Dear Detective Ratchell,

I am writing to give you the facts surrounding the email from my client that you have
been assigned to investigate. As you will see, the email did not constitute a threat to do
anything whatsoever to either Robert Trestan or Jeremy Burton, and was in fact a mere
scolding to them in the form of biblical reference that is well-known to all of the parties
involved. In fact, it is so well known that Jeremy Burton himself uses similar references
– as you will see by the attachments I have provided. Mr. Trestan, Mr. Burton and Mr.
Feoktistov are all leaders of Jewish and civil rights organizations, and for Mssrs. Trestan
and Burton to characterize the email as “anti-Jewish” as is noted in the incident report is
ridiculous.

FACTS

Mr. Feoktistov is the Executive Director of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a non-
profit organization dedicated to promoting peaceful coexistence in an ethnically diverse
America. Its membership includes Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Here is their website:
https://www.peaceandtolerance.org/. In 2002, its President, Dr. Charles Jacobs, received
the Boston Freedom Award from Mayor Menino and Martin Luther King’s widow,
Coretta Scott King.

Mr. Trestan is the Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Boston office.
Mr. Burton is the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Mr. Feoktistov, Mr. Trestan and Mr. Burton are all Jewish.

Mr. Feoktistov, Mr. Trestan and Mr. Burton have all worked together and communicate
with each other frequently by email. For instance, this past June, they were cooperating
on an issue involving a problem in the Newton Public Schools. I am attaching emails
between Mr. Trestan and Mr. Feoktistov on that issue. They are obviously friendly.
More recently, they were trading emails in December – as attached.

As is normal and expected, the points of view of these Executive Directors are not always
the same, and they take issue with each other’s actions in the community. In 2013, the
Anti-Defamation League and Mr. Trestan were criticized by Americans for Peace and
Tolerance and Mr. Feoktistov for not taking a firm stand against anti-Semitism in the
Newton Public Schools. That fact was written up in the Jewish Ledger, “ADL New
England Comes Under Scrutiny” -the article is attached.

More recently, on February 13, Mr. Feoktistov criticized Mr. Trestan and Mr. Burton in
an article he authored in The Federalist, attached. Mssrs. Trestan and Burton were very
upset at the way they came across in the article, and at the subsequent feedback they got
about their actions.

In addition to the article, Mr. Feoktistov sent them both the email that is the subject of
their complaint. What he sent them was, and it is certain that they both understood it as
exactly that, a plea to change their ways and do the right thing by the Jewish community
and the organizations they represent. He wrote them a reference to the Book of Jeremiah,
a prophet from the Bible. Jeremiah is a well-known voice in Judaism, and the book of
Jeremiah is quoted frequently. Jeremiah spoke out against the wrongdoings of his fellow
Jews, whom he loved, and prayed for their repentance. The quote used by Mr. Feoktistov
is from Jeremiah 18:11, which says, depending on which translation from the Hebrew is
used, “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is
what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against
you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your
actions.'” A list of various translations and cross-references is attached.

The saddest day of the year in the Jewish calendar is Tisha ‘B’Av, which commemorates
the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jeremiah foretold the destruction of the
Temple. Every year the Book of Lamentations, composed by Jeremiah, is read in
synagogues all over the world on Tisha B’Av. Both Mr. Trestan and Mr. Burton know
this. In fact, Mr. Burton himself has tweeted quotations from Jeremiah: see attached, a
tweet where he said “ ‘Seek the welfare of the city’ – Jeremiah 29:7”, and an entire article
based on Jeremiah.

For Mssrs. Burton and Trestan to say that they, as they did in the incident report, that they
are the victims of harassment that has been going on the past few years is an absolute lie.
That they viewed the email complained of as a threat is also a lie. The reason that Mssrs.
Burton and Trestan filed their report is that they wanted to intimate Mr. Feoktistov and
make him stop writing embarrassing articles about them and their failure to act to protect
the Jewish community. In point of fact, what they are trying to do is to shut down dissent
– to shut down any voice that dares to criticize them. What they are doing was
documented in this article, attached, “The Boston Jewish Establishment’s War on
Dissent.”

In light of the above, there are ample grounds for bringing a tort action against Mssrs.
Burton and Trestan for abuse of process and malicious prosecution.

LAW

The Supreme Court case of Elonis v US, which applies to Massachusetts, holds that
threats to do bodily harm must be intended as such to be criminal. There was obviously
no intention to do any harm whatsoever in this email, and both Mssrs. Burton and Trestan
know it.
 June 2018

Emails between Robert Trestan and Ilya Feoktistov

 Date sites
3
Deleted Messages
EDUCATION WITHOUT INDOCTRINATION
Feb PB trip
ICONTACT
IRELAND
KOPLAN v SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Mask & Wig
Mass Cultural Council
Newton School Committee
1
NPS SCHOOL CANDIDATES
NYC
PRESS DISTRIBUTION LISTS
Responses to NEWTON LAW SUIT
RESPONSIVE PRESS
REVELERS

From: Trestan, Robert [mailto:RTrestan@adl.org]

Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2015 2:25 PM
To: Ilya Feoktistov (if@peaceandtolerance.org) <if@peaceandtolerance.org>
Subject: RE: Hobert materials backgrounder...

