Biden Administration, Gun Violence Prevention, News & Photo Features

Biden Lauds Everytown, Moms Demand Action GunSense Activists; Points to Historic Progress But More to Do to Stem Gun Violence

June 12, 2024 krubin

By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, [email protected]

Less than two hours after hearing his only surviving son, Hunter, was found guilty of 3 gun possession offenses, President Joe Biden stood steadfast to uphold policies and laws to reduce America’s gun violence epidemic and change America’s cultural idolatry with guns. In that moment, he did two critical things befitting a president and a man of character and commitment: he upheld the rule of Law and the judicial process, saying he would respect the jury’s verdict and would not pardon his son, and vowed to continue the yeoman’s job of reversing America’s uniquely horrendous level of gun violence.

There are those who are pushing for the Supreme Court, which has a record now of putting the sanctity of the 2^nd Amendment over the sanctity of life, to overturn the very gun regulations that ensnared Hunter, basically arguing for drug addicts, domestic abusers, those suffering mental illness, should be allowed to purchase all the guns they want and Hunter should appeal based on how rarely the charges against him have ever been prosecuted. But that would be wrong. With two-thirds of gun deaths due to suicide and the majority of murders of women and children by domestic abusers, no drug addict, as Hunter was at the time and as the jury found, should be allowed to purchase a gun. It is very possible that this law saved Hunter’s life and his family. This Supreme Court is also itching to overturn Red Flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of anyone who is a danger to themselves or someone else, hearing the plea of a domestic abuser who was refused a gun. Biden’s Solicitor General is trying to keep the law intact.

The irony of the timing of this important event with his son’s jury verdict is worthy of fiction. But Biden made no mention of it in his speech. Instead, he pointed to success of historic, landmark legislation and historic policies and actions that are already yielding result, including record DECREASES in violent crime.

In a statement issued by the White House, President Biden declared, ”Violent crime is dropping at record levels in America. It’s good news for our families and our communities. Today, the FBI released preliminary data collected from over 11,000 law enforcement agencies around the country showing that, in the first quarter of this year, murders decreased by 26%, robberies by almost 18%, and violent crime overall by 15%. These large decreases follow major reductions in crime in nearly every category in 2023 – including one of the lowest rates for all violent crime in 50 years and significant declines in murder.

“This progress we’re seeing is no accident. My Administration is putting more cops on the beat, holding violent criminals accountable, and getting illegal guns off the street – and we are doing it in partnership with communities. As a result, Americans are safer today than when I took office.

“After we saw the largest increase in murders ever recorded during the previous Administration, my Administration got to work protecting the American people. My America Rescue Plan – which every Republican voted against – delivered $15 billion to cities to hire and retain more cops and keep communities safe. I took on the gun lobby and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, the most significant gun violence legislation in nearly 30 years. But there is more to do. I will continue fighting for funding for 100,000 additional police officers, and crime prevention and community violence intervention programs. Every American deserves to feel safe in their community – which is why I will continue to invest in public safety.”

Over chants of “Four More Years” Biden thanked Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action gunsense activists for all their work actually changing the culture, getting politicians to their side, that has made brought his efforts, his ideas to fruition, while pledging that there is so much more to do.

Biden turned the cheers into appreciation for the activists. “You’ve helped power a movement,” Biden said.

The contrast – in character, commitment, mission, purpose – between Biden, upholding the Rule of Law in face of significant personal pain and pushing forward with policies to address America’s scourge of gun violence, and Trump who said of school shooting victims, “Get over it” and boasted to the NRA convention that he did nothing during his term to rein in gun violence, could not be more dramatic.

“Heroic. What it means to live a principle,” said former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC, of President Biden.

Just a couple of hours after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty of three gun possession violations, the President delivered remarks at Everytown for Gun Safety Gun Sense University in Washington, D.C., where he highlighted the progress his Administration has made to reduce crime and keep guns out of dangerous hands thanks to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), ahead of the two year anniversary since the signing of the law. During his remarks, he announced that the Department of Justice has charged more than 500 defendants for violating the new gun trafficking and straw purchasing provisions created by BSCA.

In his remarks, the President underscored how — as a result of critical investments made through BSCA and his American Rescue Plan –the Biden-Harris Administration has made our communities safer by helping get illegal guns off our streets and putting more cops on the beat, while promoting accountable policing and community violence intervention programs.

The President’s remarks at Gun Sense University build upon outreach and engagement his Administration and the White House’s first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention have undertaken to connect with victims, survivors, groups and organizations that are on the frontlines of the fight against gun violence. Last year, the President spoke at the National Safer Communities Summit and the Vice President recently announced two commonsense gun safety solutions while meeting with survivors in Parkland—the launch of the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, which will support the effective implementation of state red flag laws, and calling on states to pass red flag laws and to use BSCA funding to help implement laws already enacted.

A White House fact sheet details the Biden Administration actions to end the epidemic of gun violence:

The Biden-Harris Administration has deployed a historic effort to partner with state and local law enforcement and keep communities safe by addressing the illegal sources of guns. The strategy is focused not just on the person who pulled the trigger of a firearm, but also on all of the links in the chain that led to the firearm being in the wrong hands, including the gun trafficker, the source of the gun trafficker’s firearms, rogue gun dealers who are willfully violating the law, and ghost gun manufacturers. Key Administration actions to stop the illegal flow of guns into our communities include:

Gun Trafficking Law Enforcement: In 2021, the Justice Department launched five new law enforcement strike forces focused on addressing significant firearms trafficking corridors that have diverted guns to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Washington, D.C. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act also enacted the first ever federal gun trafficking law and federal straw purchasing law. These new provisions created by BSCA have been used to charge more than 500 defendants.
- Cracking Down on Rogue Gun Dealers: The Justice Department enacted a new policy to maximize the efficacy of ATF resources to crack down on rogue gun dealers violating our laws and underscored zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk. The new ATF inspection policies have led to 245 license revocations over the past two years.
- Stopping Gun Manufacturers Illegally Selling Ghost Guns: The Justice Department issued a final rule to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns, which are unserialized, privately made firearms that are increasingly being recovered at crime scenes. According to ATF, the recovery of ghost guns by law enforcement increased 1,083 percent between 2017 and 2021.

Most recently, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a new rule that will save lives by reducing the number of firearms sold without background checks. This final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s expansion of firearm background checks—the most significant expansion of the background check requirement since then-Senator Biden helped shepherd the Brady Bill over the finish line in 1993. This action is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to stem the flow of illegally acquired firearms into our communities and hold accountable those who supply the firearms used in crime.

“The President’s Administration will continue taking action, but Congress must do their part. The President and Vice President continue to call on Congress to pass universal background checks, a national red flag law, and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. As the President has said, ‘we need Congress to do something—do something—so that communities won’t continue to suffer due to the epidemic of gun violence’.”

The Giffords PAC stated: “The FBI just released new data indicating that rates of violent crime dropped 15 percent overall in the first few months of 2024 in comparison to the first few months of 2023. Murders have dropped by about 26 percent. This is a BIG deal, and it’s a testament to the work we’ve done together in our movement to end gun violence.

“Of course, this drop in violence crime could have never been possible without President Biden, the strongest gun safety president we’ve had in office in decades. He had the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law in 2022. It is the most significant federal gun safety legislation passed in nearly 30 years.

“President Biden has made it clear that as long as he’s in office, he will be a champion for gun safety.”

The same cannot be said if Trump or in fact any Republican takes the office.

See next:

President Biden Addresses Everytown’s Gun Sense University: ‘You’ve helped power a movement that is turning this cause into reality…Keep it up’

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© 2024 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.com, email [email protected]. Blogging at www.dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin

Biden Administration, Immigration-Migration-Refugees, Joe Biden, News & Photo Features

President Biden Announces New Actions to Secure the Border, Calls for Congress to Pass Bipartisan Immigration Reform

June 5, 2024 krubin

President Biden, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, announces new actions to control the border while urging Republicans in Congress not to obstruct crucial immigration reform © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC.

With Republicans actively obstructing bipartisan legislation to secure the border, President Biden has taken new actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum, but continues to appeal for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform – as he has proposed since Day 1 of his administration.

Here are President Biden’s remarks about his Executive Order, and a fact sheet describing the new actions to secure the border, provided by the White House:

I’ve come here today to do what the Republicans in Congress refuse to do: take the necessary steps to secure our border.

Four months ago, after weeks of intense negotiation between my staff and Democrats and Republicans, we came to a clear — clear bipartisan deal that was the strongest border security agreement in decades. But then Republicans in Congress — not all, but — walked away from it.

Why? Because Donald Trump told them to. He told the Republicans — it has been published widely by many of you — that he didn’t want to fix the issue; he wanted to use it to attack me. That’s what he wanted to do. It was a cynical and a – extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the American people, who are looking for us to — not to weaponize the border but to fix it.

Today, I am joined by a bipartisan group of governors, members of Congress, mayors, law enforcement officials — most of whom live and work along the southern border. They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized — the responsibility we have to share to do something about it. They don’t have time for the games played in Washington, and neither do the American people.

So, today, I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border.

Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now — that’s broken — fixed, to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But Republicans have left me with no choice.

Today, I’m announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process.

And those who seek — come to the United States legally — for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry — asylum will still be available to them — still available. But if an individual chooses not to use our legal pathways, if they choose to come without permission and against the law, they’ll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.

This action will help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process.

This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage.

We’ll carry out this order consistent with all our responsibilities under international law — every one of them.

In addition to this action, we recently made important reforms in our asylum system: more efficient and more secure reforms. The goal is to deliver decisions on asylum as quickly as possible.

The quicker decision means that a migrant is less likely to pay a criminal smuggler thousands of dollars to take them on a dangerous journey, knowing that if, in fact, they move in the wrong direction, they’d be turned around quickly.

And two weeks ago, the Department of Justice started a new docket in the immigration courts to address cases where people who’ve recently crossed the border and make — they’ll make a decision within six months rather than six years, because that’s what happens now.

