William K. Langfan

World War II Veteran and Philanthropist

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March 3, 2017 by William K. Langfan

Synagogue to honor role model on 95th birthday

Palm Beach Synagogue will honor resident Bill Langfan — retired businessman and World War II veteran — to mark his 95th birthday on Saturday. Services start at 9 a.m. followed by a noon luncheon and 12:30 p.m. celebration.

“Mr. Langfan is a pillar of tremendous strength within our community,” said Rabbi Moshe Scheiner. “He has exemplified the virtues of loving kindness and generosity, and community and family and friendship.”

“At 95, he is a role model and example to all of us on how one can be engaged, building a lasting, living legacy that will impact the lives of many others for generations to come.”

Cantor Zev Müller of New York will lead the services and Israeli scholar MordecaiKedar, an assistant professor at Bar-llan University, will talk about “the shared values and principles that have forged a great relationship between the United States and Israel, something which Mr. Langfan has devoted his life toward strengthening,” said Scheiner.

Langfan will read from the Torah he donated to Palm Beach Synagogue in 2009 in his parents’ memory. He’s also given Torahs to Temple Beth El, Temple Emanu-El of Palm Beach and Temple Aitz Chaim of West Palm Beach, all local synagogues he’s attended.

Langfan’s donations toward youth education connect teens to their heritage, history and culture and build leadership. This month, he again will sponsor synagogue teens to attend the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., so they can become more engaged with issues that unite the United States and Israel. He also sponsors students attending from local temples Beth El and Emanu-El and Chabad of Clinton, N.Y., serving Hamilton University.

He lectures and writes about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, sometimes with son Mark, who uses maps to illustrate Israel’s importance to the United States and Europe. His website is williamklangfan.com.

During the war, he served in the Battle of the Bulge and was in the first group of liberators at the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.

His three children followed his footsteps and earned law degrees. One of his six grandchildren is attending his alma mater Cornell University, where a moot court competition is named for him, one of his several permanent endowments.

Langfan was the youngest of five growing up and “treated royally,” he said. He was the first one in his family to attend college and law school.

Family from Washington, D.C., and New York will attend Langfan’s birthday tribute at the temple and a party at The Chesterfield.

His birthday wish is “for people to seek the facts,” he said. “If you know the facts, and you make a judgment, you are entitled to convey your opinion. But have facts, don’t just rely on what you hear or read.”

Of the synagogue tribute, he said: “They are asking me to tell a joke they haven’t heard before. That’s a little difficult. Good jokes are hard to find.”

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Music at Bethesda-by-the-Sea — James Guyer, organist and choirmaster at St. Boniface Episcopal Church in Sarasota, will play a recital at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Evensong with the Bethesda Choir will follow at 4 p.m. All are welcome.

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Festive — Food, music and speakers will highlight a Women’s League Shabbaton weekend March 17 and 18 at Temple Emanu-El. It will kick off with a dinner at 5:45 p.m. March 17, followed by 7:30 p.m. services.

The next day, Temple Beth Sholom Teen Choir of Greenwich, Conn., directed by Cantor Asa Fradkin, will sing traditional songs during the 9:15 a.m. service.

Carol Simon of Tampa, president of the National Women’s League of Conservative Judaism, will address both services.

Mickey Feldberg, a former Women’s League president, called Simon “charming, vivacious, and she has dedicated much of her adult life to Women’s League.”

In addition, Women’s League president Rhea Zukerman will honor the board for its yearlong programming.

All are welcome. RSVP for dinner by March 13 by calling 832-0804.

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Pre-Purim event — The Palm Beach Jewish Women’s Circle gathering at 7 p.m. Monday at The Chabad House will feature tastings of hamantaschen (three-cornered cookies or pastry that resemble Haman’s three-cornered hat in the Purim story) and guest speaker Sorele Brownstein. Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Brownstein will share insights into Jewish heroines of the past. She co-directs Chabad of Davis , Calif., with husband Rabbi Shmaryahu Brownstein.

Sorele Brownstein, the author of The Gilded Cage: Queen Esther’s Untold Story, will also have a book signing and sale.

The women will prepare hamantaschen and gift packages before the Purim holiday, which runs from sundown March 11 to nightfall March 12.

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Purim drama — Purim Puppet Theater led by Rabbi G of the Chabad Youth Network will take place at The Society of the Four Arts Children’s Library for ages 3 to 12. Children also can bake and take home hamantashen at the event, set for 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The third in the Daled Arts series is presented by The Chabad House in cooperation with The Friedman CJE’s PJ Library. Email hindel@palmbeachjewish.com or register at palmbeachjewish.com/daledarts.