I need the definitions handout. Do you have it?

Robert Trestan| New England Regional Director

Anti-Defamation League | 40 Court Street | Boston, MA 02108| Phone: 617-406-6360
 December 2018

Emails between Robert Trestan and Ilya Feoktistov

JEWISH LEDGER
TUESDAY, MAR 5, 2019

Judie Jacobson / December 4, 2013 / No Comment

ADL New England Region comes

under scrutiny
By Jacob Kamaras/JNS.org

The Anti-Defamation
League’s (ADL) New England Region is being scrutinized for its treatment of
allegations of anti-Israel teaching materials in the public school curriculum of
Newton, Mass., as well as for the amount of credit it has taken for dealing with
antisemitism at Northeastern University in Boston.
ADL is not making its findings on the Newton teaching materials publicly
available, The Jewish Advocate of Boston reported in its Nov. 29 edition. On the
Northeastern issue, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Americans for
Peace and Tolerance (APT) say the ADL failed to acknowledge their work to
combat antisemitism at the university.
APT recently took out an advertisement in Boston-area newspapers that
highlighted research by concerned parents and students on anti-Israel texts that
have appeared in Newton schools. The texts mentioned in the ad include The
Arab World Studies Notebook, which claims that Israeli soldiers murdered
hundreds of Palestinian nurses in Israeli prisons; A Muslim Primer, which claims
that astronaut Neil Armstrong converted to Islam; Flashpoints: Guide to World
History, which asserts that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, is the capital of Israel and
that Jerusalem is the capital of “Palestine;” and other materials.
Leaders from the ADL, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), and
Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP, which is Boston’s Jewish federation) said
in a Nov. 6 statement that “based on a careful review of the materials at issue by
ADL and JCRC, there is substantial reason to believe that the allegations made
in the [APT] ad are without merit.”
ADL officials, meanwhile, have made conflicting statements on the existence of
an ADL report on Newton schools. ADL New England Regional Director Robert
Trestan told The Jewish Advocate that a report of the ADL’s investigation does not
exist, while ADL New England Region Board Chair Jeffrey Robbins said, “It’s an
internal report. People do this stuff internally all the time. … It involves all kinds of
proprietary research.” Robbins did not immediately return a request for comment
from JNS.org, and Trestan was out of office and could not be reached for
comment by press time.
“We don’t know if the ADL secured the curriculum from the Newton school
committee in order to conclude, as they do, that there are no problems,” APT
President Charles Jacobs told JNS.org. “They have not shared their ‘careful
review’ of the materials with anyone, including reporters, calling it ‘proprietary.’
They seem to have had a greater urgency in defending school officials and the
mayor than in getting the facts from parents and students. This is clearly not the
quality effort we would expect from a well-funded organization with vast local and
national resources. Disappointing.”
CJP President Barry Shrage told JNS.org that he has seen reports by the ADL
and the JCRC on the Newton schools issue, and that the reports show how on
the alleged presence of anti-Israel texts, APT has been “picking and choosing
individual things that in context said something very different than what APT
claimed they said.” Shrage said he believes questions on the issue that have
gone unanswered by APT include: When were the anti-Israel teaching materials
used? How were the materials used? How many parents have complained to the
school district about the materials?
In Shrage’s estimation, it is hard to believe that Newton parents have been afraid
to come forward to the district about the anti-Israel texts, as has been claimed.
“The truth is that the Newton school district gets complaints all the time,” Shrage
said. “Where are the parents and where are the complaints [on the anti-Israel
texts], and what does that say about whether there’s really a pattern of abuse [by
Newton] here?”
According to The Jewish Advocate, two texts referenced by APT’s recent ad on
Newton schools are no longer in use; a link on the Newton North High School
library website to Flashpoints: Guide to World History was taken down after it
was deemed inappropriate, and the distribution of The Arab World Studies
Notebook was discontinued during the 2011-12 school year. The current state of
Newton’s teaching materials is unclear beyond the school system “being
unwilling to release material without some kind of payment for it, which is actually
the law,” Shrage told JNS.org.
“By what stretch of the imagination are we disrupting an entire school system
when we have very few examples of when this [material] has been used?” he
asked.
In another recent joint statement with CJP, this one addressing the issue of
antisemitism at Northeastern University, ADL’s Trestan and Robbins said, “Over
the past year we have worked closely with officials at Northeastern regarding
those concerns [of antisemitism]. Northeastern has devoted considerable
resources to addressing this issue, and has done so in a thoughtful and
responsible manner. It has undertaken a number of concrete steps to remedy
these concerns, and has done so in admirable good faith. Importantly,
Northeastern has hired a professor of Israel studies who will co-direct Middle
East studies at Northeastern.”
Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA Center for Law and Justice, explained that
ZOA “prepared a letter back in July detailing all of the problems that Jewish
students were suffering” at Northeastern. The letter noted that international
affairs professors Denis Sullivan and Berna Turam, as well as economics
professor M. Shaid Alam, promoted an anti-Israeli agenda and mocked Jewish
students for their views. ADL followed up by sending Northeastern President
Joseph Aoun its own letter, which Tuchman said repeatedly referenced ZOA’s
initial letter.
“ADL never sent us a copy of [its] letter, never reached out to us to work together
on the issue,” Tuchman told JNS.org. “We would be much more effective if we
were working collaboratively,” she said.
Tuchman added that ADL also did not mention the work of ZOA and APT on
Northeastern antisemitism in a recent letter by ADL New England Region Board
Chair Jeffrey Robbins to his board.
“No mention of the fact that ZOA contributed to that effort, no mention of the fact
that [Northeastern] Hillel contributed to that effort, no mention of the fact that
[APT President] Charles Jacobs contributed to that effort,” Tuchman said. “The
notion that it was the ADL and CJP, and no one else is responsible, is just
patently false,” she said.
CJP’s Shrage told JNS.org that he has called both ZOA National President
Morton A. Klein and Tuchman to apologize for CJP and ADL not mentioning
ZOA’s involvement on the Northeastern issue.
Jacobs told The Jewish Advocate that when ZOA and APT first brought up the
issue of Northeastern antisemitism, ADL dismissed their concerns. ADL has also
“opted to discontinue all advertising in The Jewish Advocate after learning this story
(on the Newton and Northeastern issues) was going to press,” the newspaper
reported Nov. 29.
 GOP Governor Embraces Radical
Muslim Cleric Who Somehow Makes
Westboro Baptist Look Acceptable
How Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Imam Yasir Fahmy became
strange bedfellows, sidelining the latter's anti-gay and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

