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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

July 20, 2017

I crashed a bat mitzvah party four years ago. I still haven’t mailed the gift

Leave a Comment / Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, Columnists /

On my nightstand is a modest pile of books that I have not read and — if everything goes according to plan —I will never need to read. I have found that a short stack of literary dread is all it takes to threaten me into unconsciousness, night after night. A furtive glance at the spine of “War and Peace,” for example, is usually enough to tuck me in.

Contributing about an inch to this tower is a paperback volume by the humorist David Sedaris, which the author signed when his tour stopped in Madison, Wis., in 2013. That I dare not begin the book has less to do with its formidability as a text than its true ownership. The inscription begins “To Sophie.” I can’t read it.

I did not know Sophie in 2013, nor did she know me. To this day, we have never met. But I owed her a present, so I handed Sedaris a fresh copy of his book during a signing event and described the situation. He opened the book, then paused.

“What do you say to someone,” he asked me, “on their bat mitzvah?”

Jewish culture isn’t nonexistent in Madison, where I lived for two years post-graduation, but it’s fair to say it lacks the vital presence of larger American Jewish communities. There is no kosher deli. There is no Schechter school. JSwipe is a wasteland. And the righteous path is beset on all sides by mountains of cheese — biting cheddars and decadent Goudas and the G.O.A.T. goat cheese — which have curdled in the state of Wisconsin with that forbidden enzyme, rennet.

So, I did not anticipate a religious experience on my first date with Lily, a co-worker I had asked out earlier that week (and whose name I have changed). Lily was Chinese-American and — at least for now! — unaffiliated; our Saturday evening date consisted of bouldering, then burritos. We got along fine, if not famously, talking about our ambitions and regrets over dinner. She had gone corporate instead of enlisting in Teach For America; I’d chosen the consulting life over less lucrative creative endeavors. We both wanted big weddings and 11 children, and we were both 23.

We hadn’t planned anything after the Mexican food. It was our first date; we were probably going to just walk along the promenade until we fell in love or got bored of each other. But a fate more concrete — and more romantic — appeared on a small sign in the window of a performing arts center, announcing the bat mitzvah of a young woman named Sophie.

I knew what we were doing next.

“Have you ever crashed a bat mitzvah party before?” I asked.

“I don’t know what a bat mitzvah is,” Lily responded.

It would have been true to call it a religious experience. But I told her it was a rite of passage with an open bar. She was sold.

To her credit, Lily cared enough to find out more, and I filled her in under the guise of establishing deep cover. As we scrambled back to our apartments to dress up, I peppered her with the basics: Sophie had turned 13, and thus was celebrating the onset of Jewish adulthood and accepting the burden of the faith. She likely had read from the Torah earlier, in temple; she definitely had made a speech. The speech was either “just beautiful” or “actually very original.”

Once we were there, figuring out who Sophie was would be easy. Verily, a girl cannot become a woman without her friends and family signing in the margins around her blown-up photograph. That’s straight out of Leviticus. (Sorry, I don’t make the rules.)

So, we strategized, once we find the board, we can find out what Sophie looks like and quickly round out our backstory. I would be there to pick up my younger brother — a name we would pick off the board. Also, Lily and I were dating now and she wanted to convert. (Whoops! Spoke too soon on that one.)

There was only one person we needed to avoid at all costs, the only person who knows everyone at a bat mitzvah: the mom. (Yes, I understand this operation is like three-quarters of the way to “Fauda,” but aren’t most Jewish gatherings?)

We headed back to the arts center. There was, indeed, a bar, and it was, indeed, open to the ballroom-size crowd gathered to celebrate Sophie. I got a whiskey and Coke; Lily skipped the Coke. The bartender pointed us to the poster board, which, in what will go down as a first in Jewish history, had no picture on it! Fortunately, it still was easy to spot Sophie: Only one girl gets to wear a red dress.

Getting the hang of things, Lily found disguises for us — pink plastic hats, neon necklaces and shutter shades — and we got our photos taken in them by a hired professional whose work we never saw. We got another round at the bar. Pushing our luck, we waded onto the dance floor and got down like the embarrassing older brother and his girlfriend we were. A decade after my own coming of age, I still had no reservations about grinding to R. Kelly jams.

We were falling in love and getting bored of each other all at once. We also were drawing too much attention, and shortly the jig was up. As a Taylor Swift anthem I had never liked this much before blared over the speakers, our hostess greeted us — warmly.