 


(This article was published on 7:00 a.m. Friday, March 03, 2017, in http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/lifestyles/religion/synagogue-honor-role-model-95th-birthday/zKyRUzNefPOg93RCoBC9aN/)

Filed Under: Articles written about Mr. Langfan

February 10, 2015 by William K. Langfan

US Businessman Hands $1Mln to Whoever Proves PLO Accepted Israel

US businessman William Langfan has promised to give an epic prize of $1 million in cash to whoever provides proof that the Palestinian National Council (PNC) modified the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to recognize Israel in its charter as it said it would in Oslo.

“I will up the ante to a million dollars to the first person who can present a charter modification with annulments duly voted by the PNC. It’s a million dollar bank check from Wells Fargo,” the New Yorker said.

Soon after the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced in his annual General Assembly speech that Palestine was no longer restrained by the Oslo Peace Accords, the US businessman made a bet that many believe poses no risk to him.

The thing is, the clauses of the 1964 Palestinian National Charter, one that is treated by Palestinians as nearly sacred, proclaimed the foundation of Israeli state unlawful and called for armed resistance until the liberation of Palestine. Nullifying those clauses was essential for the “Peace Process” which began in 1993 with the Oslo accord.

Before Israel and the PLO signed the document, former PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in a letter to then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin agreed to cancel the clauses calling for an armed resistance and said he would submit the matter to the PNC for approval. This was long considered proof that the PLO had acknowledged Israel’s existence, Langfan explained in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

However, there was never a two-thirds majority vote, necessary to modify the charter. Only three years from then the PNC was asked to ratify the change and decided to “re-draft” the charter, yet “no record of any redrafted charter has ever been presented to the public,” Langfan unambiguously stated. Not even after another letter by Arafat, this time to former US President Bill Clinton, in which he claimed that the anti-Israel clauses were excluded from the charter.

According to Langfan, all this time there were just lies but never an actual vote or any other record, and the whole Oslo process was based upon something that never took place.

“All that they did was reaffirm Arafat’s lies, that something was done… that was never done,” he said.

(This article was written on February 10, 2015 and published on http://sputniknews.com)

Filed Under: Articles written about Mr. Langfan

July 29, 2014 by William K. Langfan

Holocaust Camp Liberator ‘Predicted Gaza War’

Ninety-one-year-old William Langfan predicted the current Gaza War in a TV interview one year ago with Tom Trento.

In a March 2013 interview, Mr. Langfan explains how the Western world, led by President Barack Obama, is pressuring Israel to accommodate Hamas, which would have catastrophic consequences.

Mr. Langfan delivers a warning to Israel that has immediate application to the ground offensive going on in Gaza today. Will Israel learn a lesson from a moment in its brutal history as detailed by a soldier who helped liberate the Buchenwald death camp?

Doctrine plays a role. The Charter for a group called the Islamic Resistance Movement, otherwise known as the Hamas, will play a significant role in the conflict. The question before Israel and the free world is whether or not the Hamas actually believes in the “constitution” they wrote in 1988. Read the complete Covenant

(This article was published by Arutz Sheva Staff, on 07/29/14 in http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183479#.U9e6jGOwV4U)

Filed Under: Articles written about Mr. Langfan

May 5, 2014 by William K. Langfan

Israeli Minister $200,000 to Find Change in Palestinian Charter

Finance Minister Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party. Photo: Yesh Atid.

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Monday was offered a $200,000 donation if he could back up a statement he made to The Wall Street Journal that the Palestinian National Council has officially renounced terrorism.

William Langfan, a Jewish American philanthropist, said the PNC’s charter, created in 1968, has, in fact, never been changed, still calling for the destruction of Israel, even though that was agreed to be removed in 1998, “pursuant to Arafat’s January 1998 letter to President Clinton.”

In a letter to the editor, seen by The Algemeiner, Langfan, a New York property investor now retired in Palm Beach, Florida, wrote:

“Nicholas Casey in his recent Wall Street Journal article ‘Palestinian Unity’ stated that some Israeli government officials say that negotiations with Hamas could one day become possible if it recognizes Israel.”

“He then quotes Yair Lapid, ‘It’s not like it didn’t happen before.’ ‘The PLO used to be a terror organization.’ I respectfully suggest that Lapid read Article 33 of the PLO 1968 Charter and ask himself where and when the Palestinian National Council (PNC) voted to modify or annul one article of their Charter.”

“The Charter unequivocally states that the establishment of Israel is illegal and void and that they would use armed resistance until Palestine was liberated.  Charter Article 33 clearly states that no change in the Charter can occur unless 2/3 of the PNC members vote for a change.”