By Ilya Feoktistov
FEBRUARY 13, 2019

“When God talks about the types of relationships that a person is allowed
to have,” thundered the American preacher from his pulpit last year, “and
he says that it is the marriage between a man and the woman in holy
matrimony, in accordance with the Bible, then that is the truth…God makes
it very clear – there is only one path: his path.”

On February 1, 2019, the Republican governor of this preacher’s state

visited his house of worship and embraced the popular clergyman, telling
the hundreds of gathered congregants: “He asked me to come visit with
you, and I said I would be honored and pleased to do that.”

“Obama is the son of adultery…Sort of common, unfortunately in our

country,” is the type of political commentary one might hear from
the pulpit at this preacher’s house of worship on any given day. But this did
not happen in Trump country. The Republican governor, who told the
preacher that his sermons are filled with “such beauty and such power
about faith and love and community,” is Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.
He says he fully supports gay marriageand transgender issues.
When It’s Okay to Be Anti-Gay
As the reader might have guessed by now, there is only one kind of
preacher who can hold such views about traditional marriage between a
man and a woman and still be acclaimed by the left-wing Massachusetts
establishment. The preacher is Imam Yasir Fahmy of the ill-famed Islamic
Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC). I replaced “Allah” with “God”
and “Quran” with “Bible” in the quote above.

“Behind fornication,” yelled Fahmy into the ISBCC’s mic during Friday
prayers on February 9, 2018. “Behind the, the willingness or the allowance
to allow my sexual exploits to be unrestricted, that I — that I please myself
sexually in any way that I want, in any, you know, manifestation of that —
behind all of that is a very big injustice.”
According to Fahmy, sexual liberty is one of the “three pillars of evil that
corrode the very essence of society.” “Don’t indulge in those vices,” he
told the 1,500 or so Bostonians who come every Friday to hear him preach,
before comparing those who have sex outside of a traditional marriage to
people who engage in “stealing, cheating, killing, murdering, pillaging,
raping,” with all being “rooted in us indulging our base desires.”
Baker, it is clear, would never embrace a Christian fundamentalist who
preached that way, though he would be hard pressed to find one so
intolerant outside of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Anti-Semitism on Blast? Why Not!

Indeed, Baker’s new imam friend also frequently whips up Jew-hatred at
the ISBCC. For instance, in the summer of 2017, after three Muslim men
snuck out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex occupying the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem and murdered two Israeli police officers, Israel was forced
to close the mosque for Friday prayers as police searched for additional
weapons and crime evidence inside. Deadly riots ensued as anti-Semitic
imams in the Palestinian territories and the world over took advantage of
the crisis to dust off their sermons about how the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque was
in danger from the unholy Jews.
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL’s) report on the 2017
Temple Mount crisis: “Widespread conspiracy theories about nefarious
efforts by Jews plotting to remove Muslims from the site continue to
reverberate throughout Arab and Muslim world.” Fahmy decided to invoke
this “Al-Aqsa libel” conspiracy theory in his July 21, 2017 sermon, which he
called “Every Muslim Should Care About Masjid [Mosque] al-Aqsa.”
“Brothers and sisters,” began Imam Fahmy (some redundant Arabic not
quoted):

many of us have been watching the news in the past week, observing what is
happening in al-Masjid al-Aqṣā…That for the first time in so many years, for
the Friday prayer that we’re praying right now not happen, for the Masjid al-
Aqṣā to be closed down, is abomination to Islām and Muslimīn…So when the
believer sees what is happening to those sacred spaces that, the boots of
soldiers are crawling or walking on those spaces, it breaks the soul of the
believer…The greatest of oppressors and wrongdoers are [those] who
prevent the house of Allāh, to have Allāh’s name remembered there.

