The Way Life Should Be? Vol. III: With Palms Outstretched

“The Jews were the first people to undergo globalization. They had a network of global connections way before other nations, and a strong and supportive community. The Jewish communal organization is considered a role model for all other ethnic groups. It helped the Jews everywhere and especially in the US, which was always more open than other countries and provided equal opportunities, while on the other hand–wasn’t supportive of the individual.”- Rebecca Caspi, senior vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)

“The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education, and family.”-Alexander Hamilton

There is an extensive network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and various other religious and secular groups masquerading as charities that are part of a vast global matrix dedicated to importing as many Third World peoples into the West as is humanly possible. Many of them operate in the shadows with questionable practices and sources of funding, others in the open under false pretenses, and still others are merely extensions of the government, “washing” taxpayer dollars in fraudulent humanitarianism, essentially acting as loopholes to bring in more people above and beyond legal proscriptions. Whether for ideological purposes, as a money-making scheme, or both, virtually none of these organizations is actually predicated on altruism or anything of the sort. As Ann Corcoran explicates:

[The UN High Commissioner of Refugees] “virtually calls the shots” for the US Refugee Admission Program (RAP). … The U.S. State Department brings in the refugees that the U.N. has largely chosen for us, and Homeland Security are supposed to screen them. I mean, how do you screen somebody from a failed state when you don’t even know who they are? Then, these are divvied up, literally, between nine major contractors that include groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, World Lutheran Service and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. There are six of them that are supposedly religious charities …funded by the U.S. taxpayer. They then divide up their allotment of refugees among 350 subcontractors in 190 U.S. cities. They literally compete with each other for these refugees, because money comes along with each refugee.[1]

Further, as Jerry Gordon and Mike Bates report:

Congress has never exercised effective oversight of the Refugee Admissions Program (RAP) through hearings and recommendations. The US RAP has been used punitively against political critics. One example is the assignment of large numbers of Somali refugees to the Congressional District of former US Rep. Michelle Bachmann in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The US RAP has been fraught with fraud. … 20,000 fraudulently admitted Somali refugees were never pursued or ejected. Given the world’s attention on the problem of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean, the State Department refugee program let in to the US hundreds of Somalis who fled to the Island of Malta without any clearances…[Growing numbers of refugees] will be “seeded” in American cities under the Fostering Community Engagement and Welcoming Communities Project of the ORR with the Soros-backed NGO, “Welcoming America.“[2]

As stated above, the refugee resettlement network is vast and has virtually unlimited resources. It is backed by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals, not to mention multi-national corporations, banks, private equity firms, and national governments. Furthermore, the interests of the money power and the state are inextricable from and/or coincide with those of the Jews to a remarkable degree. This synergy has produced the terrible monstrosity known as “globalism” or “neo-liberalism” confronting us today. Continuing with Maine as our case study, we find Jewish fingerprints all over the push to “diversify” America’s whitest—and safest—state, despite Jews being an even lower percentage of Maine’s population compared to the national average. That said, keep in mind as we progress that just as in the 1920s and 1930s Judaism and communism were virtually synonymous, so, too, are neo-liberalism and Judaism today. Thus, it isn’t “just” the Jews nor is it “just” capitalism. A rootless people are uniquely positioned to thrive in a border-less world. This is a Jewish response to Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim Ban” in 2017:

Jeffery Young, a civil rights attorney, said that as a Jew, he sees Trump’s actions as “eerily similar” to actions taken during the Holocaust. At that time, he said, a fear that Nazi spies would infiltrate the U.S. prompted America to heighten security, tighten visa requirements and ramp up screening. As a result, millions of Jews were killed. “When I heard of the president’s order, I was reminded of my own ancestors,” Young said. “We can’t let him do it. We are all immigrants. We are all Muslims. We are all Jews. We are all Americans.” Leslie Silverstein, president of the board of directors of the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, which provides free legal services to immigrants, sought to reassure the immigrant community.[3]

Note the lack of concern about American interests; everything is processed through his perception of Jewish memories and his interpretation of Jewish interests.

