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Jewish Americans are alarmed by the increase of anti-Semitism in their communities. The fear is troublesome by many in America, who would have never imagined this level of hatred before. Last week, terrorists associated with the Black Hebrew Israelites targeted a Jewish supermarket in Jersey City, leaving two dead. On Saturday, a criminal broke into Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills, destroying Torah scrolls and vandalizing the property. New York City, home to 1.9 million American Jews, has witnessed a 162% increase in anti-Semitic incidents on its subway cars and stations. Just last month, witnesses saw kill all Jews, graffiti at the 103 subway stop.

Horrific events against Jews, whether vandalization or murder, are on the rise in America from coast to coast, targeting every other American city. American Jews have seen the fall and rise of ani-Semitism in Europe, including England, but no one could have imagined the same level of hatred against Jewish people on American soil.

The hatred isnt just from the right or the left; the hatred comes from every direction and political spectrum. There has been a significant rise in neo-Nazi groups in America, but not all these events can be linked to neo-Nazism. The issue is more challenging than ever because there isnt one group against Jewish communities. It would be easy to say the sudden escalation of racist and nativist extremist groups like the so-called alt-right, the KKK, and neo-Nazis are the results for the tragedies, but these are not the only perpetrators targeting Jewish communities.

After Charlottesville, we recognized that the Alt-Right and White Supremacy movements are on a rapid rise. In 2015, researchers affiliated with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), surveyed law enforcement officers across the country, asking whether officers viewed different types of extremists as a serious terrorist threat; their results revealed a belief that Sovereign Citizens pose a more significant threat than any other groups. Sovereign Citizens, regardless of their race, carry deep-rooted anti-Semitic beliefs.

The problem has only gotten worse in 2019 because we dont know who could target Jewish communities next. It isnt a neo-Nazi thing anymore; it isnt just a Sovereign Citizen hatred; it doesnt only apply to radical Jihadists. There are currently over 25 active groups of White Nationalists and neo-Nazis on Twitter. The American Freedom Party, American Nazi Party, Aryan Brotherhood, David Irving, Texas Nationalist Movement, and the Traditionalist Worker Party just to name a few. A few names within the White Supremacist groups and the list continues growing more prominent and more disconcerting.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently issued its annual report on hate crimes in the United States and Jews remain the most targeted religious group in the country by far. They are victims of 58.1% of all religious hate despite comprising less than 2% of the U.S. population. Just last year, a white supremacist stabbed his Jewish gay friend to death and left him in a grave. while in the same year, we witnessed the horrific massacre on Shabbat in Pittsburgh. Whether vandalization or murder, incidents targeting Jews are on the rise. They are happening in New York and Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Georgia. These acts are all over the country, without one type of perpetrator to target.

In the past, American Jews felt safe at home and empathy for Jewish people in European countries such as France. We witnessed the rapid migration of many French Jews to Israel for safety. We were saddened to discover that many Jewish communities in Europe were hiding their identity to feel safer out in public. We never imagined a day that we, American Jews, might have to exercise the same precautions in America to stay safe. The right solution is not to live in fear or hide. We must stand up, united, and fight back the hatred. We must push our members of Congress to take actions that make our communities safer.

We must push the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including local and state law enforcement agencies, to do a better job of identifying and arresting criminals. Words arent enough. We need our lawmakers and authorities to take the right steps towards keeping our communities safer. Together, we can make a difference at a time, when we are, once again, the target of hatred and bigotry. The American Jewry will again stand up, strong and united, to defeat hatred with love. We will not be scared, nor will we be quiet because if we dont stand up against such hateful groups today, things will be worse tomorrow.

Sheridan Bahar is an M.A. graduate at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University with research, analytical, and intelligence experience. He Possesses social, political, economic, historical, and cultural knowledge of the Middle East with fluency in Farsi, Dari, and Hebrew languages.

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American Jewry, under threat | Sheridan Bahar - The Times of Israel

PewDiePie at the European Premiere of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' on December 16, 2015 in London.

Topline: After facing years of criticism for his supposed ties to the alt-right, YouTube megastar PewDiePie announced over the weekend that hes taking a break from the platform and deleted his Twitter account, saying that hes tired.

