American Jewish World

07/04/2024

The Times of Israel:
Israel’s military leadership wants to see a ceasefire in Gaza, even if it leaves the Hamas terror group ruling the Strip, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing six current and former security officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly responded that this was not an option.

The generals were said to believe that a permanent ceasefire is the best way to free remaining Hamas-held hostages. They also reportedly said that the Israel Defense Forces needs to restock ahead of an expected wider conflict with Hezbollah, as diplomatic efforts have so far failed to allay fears of a potential war in Lebanon.

In latest sign of rift between Netanyahu and generals, NYT says security officials believe ceasefire is best way to release hostages; army responds it is committed to all war goals

06/28/2024

JTA News:
Joe Biden and Donald Trump rambled and jabbed each other with insults in a debate that included exchanges about Israel’s war with Hamas and neo-Nazi violence.

The debate in Atlanta Thursday night, moderated by CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, was the first of two scheduled for this presidential election. The nominees faced each other in two debates in 2020. Biden bested Trump, then the incumbent, in that election.

This debate left many Democrats debating whether Biden should remain the party’s candidate in November. Biden was hoarse, frequently corrected himself mid-sentence and on several occasions appeared to lose his train of thought. Trump, meanwhile, spoke robustly but in run-on sentences that included numerous falsehoods, about the 2020 election and the prosecutions and lawsuits he has faced.

The result was a number of bizarre moments, including one related to Israel’s war with Hamas. “He’s become like a Palestinian,” Trump said of Biden during the section dealing with foreign policy. “But they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one.”

The candidates also sparred over the future of the Israel-Hamas war.

06/28/2024

Saturday, near Jenin, IDF soldiers tied Mujahid Abadi, 24, to the hood of their vehicle. How does an innocent man, even by the IDF's own account, end up shot twice before being apprehended, tied to a moving vehicle and then released?

Abadi had awoken at his uncle’s place to the sound of a gunfight during an IDF raid. He was shot in the shoulder while trying to leave the area, and again in the leg while hiding behind a vehicle. He was then beaten, photographed and identified before the drive began.

“He drove back and forth like he wanted to torture me. No one could touch the jeep, I still have burns from the heat," Abadi said, adding that only after the drive was he notified that he was not a wanted suspect. The IDF later said the incident was “inconsistent with protocols.”

An IDF source claimed Abadi was placed there due to ‘lack of space’ within the jeep, an excuse made even more absurd by the fact that the jeep passed by 3 Red Crescent ambulances before finally handing him over to a different, further away, Red Crescent ambulance.

The usual lip-service from the IDF does well to obscure the potential reasoning for what took place: Like striking fear into the hearts of the Palestinians, which we know is an integral part of many IDF missions in the occupied territories. Maybe he was used as a human shield, a practice we’ve seen in the past.

“[…] they were throwing stones at the jeep. So he just stopped a Palestinian guy who was passing, forty-something years old, and tied him to the hood of the jeep, a guy just lying on the hood, and they drove into the village. No one threw any more rocks.”
[Lieutenant | Civil Administration | Bethlehem area]

None of this could have happened had they not felt entitled to do so. That the system which gives them absolute authority over Palestinians would have their back, and give them virtual impunity from suffering any consequences for their actions.

This entitlement can be seen in Gaza in countless TikToks posted by soldiers where they are seen looting, defacing property and burning books. These acts are but a symptom of the bigger life threatening reality in Gaza, yet the IDF top brass have proven to be unwilling to stop even them.

The soldiers didn’t need direct orders in order to dehumanize an innocent injured man by tying him to the hood of a vehicle. Decades of a corrupting military dictatorship have brought us all to the point where incidents like these have become an inevitability in the occupied Palestinian territories.

06/27/2024

JTA News:
Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping, mustachioed Texan country singer and mystery novelist whose body of work often seemed like the un-kosher marriage of the Borscht Belt and the Bible Belt, died June 27 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 79.

As frontman for the flamboyant 1970s country group Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, he was notorious for satirical songs such as “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” a raucous sendup of racism, and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed,” which poked fun at feminism.