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed new rules to allow federal law enforcement to more quickly remove asylum seekers that have criminal convictions and remove them from the United States.

My administration also recently launched new efforts to go after criminal networks that profit from smuggling migrants to our border and incentivize people to give tipsto law enforcement to provide information that brings smugglers to justice.

We’re also sending additional federal prosecutors to hot spots along the border and prosecute individuals who break our immigration laws.

One other critical step that we’ll be taking, and that made a huge difference: We continue to work closely with our Mexican neighbors instead of attacking Mexico, and it’s worked.

We built a strong partnership of trust between the Mexican President, López Obrador, and I’m going to do the same with the Mexican-elect President, who I spoke with yesterday.

We’ve chosen to work together with Mexico as an equal partner, and the facts are clear. Due to the arrangements that I’ve reached with President Obrador, the number of migrants coming and shared — to our shared border unlawfully in recent months has dropped dramatically.

But while these steps are important, they’re not enough.

To truly secure the border, we have to change our laws, and Congress needs to provide the necessary funding to hire 1,500 more border security agents; 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backlog of cases — more than 2 million of them; 4,300 more asylum officers to make decisions in less than six months instead of six years, which is what it takes now; and around 100 more high-tech detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop fentanyl being smuggled into the United States.

These investments were one of the primary reasons that the Border Patrol union endorsed the bipartisan deal in the first place. And these investments are essential and remain essential.

As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not willing to spend the money to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges, more high-tech machinery, you’re just not serious about protecting our border. It’s as simple as that.

I believe that immigration has always been a lifeblood of America. We’re constantly renewed by an infusion of people and new talent.

The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It stands for who we are as the United States.

So, I will never demonize immigrants. I will never refer to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of a country. And further, I’ll never separate children from their families at the border.

I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs. I will not use the U.S. military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes and away from their families to put detention camps while awaiting deportation, as my predecessor says he will do if he occupies this office again.

On my very first day as president, I introduced a comprehensive immigration reform planto fix our broken system, secure our border, provide a pathway for citizenship for DREAMers, and a lot more. And I’m still fighting to get that done.

But we must face a simple truth: To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now.

The simple truth is there is a worldwide migrant crisis, and if the United States doesn’t secure our border, there is no limit to the number of people who may try to come here, because there is no better place on the planet than the United States of America.

For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you that — be patient, and good will of the American people are wearing thin right now. Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act. We must act consistent with both our law and our values — our value as Americans.

I take these steps today not to walk away from who we are as Americans but to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come.

Today, I have spoken about what we need to do to secure the border. In the weeks ahead — and I mean the weeks ahead — I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just.

Let’s fix the problem and stop fighting about it. I’m doing my part. We’re doing our part. Congressional Republicans should do their part.

Fact Sheet: New Actions to Secure the Border

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. Over the past three years, while Congress has failed to act, the President has acted to secure our border. His Administration has deployed the most agents and officers ever to address the situation at the Southern border, seized record levels of illicit fentanyl at our ports of entry, and brought together world leaders on a framework to deal with changing migration patterns that are impacting the entire Western Hemisphere.

Earlier this year, the President and his team reached a historic bipartisan agreement with Senate Democrats and Republicans to deliver the most consequential reforms of America’s immigration laws in decades. This agreement would have added critical border and immigration personnel, invested in technology to catch illegal fentanyl, delivered sweeping reforms to the asylum system, and provided emergency authority for the President to shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed. But Republicans in Congress chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades.

President Biden believes we must secure our border. That is why today, he announced executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, as is the case today. They will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents.

But we must be clear: this cannot achieve the same results as Congressional action, and it does not provide the critical personnel and funding needed to further secure our Southern border. Congress still must act.

The Biden-Harris Administration’s executive actions will:

Bar Migrants Who Cross the Southern Border Unlawfully From Receiving Asylum

President Biden issued a proclamation under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the Southern border into the United States unlawfully. This proclamation is accompanied by an interim final rule from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that restricts asylum for those noncitizens.
- These actions will be in effect when the Southern border is overwhelmed, and they will make it easier for immigration officers to quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.
- These actions are not permanent. They will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations. These actions also include similar humanitarian exceptions to those included in the bipartisan border agreement announced in the Senate, including those for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.

Recent Actions to secure our border and address our broken immigration system:

Strengthening the Asylum Screening Process

The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule to ensure that migrants who pose a public safety or national security risk are removed as quickly in the process as possible rather than remaining in prolonged, costly detention prior to removal. This proposed rule will enhance security and deliver more timely consequences for those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.

Announced new actions to more quickly resolve immigration cases

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security launched a Recent Arrivals docket to more quickly resolve a portion of immigration cases for migrants who attempt to cross between ports of entry at the Southern border in violation of our immigration laws.
- Through this process, the Department of Justice will be able to hear these cases more quickly and the Department of Homeland Security will be able to more quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States and grant protection to those with valid claims.
- The bipartisan border agreement would have created and supported an even more efficient framework for issuing final decisions to all asylum seekers. This new process to reform our overwhelmed immigration system can only be created and funded by Congress.

Revoked visas of CEOs and government officials who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully

The Department of State imposed visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies who profit from smuggling migrants by sea. This action cracks down on companies that help facilitate unlawful entry into the United States, and sends a clear message that no one should profit from the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.
- The State Department also imposed visa restrictions on over 250 members of the Nicaraguan government, non-governmental actors, and their immediate family members for their roles in supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime, which is selling transit visas to migrants from within and beyond the Western Hemisphere who ultimately make their way to the Southern border.
- Previously, the State Department revoked visas of executives of charter airlines for similar actions.

Expanded Efforts to Dismantle Human Smuggling and Support Immigration Prosecutions

The Departments of State and Justice launched an “Anti-Smuggling Rewards” initiative designed to dismantle the leadership of human smuggling organizations that bring migrants through Central America and across the Southern U.S. border. The initiative will offer financial rewards for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, or conviction of those most responsible for significant human smuggling activities in the region.
- The Department of Justice will seek new and increased penalties against human smugglers to properly account for the severity of their criminal conduct and the human misery that it causes.
- The Department of Justice is also partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to direct additional prosecutors and support staff to increase immigration-related prosecutions in crucial border U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Efforts include deploying additional DHS Special Assistant United States Attorneys to different U.S. Attorneys’ offices, assigning support staff to critical U.S. Attorneys’ offices, including DOJ Attorneys to serve details in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in several border districts, and partnering with federal agencies to identify additional resources to target these crimes.

Enhancing Immigration Enforcement

The Department of Homeland Security has surged agents to the Southern border and is referring a record number of people into expedited removal.
- The Department of Homeland Security is operating more repatriation flights per week than ever before. Over the past year, DHS has removed or returned more than 750,000 people, more than in every fiscal year since 2010.
- Working closely with partners throughout the region, the Biden-Harris Administration is identifying and collaborating on enforcement efforts designed to stop irregular migration before migrants reach our Southern border, expand investment and integration opportunities in the region to support those who may otherwise seek to migrate, and increase lawful pathways for migrants as an alternative to irregular migration.

Seizing Fentanyl at our Border

Border officials have seized more fentanyl at ports of entry in the last two years than the past five years combined, and the President has added 40 drug detection machines across points of entry to disrupt the fentanyl smuggling into the Homeland. The bipartisan border agreement would fund the installation of 100 additional cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect fentanyl at our Southern border ports of entry.

In close partnership with the Government of Mexico, the Department of Justice has extradited Nestor Isidro Perez Salaz, known as “El Nini,” from Mexico to the United States to face prosecution for his role in illicit fentanyl trafficking and human rights abuses. This is one of many examples of joint efforts with Mexico to tackle the fentanyl and synthetic drug epidemic that is killing so many people in our countries and globally, and to hold the drug trafficking organizations to account

Israel, Israel-Palestine, Jewish issues, News & Photo Features

Israel Day on Fifth Brings Out 44,000 Unified in Demanding ‘Bring The Hostages Home Now’

June 4, 2024 krubin

Israel Day on Fifth: A contingent of some 2,000 representing the hostages and families led this year’s unusual “Israel Day on Fifth” procession, followed by 40,000 more marching in support of Israel, calling for the immediate release of all the hostages still alive, and the remains of those who are already dead © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, [email protected]

A contingent of some 2,000 representing the hostages and families led this year’s unusual “Israel Day on Fifth” procession, followed by over 40,000 more marching in support of Israel, calling for the immediate release of all the hostages still alive, and the remains of those who are already dead.

“What do we want? All of them.”

“When do we want it? Now.”

“Bring them home NOW.”

was the constant refrain over the hours and miles of the route along 5^th Avenue.

Organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, with support from the UJA- Federation of NY, the theme of this year’s Israel Day gathering was themed “One People, One Heart” and drew some 44,000 participants, Israeli and U.S. politicians, dignitaries, celebrities, and family members of hostages, calling for the hostages to be released.

“This is the most important Israel Day gathering in my lifetime,” JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger, the organizer of the event, said at the kickoff event, standing with family members of the hostages.© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“For decades, Jewish New Yorkers and allies of all backgrounds have marched together up Fifth Avenue to showcase their love and support for Israel and its people and culture,” wrote JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger. “This year, however, is the most important parade of my lifetime. On October 7th our community was changed forever; we suffered the worst loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust and have seen alarming increases in antisemitism in the following months. This mega-event is not simply a response to the horrors we have witnessed and the trauma we have endured. Israel Day on Fifth is a strong, public affirmation of who we are and what we stand for.”

*Senator Chuck Schumer calls for Hamas to release the hostages and negotiate and end to the Israel-Hamas War © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

The event was designed to provide a platform for some 2,000 members of the abductees’ families and former hostages organized and led by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum as well as residents of several southern Israeli communities – including Kfar Aza, Be’eri and Nahal Oz.

*UJA Federation CEO Eric Goldstein: “you learn who your friends are.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Federal, state, and local elected officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressmen Tom Suozzi, Ritchie Torres, Ron Goldman and Grace Meng and NYS Attorney General Letitia James and comptroller Tom DiNapoli were among those standing with the New York Jewish community.

