoo logic.
      Think about it.
      If protesting Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is anti-semitic, then approving of Israel’s genocide is . . . what? Semitic?
      Is that what Mr. Acker thinks being Jewish stands for? Genocide?
      What is it about “Not in my name” that people like Mr. Acker do not get?

      BTW, there is plenty of space at Five Corners for Mr. Acker to protest deaths by Fentanyl, and I encourage him to do so.
      Although it isn’t clear exactly what Mr. Acker thinks should be protested.
      He might put on his sign the name of the family that has made millions if not billions off Fentanyl.

    • Mark– If this were a celebration of Russian culture,
      I would be out there protesting about the invasion of Ukraine,
      and I am sure others would be also.
      If this were a convention of the manufacturers
      of opioids , I would be out there protesting,
      about opioid deaths.
      and I am sure others would be also.
      They aren’t protesting about those issues because
      this was not the proper forum to do it.
      Are you protesting about any of this ?
      Perhaps you could stand in front of a church somewhere
      and protest about opioid deaths. Since you don’t, does that mean
      you support people like the Sacklers ?
      How about protesting about Ukraine in front of an Italian restaurant. ?
      These people were protesting a military action by a rogue government.
      Not Jewish culture

      • Wait? So you’re saying we shouldn’t play Tchaikovsky at our Chamber Music Society and we should avoid teaching Kandinsky and Tolstoy? This kind of lightweight “cancel culture” attitude is speaks against liberation, not in support of freedom.

      • So, you think another stupid, ill-informed, and antisemitic protest outside an event celebrating Jewish life, having nothing to do with Israel or any military defense anywhere is idiotic. I agree.

        I was yelled at yet again on the street in manhattan for wearing a Hebrew IDF T-shirt— by yet another guilty white savior ignoramus wearing a keffiyah shmatta (cheap rag) on her platinum blonde head. The morons wearing the shmattas don’t have a clue of the origins or symbolic class significance of what they’re wearing or saying. In that sense, antisemitic idiots are all the same. I wish they’d shut up, but they insist on making fools of themselves.

    • Mark Acker echoes one of the standard lines that is thrown at us in an attempt to change the subject: what about the horrors elsewhere in the world, such as Ukraine and Sudan? The fallacious (not to mention ridiculous) premise is that because there are horrors happening elsewhere, we should not concentrate on this particular one. The fact is that although different geopolitical events unfolding around the world are connected, it is impossible for anyone to concentrate on all of them at once. Another fact is that the United States government’s support for Israel’s Gazan genocide is what makes it possible. The geriatric war criminal Joe Biden could stop it with one phone call, and consciously (to the extent he is conscious) chooses not to. We protest this despicable criminal policy, as well we should.

      I could get into the question of Ukraine, where US imperialism’s intervention is likewise prolonging the carnage. But that would take us off on a tangent. The topic here is Israel’s horrifying war crimes and our duty to protest them.

      • I’ve noted your objections to imperialism before, David. What do you call a man living thousands of miles from a locale that was attacked—a sovereign state, say—who wants to convince his own superpower of a country to cripple said sovereign state’s defenses until it can be ultimately dismantled, thereby finding its destiny decided by privileged, unaffected outsiders instead of a democratic process?

        I mean . . .

        It’s not NOT imperialistic in spirit.