Half a year later, when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital, Fahmy was at it again, saying that recognizing thousands of years
of Jewish religious and political history in Jerusalem is just a “senseless
proclamation that mean[s] nothing.” He warned that the entire world will
have to answer to God if “we collectively as human beings, don’t wake up
to the desecration that is happening in those lands.” Then he repeated the
lies, half-lies, and fabrications that have stoked Jew-hatred among
historically-moderate Muslims everywhere:
Brothers and sisters, when we think about Palestine, when we think about
the Holy Land, we have to think about Allāh…[The Palestinians] are being
restricted by air, land, and sea to not have access to their homes…To not
have electricity except for an hour or two a day. To have contaminated water
because of sewage. Children who are starving in lands — over a million
children who are food-deprived…There is no good Christian, there is no good
Jew, there is no good Muslim who will see the type of oppression and injustice
that is happening in that land and say, ‘The prophets would be okay with
that.’…That means we can’t be silent, we can’t be apathetic because if we are,
then we are silent Satans.

In all of the Fahmy sermons attacking Israel, there is one word that the
imam never uses: “Israel.” He religiously avoids naming the
country, following the fashion of those in the Muslim world who want to
see it destroyed.
Prior to coming to the ISBCC, Fahmy studied as a scholar in residence at the
Islamic Center of Passaic County in New Jersey under imam and convicted
Hamas member Mohammad Qatanani. Fahmy’s mentor lied on his
immigration forms about his Hamas membership, and the U.S. government
has been trying to deport him for years.
Why Did Baker Visit This Mosque, Anyway?
Now the kicker: It was a gay Jewish leader, together with the New England
branch of the ADL, who put Baker up to visiting the ISBCC and embracing
its homophobic, anti-Semitic, Hamas-connected imam. Jeremy Burton, the
openly homosexual executive director of the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Greater Boston (JCRC), and Robert Trestan, the executive
director of the ADL’s New England branch, let Fahmy come speak at the
JCRC and ADL’s memorial service to the victims of last year’s Pittsburgh
Tree of Life synagogue shooting. Baker was invited, and claims Fahmy’s
emotional speech there against anti-Semitism moved him to visit and
embrace Fahmy at the ISBCC.
Trestan says it was not him who invited Fahmy, which shifts the blame
onto the JCRC’s Burton. Indeed, Burton rushed to embrace Fahmy in the
wake of President Trump’s victory. As The Boston Globe reported on March
23, 2017: “In Boston and across the country, a winter of persecution has
brought a new warmth and vitality to Muslim-Jewish relationships.” The
Globe quoted Burton: “In this moment of crisis for both
communities…there’s been a clear sense that we need to be able to stand
together where we can.”
Exactly a week after Burton stood with Fahmy at the ISBCC,
Fahmy welcomed Tariq Ramadan, the notoriously anti-Semitic French
Islamist, to the same stage. Ten months after that, Ramadan was arrested by
French authorities for raping two Muslim women. One claims
she suffered “blows to the face and body, forced sodomy, rape with an
object, and being dragged by the hair to the bathtub and urinated on.” So
much for Fahmy’s warnings against “pleas[ing] myself sexually in any way
that I want.” And so much for Burton’s feminism.
It has lately become clear that, the left’s claims to oppose sexual
repression, anti-Semitism, and violence, only apply to Christians and Jews,
not Muslims. Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi. Burton once wrote: “Do not
forget the LGBTQ youth who are being raised in Haredi [Orthodox Jewish]
homes right now. I was one of them.” And, elsewhere: “The first time I
contemplated suicide was at a charedi [Orthodox Jewish] middle school in
Manhattan…Because this community, the community I grew up in, fosters
a culture of conformity, one where the message to youth is that ‘there is
only one way to live, and it is our way’…I feel ashamed to ignore the
charedim.”
Hypocrisy Abounds
For someone who righteously claims to “actually give a damn about LGBTQ
equality,” Burton certainly has very little shame about ignoring the plight
of gay Muslims in Fahmy’s mosque, who are compared by him to rapists
and murderers in front of the gathered Muslim community. With such
obvious contempt for moral principle, there is always the question: Are
such people fools or knaves?
Under a “fools” analysis, leftist Jews are simply paralyzed by their foolish
decision to take such a hard left turn after President Trump’s election that
they are now being pushed backwards on Jewish civil rights, swept by the
tide of anti-Semitism surging on the left, and powerless against the
gravitas of the rising stars of the Democratic Party. In 2019, they’ve lost
the moral high ground on anti-Semitism to their political adversaries; and
to continue to fight anti-Semitism, they must fight their own.