Key background: Kjellberg is YouTubes most popular and recognizable stars, but hes been accused of anti-Semitism and racism over the years. In 2017, Disney stopped advertising with his channel after he paid actors to hold up a sign reading Death to All Jews in several videos (he said it was a joke gone too far). Months later he was caught saying the n-word in a gaming stream and later apologized.

White nationalists have since embraced Kjellberg. The Christchurch shooter used a popular alt-right meme subscribe to PewDiePie in a livestream before he went on to kill 51 people. And in a botched attempt to rehabilitate his image in September, Kjellberg rescinded a planned donation to the Anti-Defamation League, an organization combating anti-Semitism, after saying the donation didnt feel genuine.

Tangent: PewDiePie became the first individual creator to reach 100 million subscribers on YouTube in August, making him one of the most popular creators on the platform. Hes also one of the wealthiest. According to Forbes, Kjellberg raked in $15.5 million in 2018.

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Im Tired: Controversial Star PewDiePie Is Taking A Break From YouTube, Deletes Twitter - Forbes

When the Republican Party rebranded as the party of fiscal responsibility, social conservatives believed the family values GOP was dead. The party would focus on tax reform and curbing government spending and would forget about issues like abortion and legalized gay marriage.

Today, GOP legislative priorities no longer indicate they are the party that once championed fiscal responsibility. Their tolerance of the president evinces they no longer are the Reagan party of family values. This begs the question, What does the modern Republican Party hope to accomplish? Although the preface may have put the cart before the horse, it is clear: The modern GOP seeks to stop American demographic change.

The language was once subtle. Small things, like memorializing the Confederate flag or refusing to condemn white supremacists, served as dog whistles suggesting the party may be prioritizing the goals of white America over other groups. But during the era of Trumpism and hyperpartisanship, this messaging has become far more overt.

Fox News hosts with powerful platforms slowly leaned into anti-diversity rhetoric. It began with Bill OReilly, who would casually make problematic comments like slaves who built the White House were treated well; that a black guest looked like a cocaine dealer or sharing his surprise upon witnessing that a black restaurant was not chaotic, but was well-mannered like an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb. His show, once the most popular program on cable, would embody a more subdued version of other resentment.

In his absence, the networks popular hosts have evolved his brand of racism with a new, more xenophobic bent. This new style is far more blunt and succinct.

Laura Ingraham rightfully faced pushback for airing a segment regarding how massive demographic change, through legal and illegal immigration, has perverted America. Tucker Carlson aired a segment begging the rhetorical question, how is diversity a strength? Sean Hannity has continually defended the President and his supporters, even when that requires defending the send her back chants about a American-born Muslim Congresswoman or silence on Charlottesville.

Fox News hosts are not the same thing as Republican operatives, but when they run in the same social circles, endorse the same values and appeal to the same audiences, it is safe to say they personify the attitudes of the new American right.

The White House employs a similar amount of troublesome personalities. Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President, has been accused of being a Nazi sympathizer due to his sympathy for far-right European groups harboring similar views as the Nazi party and his fashion accessories that originate from a Hungarian subgroup of the Nazi party.

Despite circumstantial connections to Nazism, he is not the White Houses most controversial figure. Stephen Miller, senior adviser to the president who is responsible for crafting much of the administrations immigration policy, harbors views that are blatantly anti-immigrant. Numerous stories regarding Miller connect him to a white nationalist agenda and an alt-right ideology.

Or perhaps the most chauvinistic character in the White House is the Commander-in-Chief himself. The founder of birtherism, who launched his presidential campaign with colorful language on Mexicans, has a track record of demonstrating disdain for non-white Americans.

From allegedly characterizing Haiti and African nations as shithole countries to supporting the death penalty for the all-black Central Park Five, exonerated by DNA evidence, Trump has demonstrated a very robust social-dominance orientation.

But if the results are truly what matters and not rhetoric, as some of the Presidents allies proclaim, the argument only grows stronger. First the party attempted to mitigate illegal immigration based on bunk crime statistics.