    • Mark– you of course are incorrect about the number
      of “children” dying from fentanyl in the U.S
      about 74,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in 2023.
      It has never been close to 103,000.
      I might also point out that deaths from all drug
      overdoses , including fentanyl declined in 2023.
      The first time there was a decline since 2018–
      https://www.google.com/search?q=fentanyl+deaths+in+us+2023&sca_esv=c702d95b856d35c7&sca_upv=1&source=hp&ei=HGuxZrWrFKLfp84PwLnPuQg&iflsig=AL9hbdgAAAAAZrF5LI0FXmK6q-qCe8lydJveZQ8c-Ifw&ved=0ahUKEwi1qYSFi9-HAxWi78kDHcDcM4cQ4dUDCBk&uact=5&oq=fentanyl+deaths+in+us+2023&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IhpmZW50YW55bCBkZWF0aHMgaW4gdXMgMjAyMzIIEAAYgAQYxwMyCBAAGBYYChgeMgkQABgWGMcDGB4yCRAAGBYYxwMYHjIJEAAYFhjHAxgeMgkQABgWGMcDGB4yCRAAGBYYxwMYHjIJEAAYFhjHAxgeMgkQABgWGMcDGB4yCBAAGKIEGIkFSLRVUABYgFJwAHgAkAEAmAFyoAHEEaoBBDIwLja4AQPIAQD4AQGYAhqgAucSwgIREC4YgAQYsQMY0QMYgwEYxwHCAggQABiABBixA8ICCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBwgIOEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYigXCAg4QLhiABBixAxjHARivAcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFwgIFEAAYgATCAg4QLhiABBixAxjRAxjHAcICCxAAGIAEGLEDGMcDwgIOEAAYgAQYsQMYxwMYyQPCAgsQABiABBiSAxiKBcICDRAAGIAEGLEDGEYY_wHCAg4QABiABBixAxiDARjHA8ICCBAAGIAEGKIEwgILEAAYFhjHAxgKGB6YAwCSBwQyMC42oAeUsQE&sclient=gws-wiz
      Never mind the facts, you won’t believe them anyway.
      But back to the “children”
      Of the approximately 82,000 opioid related deaths
      in 2022,
      76,000 of them were people over the age of 25
      with the the largest demographic being between
      35 and 44.
      https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-deaths-by-age-group/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%2225-34%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D

      It’s a disingenuous conservative tactic to constantly bring the “children”
      into a “debate”. If you are so worried about the “children” why aren’t you
      protesting the deaths of the innocent children in Gaza ?
      15,000 confirmed– thousands more missing —real children–
      not people over the age of 25. But i’m sure that you think anyone over
      the age of 25 in Gaza is “guilty” of being a terrorist involved in
      the Oct7 attacks.

      • Don, liberals always use children argument when wanting to take away guns saying they are the leading cause of death among children. You sure do have a knack of throwing rocks at the other side and doing the exact same thing you accuse others for. Like faux outrage at idling cars for a few minutes but heating your home by burning wood.

  14. Pathetic.
    2000 plus years of non stop death, destruction and misery all in the name of your g_d and religious beliefs. The REAL victims..the millions of innocent children. pathetic.

  15. This article and subsequent comments have turned me into more regular of times comment section regular than I care to be. That said, reading all these comments I’m reminded of The horseshoe theory of the political spectrum. Something I always thought was nonsense. The argument is that the far left and the far right are not opposite ends of the spectrum but next to each other. The reason is say this is me have cease fire MV an “anti-fascist” group. Yet they have shown up to protest a non-political Jewish event (I believe the times spotlighting of solely Jewish members absolves nothing and proves no point. Well it reeks of tokenism on the part of the times but that’s another story. One I have no desire to address.) and claims that it’s because of the headliner’s pass behavior including saying negative things about Hamas (I know the quote was removed but sorry we all saw it.) This is a group that wants to rid the world of Jews. I won’t get into some of shaky facts and victim blaming members have posted in the comments. I haven’t seen a lot of advocacy for a ceasefire or peace. Or most importantly what a free Palestine will realistically look like.
    I guess what I’m trying to say to ceasefire MV is that your anti fascism is starting to look a lot like fascism. I don’t doubt you have mostly good intentions. Do better.

    • The author of the article garbled Talia Weingarten’s quote, misrepresenting what she said. That is why the article was updated: in the name of accuracy. So don’t worry about anyone objecting to criticism of Hamas. We’re all for free speech.

      You can scream and pound the table all day, but you can’t overcome the one big problem that is common to all these hostile and slanderous comments against CeasefireMV: the false and absurd conflation of opposition to genocide with antisemitism.

