Category: Uncategorized

The newly upgraded Old City landmark offers a new flow, exquisite design and enjoyable exhibits for young and old.

By Judith Segaloff, JNS

Tucked inside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City stands an edifice that personifies the resilience of Israel’s eternal capital.

The Tower of David has served as a Herodian fortress, a Crusaders’ palace, an Ottoman entrance gate, and now hosts the renewed and state-of-the-art Tower of David Jerusalem Museum.

The $50 million renewal and conservation of the museum, thanks to Dame Vivien Duffield through the Clore Israel Foundation, the Jerusalem Municipality and other philanthropic funding, has transformed a compound designed to keep intruders out to carefully plotted galleries filled with exhibits that explore and trace the history and the spirit of Jerusalem.

Turning the ancient structure into a modern and accessible museum was a formidable challenge for the architects and design team on the project. Using all the original architecture, except for one ceiling, they transformed the first-century fortress into a welcoming, comfortable, and handicapped-accessible modern museum with 215,000 square feet of galleries detailing Jerusalem’s 4,000-year significance to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

After 10 years of planning, three years of construction and the installation of a mile of fiber optic cables, the museum, originally founded in 1989, is set to officially open on June 1, with an additional contemporary art gallery opening in November.

According to Caroline Shapiro, director of external affairs for the museum, the new flow that begins adjacent to the Jaffa Gate takes visitors through the museum in a way designed to showcase the city of Jerusalem. It still offers shady outdoor areas where tour guides gather their groups or where visitors can meet before beginning their exploration.

Curator Tal Kobo and her seven core team members combined actual artifacts culled from the site during excavations by teams of archeologists during the renovation with 3-D touch screens, mounted carefully to highlight the stone walls behind the glass.

Eilat Lieber, chief curator of the museum, understood the nature of the diverse audiences she had to reach, after her son took a school trip to the museum prior to its renovation and pronounced it “boring.” History, he said, is boring. She pondered how to make it relevant to our time—and to the many different communities that converge in Jerusalem.

“We decided to use an interactive process,” she explained. “We have the perfect location, and this building represents all the layers of history and of conflict,” she said. “We realized that the evidence of the past will tell the story in different ways and engage visitors to find what is meaningful to each different person. The Tower of David is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved fortresses in the world. The history of Jerusalem must be told through technology and beautiful design.”

With headsets and audio tours, her son came back on a class trip to experience the “new” museum. This time he didn’t say boring. “This,” he said, “is cool!”

The museum’s sleek new design

The technology team for the museum comprised more than 50 people in five separate studios.

The designers chose a clean, minimalistic look to contrast with the heavy stone structure and enhance the power of the site. Even the cracks between the stones were conserved. Grouting was replaced by limestone. Elevators and ramps were installed.

“The two elevators were six years of heated discussion with the antiquities commission,” recalls professor Tal Roih de Lange of Studio de Lange, one of the designers.

“The important design principle was to maintain context with the city,” he explained. “Each space is different in both architecture and context. “Communication cables, electric wires and even lighting fixtures were carefully hidden.”

But how do you light 215,000 square feet of castle without beams and ugly cables strung across the ancient ceilings?

The architects and designers met the challenge using “floating” cement floors with LED lighting in between the crevice between floor and wall. Heating and cooling emanates from under the floors as well. Small but powerful sconces inserted in the limestone cracks between the stones were used to augment the natural lighting of the vaulted ceilings. The glass displays light up as well, offering effective and dramatic interaction.

And don’t think the acoustics in a castle are optimal. According to Architect Yotam Cohen Sagi, they used 3D scans to conduct acoustic studies and tried three different materials until they were able to ensure that the sound traveled properly throughout the galleries.

3000 years of history in 3 minutes

“I have never been on so many site visits and to so many meetings for a project,” Sagi explained. “There were so many layers, and we used old fashioned methods of measuring and leveling—holding strings. And then, just when you think you know what you’re doing, you find ancient remains or artifacts and have to stop everything and call in the Israel Antiquities Authority,” he said.

Every window and skylight is visible. At one point the visitor looks through a display and a window beyond the exhibit highlights the modern city of Jerusalem. History connects with high-tech Jerusalem itself.

All the 3D models face in the actual direction of their orientation, transporting the visitor to their exact location within the space of the museum. As large as each space is, the exhibits are designed to keep visitors engaged, without fatigue from the constant content. The technology is designed to communicate various content in different ways. Transparent touch screens allow 360-degree close-ups of real artifacts located in nearby cases in one space. Another space lends itself to ceiling projections, and another to multimedia presentations.