Then Steven Miller and the rest of the administration worked tirelessly to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA. Today, the administration strives to slow down legal immigration and prevent the very demographic change it so clearly fears.

And it is not just the administration. The partys systemic disenfranchisement, including racial gerrymandering, voter ID laws and voting to reject the reinstatement of key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has specifically targeted minorities. One court even ruled that the North Carolina GOP gerrymandered maps targeted African Americans with surgical precision.

The consequence of a ruling party using more overt anti-immigrant rhetoric is that these ideas have been integrated into the political mainstream. A political environment in which Tucker Carlson feels secure criticizing American diversity is a toxic one. America has never fully engaged the melting pot ideal properly, however, it is probably time the founders dream was realized.

Please GOP, for the sake of the country, return to the party of fiscal responsibility.

Andrew is a sophomore in LAS.

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Opinion | GOP fights to preserve white America | II - Daily Illini

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For your everyday tweeting, Uber Eating, back-to-back meeting tech bro, the idea that rapid technological change could have its downsides is an inconvenient truth.

Thats why weve rounded up 18 books puncturing Silicon Valley utopianism. From the rise of Big Data to the fall of Theranos, these authors delve into the tech fairy tales weve been sold and uncover the underlying truth.

Arm yourself with the tools to take on Big Tech from this bestselling list of tech experts.

Mike Isaac, the award-winning New York Times technology reporter, digs deep into the history of Uber, the worlds best known -and most controversial -ride-hailing firm.

Praised for laying out the companys many woes without making a caricature of the companys eccentric ex-CEO Travis Kalanick, Isaac offers the essential guide to understanding how Uber became what it is today.

As the company continues to face down controversy around the world, this book puts the pedal to the metal in a way nothing else has before.

Find it here

Richard Seymours dark polemic on the digital age might be the most sobering on this list.

Hardly a day goes by without the President of the United States firing vitriol at his enemies via social media, as Seymour observes in what he assures his readers is a horror story come to life.

Seymour dedicates his book to the Luddites those that smashed machinery apart during the industrial revolution with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

Reading it might just make you want to do the same.

Find it here

Automating Inequality is an unsettling insight into the world of robotic decision-making, exploring how algorithms are already being used to make decisions about who should be paid, who should be surveilled and in some cases who should be born.

Eubanks, a professor of womens studies at the University of Albany, paints a compelling picture of inequality at large, intensified by the distancing of human beings from human affairs.

The unfiltered impact of new technology on issues like race, class and gender exemplifies how machines have yet to learn how to make decisions the way humans do.

Find it here

In Emily Changs shocking foray into the exploits of some of the worlds most unsavoury tech bros, drug-fuelled sex parties are the norm in the suburbs of Silicon Valley.

Rejected as salacious nonsense by Elon Musk who is himself alleged to have attended one such party Changs work exposes the Valleys notoriously male-dominated and sexist culture.

In the final chapter, Chang reveals: Writing this book has been like going on a trek through a minefield, with fresh mines being laid as I walked.

Dont miss it.

Find it here

Read the inside story of the startup that continues to make headlines around the world.

After founding Theranos, a healthtech company which claimed to have revolutionary blood-testing capabilities, Elizabeth Holmes set a series of calamitous events in motion.

John Carreyrou received universal acclaim for his forensic analysis, seeking sources from top to bottom within Theranos, the sham company that drew massive investments from the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Carlos Slim.

While it remains to be seen what will become of Holmes, Carreyrous hard-hitting investigation is now set for a Hollywood adaptation, directed by The Big Shorts Adam McKay and starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Find it here

Invisible Women exposes what author Criado Perez dubs the one-size-fits-men bias in design and technology, highlighting the endless number of mismatches in everyday life, from fitness monitors to items of clothing to car safety.

The winner of the Financial Times Best Business Book of 2019, Invisible Women is a compelling insight into the dangers of treating male bodies as the default in policymaking.

Find it here

Financial Times journalist Rana Foroohars deep-dive critique of the internets pioneers takes a forensic look at the biggest companies dominating our lives, including: Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Uber.