“It’s enough for you to drink our alcohol,” Sophie’s mom said, smiling. “But do you think you could take off soon?”

Bashful and a little tipsy, we nodded and headed for the door. Lily never got to see them lift the chair.

It’s tempting to be cynical about the put-ons of bar and bat mitzvahs, and of Jewish traditions in general. Every bat mitzvah girl has a poster board. Many will wear a red dress to the party. And a few have a mom you want to avoid. (Kidding!) And yet each coming-of-age celebration — not just the party, but also the Torah reading, the speech, even the oversized suit you bought in some yenta’s backyard that she says you’ll grow into — is a joy apart.

Especially on a first date. If this was the only Yiddishkayt Lily ever saw, Sophie’s family painted a better picture than any elevator pitch I could have given. And Sophie’s mom didn’t stop us from ducking in the photo booth on our way out. Lily and I kissed on the fourth exposure.

We should have brought a gift.

A few weeks later, I was back in the same building listening to David Sedaris read from his diary. I didn’t bring a date to the event — actually, Lily and I never went on a second one — and there was no open bar. Sedaris’ reading was just beautiful. Or was it actually pretty original?

I decided I would buy Sedaris’ book for Sophie. How I would get it to her I’d figure out later.

When we met afterward, Sedaris didn’t know what the proper congratulations were for the occasion. But he managed to come up with the right thing to say. To Sophie, his inscription reads. I’m so happy you’re Jewish.

The book, “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” idles on my nightstand for now. I’ll be sure to bring it to the wedding.

Louis Keene is a contributing writer for the Jewish Journal. He tweets @thislouis_ and he emails at louisk@jewishjournal.com.

I crashed a bat mitzvah party four years ago. I still haven’t mailed the gift Read More »

Cheers to L.A. from Tel Aviv’s King of Cocktails

Leave a Comment / Food /

Yuval Soffer is a mixologist on a mission.

We met up earlier this year at La Otra bar and restaurant in Tel Aviv, located inside the Imperial Hotel and across the lobby from the city’s seminal cocktail bar of the same name. La Otra is an eclectic, exotic ode to Mexico and the Caribbean filtered through an Israeli lens. It’s kitschy and tiki-esque, but the drinks aren’t textbook tiki, per se. Soffer, a fan of La Otra, explained that establishing a true tiki bar in Israel still is impossible “because there’s no variety. There’s no high-proof rum, there’s no Martinique rum.”

One of the leading figures in Tel Aviv’s burgeoning cocktail scene, Soffer, 38, who claims to sleep only about three hours a night, currently is involved with projects that run the gamut from hyper-local to large-scale. In early summer, he opened a bar called the Guest Room in the up-and-coming Levontin area, roughly between Florentine and Shapira. He described the mostly outdoor spot as “building on the concept of a neighborhood bar. There’s no menu. You come in and ask” for what you want to drink, gimmick-free. While the products will be top-tier, “it’s about the experience there. It’s about being a guest.”

But it hasn’t been easy getting to this point. After finishing military service and working in Tel Aviv nightclubs, he headed to the United States to visit family in New York and pursue theater. He then “fell in love with film” and moved to Los Angeles, where he studied directing at UCLA. That is, until side gigs in bars and nightlife venues became his primary passion.

At a certain point, he said, “it was time to choose. I chose the bar life.”

During the seven years he spent in L.A., Soffer’s stints included Culver City’s erstwhile Fraiche restaurant and chef David Myers’ Comme Ça casual French brasserie, as well as a bar called Neat in Glendale.

In 2013, he settled back in his native Tel Aviv. He consulted on the concept and opening of the well-regarded Gatsby Cocktail Room in Jerusalem in 2014, which helped get the ball rolling.

“I felt like it was a good time to help the evolution of the industry over here,” Soffer said about his return. “I came with an agenda to be a consultant, and from the second I landed, I’ve been busy ever since. I haven’t stopped working. Opening bars, helping bars.”

What was initially a creative frustration of working in Israel compared to L.A. and New York turned into a fun challenge. According to Soffer, the relatively limited range of spirits available to Israeli bars reflects the monopoly of corporate brands in Israel and sky-high import taxes on alcohol. (That said, obscure labels still can be spotted on La Otra’s shelves. Israeli bartenders find a way.)