The first gallery offers 3,000 years of history in three minutes—a multimedia presentation by Israeli cinematographer and Golden Globe winner Ari Folman. Through classic animation and video mapping, it traces the history and culture of Jerusalem.

A “Bunting Map” from the Middle Ages portrays Jerusalem as the center of the world, flanked by Europe, Asia and Africa; the city on the shores of eternity. As you progress through the gallery, it’s like being in a time tunnel, with a 40-foot-long interactive wall fueled by 12 computers.

As you progress through the Mamluks and Ottomans and finally find the interactive 3D globe, you are brought to almost the present time with a letter from Israel’s first president, David Ben-Gurion, to a young boy

If you enjoy maps, there are 14 interactive ones on offer, including an elevation map of Jerusalem, enhanced by special lighting and a 2.5 minute video that displays the entire city.

Don’t forget your audio guide (it’s in three languages). As you progress through the museum, it will tell you what you’re looking at, because at some point, it can become overwhelming. You will see a five-and-a-half-minute film by Jerusalem filmmaker Yair Moss, and Dale Chihuly glass exhibits adjacent to cannonballs from the Jerusalem revolt in days of yore.

Each religion is given its due. The Jewish room features the mosaic of Bet Alpha’s Binding of Isaac and a large model of the Second Temple, complete with artifacts from that period, including a coin press for Hasmonian coins and a first-century lily coin. A Yeshiva University-created 3D scan of the Arch of Titus has been colorized and animated, capping off the Jewish exhibit.

A Jordanian Madaba Map with crusader coins features the Tower of David on the coins, with some featuring the Crusader kings and queens who took up residence in this very castle.

Underneath the minaret, which served as a mosque at various times during the city’s history, there is a large model of the Temple Mount complex, featuring the Al Aqsa Mosque and a cutaway of the famed Dome of the Rock. For those of us who have never been near or inside it, it is illuminating to see the Foundation Stone and other features of the Mount.

“With all its layers and incarnations, the Tower of David has never been a ‘holy place,’ explains Tal Kobo. “But the artifacts and the history symbolize the yearning to come back to Jerusalem.”

For children who still think “history is boring,” in addition to all the displays and visuals, every room is equipped with fun interactive games and quizzes for children. For the older generation and for those with special needs, the museum is one of the most accessible attractions in Jerusalem.

“We had to get permission for everything,” explained Reut Kozak, accessibility coordinator for the museum. “From hanging signs to buildings and structuring the floors. The Mamluks didn’t make the doorways wide enough for wheelchairs,” she said.

All told, only 15% of the museum is not completely accessible, she added.

Famous for its light shows at night, the new museum will feature noise reduction headphones and relaxed performances for people on the autism spectrum or who have sensitivities to sound. An app uses Bluetooth to access hearing aids for the hearing impaired and customizes the sound for each ear, and there are audio descriptions for the sight impaired.

A sensory map provides a guide that details dark, light and the noisier rooms, and there is a special audio tour guide for sight impaired. There are visuals with sign language on the app for the hearing-impaired.

The only area not accessible to anyone who cannot navigate the final 50 steps is the Observation Deck, but the museum has created a Virtual Reality experience for those left behind that will help them enjoy the 360-degree panoramic view from their phone.

And, thanks to the new flow, when you come out of the Tower of David, through what used to be the original entrance, the Old City is at your feet, ready to be explored in real time.

The post A high-tech upgrade for the ancient Tower of David appeared first on World Israel News.

Tens of thousands of mourners gathered at the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak for the funeral of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.

The post WATCH: Tens of thousands gather in Bnei Brak to mourn passing of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein appeared first on World Israel News.

“The archives are in danger of being lost to time, which would be a tragedy.” Jews of Oporto, Portugal, looking to recruit support for project to preserve the historical records of the Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula.

By World Israel News Staff

The Jewish Community of Oporto, which paid for the preservation and digitization of Portuguese Inquisition archives from the 16th Century is now seeking to sign an agreement to preserve the 17th-century archive and records, while at the same time calling on the international Jewish community to help in the preservation of later centuries.

Michael Rothwell, director of the Jewish Museum of Oporto and a member of the board of the local Jewish community, recalls that “The Portuguese Inquisition was in force between 1536 and 1831. (Historian) Cecil Roth said since the beginning of history, there has probably been no time when such a systematic and long persecution was perpetrated because of such an innocent practice.”