      • You’re overcomplicating this, David.

        It’s not just your opposition to Israeli government decisions.

        It’s that you openly don’t want the state of Israel, a place with millions of Jewish citizens, to exist on planet Earth any longer.

        Huge difference.

        If you still can’t, or won’t, see how that’s antisemitic, I’m at a loss.

  16. Imagine how stupid one would have to be to investigate the history of Middle East chaos by learning and repeating lies and joining antisemitic groups. CeasefireMV is antisemitic to the nth. There are people who join in and admit to it. Why? If you follow their writings, listen to what they’re saying in other venues, confront their lies, you will know, although most followers are not intelligent or informed.

    You can criticize Israeli government policies without being an antisemite, but you can’t lie about history and make up nonsense, Katherine, Mince, and Susanna. Mintz’s Facebook page is public. Read it, and don’t miss the part that suggests it’s too bad Crooks wasn’t successful. This is the person MVTimes gave editorial space to so he could rant annd rave against Israel with an overwhelming Jew hatred.

    • Jackie–
      Political violence and assassinations are not the way
      civilized societies deal with the leaders of
      the opposition.
      I would assume that you think the assassination
      of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut was a fine thing.
      Or how about Israel assassinating Ismail Haniyeh
      in Tehran—
      the most prominent negotiator on the Palestinian
      side to get the hostages released.
      Do you think it was wonderful that the
      July 20 1944 assassination
      attempt on Hitler was unsuccessful ?

      Be honest now.

      • Keller , it is perfectly acceptable to assassinate individuals in order to defend oneself and family. Yes the latest assassinations by Israel are fine things. Israel needs to do anything in its power to protect its country and its citizenry. It has been persecuted for thousands of years and never again. Iran and its proxies surrounding Israel have only one thing in mind.— to eradicate Israel. Your thinking and that of Mintz is fuzzy.

      • Let’s be clear about Ismail: he celebrated the death of his children when they were killed by the IDF. There is nothing noble or even normal about that, what we know about the negotiations is what we read in the papers. The ICJ prosecutor considered him worthy of having committed war crimes, let’s not play games with the death-worship he paid homage to during his lifetime. He’s not coming back.

      • By 1944, Hitler was responsible for the abject torture and elimination of millions of innocent people. Those crimes cannot and should not be compared to any American politician’s record, whether liked or unliked, good or bad.

    • By all means do read whatever I have published and see for yourself, rather than trusting Jackie Mendez’ false representations.

  17. I will add that antisemites who accuse me of slander or threaten to sue me, good luck. You need to look up the word. It’s not slander when it’s true.

    • Jackie –actually, it’s “libel” when it’s in print.
      And it is libel when it’s not true.
      Here– I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up;
      https://www.forbes.com/advisor/legal/personal-injury/libel-vs-slander/
      You throw that antisemitic claim at a lot of
      people you know nothing about.
      You should be more careful.
      Not just because someone actually might sue you,
      but because you might be damaging your own
      reputation. It’s also just plain weird to accuse anyone
      and everyone who even slightly
      disagrees with you or the policies of the
      Netanyahu government of being anti semitic.
      Not only that, it makes the word itself seem meaningless.
      It’s a powerful, word, Jackie. It should only be used
      when appropriate.

  18. “Katie Lane demonstrates a standard ZIonist tactic…”

    Yes, I remain steadfast in the belief that Israel deserves to exist, her people left to live in peace. Innocent Palestinians deserve peace as well. A position many hold, however ignorant you deem it.

    In contrast, David, you have declared multiple times that Israel needs to be dismantled. Gone. Your desired outcome is, no exaggeration, the same as the terrorists’ on that point. This should tell everyone what they need to know about Ceasefire MV. You may have avoided using “wipe Israel off the map” in your writings, but it’s being endorsed in practice. That would be the literal result.