He could also turn serious, with songs dealing with social issues such as abortion and commercialism. His 1973 song “Ride ’em Jewboy” is a haunting elegy on the Holocaust, recorded by Willie Nelson and sung in concert by Bob Dylan.

Friedman claimed to be he first "full-blooded" Jew to take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry. He also ran for governor of Texas.

06/27/2024

(CNN) — All Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in their curriculums, effective immediately, the state’s chief education officer announced in a memorandum Thursday.

At a State Board of Education meeting, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said the Bible is “one of the most foundational documents used for the Constitution and the birth of our country.”

“It’s crystal clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple occasions, the Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters said.

All Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in their curriculums, effective immediately, the state’s chief education officer announced in a memorandum Thursday.

06/27/2024

JTA News:
WASHINGTON — When Donald Trump and Joe Biden met for their first debate back in September 2020, the most explosive moment was notable to many Jewish viewers: Trump stopped short of condemning white supremacists and told the Proud Boys, a far-right group, to “stand back and stand by.”

This Thursday, as Trump and Biden meet in Atlanta during their second race, for what will be their third debate in total, viewers are likely to see more moments of Jewish significance — from disagreements over the Israel-Hamas war to a discussion of antisemitism. The Jewish identity of both of the moderators, CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, might also be a factor.

In addition, expect segments on several issues that, polls show, are usually on Jews’ minds at the voting booth, such as abortion, climate change and the future of U.S. democracy. Immigration, a topic of historical Jewish concern, will almost certainly be a focus.

One of the biggest moments of the presidential candidates' first debate, in 2020, had to do with white supremacists.

06/26/2024

The Times of Israel
Israel believes that the International Criminal Court will issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the coming weeks, Channel 12 news reported Wednesday, after the court’s chief prosecutor announced applying for the warrants back in May.

The expected warrants have been the subject of meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry in recent weeks, the network said, and all have estimated that they will be issued in the next few weeks.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said in May that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant due to suspected crimes of “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

Prime Minister's Office said reexamining Netanyahu's trip to US next month should warrants be issued, as any emergency landing in a signatory country could result in his arrest

06/25/2024

Diane von Furstenberg, the designer of the iconic wrap dress, was born 18 months after her mother, Lily Halfin, was liberated from Auschwitz. That fact shaped everything in her life and made her the…

06/25/2024

Star Tribune's editorial page weighs in on the controversy over a new leader for the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies University of Minnesota:

" ... the university is now vulnerable to accusations of selective listening. [Raz] Segal told an editorial writer that petitions with thousands of signatures, including those of many Jewish people, went ignored. 'The response has been overwhelming support of me and anger at the university. The anger stems from the crude violation of academic freedom, the crude political interference in a regular hiring process at a public university, and the crude violation of the procedures of the university itself,' he said.

"Meanwhile, members of the College of Liberal Arts Assembly have characterized the administration's involvement as an 'unprecedented interference in the college's hiring process" and last week produced a 24-6 vote of no confidence in Ettinger and Provost Rachel Croson. (Ettinger's role as interim president ends July 1, when Dr. Rebecca Cunningham is to begin her tenure in the permanent role.)"

The administration was right to intervene — albeit painfully — in the search for a director.

06/25/2024

The Adi Yeshaya Jazz Orchestra plays Crooners Supper Club on Sunday. Should be a fun show!

Dinner and cocktail seating and service begins 1 hour before showtimes.

06/25/2024

LA Times:
A violent protest outside a Los Angeles synagogue sparked condemnation from President Biden and others Monday and prompted new debate over what some consider escalating behavior during demonstrations over the war in Gaza.

The protest began Sunday afternoon at the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood but eventually spilled into nearby areas over several hours. Fights broke out between pro-Palestinian demonstrators — who said they were protesting an event at the synagogue promoting the sale of stolen Palestinian land — and supporters of Israel.