Under a protocol signed in 2019 between Torre do Tombo National Archive and the Jewish Community of Oporto, the Community undertook to pay for the preservation of 16th Century Inquisition cases. The protocol, assisted by then-Israeli Ambassador to Portugal, Raphael Gamzou, made it possible to recruit professional restoration personnel, and set in motion the restoration and digitization of 1,778 court cases against “Jewish infidels” in three centers, Lisbon, Évora and Coimbra, which also included cases from Oporto.

That same year, the Community and the Torre do Tombo National Archive agreed to sign successive protocols regarding the preservation of the Inquisition records of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Now that work on the 16th century is almost concluded, the Community would like to sign a protocol regarding 17th-century Inquisition cases and has called on the Jewish world to help contribute to the cost of the project for the latter centuries. The total value of the three century’s operation could reach as high as 3 million Euros.

Ashley Perry (Perez), President of Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with their Jewish ancestry, welcomed the preservation efforts by the Oporto Jewish Community.

“The archives are in danger of being lost to time, which would be a tragedy, not just to our past but also the future as millions of people around the world are researching possible Jewish ancestry,” said Perry, whose ancestors fled Portugal in the early 16th Century.

“The preservation and digitization of Inquisition records is essential to preserve our global Jewish history, because Portuguese Jews, many of whom had been forcibly baptized and forced to flee, formed the historic Jewish communities in the U.S., the UK, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. These archives are Jewish history, and we dare not let them disappear.”

The documentation at the Torre do Tombo National Archive regarding the Court of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and its courts in Lisbon, Coimbra, Évora, Tomar, Oporto and Lamego, total a massive 1,600 meters in length. Ruth Calvão, President of the Center for Jewish Studies in Trás-os-Montes, says: “The deterioration of the archive items constitutes a real danger that the personal stories and testimonies about the historic injustices and atrocities they endured could disappear forever.”

The Inquisition’s documentation has become the most reliable historical source for the history of the Jewish community in Portugal. The Tribunal do Santo Ofício (Inquisition) was established in Portugal to try crimes against the Christian faith and put an end to heresies and apostasies.

Denial of the facts by the subject of the inquiry resulted in months or years in prison including excruciating torture until a new hearing was scheduled. The prisoner was forced to pay all the expenses of the imprisonment, the trial, and torture and, if convicted, all property was confiscated.

The post ‘Don’t let the legacy of the Inquisition be forgotten,’ Portuguese Jewish community says in plea to world Jewry appeared first on World Israel News.

China working to undermine the West with extensive political warfare operations, yet the US and UK have ‘no plans’ for countering Beijing’s efforts, sources say.

By Adam Kredo, The Washington Free Beacon

The United States and United Kingdom are struggling to counter China’s increasingly hostile political warfare operations, according to sources briefed on recent high-level meetings between officials from both countries.

During this month’s summit between British leaders and members of the House Select Committee on China, officials acknowledged that while both countries have strategies in place to handle a military confrontation with China, “we have no plan” to combat Chinese aggression off the battlefield, according to a source briefed on the contents of the private discussions.

The CCP’s political warfare operations were raised as a concern in several meetings during the transatlantic summit, a sign that both countries are struggling to beat back China’s growing global footprint. Officials from both countries expressed concerns about a burgeoning “international order with Chinese characteristics,” according to the source briefed on the meetings.

China has expanded its global influence operation in recent years in a bid to exert dominance over the international community.

Beijing has poured resources into a global campaign of economic coercion and worked to shape narratives and peddle propaganda through international institutions like the United Nations.

These efforts were on full display during the coronavirus pandemic, when China successfully prevented the World Health Organization from disclosing that the virus likely emerged from a Wuhan lab, as several U.S. intelligence reports have determined in recent months.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), the China committee’s chairman who led the delegation to Britain, said he came away from the meetings concerned the British and American governments are not doing enough to detach their economies from China and fend off the CCP’s global spy operations. Both countries continue to rely heavily on Chinese supply chains, particularly in the technology sector, that are vulnerable to Communist Party coercion and spying.

“There is a sustained push we’re seeing right now from the Biden administration on this kind of what I call a ‘zombie engagement’ or detente, this sort of revival of economic engagement as a core pillar of our policy, of which I’m kind of skeptical,” Gallagher told the Free Beacon last week.

The United Kingdom is pursuing a similar policy, Gallagher said, and has recently walked back commitments to crackdown on CCP spy outposts like Confucius Institutes. The British government additionally watered down recent policy declarations regarding China’s malign economic behavior, and continues to foster economic ties to Beijing.

“I think that lack of clarity muddles our thinking and undermines our approach,” Gallagher said.

If the United States and China went to war, the communist government would likely shut down global supply chains, crippling the Western world’s economy. A congressional war simulation held in April confirmed this outcome, determining that a military conflict would leave the global economy in “absolute tatters,” the Free Beacon first reported.