    Why should anyone accept this heinous idea, let alone that your protests are about humanitarianism?

    It’s absurd (among lesser things) to advocate for the erasure of a country and then take umbrage when folks notice and push back. It’s beyond absurd to expect that after such an admission, others will regard your group as even-handed messengers of nonviolence.

    History has taught us about those who strive to remove Jews from an area. Some are mindful of that lesson and its warning signs. We didn’t just fall out of the proverbial coconut tree.

    At least own the nightmare that is dismantlement. It would mirror post-WWII horrors for Israeli Jews, in addition to leaving them vulnerable to the region’s terrorist network. It would also displace a couple million Israeli Arabs who share a background with the same population you claim to champion.

    If, hypothetically, your solution to the latter includes Israeli Arabs alone remaining within Israel’s former borders, consider who’s actually in favor of cleansing. I’ve asked you before about who would be allowed to stay behind and got a confusing, vague reply. Told me a lot.

    The dissolution you seek will never come to pass, and we have Israel’s armed forces to thank for her preservation. So remind me: Which side are you telling to put down its weapons for good?

    As if that’s not conspicuous. To achieve the final result you want–no more Israel—one would have to first weaken the IDF.

    What a dishonest euphemism to begin with. Dismantlement? We’re talking the ruin of culture, religion, and countless lives, not blithely playing with an Erector set. You claim it could be done peacefully. Impossible when Israelis will not, and should not, submit. The fighting would inevitably intensify.

    Decrying bloodshed while working towards a conflict of greater, bloodier scope is illogical at best. (I cannot define the at-worst here.) Your group encounters the antisemitic label because you haven’t bothered to conceal an agenda that centers Jewish suffering. On two levels. Besides dismantlement, you’ve shown zero regard for Israel’s survival after this so-called permanent ceasefire.

    That term, too, is misleading. The glaring flaw? You’re only demanding that ONE side cease its efforts. Complying would be tantamount to Israel’s surrender. Her civilians would be massacred again, eventually. What other outcome is there when under existential threat and denied protection? It’s not as if the terrorists have changed course or ideology.

    What country would take such suicidal action? Not ours.

    I’ve never considered stating facts to be a tactic, and you’ve only been smeared if what I said is untrue. It isn’t. I offered an example of your pro-Hamas rhetoric. Do you deny comparing free terrorists with deep pockets to the rebellion of Nat Turner? It cast Hamas in a sympathetic light.

    How about when I asked if you’d be incorporating “From the river to the sea”? You replied that you might. That you don’t find fault with it, despite its genocide-happy intent and history. It means different things to different people was, in essence, your take.

    Except it doesn’t. That would defeat the purpose of a rallying cry. They’re meant to unite the masses with a single, recognizable message. It’s not like viewing a Picasso.

    If you don’t support war crimes and your explicit concern is for Palestine, why don’t you protest Hamas’s flagrant, illegal abuses of their own people? Hostage-taking is a war crime as well. I don’t see you demanding Hamas return these precious souls when you could easily represent all civilians.

    True, no one can protest everything. But as you’re already focused on this specific war, it’s a pointed omission.

    “. . . although they could not verify any actual occurences of rape (a subset of sexual violence).”

    Are you suggesting a mob of depraved terrorists (I repeat myself), known to be scornful of women and set on maximizing pain, stopped short? Because they’re what, restrained? Astounding.

    The rapes, including gang rape, are not mere allegations. Nor are the mutilated genitals that followed, or the video of a captured terrorist confirming his part in this barbarism. It did not end on October 7th, either. The raping of hostages continues.

    Female hostages—women AND girls—have shared their unspeakable trauma upon release and have gone ignored. By the media. By the public. It’s confirmed that men have also been raped, and still the need to minimize Hamas’s premeditated crimes is stronger than the instinct to care for these innocents.

    I have much to add about what constitutes genocide, but enough for today.