Boston’s left-wing Jewish leaders have invested decades of Jewish support,

resources, and energy into leading and inspiring every one of the leftist
“social justice” causes. Social justice, more than Judaism, is their religion.
But all this work is now catastrophically backfiring. Last year, when Burton
tried to get Massachusetts to pass an anti-boycott, divestment, and
sanctions (BDS) law, he was defeated by the same left-wing groups liberal
Jews have been supporting for decades.
“This time they are fighting for the right to discriminate against Israelis,”
Burton complained about his allies. “Massachusetts’ civic leaders, and
JCRC’s network alongside them, have boldly led the nation in rejecting bias
and bigotry in so many areas in recent years – standing up for the
transgender community, for women, for the disabled, and for immigrants.
Now they have a responsibility to reject this kind of discrimination as
well.”
Surprising none but Burton, Massachusetts’ civic leaders rejected his pleas
instead. Is Burton really that naïve? This brings us to the “knaves”
explanation. It could very well be that Trestan and Burton, together with
many leftist Jewish leaders like them, care very little about anti-Semitism
or the plight of gay Muslims compared to how much they care about being
people of the left, people on “the right side of history.”
Under the “knaves” analysis, leftist Jewish leaders have long ago put their
other religion – utopian universalism – and their party, which promotes it,
over their own people’s interests. The future of the Democratic Party,
however, as is increasingly becoming clear with Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida
Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is not looking good for the Jews. If
Republicans like Baker continue to get their advice on Jewish issues from
the likes of Burton and the ADL, it will be the future of the Republican
Party as well.

Ilya Feoktistov is the executive director of Americans for Peace and
Tolerance.

Copyright © 2019 The Federalist, a wholly independent division of FDRLST Media, All
Rights Reserved.
Bible > Jeremiah > Chapter 18 > Verse 11

◄ Jeremiah 18:11 ►
SUM PIC XRF DEV STU

Verse (Click for Chapter)

New International Version
"Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says:
Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each
one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.'

New Living Translation

"Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: I
am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is
right.'"

English Standard Version

Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I
am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and
amend your ways and your deeds.’

Berean Study Bible

Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I
am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil
ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

New American Standard Bible

"So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, 'Thus says the
LORD, "Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each
of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds."'

King James Bible

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the
LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

Christian Standard Bible

So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I
am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct
your ways and your deeds.'

Contemporary English Version

So listen to me, people of Judah and Jerusalem! I have decided to strike you with disaster, and I won't
change my mind unless you stop sinning and start living right.

Good News Translation

Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready
to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives--to change their ways and the things they are doing.

Holman Christian Standard Bible

So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem: This is what the LORD says: I am about
to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your
ways and your deeds.

International Standard Version

"Now say to the people of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm
designing a disaster just for you, and I'm making plans against you. Each one of you must repent from his
evil way. Make your ways and deeds right."'

NET Bible
So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says, 'I am preparing to
bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have
been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.'

New Heart English Bible

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the
LORD: Look, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now everyone from his evil
way, and amend your ways and your doings.'

GOD'S WORD® Translation

"Now say to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: I'm
going to prepare a disaster and make plans against you. Turn from your evil ways, change your lives, and
do good.'

JPS Tanakh 1917

Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith
the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from
his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

New American Standard 1977

“So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the
LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each
of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’

Jubilee Bible 2000

Now therefore, speak to every man of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus hath the
LORD said: Behold, I ordain evil against you and devise plans against you; return ye now each one from
his evil way, and better your ways and your doings.

King James 2000 Bible

Now therefore go, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the
LORD; Behold, I am shaping evil against you, and devise a plan against you: return you now everyone
from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

American King James Version

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said the
LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from
his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

American Standard Version

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah:
Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil
way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Brenton Septuagint Translation

And now say to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold, I prepare evils against you,
and devise a device against you: let every one turn now from his evil way, and amend your practices.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I
frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from his evil way, and
make ye your ways and your doings good.

Darby Bible Translation

And now, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah:
Behold, I prepare evil against you, and devise a device against you: turn ye then every one from his evil
way, and amend your ways and your doings.

English Revised Version

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the
LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his
evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Webster's Bible Translation

Now therefore come, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the
LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

World English Bible

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh:
Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil
way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Young's Literal Translation

And now, speak, I pray thee, unto men of Judah, And against inhabitants of Jerusalem, Saying: Thus said
Jehovah: Lo, I am framing against you evil, And devising against you a device, Turn back, I pray you, each
from his evil way And amen your ways and your doings.
 By Jeremy Burton

Finding meaning in the Fast of Gedaliah

Today, Wednesday September 19, the day following Rosh
Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), is a “minor” Jewish fast
(meaning it’s only from sunrise to sundown) known as the
Fast of Gedaliah. The story is told in the biblical book
Jeremiah of how, after the Babylonian conquest of the...
SEPTEMBER 19, 201200
Today, Wednesday September 19, the day following Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), is a “minor” Jewish fast (meaning it’s only from
sunrise to sundown) known as the Fast of Gedaliah.

The story is told in the biblical book Jeremiah of how, after the Babylonian conquest of the Near East, the Empire set up local semi-
autonomous governorships. In the former Judean kingdom, the Jewish governor was Gedaliah ben Achikam. The short version is that after
being told about an assassination plot against him, Gedaliah rejected the warning as slander and proceeded to invite the plotter (a descendent of
the last Jewish king) into his home for dinner, where upon Gedaliah was then killed. The ensuing political chaos led to the final collapse of the
last vestige of historical Jewish self-government.

The Fast of Gedaliah is the only national Jewish mourning day that marks the loss of a specific individual. The rabbinic tradition teaches that
the fast is to remind us that the death of a righteous person is akin to the burning of God’s house (most other Jewish fasts are tied to the
temple’s destruction).

