THE JEWISH LEADER, NOVEMBER 20, 2015 13 Russian/Jewish billionaire awards $22 million in science prizes By JTA ern Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Several other prizes, including the New Ho- Russian-Jewish billionaire Yuri Milner gave out nearly $22 rizons awards that recognize the achievements million in Breakthrough Prize Awards for contributions to life Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. of young scientists, were presented. sciences, math and physics. Institute;The prize and in Svante Fundamental Paabo of Physics, the Max worth Planck $3 Milner announced in July that he would dedi- Milner was joined Sunday night at a televised ceremony in - cate $100 million to a 10-year project launched Northern California’s Silicon Valley by prize co-founders Sergey tigating neutrino oscillation. It will be shared with astrophysicist Stephen Hawking to search million, was awarded to five experiments inves scientists. Brin, a co-founder of Google, and his ex-- equally among all five teams, comprising 1,377 for intelligent extraterrestrial life. book founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Anne Wojcicki; Alibaba founder Jack CONT. FROM PAGE 12 Mawife, and Priscilla his wife, Chan. Cathy Zhang; and Face COULD PARIS HAPPEN HERE The prize was established three years lims remain poorer, more ghettoized and more self-evident: Already, there are indications that discriminated against than American Muslims, the Paris crew operated undetected because popular. whose levels of education and income mirror of surveillance shortcomings, as was true with those of the entire American population. agoAnimator in an effort Seth to MacFarlanemake the sciences hosted more the the Charlie Hebdo attacks. black-tie event at NASA’s Ames Research We should be thankful for the paucity of None of this should lead American authori- Center in Mountain View, California. Sing- - ties, or the American people, to settle into a er Pharell Williams performed. dance of weapons. The Islamic State’s innova- false sense of security. The foremost task for The 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Math- Americantion over its extremists, predecessors given from our Al Qaeda, superabun who the years ahead is to double down on our intel- ematics, worth $3 million, was presented relished the drama of bomb strikes, is indis- ligence collection and press our European part- to Ian Agol of the University of California, Berkeley and the Institute for Advanced Study. guns are from government stocks in places like If anything, what the Paris attacks show is Five Life Sciences prizes of $3 million each were presented criminateLibya and attacksSyria, which with has firearms. changed Many the of equa the- nersthat theto dramatically world needs expandAmerica’s theirs. intelligence and tion in formerly gun-free Europe. security resources even more than its military - The United States has another advantage: an might. The American intelligence community intelligence, law enforcement and border-con- to Edward Boyden of MIT; Karl Deisseroth of Stanford and the- is the indispensable hub of global counterter- trol apparatus that has been vastly improved Howard Hughes Medical Institute; John Hardy of University Col - since the cataclysm of 9/11. Post-9/11 visa lege London; Helen Hobbs of the University of Texas’ Southwest graphic spread of the Islamic State mean that LETTER TO THE EDITOR rorismthe United efforts, States but must the largecommit numbers even more and geore- CONT. FROM PAGE 12 bad actors, and both the Bush and Obama ad- sources. Europe must step up and help build cells of bigots. requirementsministrations demanded and no-fly that lists countries weed out in most our the basis for a deeper, more far-reaching col- None of the above sneaked through the narrow door for refu- - laboration. gees, who face tons of investigative procedures simply to escape ists through information-sharing pacts called Europe, already disadvantaged by geogra- the plagues of pogroms, brutality, and enslavement meted out visaHSPD-6 waiver agreements. program provideImprovements data on continue, extrem phy, has to try a lot harder. It’s a daunting but by tyrannical and homicidal regimes. Shall they be left to die like an advance passenger information/passen- not insurmountable challenge, and America ger name recognition agreement with the Euro- must be ready to help, for Europe’s sake and its our native pundits want to score cheap political points? Jean- pean Union of 2012. own. ofClaude