*“Bring them home now,” declared NYS Attorney General Letitia James. “Stand against hate.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Even in these challenging times, tens of thousands of marchers representing more than 200 schools, synagogues, and other organizations from across the tri-state area and asfar as Pennsylvania joined the march.

*NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said, “When some say to divest, New York is increasing investment since Oct., 7. Bring them home now.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

“For thousands of years, the Jewish people have been scattered throughout the world. In different conditions and countries, we have developed a wide array of customs, movements, languages, and rituals, which sometimes cause internal division,’ Treyger wrote. “If we zoom out for a moment, however, one can see how our differences do not define us. All together, our diversity forms a beautiful banner of resilient Jewish communities. It is this banner under which we will march on Sunday: Am Echad, Lev Echad – One People, One Heart.”

*NYS Governor Kathy Hochul stands for Israel and against antisemitism © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Before the march began, three New York Congressmen – Tom Suozzi, Ritchie Torres and Ron Goldman – held a press conference with families of two of the eight American hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 – Omer Neutra, 22 years old, who grew up in Plainview Long Island and deferred admission to SUNY Binghamton to join the IDF where he became a tank commander; and Itay Chen, 19, who was killed during the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, but his remains were taken and used by Hamas for a bargaining chip.

Congressman Tom Suozzi and the Neutra Family, constituents of Suozzi’s from Plainview, joined by Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10), and the family of slain dual US-Israeli citizen Itay Chen, call for the immediate release of Omer Neutra and all American hostages held by Hamas © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Where is the outrage? Eight Americans are still being held by Hamas, 8 months after the savage October 7 massacre of 1,200 including 45 US citizens, over 200 taken hostage of whom some 125 remain hostages, though it is unclear how many are still alive.

Where is the outrage that followed 13 American soldiers dying in a bomb attack as they tried to organize the evacuation of Afghanistan?

Where is the outrage that followed after 9/11?

Why is it that for the first time in American history, Americans being held by a terrorist organization does not provoke that level of outrage?

That’s what Congressmen Tom Suozzi, Richie Torres and Dan Goldman, want to know.

Members of the Neutra Family and the family of slain dual US-Israeli citizen Itay Chen, call for the immediate release of Omer Neutra and all American hostages held by Hamas © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“The American people, New Yorkers, have to recognize that Americans are being held hostage now by Hamas,” Congressman Tom Suozzi of Long Island said.

Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10), and Congressman Tom Suozzi, with the family of slain dual US-Israeli citizen Itay Chen and Neuter family call for the immediate release of Omer Neutra and all American hostages held by Hamas © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“As Americans, never forget Americans are imprisoned in those terror tunnels,” said Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15). “We owe it to fellow Americans to secure their release, bring them home. In the rapidly growing amnesia of October 7, their names and stories must be front and center. The abduction of any one American should be seen as a crime against all.

“The international community is pressuring Israel, there is less pressure on Hamas to release hostages – that is overwhelmingly one sided. Hamas is emboldened. All want the end of war. Above all else, release the hostages. The International community must put pressure flatly where it belongs, flatly on Hamas. Never forget the names of those in captivity.”

*Congressman Dan Goldman:* “Gazans deserve a better life than under Hamas. Hamas use humans as weapons, as shields. We need all of us to pressure Hamas to end the war today – release the hostages and war will end.© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Congressman Ron Goldman (NY-10), standing with families of two of the eight American hostages held in brutal captivity, said, “I don’t remember time in US history where Americans have not been outraged when Americans were held captive. It’s not proportionate for these 8 hostages.

“President Biden has laid out clearly an agreement to end conflict. US, Qatar, Egypt, Israel agreed. If you want a ceasefire, an end to conflict, the one party you should be pressuring is Hamas. Hamas controls whether or not this war continues. If Hamas releases hostages, conflict will end. All of those who care about horrific conditions in Gaza, as we do, if you want it to end, direct your energy to Hamas, focus more on these families suffering, their loved ones remain held by terrorist group In Gaza.

“Gazans deserve a better life than under Hamas. Hamas use humans as weapons, as shields. We need all of us to pressure Hamas to end the war today – release the hostages and war will end.”

*Grand Marshal Harley Lippman* *expresses outrage that Hamas is holding Israeli hostages as young as 1 year old © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

More typically called the Celebrate Israel Parade in the 60 years the event has been held, this year’s much more somber event was called “Israel Day on Fifth” but the energy was reminiscent of the early days of Israel’s creation, and its sense of fighting for its survival, against an international tide turning away, was palpable.

*Dignitaries lead the Israel Day on Fifth march in support of Israel and demanding the release of hostages © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Among the marchers, members from colleges, faculty and students, countering the widespread pro-Palestinian protests: Faculty Against AntiSemitism, CUNY faculty, Columbia Faculty & Staff Supporting Israel, and students from various Hillels on college campuses. “We Stand With Our Students: CUNY Faculty for Israel,” one sign read.

*Hillel college students demand “Bring them home.”© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

And in a twist on the pro-Palestinian chant, “From the River to the Sea,” which calls for the eradication of the State of Israel, several held signs, “From the River to the Sea, Hamas Will Cease to Be.”

*“We Stand with Our students” – CUNY Faculty for Israel © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

“This year’s Israel Day on Fifth was an extraordinary affirmation of our Jewish community’s connection to New York City and the State of Israel,” stated Treyger,. “Our coming together was a demonstration of unwavering support for Israel and her people and pride in our identity as Jews and Zionists. It was also a call for the immediate and safe return of the hostages – we must “Bring Them Home Now!” In these challenging times, this year’s event was the most important we’ve ever had, and the outpouring of support from New Yorkers was overwhelming.”

Here are more highlights:

*“Bring Them Home Now”: A contingent of some 2,000 representing the hostages and families led this year’s unusual “Israel Day on Fifth” procession, © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Government of Israel dignitaries at Israel Day on Fifth © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Israel Day on Fifth: Showing support for Israel and calling for the release of hostages © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Gevurah, representing families of fallen heroes: “In their death they bequeathed us victory.”© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*UJA Israel at Israel Day on Fifth © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*American Zionist Movement of the World Zionist Organization at Israel Day on Fifth © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Holocaust Claims Conference © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*“From the River to the Sea – Hamas will Cease to Be” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Congressman Ritchie Torres marches in Israel Day on Fifth © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Hebrew Academy of Five Towns, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

A small contingent of peace activists call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The traditional group of pro-Palestinian protesters were relocated outside the parade area as security was heightened for this year’s event © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

*Students of Hillels across several college campuses march in support of Israel © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*American Jewish Medical Association © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Sephardic Heritage Alliance salutes the state of Israel © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Christians Stand With Israel © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Theme for Israel Day on Fifth: “One People One Heart”© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Columbia Faculty & Staff Supporting Israel. Columbia University was the scene of some of the earliest and most aggressive pro-Palestinian protests © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Defenders of Democracy march for Israel © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Northwell Health © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Faculty Against Antisemitism Movement, a project of the Academic Engagement Network © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*End Jew Hatred © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Zioness on the march © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*North Shore Hebrew Academy, Great Neck, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

“One People One Heart”: Congress of Bukharian Jews of the USA and Canada, making the points of the many different cultures and peoples who make up the Jewish world community. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

*“One People One Heart”:Russian Speaking Jewish Community of New York © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*“We Won’t Stop” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

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News & Photo Features

Photo Highlights: 20th Anniversary Bethpage Memorial Day Weekend Air Show at Jones Beach

May 26, 2024 krubin

*The US Navy Blue Angels headlined the 20^th anniversary Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

One of the best air shows in the world happens each Memorial Day weekend: the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island. Celebrating its 20^th anniversary, it cannot be beat for spectacular aeronautical feats amidst the ambiance of Jones Beach, where you see the action right in front of you, just above the ocean and stretching to the horizon. The intense action is so close, you often can see the pilots in the cockpits, and so fast and daring, it takes your breath away.

Here are photo highlights from the 2024 air show

The show was headlined and climaxed by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels – a team of six performing their heart-stopping maneuvers in their F/A-18 Super Hornets. They are famous for the Diamond formation, when they fly as close as 18 inches apart, but what most excites me is when the two solos fly extraordinary maneuvers, including coming at each other at a combined speed of over 700 mph. (See: Photo Highlights: US Navy Blue Angels at 20^th Anniversary Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach)

The air show traditionally opens with the United States Army Golden Knights Parachute Team, who launch out of a plane some 30,000 feet high, stream down at 200 mph, and float down to a target in the middle of the crowd on the beach carrying American and POW flags. The Golden Knights portray the image of being the most formidable parachuting competitors and demonstrators in the world today. The team returns for a more intense demonstration that includes free falling, triple-tethered, and a parachutist wearing a suit that lets him fly like a squirrel before finally pulling the chord to his parachute.

*The US Army Golden Knights Parachute team at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*The US Army Golden Knights Parachute team makes a complicated baton hand-over at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Flying in a special suit like a flying squirrel. The US Army Golden Knights Parachute team at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

American Airpower Museum Warbirds, flying vintage WWII fighters and patrol planes, pay homage to Long Island’s historic role as the nation’s arsenal of democracy. Republic Aviation, the complex in Farmingdale where the AAM stands now, produced over 9,000 P-47 Thunderbolts, and today the museum’s collection preserves the heritage and history. The Warbird performance will conclude with a precision aerobatic demonstration of one of the museum’s legendary WWII Fighters.

Vintage Warbirds from the American Airpower Museum, on the site where many of the World War II fighter planes were manufactured, fly at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II Demonstration Team and Legacy Flight shows off the capabilities of this 5th Generation fighter. The F-35C is the world’s most advanced multi-role fighter. With a top speed of 1,200 mph, the F-35C is even capable of setting off sonic booms, but for the air show, stay within 700 mph – still heart-pounding fast. The F-35C has the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft in history, giving pilots 360-degree access to “real-time” battlefield information. The demo features a Legacy Flight formation, providing a unique comparison between the past and present.