In response to the travel ban, the Maine ACLU issued a statement of open borders pablum co-signed by a number of individuals and organizations who will by the end of this series be very familiar to you, if they are not already:

·         Jewish Community Alliance (JCA) of Southern Maine
·         Maine Equal Justice Partners (MEJP)
·         Congregation Bet Ha’am
·         Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP)
·         Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling
·         Immigrant Resource Center of Maine
·         Planned Parenthood
·         Welcoming the Stranger
·         NAACP
·         Maine People’s Alliance
·         Maine Women’s Lobby
·         New Mainers Resource Center
·         Hand in Hand (Mano en Mano)

MEJP’s Board of Directors includes representatives of Catholic Charities, Bernstein Shur, TRIO, Verrill Dana LLP, and the Opportunity Alliance. MEJP provides extensive resources to immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers, including specific information on how exactly to obtain a panoply of benefits.[4] Bernstein Shur, founded by Jewish immigrant Israel Bernstein, provides representation and counsel to a variety of industries, including finance, business, real estate, political campaigns, and human resources. Bernstein Shur represented Doctors without Borders nurse Kaci Hickox in her lawsuit when she decided to sue after being held in a state-mandated quarantine when she returned from volunteering to help treat a massive Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014. Many Bernstein Shur lawyers also assist with Silverstein’s ILAP. The Opportunity Alliance’s immigration advocacy is overseen by a Board of Directors staffed almost exclusively by men and women from the worlds of business, finance, law, and real estate. Why, exactly, that is the case should be abundantly clear at this juncture. This is neo-liberalism at its finest.

Mano en Mano / Hand in Hand is an organization created specifically to provide big agra with inexpensive unskilled farm labor, primarily from Latin America and Haiti. Based out of Milbridge, Maine, the organization’s recent efforts have been to use funding from the USDA to build subsidized apartments specifically to house migrant farm and aquaculture workers. Due to this influx of cheap farm labor, 24 percent of the elementary school students in Milbridge in Washington County are now Hispanic or mestizo, in a state that is 94–95% white. Migrant workers patch together seasonal jobs picking blueberries, harvesting and processing sea cucumbers, and processing lobsters. Immigrants from Lewiston recently relocated to Skowhegan in Somerset County in order to work at Backyard Farms, a hydroponic farm in Madison that “has had difficulty filling its job openings,” according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The function, as is so often the case, is both economic and ideological, but not in the way that groups like Mano en Mano frame their mission; rather, instead of serving as a vehicle to destroy cohesive and high-trust white societies, provide mega-corporations and their executives with cheap help and ready consumers, and an 80% vote share of the immigrant population cast for Democrats (roughly the percentage of immigrants into the United States who are non-white, by the way), the “progressive nonprofit” Mano en Mano envisions:

A stronger more inclusive Downeast Maine where the contributions of diverse communities are welcomed, access to essential services, education and housing are ensured, and social justice and equity are embraced.

Plus, think of all that GDP, Republicans! You’ll be shocked—shocked, I say!—to learn who bankrolls Mano en Mano in addition to the USDA: Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, JP Morgan Chase, Elmont-Schwabe Charitable Corporation (donors to the Anti-Defamation League), the Boston Foundation, Maine Women’s Fund, the John T. Gorman Foundation, Fidelity Investments, the Emanuel and Pauline Lerner Foundation (of which the Jewish Eliot Cutler, who we will discuss further in an upcoming installment, is president of the Board of Directors), C.F. Adams Charitable Trust (whose trustees come from defense contractor Raytheon, law firm Ropes & Gray LLP, and financial advisory firm Lowell, Blake & Associates), TD Bank, the Maine Health Access Foundation,[5] Ian Yaffe (Executive Director of Mano en Mano and Board Member of Coastal Enterprises, Inc.), Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), Bowdoin College, the Larsen Foundation (with Marc Rosenberg as Administrative Director), Home Depot, the United Way, NAPA Auto Parts, and the People of Color Fund. Mano en Mano is part of MaineShare, a “progressive social justice network,” which partners with Bowdoin College, Cabot, and Coastal Enterprises, Inc., among others, and whose Board consists of members of the University of Maine Law School, IDEXX, Bowdoin College, and Harkins Consulting, LLC, founded in 1992 by Marvin Rosenblum. Other organizations in MaineShare include Maine Equal Justice Partners (MEJP), Maine Women’s Fund, Maine Center for Economic Policy, the Sierra Club, the Gay-Straight-Trans Alliance, Maine Access Immigrant Network (MAIN), EqualityMaine, the Maine ACLU, and, naturally, the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.