(This Article was written by Joshua Levitt on May 5, 2014 and published in http://algemeiner.com)

Filed Under: Articles written about Mr. Langfan

March 13, 2013 by William K. Langfan

91 Year old Jewish Veteran “SCHOOLS” OBAMA on Israel Geography!

This week President Obama makes a historic trip to Israel with an entourage of 500 and an Israeli security force of 10,000.

Unless Obama has completely changed from his life-long, pro-Islam beliefs, (which we know he has not) then Israel is in for diplomatic and national security trouble.

Watch this very powerful message from William “Bill” Langfan a 91 year-old Jewish American patriot who fought against Hitler in WWII and helped liberate Buchenwald Nazi death camp.

After watching this video ask yourself who makes more sense… President Obama or Bill Langfan?

 CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND TELL THEM NO LAND FOR PEACE!

Watch the video and read the original article below

A Soldier’s Warning: Obama’s Latter-Day “Munich” Puts Israel in the Crosshairs By Joel Himelfarb

This fall will mark the anniversary of a shameful betrayal of a small nation, one that led to a world war in which upwards of 60 million people died. September 30, 2013 will be 75 years to the day when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier cemented their agreement with Hitler to force democratic Czechoslovakia to relinquish the Sudetenland, an ethnically German region, to the Nazis.

As you’ll see in this interview, William Langfan, a World War II veteran who witnessed the catastrophic consequences of Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler, warns that President Obama – together with Great Britain, France and others in the European Union – is about to do the same thing to Israel.

Obama is scheduled to travel to Israel next month. He is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visit Yad Vashem and Mount Herzl cemetery, and possibly to visit Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

Now that he’s been re-elected and no longer has to worry about alienating American Jewish voters, Obama feels free to take a hard line in demanding Israeli concessions for “peace,” says Langfan, who earlier this month (March 4) turned 91.

Langfan says he “absolutely” believes that Obama’s approach toward Israel is analogous to the Franco/British handling of Czechoslovakia in 1938. He said that in both cases, more powerful democratic nations have sought to force smaller, embattled ones to “weaken” themselves by making dangerous concessions to hostile dictatorial enemies, be they Hitler or the Palestinian Authority.

A tireless researcher and writer on current Israeli security affairs, Langfan remembers following the 1938 Czechoslovakia crisis in the newspapers as a teenager growing up in New York. He joined the U.S. Army and from 1943-45 saw duty in England, Belgium, Germany and France, where he participated in the Battle of the Bulge.

In April 1945, his unit arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp a day after American forces liberated it, giving Langfan, 23, a chance to see firsthand the results of futile efforts to appease a rapacious enemy. He spoke to numerous Holocaust survivors at the camp, where more than 50,000 people had been slaughtered. They told horrific tales of people being starved and gassed.

“It was terrible. I saw the bodies on the carts,” Langfan says. Mail prisoners at the camp were “skinny as an arm.”

Betraying Czechoslovakia (1938)

According to Langfan, there is a clear link between the failure to stop Hitler’s aggressions against Czechoslovakia, and before that the Rhineland (March 1936) and Austria (March 1938) and the horrors he witnessed at Buchenwald. Forcing Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Hitler was of tremendous benefit to the Wehrmacht. Had the British and French stood firm, Hitler in all likelihood would have been forced to back down.

Langfan believes many in the West fail to grasp the similarities between Israel today and Czechoslovakia in 1938. Both are democracies surrounded by dictatorships and autocracies. Today, Israel’s top ally is the United States; in 1938; Prague had alliances with France and the Soviet Union (the latter nation, wracked by internal turmoil at the time, refused to intervene against Hitler). Czechoslovakia had an impressive, well-trained military that could well have been a formidable ally if London and Paris had been prepared to go to war to defend that nation.

But it was apparent that both of these nations, still reeling from the ravages of World War I, would go to almost any lengths to avoid confronting the Nazi dictator. In mid-September, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier and his foreign minister went to London where they joined the British in fashioning a plan to placate Hitler by requiring that all areas with a Sudeten German population of more than 50 percent be returned to Germany. Prague initially rejected the proposal, but it was forced to acquiesce on Sept. 21.

But at a meeting with Chamberlain the following day, Hitler upped his earlier demands, insisting that the German Army occupy the Sudetenland and that Czechoslovaks be removed from there in less than a week. Chamberlain promised to show the proposals to the Czech government, which rejected it, as did the French and the British cabinet.