***U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II*** *at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team and Heritage Flight showcases the combat capabilities of the A-10 “Warthog” by performing precision aerial maneuvers. Additionally, the team brings attention to the Air Force’s history by flying formations with historical aircraft in the Air Force Heritage Flight.

***U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team and Heritage Flight****© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

***U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II* *shows off its fighting prowess*** *at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, NY © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Long Island’s own David Windmiller, who began flying when he was just 14 years old, soloing for the first time on his 16^th birthday, performs aerobatics in his Zivko Edge 540, thrilling spectators with seemingly impossible feats. Equipped with a custom built project engine of Teledyne, thrust to weight ratio over 1:1, Windmiller’s plane has a climb rate of 3,700 feet per minute, and a rote rate of 420 degrees per minute, making his plane the ideal aircraft for aerobatic flight.

*Long Island native David Windmiller shows off his aerobatic skills in his Zivko Edge 540 © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Mike Goulian earned the distinction of becoming one of the youngest pilots to ever win the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Champion at the age of 27, and is considered one of the most decorated aerobatic pilots in the country. His signature air show performance combines the heart-stopping gyroscopic tumbling of modern display flying with the crisp, aggressive, demands of precision competition aerobatics.

*Aerobatic champion Mike Goolian performs at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Warbird Thunder features the North American SNJ Texan, an aircraft used to train “The Greatest Generation” for WWII and Korean Conflict. The performance features two SNJs, performing formation aerobatics offering a great spectator experience due to the aircraft’s large physical size, beautiful radial engine sound, and fantastic smoke presentation. The SNJ was nicknamed “Ol Growler” because of its distinct deep and throaty roar. Warbird Thunder’s formation aerobatic routine is fast paced and entertaining. The two aircrafts perform formation loops, aileron rolls, barrel rolls, and Cuban Eights and thrilling opposing aerobatics.

*Warbird Thunder at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

The Skytypers is a flight squadron of vintage WWII era U.S. Navy SNJ-2 trainers that perform low-altitude precision-formation maneuver mimicking the tactics and maneuvers utilized during WWII air battles. The Skytypers may be most famous for their skytyped messages in the sky which can be seen for nearly 400 square miles, which they have done for 40 years.

The Skytypers, famous for their skytyping for 40 years, have been demonstrating air battle maneuvers at the Jones Beach air show for the past 20 years at Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Farmingdale State College Aviation Center students demonstrate the prowess learned at the largest collegiate flight school in the Northeast region, and the only SUNY School to offer a 4 Year Degree Program in Aeronautical Science, the Aviation Center averages 5,800 Flight Hours a Year in Solo and Dual Flight Instruction.

106th Rescue Wing, NY Air National Guard HC – 130 / HH 60 Formation provides a demonstration of how it provides combat search and rescue coverage for U.S. and allied forces worldwide. In December 1994, the 106th established the record for the longest over water helicopter rescue mission when it saved a Ukrainian sailor in the icy waters off the North Atlantic. The 106th may be best known for a mission during a 1991 storm made famous by the movie “The Perfect Storm”. The HH-60 is tasked to perform day and night personnel recovery operations in hostile environments to recover isolated personnel during war, civil search and rescue, medical evacuation, disaster response, humanitarian assistance, security cooperation/aviation advisory, NASA space flight support, and rescue command and control.

***106th Rescue Wing, NY Air National Guard HC – 130 / HH 60 Formation*** *demonstrates combat search and rescue coverage for U.S. and allied forces worldwide© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

The Bethpage Jones Beach Air Show has drawn as many as 444,000, and drew a total attendance of 351,000 in 2023. The 2024 air show was already headed into the record books, with 106,000 coming for Friday’s rehearsal (the parking lots reached capacity), and the first full show on Saturday also reached capacity. Sunday’s show reached capacity.

*The US Navy Blue Angels do their famous fan farewell to the Bethpage Memorial Day Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

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News & Photo Features

Photo Highlights: US Navy Blue Angels at 20th Anniversary Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach

May 26, 2024 krubin

US Navy Blue Angels demonstrate their daring-do in their F/A-18 Super Hornets at the 2024 Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, over Memorial Day weekend © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

The US Navy Blue Angels were the headliners at the 20^th anniversary Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, over Memorial Day weekend, performing their heart-stopping maneuvers in their F/A-18 Super Hornets.

They are famous for the Diamond formation, when they fly as close as 18 inches apart, but most thrilling me is when the two opposing solos fly extraordinary maneuvers, including coming at each other at combined speed of 700 mph.

The Blue Angels were also the headliners at the first Jones Beach air show. A record crowd of 106,000 got to see the air show rehearsal on Friday and another record or near-record crowd got to see the first show on Saturday, but cloudy conditions forced the Blue Angels to cancel the Sunday show.

The Blue Angels were formed in 1946 by Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Chester Nimitz, who had a vision to create a flight exhibition team to raise the public’s interest in naval aviation and boost Navy morale (and likely Congressional funding). In the 1940’s, the demonstration team thrilled audiences with precision combat maneuvers in the F6 Hellcat, the F8 Bearcat and the F9 Panther. During the 1950’s, they flew their aerobatic maneuvers in the F9 Cougar and F-11 Tiger and introduced the first six-plane delta formation, still flown to this day.

By the end of the 1960’s, the team was flying the F-4 Phantom; in 1974, the Blue Angels transitioned to the A-4 Skyhawk, a smaller and lighter aircraft with a tighter turning radius allowing for a more dynamic flight demonstration. In 1986, the Blue Angels celebrated its 40th Anniversary by unveiling the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. In 2021, the team began flying its current aircraft, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and celebrated its 75th anniversary.

A total of 17 officers voluntarily serve with the Blue Angels at one time, according to the Blue Angels’ website www.blueangels.navy.mil/. Each year the team typically selects three tactical (fighter or fighter/attack) jet pilots, two support officers and one Marine Corps C-130 pilot to relieve departing members. They typically serve two years with the team and then return to the fleet after their tours of duty.

Who gets selected? “The Chief of Naval Air Training selects the “Boss,” the Blue Angels Commanding Officer. Boss must have at least 3,000 tactical jet flight-hours and have commanded a tactical jet squadron. The Commanding Officer flies the Number 1 jet. The Chief of Naval Air Training also selects the “XO,” the Blue Angels Executive Officer. XO is a Naval Flight Officer (NFO) or Naval Aviator with at least 1,750 flight-hours.

“Career-oriented Navy and Marine Corps jet pilots with an aircraft carrier qualification and a minimum of 1,250 tactical jet flight-hours are eligible for positions flying jets Number 2 through 7. The Events Coordinator, Number 8, is a Naval Flight Officer (NFO) or Naval Aviator who has finished their first tour. The Marine Corps pilots flying the C-130J Hercules aircraft, affectionately known as “Fat Albert,” must be aircraft commander qualified with at least 1,200 flight hours.

The Blue Angels’ C-130J Hercules aircraft, affectionately known as “Fat Albert” that supplies the team, does a fly-over at the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“The mission of the Blue Angels is to showcase the teamwork and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps through flight demonstrations and community outreach while inspiring a culture of excellence and service to country.”

Jones Beach air show is considered one of the best anywhere because of being able to view from the beach, out to the ocean horizon. The thrilling maneuvers are very close.

Here are more highlights of the Blue Angels:

*Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, is considered one of the best venues for air shows© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

*Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, celebrating its 95^th anniversary in 2024,and marking its 20^thair show, is considered one of the best venues for air shows© Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com*

Managing the air show at Jones Beach, in one of the most complex, high-density air spaces in the world, is an achievement, and has been under Air Boss Wayne Boggs © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

See more highlights from the 20^th Anniversary Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach

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Biden Administration, Education, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity on 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 2024 krubin

This fact sheet detailing new actions by the Biden Administration to advance racial and educational equity, announced on the 70^th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, was provided by the White House:

On the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (Brown) decision, which outlawed racially segregated schools – deeming them unequal and unconstitutional – the Biden-Harris Administration highlights new actions with the release of additional funding and resources to support school diversity and advance the goal that all students have access to a world-class education. © Karen Rubin/news-photo-features.com

President Biden believes every student deserves access to a high-quality education that prepares them to be the next generation of leaders. Today, on the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (Brown) decision, which outlawed racially segregated schools – deeming them unequal and unconstitutional – the Biden-Harris Administration highlights new actions with the release of additional funding and resources to support school diversity and advance the goal that all students have access to a world-class education.

Research shows that racial achievement gaps are strongly associated with school segregation, in turn because schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students receive fewer resources. The desegregation of schools that followed Brown led to a 30 percent increase in graduation rates for Black students and a 22 percent increase for Latino students. As school districts were released from court-ordered desegregation, research shows that in the 1960s and 1970s, school integration increased rapidly, but that trend has reversed in the past two decades when both racial and economic segregation increased. For example, segregation between white and Black students is up 64 percent since 1988, while segregation by economic status has grown by 50 percent since 1991. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s State of School Diversity Report, racially and socioeconomically isolated schools often lack critical resources and learning experiences and opportunities that prepare students for college and career success. The Department of Education report found that three in five Black and Latino students and two in five American Indian/Alaska Native students attend schools where at least 75% of students are students of color and 42% of white students attend schools where students of color make up less than 25% of the population.

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring the educational success of every child, and to address racial segregation in our schools that leads to worse educational outcomes for children, including through investments in local efforts to increase diversity and equal opportunity. The Administration is focused on academic acceleration and has made record levels of investment in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education to help improve opportunity for all. This includes supporting districts as they work to strengthen and diversify the education profession, enrich educational experiences, and improve school climate and conditions for robust learning.