Law enforcement sources said more than 150 people converged on the temple on West Pico Boulevard, and it took time for the Los Angeles Police Department to get enough personnel to the scene. The LAPD eventually deployed 60 officers and got the protesters and counterprotesters to clear the area, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Law enforcement sources said more than 150 people converged on the temple, and it took time for the Los Angeles Police Department to get enough personnel to the scene.

06/23/2024

Another Christian nationalist throws his hat in the ring.

Steve Boyd is challenging the GOP incumbent in Minnesota's Seventh District.

Star Tribune:
Steve Boyd wants to lead Americans back to God.

Not through church, but through the halls of Congress. The Republican running in deep-red western Minnesota is mounting a campaign that's as religious as it is political. He says the country needs to be steered back to its Christian roots. He's suggested that Democrats have "evil" ideologies, described those prosecuting former President Donald Trump as having a "godless agenda" and said the notion of church-state separation has been misunderstood.

Boyd said some have called him a Christian nationalist. He doesn't outright reject the label.

"I've still yet to have someone tell me what it is, what that actually means," Boyd said in an interview. "Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I love my country. If that's what that means, yes."

The businessman from Kensington, Minn., who's the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, has described the country as being in a "spiritual battle." His campaign website states that "[h]is goal is to harness God's power to lead ordinary Americans and their legislators in Washington back towards the Lord."

The Rev. Angela Denker, a Minnesota pastor who studies Christian nationalism and wrote a book about Trump's hold on evangelicals, said Boyd's statements seem to align with that ideology. Christian nationalists say they believe the U.S. is an inherently Christian nation and that its laws should reflect their values.

Some have called Boyd a Christian nationalist. He doesn't reject the label.

06/22/2024

06/22/2024

The Guardian (London):
God’s army is on the march. And many of its foot soldiers are wearing “Make America great again” regalia, sensing that their unlikely standard-bearer, former US president Donald Trump, is once again close to the promised land.

“I do not believe that America can survive another four years of Joe Biden,” Ralph Reed, founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, told a gathering of the religious right in Washington on Friday. “I haven’t felt this way since Jimmy Carter was president.” The audience burst into knowing laughter.

Reed promised they would knock on 10m doors of Christian and conservative voters in every battleground state, make 10m phone calls, send 25m text messages and put 30m voter guides in 113,000 churches, producing “the biggest turnout of Christian voters in American history”.

America’s evangelicals sense a chance to impose a radical agenda and resist what they see as a tide of liberal secularism

06/21/2024

Just in time for Jewish Book Month, in November.

NY Times:
The crowd at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette, La., applauded Gov. Jeff Landry as he signed bill after bill this week on public education in the state, making it clear he believed God was guiding his hand.

One new law requires that transgender students be addressed by the pronouns for the gender on their birth certificates (“God gives us our mark,” he said). Another allows public schools to employ chaplains (“a great step for expanding faith in public schools”).

Then he signed into law a mandate that the Ten Commandments be hung in every public classroom, demonstrating a new willingness for Louisiana to go where other states have not. Last month, Louisiana also became the first state to classify abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances.

“We don’t quit,” Mr. Landry, a Republican, said at the signing ceremony.

Taken together, the measures have signaled the ambition of the governor and the Republican-led Legislature to be at the forefront of a growing national movement to create and interpret laws according to a particular conservative Christian worldview. And Mr. Landry, a Catholic who has been vocal about his faith’s influence in shaping his politics, wants to lead the charge.

Gov. Jeff Landry wants his state to be at the forefront of a national movement to advance legislation with a Christian worldview.

06/19/2024

Star Tribune:
HCMC in Minneapolis is grappling with tensions around an employee-planned discussion about Palestine that was approved but then called off by hospital leadership.

A group of employees at the safety-net hospital in downtown Minneapolis say they organized the event to discuss impacts to health care workers in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war in the region. They say the decision to postpone it raises issues of academic freedom and is in opposition to hospital goals around racial equity. Three leaders of employee affinity groups have since resigned those internal positions in protest.

