Come sweat and indulge in Israeli Culture with Krav Maga and a falafel dinner!

Participation and dinner are free! Please wear sportswear. For more information, check the Facebook Event.

This was featured in the Columbia Spectator on Monday, January 31, 2011.  It was collaboratively written by LionPAC members Michael Shapiro, Eric Schorr, Jonathan Huberman, and Seffi Kogen; Just Peace members Abby Shuster and Kevin Siegel, and Hillel’s Israel Coordinator, Matthew Jacobs.

“Holocaust” is a term heavy with emotion. Its mention evokes anger, sorrow, and confusion at the unthinkable actions that one group of human beings committed against another. We, the current and future generations of the world, must learn a lesson in memory of the 11 million people who died simply for being themselves. A Holocaust can never happen again—for anyone.

This very phrase, “Never Again for Anyone,” was the title of a recent lecture on campus hosted by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine that was timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event sought to depict the State of Israel as the perpetrator of a modern Holocaust, a comparison that is not only based in fallacy, but one that is a hurtful disregard of both the political and social reality in the Middle East. Continue reading…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 27, 2011

New York, NY—Today marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which pays tribute to the estimated eleven million Jews, homosexuals, handicapped, and other minorities murdered as part of the Holocaust. January 27 marks the anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi concentration camp where over one million people were exterminated.

On this day the nations of the world should unite to mourn the loss of those innocent men, women and children who died as a result of their religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or physical appearance. As sensible students and members of the Columbia community, we cannot allow for the desensitization of this sacred day. However, there are those within our community who wish to exploit this day of mourning by drawing disgusting and despicable comparisons between the Nazi Holocaust and the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. While LionPAC does not seek to belittle Palestinian suffering, the notion that the deliberate and systemized mass extinction of the Jewish people by the Nazis is comparable to Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas—a widely recognized terrorist organization funded in part by Iran—is not only offensive to the Jewish people, but to humanity as a whole.

LionPAC would like to remind the Columbia community to keep the millions massacred by the Nazis in your thoughts today, and to never forget the true meaning and purpose of this day of remembrance.

By Michael Shapiro

President, LionPAC

Make sure to come on Sunday to meet the new executive board and have free dinner this Sunday night at 7:30! Check out the full details on our facebook event here.

Another event to keep on your radar is our annual Lobby Mission to Washington D.C. on March 31.  Its a great chance to meet your congressperson, visit our nation’s capital, and promote legislation relevant to Israel and the Middle East. Best of all, its 100% FREE.

If you are interested click here to sign up.