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Anti-Semitic Hackers Infiltrate Jewish High School Website, Exposing

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Weekly Since 1924 INSIDE: Home $40 PER YEAR WITHIN MONROE COUNTY, $42 OUTSIDE COUNTY/SEASONAL 70¢ PER ISSUE n VOL. XCVIII, NO. 27 n ROCHESTER, N.Y. n TEVET 2, 5781 n DECEMBER 17, 2020 Jewish Senior Life Provides Anti-Semitic Hackers Infiltrate “Small Greenhouses” as Jewish High School Website, Shelter for Family Visits Exposing Personal Information BY SHIRYN GHERMEZIAN (JNS) — An anti-Semitic cy- bersecurity attack that took place at a Jewish high school in Long Island, N.Y., on Monday has left students on edge and parents contemplating if they should keep their children at home for the rest of the school year. Anti-Semitic images, threats, slurs and songs were posted on the website of North Shore Hebrew Academy High School A view of the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, N.Y. (Facebook/ in Great Neck. They were also North Shore Hebrew Academy) included in emails sent to the Jewish Senior Life has pur- dow visits with their loved school’s parents and students told JNS that the hacked emails The school ended early on Mon- chased small greenhouses to ones. on Monday afternoon. were first sent out Monday af- day because of parent-teacher provide protection from the Due to visitation restrictions Skyler Askari, 15, a 10th-grad- ternoon around 3 p.m. after conferences set to take place weather elements for residents’ imposed by the COVID-19 pan- er at the private high school, classes had already concluded. (Hackers — Page 6) family members during win- (Visits — Page 2) Jewish, Pro-Israel Groups The Israel-Iran Shadow War React to Morocco Agreeing Locks In on Southeastern Syria To Normalize Ties With Israel In the last weeks of the Trump administration, Israel is fast-tracking the military drive to push Iran and its helpers back from their advance on southern Syria and the Golan border. The IDF is urged to hurry up in case the Biden ad- ministration decides that Iran’s presence in Syria need not be addressed by the US in a poten- tial renegotiated nuclear deal with Tehran. Iran is using the uncertain transition period to advance on the Syrian-Israel Golan border of Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida. a special Hizballah unit and Beth-El Synagogue in Casablanca in 2017. (Wikimedia Commons) by infiltrating and hiding be- The Iranians are also practic- dozens of local armed groups hind Syrian army positions in ing clandestine tactics on the and soldiers, taking advantage BY JACKSON RICHMAN on Thursday of its intention to the southern Syrian provinces Syrian Golan with the help of (Shadow War — Page 7) (JNS) — Jewish and pro-Is- normalize ties with Israel. rael groups reacted positively It’s the fourth normalization to Morocco’s announcement (Morocco — Page 8) 50th Anniversary of Leningrad Trial Observers Say EU-Funded Sparks Memories, Educational Initiatives BY JUDY LASH BALINT Palestinian Textbook Review Reeks (JNS) — On Dec. 15, 1970, a small item appeared at the top Of ‘Incompetence, Concealment’ of page three of The New York BY ISRAEL KASNETT In 2018, the United Kingdom Times under the jarring head- (JNS) — In a ground-break- commissioned a report on Pales- line, ‘Soviets Reported Trying ing move and in response to tinian textbooks from the Ger- 11, Mostly Jews, in Hijacking.’ the lack of change in the Pal- many-based Georg Eckert Insti- Few could have predicted that estinian Authority school cur- tute for International Textbook the trial of those young Jewish riculum and the continued in- Research (GEI), which then pub- activists held in a grim Lenin- sertion of anti-Semitism, hate lished a report that was found to grad courtroom would trans- and incitement to violence and be riddled with mistakes. The form the lives of millions of martyrdom in its textbooks, European Union then decided people on both sides of the Iron the Norwegian parliament en- to commission another report, Curtain. dorsed a cut last week in aid due to be completed this month, The accused were part of a American-born Israeli author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi holds “I Am My to the P.A. (Textbook Review — Page 13) (Leningrad — Page 4) Brothers Keeper” sign circa 1970. (Courtesy) Page 2 • THE JEWISH LEDGER • Thursday, December 17, 2020 Scarlett Johansson Criticized for Being a Zionist After Supporting Jailed Human Rights Workers in Egypt BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ The responses on social net- critics of the government of the Zionist prod- (JTA) — Scarlett Johansson’s works are to the Dec. 1 video President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. ucts and it is well recent intervention on behalf by the Jewish actress to the Three of the initiative’s de- known that she is of civil rights in Egypt is arrest of four members of the tainees have since been re- Jewish