"Being an employee, and witnessing what's happening in Palestine is not good for our mental health, and not being able to process and talk about it is not good for mental health," said Eiko Mizushima, a Hennepin occupational therapist involved with the organizing.

An Asian and Pacific Heritage Month event at the county hospital in Minneapolis, intended to focus on Palestinian culture, was approved but then postponed by administrators over concern it would tap into tension around the war in Gaza.

06/19/2024

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Netanyahu’s recent complaint about the U.S. not delivering bombs quickly enough.

06/18/2024

JTA News:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has disbanded the small war cabinet he established at the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, reverting to Israel’s pre-Oct. 7 governing system.

Netanyahu established the war cabinet days after Hamas’ invasion of Israel when former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a centrist rival, joined an emergency wartime government. The war cabinet had three voting members — Netanyahu, Gantz and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — along with observers, and was tasked with making key decisions about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza along with its battles on other borders.

Gantz’s party left the coalition last week, and he stepped down from the war cabinet, amid disagreements with Netanyahu about plans for Gaza after the war.

Israel's government has returned to its shape before the war — consisting of a mix of right-wing and religious parties.

06/18/2024

Jewish dairy farmer Max Yasgur spoke to the massive crowd at .

"I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God bless you for it!" ~ Max Yasgur

06/17/2024

Jews in the big leagues: Kevin Pillar.

JTA News:
ANAHEIM, Calif. — In a home game against the Houston Astros on Friday, Kevin Pillar crushed the first pitch he saw 411 feet into the left-field stands — giving the L.A. Angels their first and only run in a 7-1 loss.

But for Jewish fans, the most memorable plays of the game may have come in the first and fifth innings, when Pillar fielded two balls in center field off the bat of Astros third baseman Alex Bregman. Both ballplayers are Jewish.

Pillar, 35, says moments like that have begun meaning more to him, too. Now in his 12th season in a journeyman career that has seen him play for nine teams, Pillar has gradually realized, in his words, that he has “become a little bit more of an idol, a folk hero for the Jewish community” eager to see Jews on the field.

“Being a Jewish baseball player, I never really thought anything about it,” Pillar told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. But now, he said, “You just understand there hasn’t really been a lot of Jewish baseball players to play in the major leagues, and it’s just been a cool thing to be able to tap into a different part of me that I didn’t really understand the importance and the value of.”

In a wide-ranging interview with JTA, Pillar reflected on his upbringing, his relationship with Israel and his legacy as one of the game’s most accomplished Jewish players.

06/17/2024

The Times of Israel:
Intensified cross-border fire from Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group at Israel could trigger serious escalation, the Israeli military said on Sunday.

“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an English-language video statement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been escalating cross-border strikes. After rocket attacks caused massive fires in the north of the country, Israel last week killed commander Taleb Abdullah, the most senior official killed in the fighting. Hezbollah responded with unprecedented rocket barrages on northern Israel.

As cross-border attacks escalate, army spokesman Daniel Hagari says 'one way or another we will ensure the safe return of Israelis to their homes -- that is not up for negotiation'

06/11/2024

Star Tribune reports on the controversy over proposed hire to direct Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies University of Minnesota:

The University of Minnesota is pausing its search for director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies — days after it offered the job to Israeli historian Raz Segal and two longtime board members resigned in protest.

"In the past several days, additional members of the University community have come forward to express their interest in providing perspective on the hiring. … Because of the community-facing and leadership role the director holds, it is important that these voices are heard," the university said in a statement Monday. Interim President Jeff Ettinger has paused the selection process, the statement added, "to allow an opportunity to determine next steps."

Two board members quit in opposition to the hiring of Raz Segal.

06/11/2024

Camille Himmelfarb, z"l.

10 June 1940 | French Jewish girl Camille Himmelfarb was born in Paris.

She arrived at on 18 September 1942 in a transport of 1,003 Jews deported from Drancy. She was murdered in a gas chamber after the selection.

06/11/2024

According to press reports, the U of M has paused its plan to hire Raz Segal, a Jewish Israeli scholar, as the new director of the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies University of Minnesota.