Soffer explained how the cocktail revival trend took a little longer to reach Tel Aviv. When it happened, however, the demand was quick. 

“In those four years, there have been a lot of changes. It’s become really big, really fast — which is a little bit dangerous for an industry,” Soffer said.

Skeptical of places where “there’s no knowledge of the classics,” he’s part of a movement in Israel that involves understanding certain traditions and history. He said he has less respect for an establishment where the staff is more concerned with “visual effect and lot of show in the glass,” rather than knowing how to make cocktails that might have been served from Manhattan to New Orleans to San Francisco in the late 19th century, such as a Sazerac or a gin martini. 

Soffer’s time in Los Angeles proved to be invaluable to his work in Tel Aviv, but he admitted he misses the West Coast, where “life was less hectic.” In fact, a bunch of his belongings are still back in his former West L.A. home.

So, what was the main takeaway from his Southern California sojourn?

“The first thing that comes to mind is the support the industry has, which was something I never experienced in New York,” he said. “Sharing information and trying to help each other grow and share knowledge … is what L.A. did from the get-go.”

That spirit of cooperation has resulted in L.A.’s robust, ever-growing craft cocktail scene, he explained, mentioning bar consultants Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello, whose regular gathering, called the Sporting Life, was a salon-like forum that has petered out somewhat since its founding. At regular meetings, participants would talk shop about everything from the nitty-gritty details of making their own bitters, to the merits of various barware brands, to recipes and bar design.

“It’s just now starting to happen here,” Soffer said.

Soffer is not a man in need of more gigs, and yet he also is a brand consultant for Milk & Honey, the ambitious distillery located in south Tel Aviv, which is open to the public for tours and tastings. The company hired master distiller Jim Swan, who died in February, to help create a kosher Israeli single-malt whisky in the Scottish style, barrel-aged for three years.

While that specific product is not yet ready for release, Soffer’s job is to spread the word about the product and educate fellow bar pros about how Milk & Honey’s gin, unaged whiskeys and other Israeli-made spirits currently in development can be used for kosher and non-kosher drinkers alike.

Who knows, maybe this track will bring him back to L.A., so he finally can pack up the rest of his stuff.

Cheers to L.A. from Tel Aviv’s King of Cocktails Read More »

Israel’s government opposes adoption by same-sex couples, so gay celebrities are speaking out

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

Israel may pride itself on being an oasis of LGBT tolerance in the otherwise hostile Middle East, but many gay citizens are less than wowed.

On Sunday, the government came out in favor of effectively preventing adoption by same-sex couples. Responding to a petition to the High Court of Justice challenging the current policy, it said that given the “reality of Israeli society,” same-sex parents put an “additional burden” on their adopted children.

Led by some gay celebrities, Israel’s LGBT community and its allies have launched a campaign against the government’s declared position, earning widespread public support. The Israeli media have been filled with criticism of the country’s right-wing leadership alongside accounts of loving same-sex parenting.

Many have accused politicians of touting Israel’s LGBT bona fides to the world while failing to stand up for gay rights at home. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in a U.N. speech in 2016 talked about gay rights, was singled out. But the top target of criticism has been Cabinet minister Ayelet Shaked, whose Justice Ministry, along with the Welfare Ministry, helped make the government’s case against same-sex adoption.

On Sunday, gay Israeli pop star Harel Skaat urged young LGBT Israelis to vote politicians like Shaked out of office. He further suggested they protest the government’s position by refusing to contribute to the country, or even by leaving.

“I call on you not to join the army! And you know what, not even to pay taxes on the money you will earn,” he wrote on Facebook. “Go and disperse all the great and varied good that you have to give in places that accept you and not those that don’t.”

Singer Amir Frischer-Gutman declared on television that gay Israelis were done making the country look good without getting government support in return. Pro-Palestinian activists over the years have accused Israel of “pinkwashing” its conflict with the Palestinians by promoting its gay-friendly laws and culture.

“We as people have for years felt they are not accepting us. We are good only for speeches at the United Nations and to be the fig leaf of this country,” Frischer-Gutman told Israel’s Channel 2 on Monday. “I will not have an answer for my child the day he asks me why I have to pay taxes to this country. And why should I go to the army for a country that does not respect you and me?”

Ohad Hitman, 40, a top Israeli singer and composer, told JTA that gay artists like him are stepping up because they are “dreamers” who want to create a better world. He said he personally felt an obligation to “speak his truth.”