Taiwan and the threat of a Chinese invasion also emerged as a top agenda item during the trip, with officials discussing strategies to deter a full-blown military siege of the contested island.

The AUKUS treaty—a trilateral security pact between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia—was raised in nearly every meeting, which included sit-downs with Britain’s deputy national security adviser, its defense minister, and eight members of Parliament.

Government leaders want to leverage the treaty to increase military and technological cooperation between the Western governments in a bid to isolate China, according to the source briefed on the meetings. By expanding the AUKUS treaty, the three countries can use it as a vehicle to beat back Chinese influence operations.

“AUKUS presents an opportunity to turbo charge military and technological cooperation with our two closest allies,” Gallagher said.

The American delegation also held meetings with executives from Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence project, which is headquartered in Cambridge. Gallagher said the project provides an opportunity to undercut China’s use of AI in its military projects.

“It puts us in a really good position to beat the Chinese Communist party in the AI race,” Gallagher said. “We heard from our counterparts in the U.K. that allowing China to dominate this tech would be an incredibly, incredibly bad idea.”

The post ‘We have no plan’: US, UK struggle to combat Chinese influence, officials say appeared first on World Israel News.

In the debt ceiling standoff, Republicans have held the global economy hostage, demanding a ransom payment that consists of cuts to the US social safety net, rapid approval of fossil fuel projects, and more. Joe Biden is mostly letting the GOP get its way.

President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) talk as they depart the US Capitol following the Friends of Ireland Luncheon on Saint Patrick’s Day March 17, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

In the debt ceiling standoff, Republicans are holding the global economy hostage, demanding a ransom payment that consists of gutting the US social safety net, rapid approval of fossil fuel projects, cuts to education and national park budgets, and more.

Their strategy appears to be working. On Saturday night, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced he and Biden had reached a tentative “agreement in principle” to raise the debt ceiling that includes new work requirements on social programs and cuts to the federal budget. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the agreement this upcoming Wednesday.

President Joe Biden, a famously bad negotiator who has pushed for cuts to social programs in the past, has negotiated with the hostage takers. Lawmakers in his own party are reportedly “anxious” that the president has been ignoring the old adage about negotiating with terrorists. In other words, the current standoff over the debt ceiling looks like the Washington Generals (Democrats) deliberately getting pantsed and preparing to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters (Republicans).

“Washington Generals express regrets about deliberately getting pantsed and losing to the Globetrotters” pic.twitter.com/CUPFp8hKtH

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) May 24, 2023

The current standoff over the debt ceiling is a pathetic spectacle. Initially designed to allow the United States to borrow money during World War I, the debt ceiling now exists as an arbitrary limit on government borrowing that Congress raises pro forma each time the country approaches that cap. But sometimes, lawmakers use the threat of a default — which could cause millions of people to lose their jobs, a freeze on Social Security payments, a spike in US borrowing costs, and a recession that would reverberate across the world — as a nuclear bargaining chip to impose austerity measures.

The standoff gives cover to politicians and dark money interests to push unpopular and punitive cuts under the guise of negotiating over the debt ceiling.

If you don’t believe me, check out the evidence yourself.

Republicans, led by McCarthy, proposed defunding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which will actually reduce revenue by defanging tax auditors and enabling even more tax evasion by the wealthy and corporations. Republicans slashed funding for the IRS in 2011, have vilified the agency for targeting the tax-exempt status of Tea Party groups, and probably want to protect their wealthy corporate donors from audits. Even as corporations have seen rising profits over the past couple of decades, their tax payments have not increased. Biden is reportedly on board with some IRS cuts.

Republicans also reportedly shot down a proposal to close the carried interest loophole, which allows private equity and hedge fund executives to pay a substantially lower tax rate on their income than other top earners, costing the United States anywhere from $18 to $180 billion a decade.

For his part, Biden has enabled an illegal $50 billion tax giveaway, mostly to millionaires and billionaires, even though his IRS could stop the upward transfer of wealth.

McCarthy claims “the problem is . . . not revenue, the problem is spending,” which perhaps isn’t surprising, since his party is pushing to extend Trump’s 2017 corporate tax breaks, which could cost more than $3 trillion over the next decade.

But on the spending front, McCarthy proposed a spending increase for the military, and substantial cuts for nearly the rest of the government.

The Pentagon budget is so bloated and poorly accounted for that when officials spotted a $3 billion “accounting error” earlier this month, nobody batted an eye. That’s not new for the Department of Defense, which failed its fifth audit in a row last year and could not even account for half of its $3.5 trillion in assets.