In our time, after the murders of such folks as the Rev. Martin Luther King, the Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm X, the Kennedy brothers, Harvey
Milk, and Yitzchak Rabin… this day has been embraced by some as one with broader meaning as an opportunity for reflection on the
consequences of political violence and the implications for social movements when an individual leader is suddenly taken from us.

Even if you aren’t fasting today, I invite you to join in the day through reflection. Take a few minutes today by yourself or in conversation
with a colleague to reflect on these questions:

• When, in your own experience, has a cause you cared about been advanced or set back by violent action?
• Is violence ever a legitimate tool in the pursuit of social justice?
• When have you experienced the sudden loss of a leader (either by death or departure) and how did that impact your cause?
• What lessons or reflection can you take from these experiences to inform your work and in your life?
Wishing you a meaningful day in this season of reflection.

Jeremy Burton
Jeremy Burton is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC). Through advocacy, organizing,
service and partnerships JCRC defines and advances the values, interests and priorities of the organized Jewish community of Greater Boston
in the public square. Jeremy writes and speaks widely about challenges and opportunities facing the Jewish community. He has been published
widely, including in the New York Jewish Week, the Jewish Forward, Zeek, Sh’ma and the Washington Post: On Faith. The JTA included him
in its 2010 “Twitter 100” list of the most influential Jewish voices on Twitter.
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CONCEPT, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT BY
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The Boston Jewish
Establishment’s War on
Dissent
January 3, 2014Dovid Margolin
In an effort to stay relevant and powerful in an increasingly different world than
the one they grew up in, Jewish establishment leaders in Boston have developed a
distinct pattern of response. When anyone with a dissenting opinion raises the
alarm on an issue that the establishment feels uncomfortable discussing – such
as Left-wing anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism – they smear them. They try
to shut down discussion by saying that opinions opposing their own are not valid
and cannot be tolerated.

One notable leader of the opposition is Dr. Charles Jacobs. Instead of engaging
with him, the Jewish establishment labels him and his supporters McCarthy-ites
and Islamophobes.

And then, just when they figure out that Jacobs was right, the establishment
embraces his battles, stepping onto the field at exactly the right moment before
ultimately claiming victory for themselves. It’s a brilliant tactic, but one that will
serve the establishment’s purposes only for so long.

A Pattern Revealed

When Charles Jacobs wrote an op-ed in the Boston Jewish Advocate in 2010
questioning the wisdom of Rabbi Eric Gurvis’ embrace of Bilal Kaleem of the
Muslim American Society, seventy Massachusetts Reform rabbis signed
a letter condemning him, and smearing him with the brush of Islamophobia.
They called upon him to “discontinue his destructive campaign against Boston’s
Muslim community, which is based on innuendo, half-truths and unproven
conspiracy theories.”

Federal prosecutors had by then called Kaleem’s Muslim American Society an

overt front for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim American Society is also the
parent organization of the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Roxbury – where
extremist speakers regularly appeared, and whose trustee for 8 years was Yusuf al
Qaardawi, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood – as well as the Islamic
Society of Cambridge mosque, a mosque regularly attended by the Boston
Marathon bombers. So much for unproven conspiracy theories.
In 2012 Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), the organization that Jacobs
heads, called attention through a series of videos to the viciously anti-Semitic and
anti-Israel activities of a number of professors and student organizations at
Northeastern University in Boston. Holocaust Awareness Week at Northeastern,
created to ensure that future generations not forget about the Holocaust, had
been hijacked and transformed into a week-long Israel bashing event where
Israel was routinely compared to Nazi Germany and featured speakers such as
the notorious Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry.

A second video documented the radical Muslim activity taking place at

Northeastern University. On tape was the university’s Muslim chaplain, Imam
Abdullah Faaruuq, also a Muslim American Society associate, calling upon
congregants at a Brighton mosque to “take up the gun and the sword” in the
service of Allah and to support convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui.

A third video showed Northeastern’s Professor Denis Sullivan lauding the Hamas
terror organization’s kindergartens and healthcare, and Northeastern economics
professor Shahid Alam telling students that they “should laugh away accusations
of anti-Semitism” and wear them as a badge of pride. Students spoke on tape,
some with their faces and voices altered to avoid retribution, about the
atmosphere of fear that any pro-Israel student faced on campus and in
classrooms.

And yet at the time, the leadership of the Boston Jewish community,
organizations that had been founded to stop the defamation of Jews in the public
sphere – such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – did nothing, attempting
only to pressure Jacobs and his allies to lay-off of Northeastern University. “Don’t
make this a public fight,” they told him.

“We called up Northeastern administrators and asked them, ‘do you know about
Imam Faaruuq?’” explains Jacobs in an interview with the Jewish Russian
Telegraph. “The university lawyers called us back and asked us to see the raw
footage, which we sent them.

“A day later Imam Faaruuq’s bio was erased from Northeastern’s website. He was
dismissed from his post – the first time I can recall a university Imam being
dismissed.”