On Monday, Hitman, who is married to TV commercial producer Ran Hurash, 30, wrote a Facebook post addressed to Shaked from the perspective of their 2-year-old twins, Eva and Berry. The tongue-in-cheek message purported to agree that gays are bad parents, saying the children’s “emotional burden” includes limited TV watching privileges and early bedtime.

The post concluded with a call for an “in-depth dialogue of love” and national unity. By Wednesday it had received 24,000 “likes” and hundreds of mostly supportive comments.

Hitman described himself as mostly apolitical, but said representatives of several Israeli lawmakers have called to consult with him. Meanwhile, other members of the gay community have publicly pushed the government to change its position on adoption.

Although adoption by same-sex couples has been legal in Israel since 2008, in practice it has been nearly impossible. Because opposite-sex couples have been given priority, only three same-sex couples have adopted in Israel out of 550 applicants. More than 1,000 opposite-sex couples have adopted in the past nine years.

In its petition to the High Court, the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers, together with the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, called these policies discriminatory. In its response, the government essentially agreed but called them justified.

Meanwhile, surrogacy has grown increasingly popular. In 2013, Israelis had 227 births by surrogate mothers; 87 of them were gay couples.

Hitman and Harush paid a surrogate mother. In April 2015, they were among a group of gay male couples that made a high-profile flight to pick up their children from Nepal following a massive earthquake there.

Gay couples cannot marry in Israel, but the state recognizes unions performed abroad. Hitman and Harush married in New York.

Amid the public outcry over the government’s position against same-sex adoption, the National Association of LGBT in Israel quickly organized a protest of the policy to take place Thursday outside the Kirya government compound in Tel Aviv.

“We will not be silent when our government call us ‘exceptions,’” the group said on Facebook. “We will not say thank you because here we are not thrown from the rooftops.”

On Tuesday, Amir Ohana, the only openly gay lawmaker in the ruling Likud party and Hitman’s neighbor, said he would refuse to vote with coalition lawmakers until the government changed its stance on adoption.

There are signs the pressure was having an effect. The High Court on Tuesday gave the state two months to reconsider its position on adoption. Welfare Minister Haim Katz had asked the court for time to do so, saying the state’s response was unfortunately worded.

Spokeswoman Sharona Mann said the Welfare Ministry is recommending a “complete overhaul of the outdated law” on adoptions, though she said her suggestion is not immediately “connected to same-sex parents.”

A poll commissioned last month by the Israeli religious pluralism group Hiddush found 76 percent of Israelis, an all-time high, supports gay marriage, compared to 53 percent in 2009.

Tom Canning, the associate director of the Jerusalem Open House — the LGBT group behind the Jerusalem Pride March — said such attitudes could ultimately make it difficult for the government to sustain its “regressive” positions.

“We’re seeing overwhelming support in Israeli society for same-sex marriage and acceptance of LGBT people in different walks of life, even outside Tel Aviv,” he said. “Even regarding the latest adoption decision, there has been a huge outcry not only from LGBT people but from all Israelis, who feel it does not reflect their beliefs.

“I don’t know if it’s enough to change government policy, but I think it’s going to be a concern for the government to manage public opinion.”

Still, Hitman said he and his friends in the gay community are not optimistic about their future in Israel. He said they feel under siege by the country’s growing and increasingly powerful Orthodox Jewish population and by right-wing politicians they say are unwilling to stand up for democratic values.

“People are worried and angry about the situation. They see Israel becoming like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” he said, referring to the hit Hulu TV series about a right-wing religious cult that takes power in the United States. “Everyone knows that 20, 30, 40 years from now, the most religious people will be the majority. All of us are afraid for the first religious prime minister.”

Eventually, Hitman said, he plans to live outside Israel — in New York or London, where he hopes to stage his musicals – and believes his children will have more opportunities there. He is worried the Israeli government will make them, and their parents, “second-class citizens.”

Hitman noted another challenge faced by gay couples: All children of non-Jewish surrogate mothers must undergo an acceptable conversion if they are to be considered Jewish by the Chief Rabbinate, which controls Jewish marriage and divorce. While this is little more than a formality for babies of opposite-sex couples, the Chief Rabbinate does not allow the conversion of those who will be brought up in gay households.

“In Israel, they are not Jewish, they can’t even get married in a normal way,” Hitman said of his children. “Abroad, I believe they will be respected for who they are.”