starvation, Juncker, exposure, President and of thethe perilsEuropean of flight Commission simply because said it In fact, America has spent more than $650 Steven Simon and Daniel Benjamin are schol- billion since 9/11 on homeland security, or ars at Dartmouth College and the authors of “The around $47 billion a year. In contrast, after Age of Sacred Terror.” Mr. Simon was the senior well:not the “Those opposite, who and organized, so there is who no need perpetrated for an overall the attacks review [in of the Charlie Hebdo killings, France announced director for the Middle East and North Africa at Paris] are the very same people who the refugees are fleeing and - the National Security Council from 2011 to 2012 - rorism. The annual budget for Germany’s entire and Mr. Benjamin served as the coordinator for ing.the EuropeanA fundamental policy Jewishon refugees.” moral principle asserts that no one aintelligence multiyear service$786 million is $660 effort million. to Thecombat result ter- counterterrorism at the State Department from is obligatedThere is ato hugerisk his/her difference life to between save another fear life and if danger fear to monger ing gaps in France’s counterterror regime are 2009 to 2012. both is imminent. But this is not what confronts us. The poten- tial danger to shoppers at the Crystal Mall of welcoming Syrian PALESTINIAN SONGS CONT. FROM PAGE 12 ambassador by the UN organization, known as ian organization of allowing Hamas to dictate UNRWA. a warped educational agenda at its schools in refugeesdrowning to in New the London,Mediterranean, for example, getting can’t bombed hold a incandle Aleppo, to the or The lyrics of one of his recent hits, Ya Yumma, Gaza that is both anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic, immediatebeheaded in danger Raqqa. of freezing to death on the fields of Slovenia, are accompanied by images of rioting young something UNRWA strongly denies. However, men, the iconic Golden Dome in Jerusalem’s Old say if the Emanuel AME Church of Charleston barred Whites despite conclusive evidence of Assaf’s songs City, and the shroud-wrapped body of a dead inciting Palestinian youth to violence, UNRWA fromCan worship you imagine after a what chap the of such “defenders pigment of shot our toborders” death nine would of Palestinian. Assaf sings, “Salute the determined apparently remains steadfast in its admiration its members? people who are resisting the occupiers, Fight The hardened heart penalizes the innocent along with the for the singer nurtured in its system. guilty and estranges itself from what we hold sacred. - Despite the fact that his songs often glorify conception in many quarters in understanding Rabbi Scott Saulson backviolence, until UNRWA you defeat has thecontinued aggressor.” to endorse and Zilberdik believes there is a significant mis Niantic, CT “There is a tendency, certainly abroad, to youth. exactlythink that what it incitement must be openly is. coming out and RESTORATION CONT. FROM PAGE 6 promote Assaf as its example to Palestinian saying ‘Kill the Jews,’ but incitement is so much and waterproofed. This critical work was made possible by the more than that and there are so many subtle generous support of the Daughters of the American Revolution “As a “child of UNRWA,” Mohammed Assaf ways to promote the same message. So when (DAR) National Special Projects Grant sponsored by the Sarah is the ideal individual to be the first goodwill Williams Chapter (Brooklyn, CT). A matching gift of $10,000 was ambassadorwebsite reads. in “His the mother, more than too, was six decadesan UNRWA of are actually saying that what he or she did is provided by the David and Summer Fetterman Family. ourteacher… history,” With a the current universal statement language on of UNRWA’s his mu- yougood, call and a that killer is an a indirect “hero” orway a of “martyr” saying, ‘You you sic, he carries the message of UNRWA and young THANKS CONT. FROM PAGE 1 Thanksgiving dinner. UNRWA is wholly funded by the internation- should go and do that, too.’” Thank you to all who donated $5, 10 and $20. Your thought- Palestineal community refugees and hasto new repeatedly audiences.” been accused Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Fol- fulness and generosity have allowed the Jewish Federation to of turning a blind eye to Palestinian incitement low him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his once again do good from everywhere, from anywhere. against Israel. Its critics accuse the humanitar- website: www.paulalster.com.