National broadcast planned of concert for Tree of Life Synagogue massacre victims
PBS will broadcast nationally WQED’s locally-produced Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity, a free community event, presented and hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to honor the Tree of Life Synagogue victims and first responders. The performance, featuring Itzhak Perlman at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall, was taped on November 27, one month after the tragedy, as part of the PSO’s “Music for the Spirit” series.
Made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity, a one-hour special, will air nationwide on PBS stations on Tuesday, December 11 at 8:00 p.m.
Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity will stream on PBS.org and on the PBS Facebook page concurrently with the broadcast. The concert will also be available for streaming after broadcast on station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and PBS apps for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s special concert evening of remembrance and reverence brought the Pittsburgh community together to find comfort, strength and solace through music, hope and unity.
“This was public media at its finest, celebrating community and hope over evil,” said CPB President and CEO Pat Harrison. “The voices of this community from the Chief of Police to those who were directly impacted by the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue, affirmed that hatred can’t weaken the city of steel. Pittsburgh ‘strong’ is a reality and reflected through the partnership among WQED, the PSO, and local police, government and diverse religious leaders.”
“Through our production of this Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert, we hope to inspire healing and to repay the kindness the world has shown Pittsburgh during the city’s darkest days in the aftermath of the tragedy,” said WQED President and CEO, Deborah L. Acklin. “The community collaboration on this project was extraordinary. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was able to quickly fund this project so that the people of Pittsburgh, through the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, could thank the world for their support and share an evening of solace with the nation.”
Renowned Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman joins Music Director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, PSO Principal Clarinetist Michael Rusinek and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. All artists graciously donated their services for this performance.
The performance features the following works:
Maurice Ravel: “Kaddish” from Deux Mélodies Hébraïques for Clarinet and String Orchestra
Dmitri Shostakovich: “Largo“ from Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47
David Zehavi (arr. Pigovat): Eli, Eli (“My God, My God”), A Walk to Caesarea
Felix Mendelssohn: “Lift Thine Eyes to the Mountains” from Elijah
Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)
Opus 45 IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
John Williams: Three Pieces from Schindler’s List for Violin and Orchestra
Edward Elgar: “Nimrod” from Variations on an Original Theme, “Enigma,” Opus 36
“It is our hope that the Concert for Peace and Unity brings a sense of peace and healing in the wake of unimaginable tragedy,” said Paula Kerger, President & CEO, PBS. “We thank the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and WQED for partnering with PBS to share this beautiful tribute with a national audience.”
“As advocates of peace, tolerance and understanding, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra brings people together through the universal power of music to collectively grieve and heal after this horrific tragedy, both locally and across the country” added PSO Music Director Manfred Honeck. — From PBS
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AMCHA Initiative seeks anti-boycott pledges from university leaders
In response to recent serious attempts by faculty at the University of Michigan and Pitzer College to thwart American students from studying in and about Israel, more than one hundred national and local organizations today called on the same 250 college and university leaders who in 2013 issued statements opposing the American Studies Association’s anti-Israel boycott to sign the “University Leaders Statement Against the Implementation of an Academic Boycott of Israel.”
The University Leaders Statement condemns “in the strongest terms” faculty who would attempt to implement an academic boycott of Israel on their campuses.
“Following the American Studies Association’s adoption of a resolution endorsing a boycott of Israeli universities in 2013, leaders of 250 U.S. colleges and universities, including your own, issued statements opposing the ASA resolution. However, in light of recent reprehensible attempts by faculty at University of Michigan, Pitzer College and elsewhere to implement an academic boycott that thwarts their own students’ academic freedom and their own colleagues’ scholarly activities, it is imperative that university leaders speak out once again, this time even more forcefully,” wrote the groups in the letter organized by AMCHA Initiative.
Some of the national organizations that signed the letter include the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, Academic Engagement Network (AEN), B’nai B’rith International, American Zionist Movement (AZM), Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), Mercaz USA, Simon Wiesenthal Center, American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), Jerusalem U, CUFI on Campus, Hasbara Fellowships, Iranian American Jewish Federation, National Council of Young Israel, NCSY and Rabbinical Alliance of America, as well as numerous student and faculty groups.
Tuesday’s action launches a larger effort to educate university leaders and whole campus communities about the very real harms the academic boycott of Israel will cause students and faculty on American campuses if it is permitted to be implemented, as faculty are now trying to do. Each week over the next month, AMCHA will release new information about the direct harms of the boycott, including the results of a student survey and a comprehensive study about how the academic boycott of Israel is being implemented in classrooms across the country. AMCHA will also launch a multi-pronged grassroots letter-writing campaign and a university stakeholder petition, as well as a social media video blitz exposing faculty strategies.