As more and more damning information regarding Northeastern came out, the
tide of public opinion turned, as did the approach of the Boston Jewish
establishment. Gone were the furtive phone calls to Jacobs and his allies to stand
down from their campaign against Northeastern, and in came the establishment
to negotiate a victory instead. On November 11, 2013, the ADL and the Combined
Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) issued a joint statement:
“Over the past several years, students and faculty at Northeastern University
have raised concerns regarding what they have described as virulent and
intimidating anti-Israelism, or even anti-Semitism, on campus. Over the past
year we have worked closely with officials at Northeastern regarding those
concerns…

… Anti-Semitism posing as anti-Israelism is indeed a significant problem on

certain campuses. At the same time, academic freedom and the right of free
expression are vital to any academic setting. We applaud Northeastern for its
statement to faculty and for the work it is doing to promote an atmosphere
premised on civility and respect.”

Notably missing was any mention of APT or the Zionist Organization of America,
whose legal director Susan Tuchman created a shocking report based on
interviews she had done with dozens of students about their experience with anti-
Semitic and anti-Israel professors at Northeastern. To the uninitiated, the ones
who deserved credit for any changes put in place at Northeastern were the ones
who for so long had fought to silence any criticism of the school – the leaders of
the Boston Jewish establishment.

Newton Public Schools

White-washing Newton

The campaign to discover exactly what was being taught in Newton Public
Schools and who had authorized it has recently run a similar course. Two years
ago Newton parent Tony Pagliuso was asked by his daughter whether it was true
that Arab women were being killed in Israeli jails by the hundreds, as she had
read in The Arab World Studies Notebook. Horrified by the specter of his
children being taught anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic lies in his city’s public school
system, Pagliuso went to the school to find out what was going on. The school
promptly dismissed his complaints.

As the story gained publicity, more parents and students began coming forward
with disturbing allegations of anti-Israel propaganda being taught in Newton
schools. At school committee meetings, the committee was confronted by parents
and concerned Newton citizens with some of the materials being used in the
curriculum. The board responded by stone walling and accusing the parents of
“McCarthy-ite” tactics.

In fact, one of the materials used, The Arab World Studies Notebook, was
described in a 2007 report by the American Jewish Committee as “a text that
appears largely designed to advance the anti-Israel and propagandistic views of
the Notebook’s sponsors, the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) and Arab World
and Islamic Resources (AWAIR), to an audience of teachers who may not have
the resources and knowledge to assess this text critically.”

After a full year of pushback from Newton public schools, some of the materials
were removed from classrooms. But instead of apologizing and promising a full
investigation into what else was used and how it got there in the first place,
Newton Public Schools Superintendent David Fleischman said that Newton
Schools had discontinued the use of the Notebook because it had been deemed
“outdated.”

“What was the process used that allowed these publications into the schools?”
asks Jacobs. “Nobody, not us, not the parents, has received any explanations.”

In October of 2013 APT placed advertisements in the Boston Globe, the Boston
Herald, the Jewish Advocate, and the Newton Tab, quoting from the
questionable materials and asking parents and citizens to contact the School
Committee. Among the responses to the ads were accusations that passages had
been taken out of context and that some of them, such as a false claim made in
the Muslim Primer used in Newton that astronaut Neil Armstrong had converted
to Islam, were taken from a part of the book not taught to students.

“What if Mein Kampf had a chapter on vegetarianism – Hitler was a vegetarian,

you know – would you make copies of that chapter, and ignore what the rest of
the book says?” asks Jacobs.

Other handouts distributed to students included a series of maps showing the

shrinking lands of the Palestinians, maps that appear to be exactly the same as
ones produced by the PLO and which were used in anti-Israel ads placed on the
MBTA in October.

“We have all of the maps given out by the school,” says Jacobs. “There is no map
of tiny Israel surrounded by masses of Arab countries. There is no map of
Historical Palestine including Jordan, which the Balfour declaration included. So
there is no Jewish viewpoint to counter the Arab propaganda. We later learned
that the maps in the Newton schools were created by the PLO.”

While the ADL’s Robert Trestan called the MBTA ads “intentionally designed to
mislead the public, and…part of an ongoing anti-Israel campaign that distorts the
issues by oversimplifying the facts around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the
ADL has not said nothing of the sort with regards to Newton Public Schools.

On November 6, 2013, the ADL and the CJP released yet another joint statement,
this one taking aim at Charles Jacobs and defending the Newton School
Committee: “Based on a careful review of the materials at issue by ADL and
JCRC, there is substantial reason to believe that the allegations made in the ad
are without merit. The ad misinterprets certain elements of the materials and
lacks reasonable context. The Newton School Committee and its leadership have
been responsive, and have addressed the questions posed to them in a thoughtful,
constructive way…”

As noted in a series of recent Jewish Advocate stories by Alexandra Lapkin, the

review of Newton teaching materials that the ADL claims to have made has not
been made available to the public, and details of its methodology and findings – if
it even exists – have remained murky at best.

Paul Beran

Who’s teaching the teachers?

In truth, the allegations regarding the Newton School system run deeper than
merely a few teachers using skewed teaching materials to either intentionally or
unintentionally indoctrinate Newton’s young public school students.

Explains Jacobs: “The Newton schools sent their teachers to a workshop at the
Harvard Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) community outreach. The CMES
is funded by a $20 million gift from Saudi prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.