New Actions to Advance Racial and Educational Equity

To advance racial and educational equity and continue the work of Brown to support educational opportunity for all students, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the following new actions today:

New Magnet School Grants. The Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) will invest $20 million in new awards for school districts in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas to establish magnet programs designed to further desegregate public schools by attracting students from different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. The President’s 2025 budget request includes $139 million for MSAP and $10 million to continue investments in the Fostering Diverse Schools program.
Establishing a new technical assistance center to help states and school districts provide more equitable and adequate approaches to school funding. The U.S. Department of Education announced a new Technical Assistance Center on Fiscal Equity as part of the Comprehensive Centers Program. The Center on Fiscal Equity will provide capacity-building services to support states and school districts build equitable and adequate resource allocation strategies, improve the quality and transparency of fiscal data, and prioritize supports for students and communities with the greatest need.
New Data on Equal Access to Math and Science Courses. The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is releasing a new Civil Rights Data Collection report highlighting students’ access to and enrollment in mathematics, science, and computer science courses and academic programs, drawing from information in the 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). The report reflects stark continuing racial inequities in access to math, science, and computer science courses for students in high schools with high concentrations of Black and Latino students.
Preserving African American History. To further advance the President’s Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services, the Administration is launching an interagency process to develop new actions by the Federal Government to preserve African American history – including preserving historic sites, protecting and increasing access to literature, and ensuring the public, including students, has continuing access to resources. This effort will bolster African American history and culture as integral, indelible parts of American history.

Investing in Underserved Schools

Under the American Rescue Plan, the nation’s schools received $130 billion in funding – the most in our Nation’s history – with a focus on undeserved schools. The American Rescue Plan also included new requirements that have driven nearly $800 million in State additional education funding, above and beyond the federal investment, to the most underserved school by protecting schools with high rates of poverty from reductions in State and local education funding.
To date, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured nearly $2 billion in additional Title I funding to support our schools with the highest need, for a record $18.4 billion in annual funding.
The Biden-Harris Administration has also increased funding for Full-Service Community Schools five-fold, from $30 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to $150 million in FY 2024 so that underserved schools, including those that serve a majority of students of color, have the additional resources they need to help deliver more services to students and their families, such as health care, housing, and child care, to close resource and opportunity gaps.

Increasing Teacher Diversity

Research indicates that educator diversity can improve student achievement and help close achievement gaps. For example, one study found that Black students randomly assigned to at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 were nearly 19% more likely to enroll in college than their same-school, same-race peers.

The Administration is prioritizing efforts to increase educator diversity across 15 competitive grant programs that support teacher preparation, development, recruitment, and retention. These programs awarded nearly $450 million to 263 grantees, 92 percent of which were to grantees that addressed specific priorities related to educator diversity.
The Administration secured and awarded a total of more than $23 million in first-time ever funding for the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Grant program which provides grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) for teacher preparation programs to increase the number of well-prepared teachers, including teachers of color and multilingual educators.

Strengthening School Diversity

During this Administration, the Department of Education is investing more than $300 million in programs that increase school diversity This includes increased investment in the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which aims to reduce racial isolation, including by creating highly effective schools, and the creation of the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Program (FDS), a new initiative to increase school socioeconomic diversity, which awarded more than $14 million in new grants.
In August 2023 after the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, the Department of Education released a Dear Colleague Letter on Race and School Programming to guide schools on lawful programs to promote racially inclusive school communities and, along with the Department of Justice, a Dear Colleague Letter and a Questions and Answers Resource to help colleges and universities understand the Supreme Court’s decision as they continue to pursue campuses that are racially diverse and that include students with a range of viewpoints, talents, backgrounds, and experiences. The Department of Education published a resource summarizing specific guidance describing Federal legal obligations to ensure that all students have equal access to education regardless of race, color, or national origin.
The Department of Education issued a new rule requiring, among other things, many Charter School Program applicants to assure that proposed charter schools would not negatively affect any desegregation efforts in the communities in which charters are to be located.

Closing the School Readiness Gap

Because of the legacy of discrimination, Black children start school on average nearly seven months behind their white peers in reading. One study finds that one year of universal high-quality pre-K could eliminate most of that gap. Others indicate that students who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to a college degree. Each of the President’s budgets have included proposals that would provide preschool to every four-year-old in the country. In addition:

President Biden has secured an additional $1.5 billion for Head Start and nearly a 50% increase in funding for the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program, which helps low-income families afford child care. Approximately 30% of children and families receiving high-quality Head Start services are Black and close to 40% of families benefiting from CCBDG are Black.
The American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion to stabilize child care. Over 44% of programs that received assistance were owned or operated by people of color and 53% of providers receiving stabilization funds were operating in the most racially diverse counties.

The Department of Education released guidance on how districts can leverage the increases the President has secured for Title I to expand access to high-quality preschool services, including through partnerships with Head Start programs. This is the first Department of Education preschool guidance in more than a decade.

Biden Administration, News & Photo Features, Racism, Racial Equity

Black Voters Want to Know ‘What Biden Has Done for Me Lately’? Answer: A LOT

May 17, 2024 krubin

*President Biden comes to Atlanta in January, 2022, to speak out on behalf of voting rights and protecting democracy and free and fair elections © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via MSNBC*

I can’t fathom the absurdity of polls that suggest young Black men are pulling their support for Biden in favor of Trump because Biden hasn’t personally visited every impoverished neighborhood! And yet, there is discussion that Biden wasn’t going to be welcomed as the commencement speaker at Morehouse College, despite appropriating record amounts of aid to HBCUs, cancelling student debt for millions, who has the most racially and gender diverse administration and confirmed more diverse judges, including the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and all he has done to make economic, social, criminal, environmental, political justice and equity the basis for every policy and program he has implemented! Not to mention naming the first woman of color his Vice President. They want to support Trump, who has been overtly racist for his entire life (called for the Central Park 5, later exonerated, to be executed, was cited for discriminating against Blacks in housing), who called out the National Guard and wanted to shoot George Floyd protesters, who could care less about black maternal mortality rates and wants to repeal the cost cap on insulin and Obamacare? Biden celebrated the 70^th anniversary of the hallmark Brown v. Board of Education decision and is promoting universal pre-K, parental leave and affordable childcare, while Trump judges seek to reverse and render Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and affirmative action “unconstitutional.” And if Blacks either vote for Trump or do not vote, Biden will lose reelection and Trump will reverse every policy that has benefited minority communities, from gun violence prevention, promoting access to affordable housing and ridding communities of toxic pollution, to promoting free and fair access to the ballot box.

Here are Biden’s remarks during interviews on two Black radio shows, and a memo from Trey Baker, Senior Advisor, Biden-Harris 2024, outlining actual achievements instead of actual pandering (“What have Democrats done for you lately?” – Answer, A LOT) – Karen Rubin, news-photos-features.com

President Biden Underscores Stakes of 2024
Election to Black Voters

Interviews with President Biden aired on two Black radio shows, V-103’s The Big Tigger Show with Darian “Big Tigger” Morgan in Atlanta, Georgia and 101.7 The Truth with Sherwin Hughes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he underscored the stakes of this election. On the airwaves, President Biden highlighted the progress his administration has made for Black Americans from creating millions of jobs for Black workers to forgiving billions in student loan debt directly working to close the racial wealth gap – in contrast with Donald Trump, who tried to rip away health care from millions of Black Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act, raised health care costs, and cut taxes for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

Read Excerpts from President Biden’s Interviews Below

V-103, The Big Tigger Show in Atlanta, Georgia

On The Biden-Harris Administration’s Accomplishments for Black Americans: “The first most important thing we can do is make sure the Affordable Health Care Act is not cut by [Donald Trump]. He says he’s gonna do it. […] We pay the most expensive drug costs in the world and, you know, we brought down, as I said, capped insulin costs at 35 bucks instead of 400. More Black families have coverage under the ACA. Black enrollment has nearly doubled, saving families $800 a month on premiums. We took on Big Pharma so Medicare can now negotiate prices. Under Trump uninsurance rates went up, not down. He tried to repeal Obamacare and the ACA 50 times and if he succeeds, it would raise premiums $12,000 for Georgia middle-class families. He wants to cut Social Security and he wants to make sure that Medicare is cut as well, increasing costs, giving tax breaks to the super wealthy. The bottom line here is that this is a guy who is all about wanting to make all the cuts we can make for multi-billionaires and millionaires tax breaks, significant tax breaks, I have a completely different view of it. […]”

On How Donald Trump Hurt the Black Community: “Look, Trump hurt Black people every chance he got as President. Black unemployment, uninsurance rates went up under Trump. Trump’s tax scam reinforced discrimination. Typical white household got double, double cuts of the typical Black household. The botched COVID-19 response was leaving Black people dead, Black-owned businesses shuttered, he pushed to bring back stop and frisk law. Remember who Trump is. He falsely accused the Central Park Five. He’s the the founder of birtherism. He tried to repeal Obamacare the first time. Now he’s promised to do even more damage to Black people.”

On the Importance of Voting: “And so you know, your vote is your voice. Lots of close elections these last couple and every vote counts. I ran in 2020 because democracy was at stake and I think it still is. Because folks like you turned out to vote in 2020, we have made remarkable progress. Trump has decided he’s going to take it all down. For example, one of the things I did in the legislation [was] innovating the infrastructure, replacing every lead pipe in Georgia, every single one, so that now the kids, you’re not gonna worry about your kid in school or at home, drinking water that has lead in it that causes brain damage. You know, making sure that everybody has access to affordable internet, affordable and available, and that’s costing billions of dollars. We’re paying for it to get it done so everybody has access. Trump’s presidency could mean a return to chaos, division and violence, MAGA extremism.”