and that prompting a mixed response Egyptian Initiative for Person- leased. she’s on the Israe- there ranging from gratitude al Rights as part of a broader “They all face bogus charges lis’ side,” Mako to anti-Semitic rebuke. wave of political arrests of that could lead to many more News reported. years in prison. In fact, their E l - S i s i t o o k only crime has been to stand power in a 2014 up for the dignity of Egyp- coup that ended tians,” Johansson said in the the short term in video published on the initia- power of Moham- tive’s YouTube page. Amnes- med Morsi and his ty International launched a Muslim Brother- separate campaign for their hood. They were release. elected following On social media, many a revolution. Egyptians thanked Johansson The pro-West- for her intervention, including ern dictator has Joseph Fahim, a film critic jailed thousands and lecturer from Cairo. of people deemed But others lambasted her. by his regime as Scarlett Johansson at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Nashat al-Dihi, a present- Muslim extrem- at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing er and commentator on TeN ists, as well as Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., Feb. 9. (Toni Anne Barson/ TV, said Johannson “supports other critics. b WireImage/Getty Images) To The Editor: It’s a shame that the world of WWII. He visited Israel sever- allowed the development of population doesn’t know this - al times as a youngster and did an mRNA vaccine (the novel especially with anti-Semitism a year of his doctoral work at approach used by Moderna and on the rise! the Weizmann Institute. There Pfizer for dealing with COVID- Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scien- he learned cutting edge immu- 19) is University of Pennsyl- tific Officer at Pfizer, is Jewish. nology which led him to phar- vania’s Drew Weissman. A He grew up in Halmstad, Swe- maceutical science. Dolsten has Professor of Medicine at Penn, den, the son of a Jewish father referred in interviews to rising he received his BA and MA with prewar roots in Sweden anti-Semitism in Sweden. degrees at Brandeis and MD/ and a Jewish mother who es- Pfizer CEO Albert Borla is a Microbiology and PhD at Bos- caped Austria in the early days Sephardic Jew from Thessa- ton U. Weissman once worked lonika, Greece, a city whose with a fellowship at the NIH Jewish population was almost under Dr. Fauci. completely wiped out during Final related notes: Presi- WWII. The Borla family’s his- dent-Elect Joe Biden this week tory in Thessalonika goes back named his new head for the 5 centuries, and Borla visits Centers for Disease Control his remaining family members and Prevention (“CDC”): Dr. there yearly. He now lives in Rochelle Walensky, Professor New York City. Medicine at Harvard Medical The Chief Medical Officer School and Chief of Infectious for Moderna, a Cambridge, Diseases at Massachusetts Mass.-based company, is an General Hospital. She works as Israeli immigrant named Tal a physician at a Jewish camp Zaks. Previously, he served for a week each summer. Also as head of Global Oncology at in the clan is Jeff Zients, who Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Zaks will be Biden’s overseer for received his M.D. and PhD. the entire federal coronavirus degrees at Ben Gurion Univer- response. Zients led the suc- sity and conducted post-doc cessful effort to fix the govern- research at the NIH. ment’s website when it became The scientist responsible, damaged during the launch of with a colleague, for the pio- the Affordable Care Act. b neering breakthroughs that —Kenny Dresner Visits (Continued from Page 1) demic, family members com- in 30-minute blocks, and the ing for a window visit must sit structures are thoroughly outside, thus being exposed cleaned after each visit to keep to less-than-desirable weather families safe from the spread conditions this time of year. of disease. Being able to sit inside the ful- “We know how hard the visi- ly-enclosed greenhouse pro- tor restrictions are on our fam- vides them shelter from inclem- ily members. Sitting outside ent weather such as wind, rain, for a window visit becomes a or cold temperatures. bigger challenge during Roch- The Palram Hybrid Green- ester’s colder weather,” says Mi- houses are 4’ long by 6’ wide, chele Schirano, Administrator 7’ high, and made of a poly- of The Jewish Home of Roches- carbonate plastic material. A ter. “We’re happy to now have heater is provided inside for these enclosed small green- cold-weather visits. Eight struc- houses to make our resident tures were purchased for use families’ window visits a little at the Jewish Home and the warmer, so they can relax and Summit at Brighton. Family enjoy the time visiting with window visits are scheduled their loved ones.” b THE JEWISH LEDGER • Thursday, December 17, 2020 • Page 3 Culture … India’s Jew Town Only Has a Handful of Jews Left.
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