On Sept. 23, the Czech government ordered a general mobilization, with the French ordering a partial one the following day. In a desperate attempt to avert to avert war, Chamberlain called for convening a four-power conference to find a resolution.

In a September 26, 1938 speech, Hitler made menacing comments about Czechoslovakian President Eduard Benes.

“He can either accept my offer and give the [Sudeten] Germans their freedom, or we will go and get it for ourselves,” Hitler said. “The decision is his! Be it war or peace!”

On Sept. 29, Hitler; Italian dictator Benito Mussolini; Chamberlain; and Daladier met in Munich where they agreed to a deal in which Germany was permitted to occupy the Sudetenland, with an international commission deciding what to do about disputed areas. They told Czechoslovakia it could agree or would face Hitler on its own. The Czechs backed down.

Hitler and Chamberlain signed an agreement in Munich on Sept. 30, 1938 declaring their determination to resolve differences through consultation.

Both Chamberlain and Daladier were welcomed by jubilant crowds upon returning home, with Chamberlain declaring that he had achieved “peace with honor. I believe it is piece for our time.” His bitter rival, Winston Churchill, countered that this was rubbish.

“You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war,” he told Chamberlain.

As it turned out, Churchill proved to be prescient. By Oct. 10, 1938, Hitler had occupied the Sudetenland. He annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia the following March and invaded Poland nearly six months later, triggering World War II

Betraying Israel (2013)

According to Langfan, there are disturbing parallels between President Obama’s approach to Israel and the disastrous appeasement policy pursued by the French and the British before the war. The United States today is following that sorry 1930s precedent by pressuring Israel, an embattled ally, to cede territory to neighbors that remain committed to its destruction.

Langfan says many people, blinded by Israel’s status as a regional superpower, overlook the reality that it would not continue to be if it is forced into making major territorial concessions that bring groups like Hamas within rocket range of its airports. Similarly, Israel’s military deterrent is weakened when the United Nations, Washington and Paris and London intervene and push for ceasefires before Israel is able to complete military actions against terrorists – something that has occurred repeatedly in Gaza in recent years.

Langfan’s critique of Obama Administration policies harmful to Israel’s security includes the following:

*Obama’s choice as secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week, has a long record of hostility toward Israel and its American Jewish supporters. Hagel’s confirmation following a “pitiful” performance at his confirmation hearing reflects poorly on Senate Republicans who could have stopped his confirmation if they had held together on cloture. It sends a “message of weakness” to America’s friends and enemies around the world.

When you take into account Hagel’s abysmal record on national security issues and U.S. efforts to push Israel back to the 1967 lines, his selection as defense secretary “creates as negative a feeling as someone could convey” about the Obama Administration’s intentions on national security.

*Obama approved a gift of F-16 fighter jets and MIAI Abrams tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood dominated Egyptian government and looked the other way as Cairo imported Scud missile parts from North Korea.

*It doesn’t “make a damn bit” of difference whether Obama goes to Yad Vashem on his upcoming visit to Israel. What matters is policy, and Obama’s support of a “two-state solution” and putting pressure on Israel is harmful and destructive.

*For more than four decades, Israel’s top strategic minds have emphasized that defensible borders will require that the Jewish State retain territory beyond the pre-Six-Day-War borders.

President Obama, however, disagrees. As he explained in a 2011 address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel’s borders “should be based on the [June 4] 1967 lines.” He tried to offset that by offering “mutually agreed land swaps” -nearly identical to territorial concessions rejected in 2008 by Palestinian Authority boss Mahmoud Abbas and ones rejected by Yasser Arafat in 2000.

*Obama “has a misdirected concept that you can make a deal with Iran” over issues like its nuclear program. The president doesn’t appreciate the reality that Iran and its North Korean allies are analogous to Hitler and Japanese boss Hideki Tojo during the 1930s and 1940s – irredentist totalitarians who have no interest in compromise.

Whitewashing Palestinian Terror, Incitement

Bill Langfan is sharply critical of the Obama Administration for continuing the policies of its predecessors: pushing for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians while ignoring the Palestinian refusal to to change the PLO covenant calling for Israel’s destruction.

The Oslo “peace process” is one of “the greatest mistakes in U.S. history,” he says. The Palestinians “have behaved in bad faith” from the very beginning of the process nearly 20 years ago, and thanks to the indulgence of President Clinton and U.S. envoy Dennis Ross, Arafat managed to get away without changing offending clauses in PLO National Covenant.

In a Sept. 9, 1993 letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Arafat declared that those provisions of the PLO Covenant that are inconsistent with promises of “peaceful coexistence” with Israel “are now inoperative and no longer valid. Consequently, the PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council (PNC) for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant.”