The Truth with Sherwin Hughes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

On The Biden-Harris Administration’s Accomplishments for Black Americans: “We sent $1,400 checks to people who were having trouble. Black child poverty was cut in half in 2021. We build black wealth, 15 million jobs nationwide, more than 2.5 million for Black Americans. Black wealth is up 60% since the pandemic. Homeownership is up and I’m fighting back against the [racial] bias in home appraisal. If the same home [is] built on one side of a highway in the Black community, as built in the white community, they devalue the home in the Black community. You know, 200,000 new business applications in Wisconsin after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in small businesses. We have 76,000 Black homeowners, more than $800 annually on their FHA insurance mortgage, we saved them. And look and we also relieved student debt, $160 billion in student loan debt for 4.6 million borrowers, many of them Black borrowers, and a plan to relieve student loan debt for 30 million overall. And as I said, you know, we lower prescription drug prices. We’re also in a position where we invest in communities too long left out, left behind. […] Trump has a very different view of the community. […] Trump, you know, he’s still accusing the Central Park Five, he’s the founder of birtherism, he’s tried to repeal Obamacare. He hasn’t, he’s done virtually nothing and he wants to cut access to voting. The whole range of things make a fundamental difference.”

On What’s at Stake this November: “A great deal is at stake, everything that all the progress we’ve made is at stake. For example, right now we’ve lowered health care costs, we’ve been able to walk in and make sure we forgive student debt…. We provided billions of dollars to HBCUs to give them a fighting chance. We’ve changed prescription drug costs, by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices so that people on insulin are paying 35 bucks a month instead of 400 bucks a month. And all prescription drugs can be limited to $2,000 a year, you know, cancer drugs ten, 12, $14,000. We are strengthening Medicare. Look, you know, we stand up for our principles. Our democracy is at stake, in fact. Look what he’s doing with Putin and with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Look at him saying ‘if we don’t think a country is paying enough for their own defense, then they get invaded by the Russians or anyone else, so that’s up to them. We are not gonna help.’ He has a fundamentally different view than the vast majority of Republicans, I might add in the past, as well as me and the Democratic Party..”

Memo: Biden-Harris 2024 Black Outreach

From: Trey Baker, Biden-Harris 2024 Sr. Advisor

Since day one, the Biden-Harris campaign has been authentic and consistent in our efforts to reach Black voters and ensure they are aware that no other administration in modern history has delivered for Black America in the way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have. From historic investments and engagement with Black media, to extensive travel by President Biden and Vice President Harris as well as innovative organizing programs that highlight the administration’s commitment to generating Black wealth – we are meeting Black voters where they are.

This weekend is a continuation of that work. The President will attend an event on Saturday in Georgia focused on engaging Black voters, which will provide our Georgia state team additional support in their efforts to reach and organize the community. Serving in his official capacity, the President will then deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College Sunday morning. As Biden-Harris Co-Chair and Morehouse Alum Cedric Richmond perfectly stated, Morehouse College remains one of the most valued, celebrated and distinguished institutions of higher learning in the United States and is responsible for educating some of the most significant Black men in our country’s history. Given the way the Biden-Harris Administration has delivered for Black America, and HBCUs, there is no better speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony than President Biden.

During the weekend, President Biden will also engage with local Black-owned small businesses as he frequently does on his trips. The President will visit a Black-owned small business in Detroit on Sunday ahead of his NAACP speech, and will have a valuable discussion with the business owners focused on this administration’s continued effort to build Black wealth and close the racial wealth gap. Black-owned small businesses have been critical to the Biden-Harris organizing strategy. An organizing model we developed with Detroit small businesses in March is now being rolled out across our battleground states, this month. The President will close out his weekend swing by delivering the keynote address at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner, where he will once again talk directly to Black America about the issues we care about most.

No administration has delivered for Black America like Joe & Kamala

After Donald Trump failed us, no administration has delivered for Black America like President Biden and Vice-President Harris. While the Black unemployment rate skyrocketed under Trump, the Biden-Harris administration helped to create over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers, resulting in record low Black unemployment – Black business ownership is also growing at the fastest pace in 30 years. After Donald Trump’s failed PPP launch helped his rich friends at the expense of minority businesses, President Biden worked closely with small businesses to recover. The share of Black households owning a business has now doubled since the pandemic. The President’s student loan forgiveness program has also disproportionately benefited Black Americans, who received nearly $160 billion in student loan debt forgiven. That’s right – BILLION. This measure is directly working to increase Black wealth and close the racial wealth gap. Even after Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Justices tried to stop us. These efforts are directly working to close the racial wealth gap as Black students take on 85% more educational debt than their white counterparts, and 86% of Black students graduate with debt.

Black child poverty was cut in half during the pandemic through the President’s Child Tax Credit, which we are fighting to bring back, despite resistance from MAGA Republicans in the House and Senate. More Black Americans have healthcare coverage than ever before, while Trump remains obsessed with ripping away our healthcare coverage by repealing Obamacare, the signature accomplishment of the first Black President. The President and Vice-President have also tackled the Black Maternal Health Crisis by allowing states to expand Medicaid postpartum coverage from just 60 days to 12 months—impacting approximately 65% of births for Black mothers. And, let’s not forget that Joe Biden has confirmed more Black women to the federal bench than all other Presidents combined.

No campaign has invested in Black outreach like we have

In September of last year, this campaign announced the earliest and largest investment in outreach to Black voters of any reelection campaign in history. Then, earlier this year, on the heels of the President’s electric State of the Union address, our March Month of Action. During the month of March the President and Vice President traveled to every single battleground, putting a focus on key black communities, such as Atlanta, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and others, talking directly to Black voters. President Biden had dinner with Eric Fitts, a North Carolina teacher who benefited from President Biden’s student loan relief program, and his two sons. The TikTok taken by one son during the visit has been viewed over 5 million times. In Saginaw, Michigan, the President also met with a father and son golfing team. Their meeting was first shared on Instagram by The Black Man Can, who has over 1 million followers.

Throughout the month of May, we are continuing these efforts with a seven-figure investment in Black media to communicate directly with voters where they are. The President has done more Black radio interviews than any other medium thus far on the campaign – eleven interviews this year alone. This week, he spoke with Big Tigger, a major figure of our culture, ahead of his visit to Morehouse.

We’ve also had a dedicated campaign presence at festivals like J.Cole’s Dreamville Fest in North Carolina and engagement with the voters who traveled to Las Vegas for the Lovers & Friends Festival, increasing our reach with young black voters in particular. The Vice President and Second Gentleman have also engaged with cultural influencers like Sheryl Lee Ralph and Khadeen Ellis to talk about what’s at stake for reproductive rights for Black Americans.

We’ve partnered with black-owned small businesses to expand our organizing presence in key battleground states. In Michigan, Team Biden-Harris spent March and April engaging with thousands of small business owners — centered in communities of color — to leverage their networks for visibility and outreach. Beginning this month, Team Biden-Harris is scaling its small business outreach program to all of our battlegrounds. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and the RNC are shutting down their much vaunted diversity centers.

The Vice President is also in the middle of an Economic Opportunity Tour in her official capacity, which focuses heavily on how the administration is putting Black wealth front and center.

Bottom Line: From the very beginning the President and Vice President have been clear that this campaign will not take a single voter for granted. We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote. Every day, from now until election day, we will continue working diligently to ensure that come November, Black voters send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House to continue delivering for Black America in unprecedented ways.

Biden Administration, Human Rights, Jewish issues, News & Photo Features

Marking Holocaust Remembrance, President Biden Speaks Out Against Antisemitism

May 7, 2024 krubin

In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony, President Biden spoke out against antisemitism, saying that the hate that culminated in the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews – one third of the population of Jews in the world – were extinguished by Nazi Germany, did not begin with Hitler and did not end with World War II. Here is a transcript of his remarks.

During these sacred Days of Remembrance, we grieve. We give voice to the 6 million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War Two. We honor the memory of victims, the pain of survivors, the bravery of heroes who stood up to Hitler’s unspeakable evil. And we recommit to heading and heeding the lessons that [of] one of the darkest chapters in human history, to revitalize and realize the responsibility of “never again.”

Never again, simply translated for me, means “never forget.” Never forget. Never forgetting means we must keep telling the story. We must keep teaching the truth. We must keep teaching our children and our grandchildren.

And the truth is we are at risk of people not knowing the truth.

That’s why, growing up, my dad taught me and my siblings about the horrors of the Shoah at our family dinner table. That’s why I visited Yad Vashem with my family as a senator, as vice president, and as president. And that’s why I took my grandchildren to Dachau, so they could see and bear witness to the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence in the face of evil that they knew was happening.

Germany, 1933. Hitler and his Nazi party rise to power by rekindling one of the world’s oldest forms of prejudice and hate: antisemitism. His rule didn’t begin with mass murder. It started slowly across economic, political, social, and cultural life: propaganda demonizing Jews; boycotts of Jewish businesses; synagogues defaced with swastikas; harassment of Jews in the street and in the schools; antisemitic demonstrations, pogroms, organized riots.

With the indifference of the world, Hitler knew he could expand his reign of terror by eliminating Jews from Germany, to annihilate Jews across Europe through genocide the Nazi’s called the “Final Solution” — concentration camps, gas chambers, mass shootings.

By the time the war ended, 6 million Jews — one out of every three Jews in the entire world — were murdered.

This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust; it didn’t end with the Holocaust, either, or after — or even after our victory in World War Two. This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world, and it requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness.

That hatred was brought to life on October 7th in 2023. On a sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Driven by ancient desire to wipeout the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people — babies, parents, grandparents — slaughtered in their kibbutz, massacred at a musical festival, brutally raped, mutilated, and sexually assaulted. Thousands more carrying wounds, bullets, and shrapnel from the memory of that terrible day they endured. Hundreds taken hostage, including survivors of the Shoah.

Now, here we are, not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting. They’re already forgetting that Hamas unleased this terror, that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you, and we will not forget. (Applause.)

And as Jews around the world still cope with the atrocities and trauma of that day and its aftermath, we’ve seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world: vicious propaganda on social media, Jews forced to keep their — hide their kippahs under baseball hats, tuck their Jewish stars into their shirts.

On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class.

Antisemitism — antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish State.

Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews.

It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop.

Silence — (applause) — silence and denial can hide much, but it can erase nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be muri- — buried, no matter how hard people try.

