Jennifer Loewenstein
Jennifer (Sarin) Loewenstein is a Madison, Wisconsin, political activist and a faculty associate in the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. [1] [2] She is a member of the board of the Israeli Coalition against House Demolitions-USA branch, founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project [3] [4] and a freelance journalist. [5] Lowenstein is married to David Lowenstein, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin. [6]
Loewenstein lived in Israel in 1963 as a child when her father played first trumpet in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She went back in 1981 as a junior in college, and returned as an adult, living in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and traveling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where she worked for five months in 2002 at the Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City. [7] She has returned to Gaza several times since then.
Loewenstein has been accused of being a malicious anti-Semite.[[2]] Loewenstein is a sharp critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as well as American support for Israel. In July 2002, she wrote in the Palestine Chronicle that "Heaps of concrete, broken pillars with wire sticking out, people's shoes, clothes, bedding, strewn haphazardly among the rubble, dust everywhere, a hole in the landscape where a two-story apartment was just yesterday: the hardest part for me is how familiar it has all become," "The Israelis are masters in the art of destruction. And as I wander through another mass of wrecked lives I'm struck by the sense of deja vu that comes over me." [8] She has also stated that Israel and the United States "have long since resided in the lowest circle of Hell for betraying the name of humanity." and that "the Neo-Jewish Masters and their allies in the United States... have no intention of making a just peace with the lower forms of life in their midst."[9] [10]
Activism
As a local political activist, Lowenstein has charged Israel with being responsible for "the dehumanization and destruction of an entire people." [11] She regularly helps organize and attends political demonstrations in Madison. On the day after Ariel Sharon's election as Prime Minister of Israel she was among the organizers of an anti-Likud demonstration.[12] She helped organize protests against the war in Iraq, [13] and she makes arrangements for political activists or journalists such as Robert Fisk to speak at American universities. [14]
The proposed Madison-Rafah Sister City Project occasioned an "anguished and bruising debate" in Madison. [15] [16] During the debate, Lowenstein called the executive board of the Madison Jewish Community Council "deeply racist." [15] Board Member Lester Pines alleged that Lowenstein's project was part of a "movement to delegitimize the state of Israel." [15]
Loewenstein has also published an article in CounterPunch comparing current President Barack Obama with Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of Israel's right-wing leading coalition. [17]
The Yemen Times has praised Lowenstein's work as deserving "all the honors one can bestow on a great journalist" [18] while, in reference to what he calls a "repulsive, traitorous statement" of hers, David Horowitz describes her as "a self-hating member of the [Jewish] tribe, with a sordid lineage going back to the 'kapos' who shoveled their companions into the ovens and collaborated with their murderers."[19]
References
- ^ A Case Study: Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.: A Battleground for Israel's Legitimacy - Joel Fishman
- ^ Contact Information for the International Institute
- ^ www.madisonrafah.org/
- ^ Midwest city feels conflict in the Mideast close to home | csmonitor.com
- ^ Jennifer Loewenstein: Beneath the Hideous Veneer of Security
- ^ David Loewenstein, English, UW-Madison
- ^ [1]
- ^ "What the papers say".
{{cite news}}: Text "World news" ignored (help); Text "guardian.co.uk" ignored (help) - ^ Jennifer Loewenstein (March 3, 2008). "The Day the Earth and Sky Traded Places - Gazan Holocaust". Counterpunch.
- ^ "Casualties Mount in New Israeli Attack on Gaza". Democracy Now!.
- ^ M. Junaid Alam: The Wolf Who Cried Wolf
- ^ Samara Kalk (February 8, 2001). "ACTIVISTS HERE LABEL ISRAEL'S SHARON A THUG". The Capital Times (Madison, WI).
- ^ . The Capital Times (Madison, WI). March 20, 2004.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Robert Fisk (2002). Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. p. 685.
- ^ a b c Judith David (July 7, 2004). "Rafah Debate Anguished, Bruising". The Capital Times. p. 1C.
- ^ Jo Napolitano (May 29, 2004). "Proposal to Adopt a Palestinian City as a 'Sister' Creates a Family Feud for Madison". New York Times. p. A10.
- ^ http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein06052009.html
- ^ In praise of Ms Jennifer Lowenstein - Yemen Times
- ^ The War Against the Jews by David Horowitz