“The program requires the staff at the CMES share their scholarship with public
school teachers. So who led the 80 Newton public school teachers in their
workshop? None other than Paul Beran, who was an important leader of the BDS
movement in Somerville. The teachers then took what they learned there and
brought it to Newton.”

Instead of investigating and denouncing what Newton teachers were taught by

radical leftists such as Paul Beran, the ADL, which incidentally was labeled as the
“modicum for high-browed Zionism” by Beran himself, wishes to wash itself
clean of the Newton issue and return to the rightwing neo-Nazi threats of the
past.

“At this time the ADL is not even supporting our Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request for information from Newton,” says Jacobs.

“Jeff Robbins, the head of the ADL here, was the attorney for the David Project
when we were sued by the Islamic Society of Boston,” explains Jacobs, referring
to the organization he headed prior to founding APT. “He [Robbins] knows what
kind of threat this is, and he hasn’t said a word as the head of the ADL. He hasn’t
made a concerted effort to educate the community.”
“When he first knew about Northeastern he didn’t say anything either. They
know there is a national effort to influence public schools; do they think Newton
will be immune?”

Shutting down debate

One common thread that runs through the establishment’s varied attacks on
Jacobs is shutting down debate by accusing him and anyone that stands with him
of being McCarthy-ites, Tea Party extremists, or Islamophobes.

When the 70 Massachusetts rabbis signed their Jewish “fatwa” against Jacobs,
they accused him of waging a destructive campaign against Boston’s Muslims.
Contrary to their supposition, Jacobs has actively reached out to moderate,
reformist Islamic scholars. Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Mansour is a reformist Islamic
scholar who fled Egypt as a result of persecution by radical Islamists and today
serves on the board of directors of APT.

As co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group, Jacobs has helped to free

thousands of slaves in South Sudan, many of them Muslims. To accuse a man
who has travelled to one of the most dangerous parts of the world to free Muslim
slaves of waging a “destructive campaign” against Muslims seems imprudent.

The October ads that APT placed in local newspapers caused a furor among the
establishment as well. The ads included contact phone numbers, taken from the
Newton School Committee’s own website, for both Superintendent David
Fleischman and School Committee Vice Chair Matt Hills. It turned out that Hills
had published his own home phone number as his contact number. All hell broke
loose as Hills got his congregation’s leadership to accuse Jacobs of purposely
putting the Hills family in danger. APT removed the phone number the next time
the ads were run.

“The police,” Hills told the Boston Globe, “were wonderful and continue to be
wonderful in providing security to our home.”

While Hills did not elaborate as to what kind of threats, if any, he had received,
Jacobs, when he led the movement to free slaves in Sudan, was subject to
multiple death threats from Muslim extremists.

Faltering empire

The Boston Jewish establishment, the CJP and the Jewish Community Relations
Council (JCRC), raises millions upon millions of dollars a year, and has
undoubtedly accomplished great things for the Boston Jewish community. The
CJP’s Boston Birthright-Israel trip has encouraged young members of the Jewish
community to explore their connection to Israel, and the Boston-Haifa
partnership has fostered a growing relationship between the two communities.
The JCRC’s valuable work for the Jewish community’s poor and elderly can not
be negated either.

Yet these facts only serve to strengthen the question: Why would the Boston
Jewish establishment, the ADL and the CJP, go out of its way to attack and vilify
Charles Jacobs, or anyone else who voices a different opinion than their own? Are
they not trying to accomplish the same thing as Jacobs?

The answer is that while this empire of bureaucrats presents plans and writes
reports, they have not been able to pivot towards the new threats that face the
Jewish world. When Boston Jewish leaders Lenny Zakim and Steve Grossman
tried to get the ADL to support or even adopt the media-watchdog CAMERA
when it was formed decades ago, the ADL refused. According to Jacobs, “it is
easier for the ADL to be against Nazis than to expose leftists in the media who
promote the Palestinian cause in their ‘news reports.’”

Unable to drop the niceties of political correctness and some of their own left-
wing ideologies – not to mention some of their donors’ – the multi-million dollar
establishment has found itself in the position of playing catch-up with Charles
Jacobs.

“We are getting more and more information from Newton parents and students,
and we will be releasing it,” says Jacobs. “I believe eventually they will have to
jump on the band wagon here as well.”

But is jumping on the band wagon enough? In 2010 representatives of Boston’s

Russian Jewish community, led by the Russian Jewish Community Foundation’s
President Ary Rotman, signed a letter in the Jewish Advocate taking to task the
establishment’s attack on Jacobs.

“Our Jewish leaders, who were tame as lambs in front of the Islamists, roared as
lions against this brave and lonely voice of dissent,” the letter read.

“Back in the Soviet Union, authorities would put a man like Jacobs behind bars
for anti-Soviet propaganda. In the United States we are dismayed by attempts to
ostracize and silence him.”

Thankfully we do not live in the USSR and Jacobs and others can continue their
valuable work. One lesson that can be learned from the Soviet Union is that
empires do not last forever. But the question remains: what replaces these
organizations? What should we as a community be doing to prepare ourselves for
the inevitable transition? In an age when the Jewish community faces existential
threats, leading from behind simply does not work anymore.