In my view, a major lesson of the Holocaust is, as mentioned earlier, it’s not — was not inevitable. We know hate never goes away; it only hides. And given a little oxygen, it comes out from under the rocks.

But we also know what stops hate. One thing: all of us.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described antisemitism as a virus that has survived and mutated over time. Together, we cannot continue to let that happen.

We have to remember our basic principles as a nation. We have an obligation — we have an obligation to learn the lessons of history so we don’t surrender our future to the horrors of the past. We must give hate no safe harbor against anyone — anyone.

From the very founding — our very founding, Jewish Americans, who represent only about 2 percent of the U.S. population, have helped lead the cause of freedom for everyone in our nation. From that experience, we know scapegoating and demonizing any minority is a threat to every minority and the very foundation of our democracy.

So, in moments like this, we have to put these principles that we’re talking about into action.

I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech, to debate and disagree, to protest peacefully and make our voices heard.

I understand. That’s America.

But there is no place on any campus in America — any place in America — for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind — (applause) — whether against Jews or anyone else.

Violent attacks, destroying property is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. And we are not a lawless country. We’re a civil society. We uphold the rule of law.

And no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves. (Applause.)

To the Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain.

Let me reassure you, as your President, you are not alone. You belong. You always have, and you always will.

And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree. (Applause.)

My administration is working around the clock to free remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already, and we will not rest until we bring them all home. (Applause.)

My administration, with our Second Gentleman’s leadership, has launched our nation’s first National Sec- — Strategy to Counter Antisemitism that’s mobilizing the full force of the federal government to protect Jewish communities.

But — but we know this is not the work of government alone or Jews alone. That’s why I’m calling on all Americans to stand united against antisemitism and hate in all its forms.

My dear friend, and he became a friend, the late Elie Wiesel, said, quote, “One person of integrity can make a difference.” We have to remember that now more than ever.

Here in Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol, among the towering statues of history, is a bronze bust of Raoul Wallenberg. Born in Sweden as a Lutheran, he was a businessman and a diplomat. While stationed in Hungary during World War Two, he used diplomatic cover to hide and rescue about 100,000 Jews over a six-month period.

Among them was a 16-year-old Jewish boy who escaped a Nazi labor camp. After the war ended, that boy received a scholarship from the Hillel Foundation to study in America. He came to New York City penniless but determined to turn his pain into purpose, along with his wife, also a Holocaust survivor. He became a renowned economist and foreign policy thinker, eventually making his way to this very Capitol on the staff of a first-term senator.

That Jewish refugee was Tom Lantos, and that senator was me.

Tom and his wife, Annette, and their family became dear friends to me and my family. Tom would go on to become the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, where he became a leading voice on civil rights and human rights around the world.

Tom never met Raoul, who was taken prisoner by the Soviets, never to be heard from again. But through Tom’s efforts, Raoul’s bust is here in the Capitol.

He was also given honorary U.S. citizenship — only the second person ever, after Winston Churchill.

And the Holocaust Museum here in Washington is located on a roal- — a road in Raoul’s name.

The story of the power of a single person to put aside our differences, to see our common humanity, to stand up to hate. And it’s an ancient story of resilience from immense pain, persecution to find hope, purpose, and meaning in life we try to live and share with one another. That story endures.

Let me close with this. I know these Days of Remembrance fall on difficult times. But we all do well to remember these days also fall during the month we celebrate Jewish American heritage — a heritage that stretches from our earliest days to enrich every single part of American life today.

Great American — great Jewish American named Tom Lantos used the phrase, “The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians, and we can never rest.”

My fellow Americans, we must — we must be those guardians. We must never rest. We must rise against hate, meet across the divide, see our common humanity.

And God bless the victims and survivors of the Shoah.

May the resilient hearts, the courageous spirit, and the eternal flame of faith of the Jewish people forever shine their light on America and around the world, pray God.

Biden Administration, Civil Rights, Jewish issues, Joe Biden, News & Photo Features

Biden-Harris Administration Ramps Up Actions to Counter Antisemitism on College Campuses and Protect Jewish Communities

May 7, 2024 krubin

*Crematorium at Mauthausen concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen Upper Austria.* In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Day of Remembrance, President Biden honors the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and makes clear that we must recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter: ‘Never Again.’ © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

In his keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Day of Remembrance Celebration, President Biden honors the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust – and makes clear that we must recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter: ‘Never Again.’ The President raises:

 The importance of recounting the crimes of the Holocaust and the events that led to it as the world watched with indifference.

 The atrocities of October 7th – the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust – and how too many people are downplaying both events.

 The unacceptable acts of Antisemitism we’re seeing on campuses and across the country.

 How all Americans must stand united against Antisemitism and hate in all its forms.

During Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several new actions to counter the abhorrent rise of Antisemitism in the United States. President Biden will speak at the Days of Remembrance commemoration hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, reaffirming our Nation’s sacred commitment to the Jewish people following the Holocaust: Never Again.

This year’s remembrance is particularly sobering, as it comes seven months after the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7^th, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Since that time, there has been an alarming rise of Antisemitic incidents across the country and throughout the world—most recently, in instances of violence and hate during some protests at college campuses across the Nation.

Today’s new actions build on the work of the President’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, the first-ever such strategy, which was released one year ago this month. The strategy represents the most comprehensive and ambitious U.S. government effort to counter Antisemitism in American history. It includes over 100 actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken, and continues to take, to address the rise of Antisemitism in the United States, as well as over 100 calls to action for Congress, state and local governments, companies, technology platforms, students, educators, civil society, faith leaders, and others. It has involved actions by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to provide greater security to Jewish institutions, as well as actions by the Department of Education to address antisemitism and by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to further support education around Jewish history.

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken aggressive action to implement the strategy and to speak out forcefully against hate of all kinds, especially in the wake of the October 7^th attacks. Through the National Security Supplemental, President Biden secured an additional $400 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds security improvements and training to nonprofits and houses of worship, including campus organizations and community centers. This funding has been critical to the security of Jewish institutions. Last week, for example, the Biden-Harris Administration sent a guide to the leadership of more than 5,000 colleges and universities with information on resources to promote campus safety from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Education.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced additional actions to counter Antisemitism in Year Two of the Strategy, building on its work over the past year:

Today, the Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued new guidance through a Dear Colleague Letter to every school district and college in the country, providing examples of Antisemitic discrimination, as well as other forms of hate, that could lead to investigations for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI). This guidance is meant to ensure that colleges and universities do a better job of protecting both Jewish students and all of their students.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will work with interagency partners to build an online campus safety resources guide and landing page to provide the range of financial, educational, and technical assistance to campuses in one, easy-to-use website.
DHS will develop and share best practices for community-based targeted violence and terrorism prevention to reduce these assaults and attacks. Federal agencies will elevate ongoing efforts to address the fear felt in targeted communities and ensure that resources are widely known among communities that need them.
The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the Department of State will convene technology firms to identify best practices to address Antisemitic content online. Departments and agencies will continue to provide technology companies with relevant information about symbols and themes associated with violent extremism online to help them enforce their terms of service.

These new actions build on actions taken to date:

Title VI Enforcement

ED-OCR has opened more than 100 investigations over the past seven months into complaints alleging discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including Antisemitism. The previous administration opened 27 such investigations in all four years.
On Friday, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a letter to more than 5,000 leaders at institutions of higher education across the country to reiterate that federal law protects against Antisemitic discrimination that violates Title VI. He also shared a Campus Safety Resource Guide to serve as a one-stop-shop of federal resources. ED OCR has issued several Dear Colleague Letters to every school district and college in the country and conducted training and outreach reminding them of their obligation to provide educational environments free from discrimination, as well as the tools available to report discriminatory incidents. OCR maintains a website with more resources on shared ancestry discrimination.

ED OCR updated its complaint form specifying that Title VI’s protection from discrimination, including harassment, based on race, color, or national origin includes discrimination against students based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including those who are or are perceived to be Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Hindu, or Sikh.
Eight Cabinet-level agencies clarified for the first time in writing that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities. In addition, these agencies—the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), DHS , Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior, Labor (DOL), Treasury, and Transportation (DOT)—have taken a number of steps to raise awareness of Title VI protections and other relevant statutes among Jewish and other communities, including by translating Title VI fact sheets into languages such as Yiddish and Hebrew and creating new Title VI landing pages to serve as a one-stop-shop of resources.

Campus and School Safety

Since October 7^th, FBI and DHS have taken steps to expand and deepen engagements with campus law enforcement and others to improve school safety. DHS has engaged with schools to identify security enhancements and raise awareness of SchoolSafety.gov, which offers school safety information and resources. DHS also has shared information via threat briefings and partner calls with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers a training course called Crisis Management Affecting Institutions of Higher Education: A Collaborative Community Approach, through which campus members can learn how to effectively manage a crisis using a whole community approach, effective crisis communication, and more.
In the wake of October 7^th, DHS’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) tasked its field force to proactively engage with schools to understand and address their needs. CISA has further expanded security capacity-building services to synagogues, community centers, and Jewish day schools. These services include risk assessments, planning assistance, and active shooter and bomb prevention-related training. CISA has held sessions on active shooter preparedness; an introduction to bomb threat management; tabletop exercise packages for synagogues; and a training on responding to suspicious behaviors and items. Since June 2023, CISA personnel have conducted over 400 in-person visits with Jewish houses of worship and other institutions. Additional security trainings, information and resources are found here.
USDA has held sessions with university leaders from 80 land-grant universities and rural colleges to share promising practices to address Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.
Under the National Strategy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a pilot curriculum for middle and high school-age youth designed to prevent youth hate crimes and identity-based bullying. In year two of the National Strategy, the curriculum will be rolled out this August, before the school year begins.