Despite his worries, Hitman said he has received dozens of positive messages about his Facebook post from religious Jews. Even several who oppose gay adoption told him they admired him and his family and wished them the best. He read JTA a message from a well-known religious singer, who told him that his Facebook post had inspired him to move toward coming out as gay. Hitman said he planned to offer counsel to his fellow musician.

“These aren’t bad people,” he said. “I just want my kids to grow up in a decent country.”

Israel’s government opposes adoption by same-sex couples, so gay celebrities are speaking out Read More »

Photos of Jewish woman comforting autistic boy on plane go viral

Leave a Comment / United States /

A Jewish woman comforting a distressed child was captured in heartwarming photos that quickly gained traction on social media. The photos show Chabad emissary Rochel Groner holding and comforting the young boy on a flight from Brussels to New York.

About an hour into the flight on Friday, the young boy started crying and shrieking loudly, and the atmosphere inside the plane started growing tense.

“His cries were heard throughout the plane and you could feel the tension among the other passengers. No one wanted to say anything but it was getting very uncomfortable,” Groner’s husband, Rabbi Bentzion Groner, wrote in a Facebook post, which had amassed close to 4,000 likes as of Monday afternoon. The couple, Chabad emissaries in North Carolina, were traveling back from Israel by way of Belgium after chaperoning a Birthright Israel trip.

“I felt I had to do something because no one was going to do something,” Rochel Groner, 33, told JTA. “I didn’t know if someone was going to get up and scream at this kid or if they were going to make an emergency landing.”

Groner approached the young boy and extended her hand. The boy looked to be about 8 years old and was sitting with his mother, who was wearing a traditional Muslim head covering and spoke little English.

“There were tears streaming down his face,” Groner said. Based on the boy’s behavior, Groner, who runs two organizations that help special needs children and youth, surmised that he was autistic.

“I put out my hand, and he took my hand. It was such a surreal moment, and he just took it, and he stopped crying,” she said. “He kind of just followed me into the aisle. I walked to the bulkhead, and I sat down and I put him in my lap, and I gave him a gentle but firm hug and I just started to rock him. He calmed down.”

She got creative, using a pen to trace their hands on unused nausea bags and letting him play with her phone. After about two hours, the boy got up and returned to his mother.

“It was beautiful to see. It was incredible, the transformation. Whatever had been bothering him wasn’t bothering him, he was in a better place,” she said.

“While most of the passengers watched in awe little did they know that for Rochel this is her life,” her husband wrote in the Facebook post. The couple co-directs Friendship Circle and ZABS Place, two organizations in North Carolina serving young adults with disabilities. ZABS Place is a thrift store that offers training and employment to young adults with special needs.

https://www.facebook.com/bentzion.groner/posts/10210336336706832

Photos of Jewish woman comforting autistic boy on plane go viral Read More »

Jake Tapper and Linda Sarsour mixed it up on Twitter. And it wasn’t about Jews. Or was it?

Leave a Comment / United States /

Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor, uses Twitter as a platform to joke, kibbitz with friends and colleagues, and, as he does on his show, “The Lead,” to call out deviations from what he sees as basic American values like tolerance and free speech.

One of his best-known encounters of the latter kind came last year, when he pressed candidate Donald Trump to disavow an endorsement by David Duke, the anti-Semite and racist. (Trump did, eventually.)

So it was odd to see Linda Sarsour, the feminist and Palestinian-American activist, say on Twitter on Tuesday that Tapper had joined “the ranks of the alt-right.”

It was part of a fraught exchange between a Muslim American well known for her friendship with some liberal Jews and for her clashes with the Jewish establishment — she endorses the boycott Israel movement — and a celebrity who makes no secret of his Jewishness. But it was one in which Jews never came up, at least explicitly.

So what started it all?

Tapper earlier on Wednesday criticized Sarsour and the Women’s March — which she helped found — for celebrating the birthday of Assata Shakur, a black militant convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She was jailed in 1977 and escaped in 1979, eventually fleeing to Cuba, where she lives today. Tapper responded to Sarsour’s birthday greetings by tweeting, “Shakur is a cop-killer fugitive in Cuba. This, ugly sentiments from @lsarsour & @dykemarchchi …Any progressives out there condemning this?” He linked to a Women’s March tweet marking Shakur’s birthday.