While long portrayed as an effort aimed at Israeli universities and scholars, the implementation of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) will directly violate the rights of, and harm, students and faculty on U.S. campuses. Its tactics include having faculty on American campuses shut down their own school’s study abroad programs in Israel; refuse to write letters of recommendation for their own students who wish to study in Israel; scuttle their own colleagues’ research collaborations with Israeli universities and scholars; and cancel or shutdown student- and faculty-organized educational activities about Israel or featuring Israeli scholars or leaders to take place on their own campus.
Acting on political grounds, college instructors have recently begun attempting to implement the PACBI guidelines and prevent their students from studying in Israel. Earlier this fall, two University of Michigan faculty refused letters of recommendation to Michigan students applying to Israel study abroad programs, and last week it was reported that Pitzer College faculty attempted to shut down Pitzer’s Israel study abroad program altogether.
Just as these 250 university leaders condemned the ASA resolution boycotting Israeli academic institutions, the groups are calling on them to publicly condemn any faculty members who would attempt to implement the academic boycott of Israel on their campus. The University Leaders Statement acknowledges that these tactics “will not only inflict serious harm on Israeli academic institutions, but on faculty and students at our own schools as well,” and it affirms that implementation of the academic boycott of Israel subverts the scholarly and educational opportunities and curtails the academic freedom of students and faculty on U.S. campuses. It also puts faculty on alert that behavior that treats students, “as collateral damage to a political agenda is wrong and violates the principles of collegiality and academic integrity central to our institutions,” and will not be tolerated. — From AMCHA Initiative
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Im Tirzu launches video campaign on social media against New Israel Fund
In a series of new videos addressed to the CEO of the New Israel Fund, Daniel Sokatch, Israeli citizens tell their personal stories of how they were “harmed” by the fund.
The videos, which were published this week to social media, include testimonies from Druze and Muslim minorities, bereaved parents, a wounded IDF veteran and a resident of the Gaza periphery.
After telling their personal stories, the participants in the video call on Sokatch to leave them alone.
“The New Israel Fund harms me as well,” states Israeli-Arab Issam Ottman, whose son Youssef was murdered in a terrorist attack in September 2017.
“The NIF funds millions of dollars to ‘Machsom Watch,’ which according to testimonies of soldiers at the scene, a ‘Machsom Watch’ activist caused a disturbance at the checkpoint where the attack occurred and shouted “You’re a disgrace” at one of the soldiers, moments before the attack.”
“The New Israel Fund’s grantee organizations incite against the enlistment of Druze, Christians, and Muslims into the IDF,” states Atta Farhat, head of the Druze Zionist Council, in one of the videos.
Liran Baroch, a wounded IDF veteran and head of the “Wounded IDF Veterans Forum for a Secure Israel,” says in one of the videos: “While I lost the vision in my left eye because I did not want to harm innocent civilians, this organization that you fund [“Breaking the Silence”] works to call us murderers.”
Matan Peleg, CEO of the Zionist organization Im Tirtzu that published the videos, noted the New Israel Fund’s extensive funding to what he dubbed “anti-Israel” organizations.
“Over the past several years, the New Israel Fund has provided tens of millions of dollars to anti-Israel organizations that defend terrorists in court, defame IDF soldiers, and delegitimize Israel,” said Peleg.
“Despite the NIF’s claims to be working on behalf of Israel,” continued Peleg, “the reality is that the NIF is the largest umbrella organization of radical Israeli propaganda organizations operating against Israel and IDF soldiers.”
*All the videos can be watched by clicking here. — From Im Tirzu
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Rep. Susan Davis demands that veterans receive their education benefits
Due to its failure to fully implement the Forever GI bill amid technological issues, the Department of Veterans Affairs is underfunding education benefits to veterans. Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, called on the VA to remedy the problem and make sure veterans are fully reimbursed for lost benefits.
“Our veterans should not be shortchanged on their education benefits because of a computer glitch,” said Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. “These benefits are a promise we made to servicemembers and they should be a promise kept. The VA needs to make whole the benefits these veterans have earned.”
The VA has delayed or miscalculated education benefits to veterans as a result of computer issues. The VA has also issued conflicting statements about whether the impacted veterans would receive reimbursement of lost benefits. — From U.S. Rep. Susan Davis
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Preceding items culled from news releases. Please send yours to editor@sdjewishworld.com