McCarthy’s proposal to slash discretionary spending in the nonmilitary parts of the budget without any new revenue would have required draconian cuts to federal enforcement agencies and social programs. His ideas included: kicking millions of people off food assistance and Medicaid, repealing the signature climate law passed last year, laying off workers, and increasing processing times at the Social Security Administration, among others.

The backdrop for all of these antics is that the US government is constitutionally obligated to make good on its debt. The executive can’t refuse to spend money authorized by Congress, which retains the power of the purse. Congress also has to make good on its contracts — to pay federal workers and to provide health insurance, for example.

Progressives had called on Biden to reject spending cuts and instead invoke the Fourteenth Amendment provision that the “validity of the public debt . . . shall not be questioned” to avert a crisis, but Biden shot down the idea. The Treasury Department could mint a trillion-dollar coin to pay government expenses — a gimmick commensurate with the farce of a “debt ceiling” — but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen didn’t like the idea. Other constitutional financial gimmicks are available too.

Instead, Democrats seem to be preparing to get pantsed. “We’ll see where this comes out,” one anonymous Democratic lawmaker told the Washington Post before the tentative agreement was announced, “but by definition we’re only measuring success on how much we lost.”

You can subscribe to David Sirota’s investigative journalism project, the Lever, here.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article …

The post Europe’s War Against Refugees Is Fueling the Far Right’s Ascension appeared first on Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article …

The post Turkey: Erdogan’s Election Victory – What’s Next? appeared first on Global Research.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the shooting.

By World Israel News Staff

A Palestinian terrorist shot and critically wounded an Israeli civilian Tuesday morning near the Jewish community of Hermesh in northwestern Samaria.

Meir Tamari, 32, sustained a bullet wound to the upper body and was treated at the scene before being evacuated by helicopter to hospital, Magen David Adom medics said.

He arrived unconscious and in critical condition at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, where he was pronounced dead.

“The wounded man arrived with a fatal injury. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the doctors, the team had to pronounce him dead. The family has been notified. The hospital shares in the family’s grief,” the hospital said in a statement.

Israeli forces launched a manhunt for the shooter, who fled the scene.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the shooting.

“The writing was on the wall. If the checkpoint had been active, the attack would have been avoided,” charged Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, noting that no IDF soldiers were present, JNS reported.

“This is a reality where the security checkpoints do not exist and the terrorist can go freely and return freely, and five minutes after he was shooting he is drinking coffee in his house in the village. It costs us in blood,” Dagan said.

This was not the first time that Dagan lamented that lack of security for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Just last week, for example, he reiterated his demand after a woman and her four daughters narrowly escaped death when a terrorist shot at their car on a road in Samaria.

“We cannot keep relying on miracles,” the Council head said after that incident. “Just a few minutes from there, Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered [in Huwara]. There are so many terror attacks. Unfortunately, this government has not yet changed its approach, and I say to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense and all the ministers: The government has direct responsibility for the deterioration in security.”

“We will not agree that in the center of the State of Israel, precious families like this one drive and feel like they’re sitting ducks,” he added.

‘Our country is at war’

Gush Etzion Regional Council Mayor Shlomo Ne’eman,, chairman of the Yesha Council, echoed Dagan’s call for a stronger response to wave of terror.

“It was a serious attack, a dead Jew, a resident of Hermesh was murdered by terrorists who are financed by the PA. We share in the sorrow of the family and his relatives,” he said.

“Unfortunately, even with this terrible murder, the writing was on the wall. There have been dozens of shooting terrorist attacks over the past month, especially in northern Samaria. This is not about isolated shooting attacks, but a wave of terrorism that affects the citizens of the State of Israel almost daily. We are again demanding that the security establishment and the government prioritize the safety of the residents of Judea and Samaria. The immediate answer is to deal with the terrorists heavy-handedly and carry out an operation in order to confiscate their weapons until the PA’s stockpiles have been depleted.

“Our country is at war. And we expect a real war against a brutal enemy,” he stated.

The post Terrorist murders Israeli father of 2 in Samaria in drive-by shooting appeared first on World Israel News.

There’s no indication London will stop escalating, as it’s now at the forefront of the initiative to deliver F-16 fighter jets to the Neo-Nazi junta. Moscow is well aware of this and has made efforts to communicate with the UK, but to no avail. London’s rabid Russophobia seems to be clouding its judgment, leaving Russia with no other option but to just cut contact.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article …

The post Why Exactly Does the Government Dump Toxic Fluoride Into ¾ of the US Water Supply? appeared first on Global Research.