Another Jewish pro-immigration group is the National Council of Jewish Women-Southern Maine Section (NCJW), which describes itself as “a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action. Inspired by Jewish values, NCJW strives for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children, and families and by safeguarding individual rights and freedoms” and “has advocated for immigrants for more than a century,” including large numbers of their co-ethno-religionists from Eastern Europe. They have worked to bring more Sudanese into Maine through the Darfur Project, and have donated ample resources to various immigration advocacy groups as well as to the facilitation of increasing outside immigration into the state. Historically, the group has worked on the creation of an interest-free loan fund for other Jews, endorsed legislation for birth control, started the Jewish Refugee Fund, protested the British White Paper restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine and supported the foundation of the State of Israel, advocated for an increase in Jewish “refugees” from Germany around World War II and from the Soviet Union starting in the 1970s, worked with the Maine Civil Liberties Union and the Maine Women’s Lobby, took an “active interest in women’s issues, civil rights, and Israel,” and joined with Temple Beth El for feminist seder. Linda Rogoff, Bobbi Gordan, and Portland-born artist Jo Israelson of the NCJW recently hosted an event that chronicled the organization’s work dating back to House Island in the 1920s.  Israelson spoke about her multi-media piece “Welcoming the Stranger”: “Israelson contrasted the 1923 odyssey of Hungarian immigrant, Bela Gross, with the stories of those newly-arrived in Portland today.”

On Thursday, October 12th, 2018, NCJW Southern Maine Section partnered with the University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity to host a panel and community discussion about NCJW’s history “serving Maine’s immigrant populations from the early 1900’s through today.” The NCJW has a very close connection with the University of Southern Maine. The majority of the NCJW membership was born and educated outside the state, and they have actively worked to change their new environs to suit their particular goals, particularly in terms of demographics and social policy. On January 8th, 2017, at the Temple Beth El the NCJW held the Equal Justice Forum, featuring presentations on how tikkun olam is vital for “social change” and the importance of “reproductive rights,” plus:

Susan Roche, Executive Director, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, outlined ILAP’s work with 2,000 clients a year who are new to Maine. Volunteer attorneys help people meet legal residency requirements, and usher their asylum requests through the thicket of the courts. Her biggest concern is expedited deportation if the new administration adopts more aggressive enforcement policies. … Zachary Heiden, Legal Director, ACLU of Maine, brought some levity to the event by referencing an optimistic song from the musical “Hamilton.” He also took comfort in Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation that: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”[6]

Maine Equal Justice Partners were also represented. Temple Beth El sponsors many events and programs advancing the causes of LGBTQ and supporting refugees, asylees, and immigrants to obtain social and economic resources, as well as publicizing the kinds of rose-colored portrayals of migrants to the public we have become so accustomed to seeing. The president of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine Bette Novick is a member.