In examining each case study, Foroohar unpicks how the tech giants slowly but surely started to betray their founding principles, from Googles old mantra Dont be evil to Mark Zuckerbergs vision of creating communities around the world.

Like with so many on our list, Dont Be Evil might leave you feeling a little more nervous about the world we live in, but a lot more informed.

Find it here

Jamie Susskind confronts some of the most important questions of our time, effortlessly mapping his knowledge of political theory onto the latest developments from Silicon Valley, revealing a host of ethical quandaries and impracticalities.

Susskind doesnt hone in on any particular companies, instead abstracting their capabilities and what they might mean for all of us in our everyday lives or, as he calls it, the digital lifeworld.

For all its grand implications, Future Politics is an accessible read, peppered with self-deprecating humour and pop cultural references throughout, and will make you only more curious about the road ahead.

Find it here

Shoshana Zuboff, a professor of social psychology at Harvard Business School, has been using the term surveillance capitalism to describe the economic model of Big Tech since at least 2014, around five years before publishing this weighty tome.

She offers the reader a shocking insight into the business model that underpins the digital world, detailing in razor-sharp detail how the likes of Facebook and Google are using our data to advance their interests.

Zuboff effortlessly infuses what we already know with her trademark academic analysis, allowing us to grasp the big picture. The landmark book is a follow-up of sorts to her previous work, 1988s The Age of the Smart Machine, which was likewise considered definitive in its field.

Find it here

Jamie Bartletts manifesto for technological resistance, longlisted for the Orwell Prize, offers a comprehensive overview of the threats posed by the Internet to our very way of life.

Most recently heard hunting down the Missing Cryptoqueen for the BBC, Bartlett offers a sobering guide to the ways in which both individuals and institutions can stop Big Tech from taking over our culture, elections, economy and more.

Bartlett works at think-tank Demos, and previously presented a two-part BBC documentary series called The Secrets of Silicon Valley.

Find it here

While technically more a series of sociological experiments than tech expos, Bloodworths book dramatically reveals the everyday reality of those working in the UKs tech-driven gig economy.

Whether stacking shelves in an Amazon warehouse or seeking passengers as an Uber driver, Bloodworth steps into the lives of those doing Big Techs heavy lifting without seeing much of the reward.

Selected as The Times current affairs book of 2018 and longlisted for the Orwell Prize, Hired is an in-depth study of the conditions imposed on those benefiting least from the technological revolution.

Find it here

Christopher Wiley, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, lifts the lid on his time at the now-infamous political consultancy.

Revelations abound about the companys working culture, including the behaviour of former CEO Alexander Nix, while Wiley reveals bit by bit the kind of power he wielded while rifling through individuals personal data.

While the true impact of Cambridge Analyticas work in the US, UK and elsewhere around the world continues to be argued, Wileys insight gives you the best chance yet of making that assessment for yourself.

Find it here

Algorithms are everywhere, organising the unfathomably large quantities of data produced by each of us every day.

In We Are Data, John Cheney-Lippold spells out what the implications might be for our algorithmic identities in the digital age, and how they underpin everything from architecture to accountancy.

A professor of digital studies at the University of Michigan, Cheney-Lippold implores his readers to try to fully grasp the problems that lie ahead, so that we might have the best chance of reaching a solution.

Find it here

Stuart Russell already has one of the best-known books on artificial intelligence to his name, having authored Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach in 1995 with co-writer Peter Norvig.

Now, Russell returns to the question and doesnt hold anything back.

The University of California professor outlines the darker consequences of pushing the frontiers in artificial intelligence or, as he calls it, the most important question facing humanity.

Find it here

Writing with the pace of a thriller novel, Andy Greenberg tells the story of Russias infamous hacking group of the title.

Sandworm is the must-read guide to state-sponsored hacking, described by the LA Times as a comprehensive look at the technical, military and political stories of this new hidden war.

Find it here

With his 2018 book, journalist Corey Pein set out to learn how such an overhyped industry as tech could sustain itself as long as it has.

He slowly works the crowds at conferences, pitches his wacky ideas to investors and interviews a cast of ridiculous characters: cyborgs, tech bros, hackers and obedient employees all feature.