The Women’s March, in an extensive thread, had said that it was feting Shakur because of her role in repudiating sexism in the black nationalist movement, and did not endorse her role in the murder of the trooper.

Sarsour rejoined on Twitter, first with her gibe about Tapper joining the alt-right and then asking him directly: “Please share my ‘ugly’ sentiments? Unapologetically Muslim? Unapologetically Palestinian? Pro-immigrant? Pro-justice? Shame.”

Tapper, replying, referred to Sarsour’s attacks on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the onetime Muslim who is now an outspoken critic of Islam. Ali has at times said her focus is only on militant Islam, but at other times has targeted the faith more broadly, earning herself a reputation in some quarters as an Islamaphobe.

In a now deleted 2011 tweet, Sarsour, comparing Ali to anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel, had said: “Brigitte Gabriel=Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.” (Asked about the tweet recently, she said, “People say stupid shit sometimes.”)

That, Tapper said, was “pretty vile” addressed to Ali, a survivor of female genital mutilation.

So, nothing in this fight is Jewish, right?

Yair Rosenberg, the Tablet blogger, noted on Twitter that Tapper — a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy in suburban Philadelphia who frequently celebrates his Jewish upbringing —  came in seventh among Jews in an Anti-Defamation League tally of journalists abused by the alt-right.

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/887507950704754689

Beyond that, there are some hints of a Jewish subtext — that Tapper was coming at this from the perspective of Jewish experience, and that Sarsour understood this. Certainly, Sarsour seemed, by lumping Tapper in with the alt-right, to be seeking to wound him in the way that some folks belittle some black men by referring to them as Uncle Toms.

And Tapper, in his initial tweet pointing out progressive excesses, called out the Chicago Dyke March, for also wishing Shakur a happy birthday. Chicago Dyke March’s only known controversy of late was its ejection of three Jewish marchers for bearing flags marked with the Star of David.

(Sarsour did not reply to a request for comment, and CNN did not reply to a request to interview Tapper.)

On the other hand, Tapper’s overarching outrage at the happy birthday greeting would appear to stem not from any animus toward Sarsour or anti-Zionists, per se, but toward Shakur. As an ABC reporter in 2011 he aggressively pursued a story about how unhappy New Jersey cops were that President Barack Obama had invited the rapper Common to the White House; Common had recorded a paean to Shakur. As recently as last year Tapper urged fellow journalists travelling to Cuba to ask Shakur if she wanted an interview.

Added bonus irony? Tapper, now reviled by President Donald Trump and many of his followers who consider CNN hopelessly biased, earned kudos in 2011 from conservatives for holding Obama’s feet to the fire.

Jake Tapper and Linda Sarsour mixed it up on Twitter. And it wasn’t about Jews. Or was it? Read More »

What to in Los Angeles the week of July 21-27

Leave a Comment / What's Happening /

FRI | JULY 21

SHABBAT PICNIC

Come enjoy Shabbat with Adat Chaverim, Congregation for Humanistic Judaism. Bring a picnic dinner; drinks and desserts will be supplied. Shabbat service led by Cantor Jonathan Friedmann. 6 p.m. Free. Encino Park, 16953 Ventura Blvd., Encino. (888) 552-4552. humanisticjudaismla.org.

MEXICAN SHABBAT

Join Young Adults of Los Angeles (YALA) for a vibrant and intimate Shabbat dinner hosted by Susan Schmidt, author of the Mexican-Jewish food blog Challa-peño. She and her family welcome you into their home for food, drink and a conversation about their Mexican-Jewish heritage and culture. Although the event is sold out, there is a waiting list. 7 p.m. $20. Private home in Brentwood; address provided upon RSVP. yala.org/mexicanshabbat.

TORAH FLORA SHABBATON

Biblical and talmudic botanist Jon Greenberg will speak at a series of Shabbat meals about the meaning of the foods and beverages served. Friday’s 7:45 p.m. dinner topic will be “Milk & Honey: Blessing or Curse? Theology, Resilience and the Colors of Wine.” This two-day event continues at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, July 22, when the topics of discussion include “Noah’s Wine vs. Pharaoh’s Beer: The Barroom Brawl and Culture War That Shaped Jewish History” and, at 7:15 p.m., “Olives & Social Security: Edible Lilies, Egyptian God, Israelite Gourmet Export and Dutch Colonial Business Efficiency.” $38 per meal; $32 for members; discounts for children. Westwood Kehilla, 10523 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 441-5288. kehilla.org/torah-flora.