Here's an interview with Segal that elucidates his views on Israel vis-a-vis the ongoing war in Gaza:

06/08/2024

The Times of Israel:
Four Israeli hostages were rescued alive from Hamas captivity Saturday in a daring daylight operation in the central Gaza Strip, the military announced.

Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, had been abducted from the Supernova music festival near the community of Re’im on the morning of October 7, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in a murderous rampage in southern Israel.

Officers of police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, along with Shin Bet agents, simultaneously raided two Hamas buildings in the heart of central Gaza’s Nuseirat, a joint statement said. Argamani was rescued at one site, while Meir Jan, Kozlov, and Ziv were at the second location.

Special forces simultaneously raid two Hamas buildings in Nuseirat, reaching Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv; officer critically hurt dies of wounds

06/07/2024

Report: Israeli influence campaign targeted Black members of Congress.

NY Jewish Week via JTA News:
New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, said a reported clandestine campaign by the Israeli government that aimed to influence him and other Black Democratic U.S. lawmakers was “embarrassing” and “racist.”

The effort, according to a report this week in The New York Times, was orchestrated by Israel’s Diaspora Ministry and targeted members of Congress and the U.S. public with a pro-Israel social media campaign using hundreds of fake social media profiles.

The $2 million project in conjunction with Stoic, a Tel Aviv-based marketing firm, began in October and continued at least until this week, according to the Times. Involving multiple fake news sites and the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, the operation urged lawmakers to fund Israel’s military effort. (It also included some missteps, such as accounts supposedly of Black men posting as a “middle-aged Jewish woman.”)

The campaign focused on several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Torres, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the report said.

The New York lawmaker, one of Israel's staunchest supporters in Congress, called the campaign by Israel's Diaspora ministry 'embarrassing' and 'racist.'

06/05/2024

The rise and fall of Donald Sterling.

JTA News:
Donald Sterling hasn’t owned the L.A. Clippers for a decade, but on Tuesday, his story is coming back to the spotlight with the debut of FX’s new Hulu miniseries, “Clipped.”

Sterling, born Donald Tokowitz to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant parents, owned the Clippers from 1981 until 2014, when he received a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine from the NBA after private recordings revealed him making racist comments about Black people.

“Clipped,” starring Ed O’Neill as Sterling, Jacki Weaver as his wife Shelly Sterling and Laurence Fishburne as Clippers coach Doc Rivers, retells that scandal. The six-episode show is based on “The Sterling Affairs,” a five-part podcast series by ESPN reporter Ramona Shelburne, who is Jewish, and who is also an executive producer on “Clipped.”

Sterling, 90, is now largely out of the spotlight. But for the vast majority of the time he owned the Clippers, the team’s ineptitude was infamous. In his 33 seasons at the helm, the Clippers compiled the worst total winning percentage of any team across the NBA, MLB, NFL or NHL. Twice during that timespan, the team went a decade or longer without a winning season — at one point losing 70 out of 82 games.

Sterling’s Jewish identity was a focal point of the 2014 racism scandal that led to his lifetime ban from the NBA.

05/31/2024

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden announced what he described as an Israeli plan to end the war with Hamas and urged the terror group to take it up, although he expressed concern that pressure from right-wing leaders in Israel’s government could still scupper the deal.

The deal, Biden said Friday in an address from the White House, would culminate in the release of all the hostages held in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and would incapacitate Hamas so it would not be able to carry out another mass attack like its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel that killed some 1,200 people and launched the war.

He said the proposal came from Israel and that it was now up to Hamas to take the deal. By contrast, most international pressure to end the war has placed the onus on Israel to halt its fighting in Gaza. Israel is increasingly isolated as the country faces genocide charges in the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor is seeking the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“Israel has offered a comprehensive proposal,” Biden said. “Now it’s time to raise your voices and demand that Hamas come to the table,” he said, addressing protesters and foreign leaders who have pressed for a ceasefire.

Biden expressed concern that pressure from Israeli right-wingers could still scupper the deal.