The Jewish Community Alliance (JCA) of Southern Maine is the local representative of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA); it allocates over $100,000 every year to causes related to “fighting antisemitism and bias and supporting refugees,” including donations to the Maine Jewish Film Festival and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). The JCA, along with the Michael Klahr Jewish Family Services, was at the forefront of the most recent African migrant influx into Portland with funding, advocacy, press releases, and other donations—as well as the ubiquitous invocation of the Shoah—again illustrating how immigration to the U.S. is seen by Jews by whether it conforms to Jewish interests, not the interests of the traditional White American majority:

Displacement and migration are central elements of the story of the Jewish people, from antiquity through the modern era. Whether we draw upon the experience of the Israelites who were “strangers in the land of Egypt” or those who fled the horrors of the Shoah, an ethical and religious commitment to support and welcome immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers is fundamental for many Jews today. With the news last week of record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Portland, our community sprang into action. We are proud to be a part of a strong network of service providers, including synagogues, that have prioritized this work for many years.[7]

Along with the United Way, the JCA has been instrumental in propagandizing Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling’s reckless call for migrants—supplied by Catholic Charities—and seizing the opportunity to use these hapless migrants as both sword and shield. The JCA has also worked with the Maine Association for New Americans (MANA) on “Hope Acts programs including asylum seeker housing, English classes, and individualized support.” In 2012, MANA paired up with Michael Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy (NAE), which will be covered in an upcoming volume of this series. Suffice it to say for now that NAE is very pro-mass immigration and lobbies relentlessly for more tech H-1B visas and other types of foreign worker visas. Hope Acts is run by Jewish Executive Director Martha Stein:

Previously, she served as Director of Communications for Maine Equal Justice Partners, Development Director for Tedford Housing, and Development Director for the Maine Council of Churches. Prior to working for non-profits, Martha held various management positions at AT&T and Prudential.[8]

Vice President of the JCA, Rachael Weinstein Alfond, is married to former Democratic State Senator and real estate developer Justin Alfond (also Jewish), who voted against a Penalties for Violent Offenses Against Fetuses bill and sponsored a bill in 2009 which would have allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections state-wide and another to amnesty illegal aliens. Democratic Representative Jared Golden, who you may recall from the previous piece received a campaign donation from Catholic Charities, joined Congresswoman Chellie Pingree in voting in favor amnesty for illegal alien “Dreamers.”  It might be worth considering who else funded Golden’s 2018 campaign. His top donors were J Street, End Citizens United PAC, and Rachael Weinstein Alfond, plus PACs representing and/or individuals affiliated with: Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Cisco Systems, Harvard University, Stanford University, Bates College, Wicklow Capital, Berwind Corp., Berman & Simmons, and Drummond Woodsum. Drummond Woodsum Attorneys at Law’s immigration team

represents businesses, individuals and families on all aspects of immigration law and procedures throughout New England and the country. We assist businesses with immigration filings in all non-immigrant visa categories, labor certification, permanent residence status for key alien employees, and employment compliance including I-9 compliance reviews, trainings and defense in ICE enforcement matters. We also have experience in the complex area of export control licensing and its interaction with immigration law – an area of heightened scrutiny by the federal government. We also represent scores of individuals and families seeking marriage-based permanent residence, naturalization or family reunification.[9]

They also work on employment visa processing, corporate compliance, and various other immigration-related services, including representing high school students who can’t compete in local poetry contests because they don’t have green cards. Also from their site:

Our clients include companies in the following industries:
·     Information Technology
·     Software Development
·     Health Care
·     Colleges, Universities and Schools
·     Construction and Engineering
·     Supply Chain Management
·     Manufacturing
·     Financial Services Consulting
|·     Multi-National Corporations
·     Religious Organizations
·     Trade Groups[10]

Many attorneys at the firm provide pro bono legal services for the Volunteer Lawyers Project and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project. Drummond Woodsum received the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) award for “excellence in providing pro bono representation to asylum seekers and other noncitizens” in 2009, 2010, and 2011.[11]

Berman & Simmons has entered into a partnership with ILAP (introduced above) and aided in their endeavor to open a new office in Lewiston with financial support and pro bono assistance. Bates College has also partnered with ILAP. ILAP provides free legal services to immigrants, including obtaining green cards or work visas, citizenship, and asylum claims.[12] ILAP is a 501(c)(3) with support from the United Way and Maine Women’s Fund, which dispensed $132,550 to “social justice causes” last year and an aggregate of over $2.4 million in its existence.