  19. “Katie Lane demonstrates a standard ZIonist tactic…”

    Yes, I remain steadfast in the belief that Israel deserves to exist, her people left to live in peace. Innocent Palestinians deserve the same. A position many hold, however ignorant you’ve deemed it.

    You have stated multiple times, David, that Israel needs to be dismantled. Gone. That outcome is, no exaggeration, in keeping with Hamas’s goal. This should tell everyone what they need to know about Ceasefire MV. Why would anyone accept this horrific idea?

    It’s absurd (among other things) to advocate for the erasure of a country and then take umbrage when folks notice and push back. It’s absurd to expect that after such an admission, others will regard your group as even-handed messengers of nonviolence.

    History has taught us what happens when others seek to remove Jews from an area. Some are still mindful of that brutal lesson. We didn’t just fall out of the proverbial coconut tree.

    At least acknowledge the nightmare of dismantlement. It would mirror post-WWII horrors for Israeli Jews, in addition to leaving them vulnerable to the terrorist network. It would also displace about two million Israeli Arabs who share their heritage with the same population you claim to champion.

    If your solution to the latter includes Israeli Arabs alone remaining within Israel’s former borders, consider who’s actually in favor of religious and ethnic division. I’ve asked you before about who would be allowed to stay and received a vague reply.

    The dissolution you want will never come to pass, and we have Israel’s armed forces to thank for her preservation. Which side are you telling to put down its weapons for good? To achieve the stated goal–the removal of Israel—one would have to first weaken the IDF.

    What a euphemism to begin with. Dismantlement? We’re talking the ruin of culture and countless lives, not blithely playing with an Erector set. You claim it could be done peacefully. Impossible when Israelis will not, and should not, submit. The fighting would inevitably intensify.

    Decrying bloodshed while supporting a conflict of greater, bloodier scope is illogical at best. Besides that, your group has shown zero regard for Israel’s survival if this so-called ceasefire were to happen.

    That term is misleading. You’re only demanding that ONE side cease its war effort. Complying would be tantamount to Israel’s surrender. Her civilians would be massacred again, eventually, as promised by Hamas. What other outcome is there when an existential threat has been issued? Once they’ve been stripped of their protection, of a defense, the worst would follow. The terrorists haven’t changed course.

    What country would take such suicidal action? Not ours.

    I gave an example of your pro-Hamas (as in helpful to Hamas) rhetoric. That’s not a smear. Do you deny comparing free terrorists with deep pockets to the slave rebellion of Nat Turner? It cast Hamas in a sympathetic and misleading light.

    What about when I asked if you’d be incorporating “From the river to the sea” at your gatherings? You said you might. That you don’t find fault with it, despite the proof I offered of genocidal intent in its history. It means different things to different people was, in sum, your stance.

    Except it doesn’t. That would defeat the purpose of a rallying cry. They’re meant to unite the masses with a single, recognizable message.

    If you don’t support war crimes and your concern is for Palestinians, why aren’t you protesting Hamas’s illegal abuses of their own people? Hostage-taking is a war crime, too. You could demand Hamas return these precious souls. True that no one can protest everything. But as you’re already focused on this war, it’s a pointed omission.

    “. . . although they could not verify any actual occurences of rape (a subset of sexual violence).”

    Are you suggesting a mob of depraved terrorists (I repeat myself) stopped short of maximizing pain? The rapes are factual and extreme. There’s video of a captured terrorist confirming his part in this barbarism. It did not end on October 7th, either. The assaults on hostages continue.

    Released women and girls have shared their unspeakable trauma over these rapes. Their accounts have been largely ignored. By the media. By the public. Israel confirmed that men have also been assaulted in captivity. Still there is a tendency to minimize or refute Hamas’s premeditated crimes.

    I wrote a clearer, more thorough version of this comment and it did not post. I don’t know why anymore, especially in comparion to what I’m reading here. Have tried removing certain details of these crimes, and of concerning things you mention in your writings elsewhere, though it does the discussion a disservice to edit this much.

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