LWWWD is an incisive portrait of a self-obsessed industry hellbent on succeeding by whatever means necessary.

Find it here

Martin Moore has some big questions for Big Tech, breaking his book into three overarching themes: hackers, systems failure, and alternative futures.

From the rise of alt-right media outlets like Breitbart, through to the rise of what he dubs surveillance democracies, Moore maps a path from old Soviet disinformation campaigns through to those alleged to have played a part in the 2016 US Election.

A seriously engaging work that should be read by anyone curious about the impact of new technology on national security.

Find it here

One of the most unsettling and illuminating books about the internet ever written, so says the New York Times, New Dark Age reveals the dark clouds gathering over our dreams of a digital utopia.

Looking at the ways machines have already began besting their human competitors, such as the AI that defeated chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, Bridle suggests a new path forward: centaur chess, a kind of team-up between humans partnered with computers.

The implications for a post- or transhuman world are to say the least mind-blowing.

Find it here

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Misinformation, hacking, and imploding startups: 18 books to read in 2020 that puncture Silicon Valley utopianism - Business Insider

Ten years ago Dutch band De Staat shared a communal house in Nijmegen, the left-wing Dutch town affectionally known as "Havana-On-The-Waal", with each band member receiving a monthly stipend of 200 from the government to encourage their music.

They were weird, producing angular, jerky blues rock that didn't so much reflect the sum of their influences as much as make them sound like a band who didn't listen to other bands at all.

A decade on, things have changed. They're still getting money from the government (in 2016 the band were awarded a 236,000 four-year subsidy from the country's Performing Arts Fund), but the music has moved on.

Traces of the blues have all but vanished, and while the angularity remains, a typical De Staat song truly sounds like music reinvented. Much of it is almost childlike, with nagging four-to-the-floor rhythms confounded by a bass that accents the upbeats, giving everything a lollopping momentum, as if the music is powered by marching Oompa Loompas, soundtracking a demented circus parade.

They're a serious draw in The Netherlands. Back in March this writer and 6000 fans have crammed into AFAS Live in Amsterdam for a performance that felt like a victory parade with a coronation attached. Holding it all together was frontman Torre Florim, with a staccato, stream of consciousness delivery that took in everything from teeth-whitening and Photoshop to alt-right meme Pepe the Frog across a brilliant, bewildering couple of hours.

From the techno screeches that announced the arrival of set opener Me Time to the closing KITTY KITTY later voted rock video of the year which flipped from a gabber-influenced backdrop to a transcendent middle section that sounded like Topographic Oceans-era Yes (then back again) the set was a cartwheeling, discombobulating adventure.

There were three guitars on stage, but they didn't sound like guitars. Phoenix started with violent blasts of Hans Zimmer-style orchestration, Florim atop a platform, multiple spotlights gilding his skull, before the beams softened and the song took a tender turn. The maddening Pikachu was delivered almost as a rap battle. Fake It Till You Make It featured bhangra rhythms and wildly over-clocked auto-tune.

It was bedlam with a seizure-inducing lightshow, and all the songs we've mentioned were purloined from this year's Bubble Gum album, the consolidation of a dozen year's worth of experimenting. They've refined their craft to the point where a De Staat song sounds like no one else, with those jerking, toddler-friendly rhythms backboning songs as likely to sweep in influences from hip hop and dance music as they are from prog rock.

If you're looking for tradition you won't find it, but if you're willing to open your ears to something that's simultaneously simpler and more left field than you're used to, Bubble Gum might be for you. There's something peculiarly primal about it.

Late in the year, De Staat played at The Garage in London, a venue less than a 10th of the size of their Amsterdam show. Up close it's a different experience, and the slick, machine-drilled choreography is more apparent. But with the dazzling light show still in place and a crowd going nuts delighted to be able to witness the band at such close quarters it was another evening of vivid, kaleidoscopic delirium, with Bubble Gum at its heart.

Bubble Gum is available now via Caroline International.

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The albums we loved this year: De Staat - Bubble Gum - Louder