There are a slew of refugee/immigrant grants in the state of Maine, many of which are tied to Jewish or Israeli organizations: “Grants to US and Israel organizations for programs and projects that promote social justice and human rights…grassroots organizations for programs to strengthen minority communities against social injustice. Funding is intended to support organizations serving immigrant, Arab-American, Muslim, and Black communities, and all people of color, LGBTQ, etc.” There are at least twenty-five grants under the auspices of the “People of Color Fund” for 2019, which include:

·        Somali Bantu Community of Lewiston, Maine, to help create a sustainable goat farming and halal slaughtering operation which meets the cultural, dietary, and employment needs of the community.

·        Maine Access Immigrant Network, to improve access to, and use of, health and social services for refugee and immigrant communities in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way: $10,000.

·        Hand in Hand / Mano en Mano, to build community and organizational capacity around racial and multilingual justice: $6,000.

·        University of Southern Maine, to pilot a community engagement and leadership fellowship for young adult emerging leaders who are immigrants or other racial/ethnic minorities: $6,000.

·        Maine Community Integration, to expand cultural competency training for educators in the Lewiston schools and close the cultural gaps between white educators and students of color: $5,000.

·        Gateway Community Service Maine, to expand youth leadership programs to help young people from immigrant, refugee, and asylee families learn new skills, gain opportunities, and grow into community leaders: $10,000.

·        Indigo Arts Alliance, to host a symposium with scholars, activists, artists, and the public to explore the cultural traditions of the African diaspora and indigenous peoples: $5,000.

This is unfortunately not all—not by a long shot. But given the sheer volume of evidence and the fact that it takes some time to digest all of it, we will break here and continue tracing the web of Judaic neo-liberalism’s attempted destruction of Dirigo next time.

Reposted from The Anatomically Correct Banana, with permission.

[1] https://www.newenglishreview.org/Jerry_Gordon/Trojan_Horse_Federal_Refugee_Program_Brings_Jihadi_Threat_to_America%3A_An_Interview_with_Ann_Corcoran/

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/01/portland-crowd-protests-trumps-immigration-orders/

[4] “Maine Equal Justice Partners (MEJP) is a non-profit legal aid provider dedicated to finding solutions to poverty and improving the lives of low-income Mainers. MEJP provides direct legal assistance to low-income Maine residents related to public benefits, food, housing, and healthcare. In addition to direct legal aid, the organization advocates for “fair public policies in the legislature and with governmental agencies,” and partners with “diverse low-income communities and agencies through outreach, organizing, and education.” MEJP does not accept federal legal services funding and therefore has no limitations based on immigration status for the populations they can assist.” https://www.lewistonmaine.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8885/REPORT—ImmigrantandRefugeeIntegrationandPolicyDevelopmentWorkingGroupFinalReport

[5] Represented by Bernstein Shur and with financial ties to Catholic Charities Maine, EqualityMaine, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC), Maine Equal Justice Partners (MEJP), Maine Access Immigrant Network (MAIN), the University of Southern Maine Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy, Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, Maine Transgender Network Incorporated, and the list goes on.

[6] http://www.ncjwmaine.org/?cat=3&paged=2

[7] https://www.mainejewish.org/supportthethejewishcommunityalliance/refugee-and-asylum-seeker-support/

[8] https://hopeacts.org/about-us/staff/

[9] http://www.dwmlaw.com/Immigration

[10] Ibid.

[11] http://www.dwmlaw.com/ABOUT-THE-FIRM

[12] https://www.bermansimmons.com/news/immigrant-legal-advocacy-project-opens-new-lewiston-office-support-berman-simmons/