Community Safety Resources

DHS broadened access to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program by holding several webinars, expanding its Protecting Places of Worship Week of Action, and leveraging partnerships with DOJ. During the Biden-Harris Administration, this program has made 2,960 grants to Jewish institutions for a total of $397 million in funding to Jewish institutions.
To assist campus public safety and law enforcement identify available federal financial assistance opportunities, DHS published guidance clarifying the eligibility of law enforcement agencies at institutions of higher education to receive both State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant funding.
DHS hosts the Prevention Resource Finder to provide stakeholders the full range of federal resources available to help prepare for and prevent targeted violence and terrorism across our country. Resources on the website include community support resources, grant funding opportunities, information-sharing platforms, evidence-based research, and training opportunities for campuses and communities to reduce the risk of hate-based and targeted violence. Since its launch in March 2023, it has been viewed over 58,000 times.
Through the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), DHS is strengthening the country’s ability to prevent targeted violence and terrorism nationwide through funding, training, increased public awareness, and partnerships across government, the private sector, and local communities.
The U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) conducts training on threat assessments and the prevention of targeted violence. These resources examine attacks against colleges and universities, among other locations.

Hate Crimes Prevention and Response

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) widely disseminated its updated hate crimes threat response guide to inform Americans about steps they can take if they receive a threat. The guide, published on the FBI’s hate crimes resource page, has been shared with organizations and state and local law enforcement entities across the nation. The FBI reviews every tip it receives to ascertain the credibility of the information and, if it learns of a credible threat, quickly takes action. FBI’s campus liaisons enhance information-sharing with campuses.
DOJ has expanded its engagement with Jewish community groups in support of the National Strategy. The FBI has held over 650 engagements with faith-based and community organizations since October 7^th. DOJ and the FBI have used robust and diverse outreach to local law enforcement agencies to improve the reporting of hate crime data. DOJ’s United Against Hate community outreach and engagement initiative has held over 300 engagements involving over 10,000 participants to educate community members about hate crimes, build trust between community and law enforcement, and strengthen local networks to combat unlawful acts of hate. DOJ’s Community Relations Service provides mediation, training and consultation services to assist communities come together, develop solutions to conflict and prevent future conflict. DOJ has also developed and released two documents that explain civil rights law prohibiting national origin discrimination and religious discrimination and provide information to the public on identifying and reporting national origin and religious discrimination in the civil and criminal context.
Throughout the spring, USDA is providing hate crime trainings, including Antisemitic hate crimes, for law enforcement agents of the U.S. Forest Service. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has distributed new resources on Jewish American heritage through the National Park Service.

Addressing Discrimination and Religious Accommodations

USDA is making kosher food more accessible by working to ensure equal access to all USDA feeding programs for customers with religious dietary needs.
The Department of Defense (DOD) leveraged existing survey data to estimate the prevalence of Antisemitic and Islamophobic behavior in the military workplace and to evaluate its policies to counter discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and extremist activity. This analysis was the first to specifically estimate Antisemitic and Islamophobic activity in the military workplace.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has disseminated materials on nondiscrimination and religious accommodation in the workplace and has held more than 50 outreach and training events on Antisemitism at its field offices around the country.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague letter and guidance to U.S. hospital and long-term care facility administrators, reminding organizations of their legal obligations under relevant regulations and federal civil rights laws to ensure that facility visitation policies do not unlawfully discriminate against patients or other individuals receiving care, including on the basis of religion. HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network has released a toolkit of behavioral health resources pertaining to the Israel-Hamas war, as well as additional resources on how to talk with children and youth about hate crimes and identity-based violence, including Antisemitism.
DOL published a “Know Your Rights” resource for union members regarding their right to be free from discrimination based on religion, national origin, or race in the workplace.
On Thursday, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) will convene state education officials to discuss best practices in Holocaust education, including the incorporation of the history of Antisemitism, and opportunities to expand such education.
The USHMM concluded its first tour of the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibitions. Launched in fall 2021, the exhibition visited 41 states, reaching more than 330,000 visitors. Thirty-four college courses have incorporated content from this exhibition. The USHMM and American Library Association will launch a second tour of the exhibition in September 2024 at an additional 50 libraries.
Several federal agencies have incorporated information about Antisemitism, workplace religious accommodations, and related topics into employee training programs as they carry out their obligations under Executive Order 14035 (Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce). To support this work, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveyed federal agencies about their existing trainings. OPM, EEOC, and the White House Office of Management and Budget have provided learning sessions for agency diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility officers on Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of discrimination, as well as workplace religious accommodations.

To learn more about the National Strategy, see previous White House Fact Sheets.

News & Photo Features

Photo Highlights: 33,000 Take Over NYC Streets for 46th Annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour

May 6, 2024 krubin

*33,000 cyclists gather in Lower Manhattan for the start of the 46^th annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandner.com

Rain did not dampen spirits of the 33,000 riders, who joined the 46^th annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour on May 5, thrilling in the freedom of biking 40 miles of city streets and bridges closed to vehicle traffic.

The riders came from all 50 states and 65 countries; 1700 riders were biking for charity, raising $1 million from the day’s event, making the TD Five Boro Bike Tour the largest charity bike ride in the world, Ken Podziba, Bike New York’s President and CEO, declared.

*Ken Podziba, Bike New York’s President and CEO, greets the 33,000 riders who take part in the 46^th annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Along the way, riders get a taste of city’s neighborhoods, culture and quirks, with bands to represent each borough. Along the route, bikers encounter the 1,500 cheerful volunteers who keep the route safe and pleasant, direct traffic come to bikers’ aid, man the many rest stops along the way, and cheer the riders on.

*Achilles riders set out on the 40-mile TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The ride is a celebration of biking – the economic, environmental, health, cultural and community benefits – with the cyclists coming together and literally taking over the streets. But is also an expression of advocacy for more protected bike lanes throughout the city.

Ydanis Rodriguez, Commissioner – NYC DOT Commissioner, said New York City is the safest city for cyclists and with 32 miles of protected bike lanes, the city has the largest network of all large cities. “Biking is good for the environment, good for the economy, good for health. We must continue to make New York City the best and safest for biking.”

*Ydanis Rodriguez, Commissioner, NYC DOT Commissioner, said New York City is the safest city for cyclists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

But Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler said, “We are on record for most bike deaths. Our streets are not safe enough.”

And Councilmember Dale Brewer, former Manhattan Borough President, added, “We will keep fighting for protected lanes.” She also lauded Bike NYC’s mission of teaching children how to bike.

Bike New York offers free bike education programs for children and adults throughout the five boroughs – in 2020 alone, teaching more than 30,000 New Yorkers the skill. Bike New York organizes numerous annual events, of which the TD Five Boro Bike Tour is the largest and most ambitious.

*NYS Senator John Liu presents proclamation to Bike New York CEO Ken Podziba © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Bike New York basically was created along with the Five Boro Bike Tour, when in 1977, American Youth Hostels and the NYC Board of Education initiated a high school training program that culminated in a challenge: 50 participating students were asked to pedal through all five boroughs in a single day. Known then as the Five Boro Challenge, it began 250 total riders, and developed into the Five Boro Bike Tour that each year on the first Sunday in May attracts 32,000 cyclists to experience the city in a very special way.

Its mission states, “Bike New York empowers New Yorkers to transform their lives and their communities through bicycling. Our vision is to increase ridership, to empower youth to lead healthy, productive lives, to remove barriers to cycling, and to advocate for and expand services to reach more New Yorkers.”

Here are photo highlights from the 2024 TD Five Boro Bike Tour:

*A few of Bike New York’s Social Media ambassadors who collectively recruited 3500 riders to the 2024 TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The NYPD’s contingent of riders in the 2024 TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Ralph Bumbaca, Regional Vice President of TD Bank, the title sponsor of the Five Boro Bike Tour since 2007 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Jumaane Williams, NYC Public Advocate: “Biking is a great form of transportation” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*And they’re off to ride 40 car-less miles through NYC’s five boroughs © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*And they’re off. Riding up 6th Avenue at the start of the 40-mile TD Five Boro Bike Tour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riders pass Radio City Music Hall on 6^th Avenue, Manhattan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Cheer NY greets riders outside TD Bank. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Biking through Central Park, Manhattan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Undeterred by the forecast of rain, the 2024 TD Five Boro Bike Tour is a family affair © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Gospel singers welcome riders to Harlem © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riders pause to enjoy the Gospel music in Harlem © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Welcome to Harlem© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*A Manhattan band sends the riders off to the Third Avenue Bridge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riders take over the Third Avenue Bridge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Taking in the atmosphere in the Bronx © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riding in the Bronx © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear*

*A band entertains riders in the Bronx © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Biking back into Manhattan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*For atmosphere, a favorite part of the Five Boro Bike Tour: biking the FDR © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The Street Beat Brass Band plays for riders in Manhattan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riding over the famed 59^th Street Bridge from Manhattan to Queens © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*A rare view of the iconic Silvercup sign © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The view from the 59^th Street Bridge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Aradia welcomes riders to Astoria, Queens © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Riding the waterfront Astoria Park between the Triborough and 59^th Street bridges © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*With 33,000 riders, many make an effort to distinguish themselves, a New York tradition © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The Five Boro Bike Tour is really a tour. Enjoying the view from Astoria Park, Queens © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Welcome to Brooklyn, which has changed its slogan to “Like No Other Place int eh World”” from “fuggedaboutit” (which we get to see when we leave the borough) © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

*Youngbloods’ Jazz c/o Shanbelle D. Jenkins greet riders to Brooklyn © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*My favorite view of the Brooklyn Bridge as we ride through Brooklyn, but this year, the Empire State Building is hidden by fog © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Once you tackle the hardest climb, one mile to the highest point on the Verrazano Bridge, it’s downhill into the Finish Festival on Staten Island. I did it! © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Food and entertainment greet riders at the Finish Festival on Staten Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The four-mile ride from the festival to the Staten Island ferry (not counted in the 40 miles of the Bike Tour) offers some scenic views © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Feeling satisfied and accomplished, riders come off the Staten Island ferry. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

More information about programs, events, recycling a bicycle, resources, and volunteering are at Bike New York, 95 E 45^th Street, New York NY 10017, [email protected]. [email protected], Bike.nyc.

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