But Langfan makes a powerful case that that never happened. He says that when the record is carefully examined , it becomes clear that PLO Covenant (sometimes referred to as the “Charter”) was never actually changed.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in May 1996 that the PLO had left the Charter intact and had failed to renounce violence or accept Israel’s right to exist. In 1998, President Clinton traveled to Gaza where he watched what was purportedly a decision by the Palestinian National Council to remove the offending clauses. After analyzing a series of complex legal gymnastics by the PNC, Langfan concludes that the Charter calling for Israel’s destruction remains in effect.

The notion of “reform” is also undercut by the dramatic increase in Palestinian terrorism after the supposed Dec. 14, 1998 vote to “reaffirm peace.” The years following that vote saw “the greatest amount of Israeli civilian casualties per year since the 1949 armistice,” Langfan says. From 1949 through Dec. 31, 1998,approximately 28 Israeli civilians a year were killed in terrorist attacks. From January 1999 through December 31, 2009, Israeli civilian deaths averaged 109 per year –nearly a fourfold increase.

He summarizes the results of the Israeli –Palestinian “peace process” this way:

“Hamas controls Gaza; Fatah much of the West Bank and there are more Israeli civilian deaths from terrorism than ever before.” Moreover, “the same PLO charter calling for Israel’s destruction, which has never been modified remains in force, in addition to a Fatah constitution and a Hamas charter, both of which call for Israel’s destruction.”

When you look at the continuing, essentially daily incitement documented by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and MEMRI, and it is abundantly clear that the “moderate” Fatah continues to be engaged in incitement. There has “been no fundamental transformation on the Palestinian side.”

As the PMW website makes clear, Palestinian incitement remains a daily, continuing problem. Fatah’s Facebook page, for example, recently paid tribute to Wafa Idris, the first Palestinian female suicide bomber, who blew herself up in Jerusalem in January 2002, killing one person and injuring more than 150. As a volunteer for the Palestinian Red Crescent, she could bypass Israeli security and enter the capital in a Palestinian ambulance.

Other recent features on the site include PA media tributes to suicide bombers and quotations from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which are depicted as exposes of Jewish crimes.

Langfan says the PLO’s Fatah faction remains committed to the “Strategy of Stages” path toward Israel’s destruction and agrees with the Wall Street Journal’s Brett Stephens, who admits he was wrong to have endorsed Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. As Langfan describes it, Stephens now says he is for a two-state solution once the Palestinian relationship with Israel is like the U.S. relationship with Canada.

“After World War II, the United States military remained in Germany and Japan until those societies were fundamentally changed,” Langfan said. “We left, and they became two of our top allies. Israel should not be forced out of territories captured in a defensive war like the West Bank until there is a clear change in Palestinian minds.”

When President Obama visits the region, he should make it a priority to insist that Abbas take steps to end incitement, Langfan says, while expressing doubt that the President would take such a step. Pointing to Obama’s longstanding friendships with the likes of Bill Ayers, Rashid Khalidi and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Langfan describes Obama as a man of the “hard left” who has little interest in confronting anti-Jewish bigotry in any sustained fashion.
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Watch the video below (put out by the White House) Previewing the President’s trip to Israel, The West Bank and Jordan. LOOK CAREFULLY – THIS IS THE WAY MUSLIM JIHADI’S VIEW ISRAEL… JUST LIKE OBAMA.


From Youtube: Published on 15 Mar 2013. Deputy National Security Adviser, Ben Rhodes, previews the President’s trip to Israel, The West Bank and Jordan. Learn more at http://www.whitehouse.gov/middle-east…

Now, take a good look at the White Houses’ official designation of the land mass of the nation of Israel. Hmmm… seems that this map came right out of the HAMAS handbook.

Now take a look at all the STUPID Jewish and Christian people who say they “stand with Israel,” BUT, voted for
President Obama as they once again try to convince themselves that Obama is really, “Israel’s best friend!”

Do you people understand the impact that this official video & map has in the Muslim world of jihad?
It is imperative that President Obama publicly disassociate himself from this “Islamic propaganda,” BEFORE he leaves for Israel. HA…that last sentence is a bit of “comic relief” as we all know this is the OBAMA POLICY FOR ISRAEL… to give Jewish land for Muslim appeasement.
OBAMA IS OUT OF CONTROL AND HAS ISRAEL IN THE CROSS-HAIRS!

 

(This article was written by Tom Trenton on March 13, 2013 and published in http://teapartytribune.com)

Filed Under: Articles written about Mr. Langfan

Featured Videos

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