SAT | JULY 22

COUPLES SHABBAT PICNIC

Sinai Temple’s Atid group of 20- and 30-somethings presents a picnic in the park. Whether you’re married, engaged or it’s your first date, you are welcome at this afternoon picnic to celebrate Shabbat. Everyone should bring lunches for themselves (please prepare dairy/vegetarian meals). Atid events are for young Jewish professionals, ages 21-39. Noon. Free. Please RSVP at eventbrite.com. Holmby Park, 601 Club View Drive, Los Angeles. (310) 474-1518. atidla.com.

SUN | JULY 23

“UNWARRANTED LOVE: REDEMPTION FROM INNER AND OUTER EXILE”

Join Young Jewish Souls and renowned lecturer Rabbi Brandon Gaines, who will speak on the topic of observing the nine days leading to Tisha b’Av through ahavat chinam (loving others freely without judgment). There will be an open bar and dinner with shawarma, falafel and a salad bar to follow. 7 p.m. $15; $20 at the door. Ages 21-39 only. Must RSVP at eventbrite.com. Nessah Educational & Cultural Center, 142 S. Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 273-2400. nessah.org.

“YITZHAK RABIN: CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION”

In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai blends the words of Rabin’s widow, Leah, with live music and projections to create a theatrical counterpoint to his 2015 film, “Rabin, the Last Day.” Actors Einat Weizman and Sarah Adler will read from Leah’s memoirs. 8:30 p.m. Part of the Ignite @ the Ford! series. Tickets start at $30. 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. (323) 461-3673. fordtheatres.org.

WED | JULY 26

TISHA B’AV

Tisha b’Av, which begins this year on the evening of July 31, is one of the lesser-known days of the Jewish calendar. Rabbinical student Davina Bookbinder will share the history of this somber day — which commemorates the anniversary of various disasters in Jewish history, including the destruction of the First and Second Temples — and discuss the consequences it has had on our modern Jewish lives. After a catered lunch, there will be a screening of “The Fixer,” the 1968 adaptation of the Bernard Malamud novel about a Jewish man in czarist Russia. 11 a.m. $14; $16 for nonmembers. Temple Menorah, 1101 Camino Real, Redondo Beach. (310) 316-8444. templemenorah.org.

THURS | JULY 27

ADL SUMMER COMEDY SOIREE

Master of ceremonies Bruce Fine will be joined onstage by comedians Ian Bagg, Jeff Garlin, Chris Spencer and Wendy Liebman. Special guest Kosha Dillz also will be contributing with some of his freestyle rapping. 21 and older event. Two-drink minimum. Proceeds benefit the the Anti-Defamation League, fighting anti-Semitism and bigotry in all forms. 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $50; tickets available on eventbrite.com. The Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 446-4260. adl.org.

THE GUARDIANS SUMMER PARTY

Dress to impress and mix and mingle while toasting the summer and raising money for a good cause. All proceeds benefit The Guardians of the Los Angeles Jewish Home. Cocktail attire. 6 p.m. $18; $30 for two; $20 single tickets at the door; free for Guardian members. Tickets available at eventbrite.com. The W Hotel, 930 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles. laguardians.org.

What to in Los Angeles the week of July 21-27 Read More »

Art

Leave a Comment / Poetry /

Art is like the sleep
a mourner resorts to
on the first night without his beloved.
In the morning he must come back to the world
to empty the closet of her blouses and belts
and give them to strangers.

Yehoshua November is the author of two books of poetry, “God’s Optimism,” winner of the Main Street Rag Book Award and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and “Two Worlds Exist,” a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize.

Art Read More »

City Council candidate ‘cares about’ Jews, compares them to Germans who enabled the Nazis

Leave a Comment / United States /

Thomas Lopez-Pierre wants you to know he cares about Jews. That’s why the New York City Council candidate removed the phrase “greedy Jewish landlords” from his campaign materials.

But if you’re Jewish, he said, you do need to stand up to those landlords. Otherwise, you’re just like Germans who allowed the Holocaust to happen.

“Good Germans looked the other way as German Jews were carted off by the Nazis,” he said. “In the same way, New York Jews look the other way as Jewish landlords engage in racial economic cleansing in New York City.”

Was he really equating gentrification in Harlem to the Holocaust? Of course not, he said. Comparing those things is far too tricky.

