When Antisemitism and Misogyny Combine

hi!! i’m doing a school assignment where i have to write a memo to a CEO of a company about a social issue, and i’ve chosen to write to tumblr about what they can do to combat antisemitic hate speech.

He is currently a member of the national security advisory staff and serves as a deputy assistant to Trump

From 2014 to 2016, Gorka was an editor for National Security Affairs for the Breitbart News Network, where he worked for Bannon.

Three days after Trump won the presidency, he glorified the display of a photo of a dead body. NPR’s Welna recounted this event, stating:  "I’m gonna start with something a tad naughty,“ he told a giddy crowd of Trump supporters. “We are happy. But I am going to show a picture I’m not meant to show usually.“A grisly photo was then projected onto a large screen of the body of an insurgent lying face down, with an AK-47 at its side. "We can win now,” Gorka roared before the cheering crowd. “We can win!”

Gorka was photographed at an inaugural ball wearing a medal from the Hungarian Order of Heroes, Vitezi Rend, a group listed by the State Department as taking direction from Germany’s Nazi government during World War II.

The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect made a statement on March 17 calling for “Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate whether Sebastian Gorka falsified his U.S. naturalization application by failing to disclose his membership in a Hungarian neo-Nazi organization.” 

Gorka’s mother worked with David Irving on a book on the Hungarian revolution called Uprising. Irving was later jailed for Holocaust denial. 

Mashhadi Jews trace their roots to the 1740s when the ruler of Iran, Nader Shah, decided to relocate 40 Jewish merchant families from Qazvin to Mashhad which had been declared by Nader Shah as the new capital of Iran.

Nader Shah was relatively liberal towards minorities & entrusted the Jewish families to protect the treasures he had plundered from his invasion of India. He also expected their roles as merchants & their international connections would bring economic prosperity to his new capital.

The city of Mashhad in north-east Iran is one of the holiest & most pious in the country. It houses the shrine of Imam Reza, the 8th Shia Imam. The city itself grew around the shrine after the shrine was built. The city is often called “Iran’s spiritual capital”.

While the relocation of the Jewish families did contribute to Mashhad’s economic prosperity, local Muslims were less than enthusiastic about the Jewish presence in their holy city.

The tensions & anti-Jewish sentiments culminated in 1839 during the holy month of Muharram when a violent mob attacked the Jewish quarter, destroying synagogues & homes, burning torah scrolls, abducting young girls, & killing between 36-40 Jews. A large number fled to the nearby city of Herat in what is now Afghanistan. Most Afghan Jews today are descended from the Mashhadi refugees.

Those who remained in Mashhad after the pogrom were compelled to convert to Islam under the threat of death. Local Muslims called the event “allahdad” - god’s justice. However the Mashhadi Jews survive to this day because while they publicly embraced Islam they secretly retained their Jewish faith. They took Islamic names but at home used their original Hebrew names. They observed shabbat in secret. They publicly bought halal slaughtered meat but fed it to the poor & secretly carried out shechita (kosher slaughtering). Arranged marriages while young were common, this way if any Muslims proposed marriage they could say they’re already betrothed.

This continued for almost a century until 1925 when Reza Shah came to power & secularised the country. The Mashhadi Jews were then able to publicly return to Judaism. However a second pogrom in 1946 caused the entire community to relocate to Tehran, Israel, & New York. 

Today there is no Jewish community in Mashhad, neither open nor secret. After spending nearly 90 years living double lives to preserve their faith they have a very unique identity among Iranians Jews. Even diaspora communities in Israel & New York have remained insular. Marriages between Mashhadis & non-Mashhadis tend to be rare.

Sources 1,2,3,4,5