David Lega

Last night I brought Meta and the Spinalis Foundation together in Stockholm. Meta donated around twenty pairs of AI glasses to Spinalis, and the room was full.

These glasses change my life. I work faster. I take photos of Vega and Natalie myself. I talk on the phone without someone holding it for me, without someone listening all the time.

Small things most people take for granted. For me, life-changing. Assistive technology is not just about quality of life. For me, it makes it possible to perform at the highest level.

I am so glad more people with challenges like mine now get to try them and feel how much more independence this kind of assistive technology gives.

Thank you, @Meta and Spinalis. #Accessibility #AssistiveTech #SE

Wow! Så värdig vinnare!!

Two days I will never forget. In Kraków and Auschwitz-Birkenau with @EJAssociation, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we gathered to honour the past and safeguard the future.

I was deeply honoured to present the EJA King Solomon Award to Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. More than 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great allowed the Jewish people to return from exile in Babylon, and we still remember him with gratitude. That friendship between our peoples is not something we need to invent. It is something we already have, and must protect.

Thank you, Your Royal Highness, for standing against antisemitism and with the Jewish people. And thank you to our Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, for his tireless fight and for the trust he places in me to lead the work of the EJA.

We cannot change our history. But we can decide what kind of history we leave for our children. #Auschwitz #Kristallnacht #NeverAgain #EJA #PL

Malmö's new councilor in charge of fighting antisemitism shared posts claiming the world is run by "satanic pedophiles".

This is not a random internet rabbit hole. The myth of hidden forces secretly ruling the world is the foundation of antisemitism itself. It has fueled hatred of Jews for centuries.

According to an Expressen investigation, Halimo Nuur Bashir Abdi (Left Party) also spread Gaddafi propaganda calling the West barbaric, and on the very day of Hamas's October 7 massacre she wrote that Israel was to blame.

Now the posts are deleted and she says she did not review them carefully enough. That is not an explanation. It is an insult to Malmö's Jewish community, which has lived with antisemitism in the city for far too long.

How is someone who spreads the myths that feed antisemitism supposed to lead the fight against it?

I work with Jewish communities across Europe. Few have carried this burden as long as Malmö's. I strongly believe this appointment must be reversed, and the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism is right: she is highly unsuitable for the role.

Malmö's Jews deserve leaders they can trust. After everything they have endured, anything less is a betrayal.

expressen.se/nyheter/sverig…
@inashmdn @kommitten #antisemitism

Patrick Stewart was probably the first person who made me think a wheelchair could actually look like something from the future. And I wanted one just like it! 😄

But his portrayal of Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men meant much more to me than that.

Xavier was one of the most powerful mutants in the world, and he used a wheelchair. His greatest rival, Magneto, was Jewish and had survived Auschwitz. That experience shaped his determination to make sure mutants would never suffer the same fate as the Jewish people.

But what made their story so fascinating was that they were also friends. Throughout their lives, they shared the same fear of how mutants might be treated by the world around them. They simply disagreed on how to respond.

Xavier believed in coexistence, in building bridges and changing minds. Magneto believed that mutants had to be prepared to defend themselves against a world that might one day turn against them. And perhaps the truth was somewhere in between. That we must always strive for understanding and peaceful coexistence, but never forget the importance of being able to defend ourselves when those ideals are threatened.

Despite their differences, their friendship endured.

And somehow, these two characters represented two important parts of my own identity. As a Jew and as a person with a disability.

Perhaps that’s why these films always meant a little more to me than just another superhero story.

Thank you, Sir Patrick Stewart. For reminding us that the future is something we can shape, and for inspiring generations to boldly go where no one has gone before. ❤️