“I’m not comparing the damage that was done to each particular group, because we would be here for a lifetime trying to weigh which one is worse,” he said.

Lopez-Pierre is running a primary campaign against Democratic City Council member Mark Levine, who since 2014 has represented a district covering much of West Harlem in Upper Manhattan. Bashing “greedy Jewish landlords” used to be at the center of Lopez-Pierre’s campaign. He defended the term at length in April in the face of a media firestorm, accusing Jewish landlords of committing “ethnic cleansing” of Black and Latino residents of upper Manhattan.

Recently, Lopez-Pierre says he’s had a change of heart. He stopped using the “greedy Jewish landlords” term, because Jews told him it was stereotyping and offensive. He even made a video about the decision in front of Ramath Orah, a modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

But don’t worry! He still believes everything he believed in April.

That much was made clear to me in my bizarre, 20-minute phone conversation Tuesday with Lopez-Pierre.  His sensitivity to anti-Semitism and Jewish concerns might extend to his campaign slogans, but it doesn’t go further.

“Jewish landlords target black and Latino neighborhoods with money from Israel to exploit, for greed, the displacement of black and Latino tenants in New York City as a whole,” he said.

Later, he added, “You can’t focus on the individual. Too many landlords of Jewish descent own real estate in black and Latino communities, and they are focused on horrible, horrible racism and ethnic cleansing.”

He still uses a photo of two guys wearing kippot and guilty expressions as his Twitter wallpaper (the photo was taken at a 2016 court appearance by three New York landlords indicted on charges of reckless endangerment and other offenses). And his Twitter bio hasn’t actually changed all that much. It used to say, “Jewish landlords OWN 80% of private rental buildings in Upper Manhattan; GUILTY of GREED for pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out.”

Here’s what it says now:

“(((Greedy landlords))) in Upper Manhattan; GUILTY of GREED for pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out.”

In case you’ve been blissfully ignorant of Twitter for the past year, those triple parentheses, called “echoes,” are used by white supremacists to identify Jews online. Lopez-Pierre says he didn’t know that. But he also says that he did kind of know that, and used the parentheses to get media coverage.

“You’re saying you were OK using an anti-Semitic dog-whistle to get press attention?” I asked him.

(pause)

“Yes.”

Mission accomplished.

City Council candidate ‘cares about’ Jews, compares them to Germans who enabled the Nazis Read More »

Daily Kickoff: Bipartisan backing for Temple Mount metal detectors | Meet the candidate: Elissa Slotkin | Jeffrey Katzenberg’s plan for ‘New TV’

Leave a Comment / Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff /

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DRIVING THE CONVERSATION — The White House voiced its concerns yesterday about recent tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. In a statement, Press Secretary Sean Spicer called upon Israel and Jordan “to make a good faith effort to reduce tensions and to find a solution that assures public safety and the security of the site and maintains the status quo. The United States will continue to closely monitor the developments.”

“Netanyahu faces pressure to remove metal detectors from Jerusalem holy site” by Ruth Eglash: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must decide before Friday whether he will keep or remove metal detectors placed earlier this week at the entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem’s Old City. As of Thursday, the prime minister’s position regarding the metal detectors had not changed after holding security consultations, an Israeli official told The Washington Post. A showdown between worshipers and police is expected on Friday, the Muslim holy day, unless Israel removes the metal detectors and relaxes its security.” [WashPost]

ON THE HILL — Republican and Democratic House Members support Temple Mount metal detectors — by Aaron Magid: “We should support the actions of Israel installing the metal detector and support their right to do that in any way that we can,” Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) told Jewish Insider. According to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), “When you have one side taking action to protect people’s security and the other side is taking action to harm people’s security, it’s hard to be neutral and make it out as both sides are right. I don’t think it’s necessary to apply an equal amount of pressure on both sides.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump, noted, “I don’t know how you can object to metal detectors. There are many synagogues and mosques in the world that have metal detectors to walk in. When they are necessary for security, we should be urging that every reasonable measure be taken to provide for people’s safety.” Given the rising number of attacks, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) explained, “I understand the respect for the holiness of the site but you have got to keep people safe unfortunately in this day and age. I would be sympathetic to Israel.”

“Huge increase in PA terror funding in 2017” by Itamar Marcus: “The PA expenditure for salaries to terrorist prisoners has risen by a huge 13%… and the expenditure for payments to families of “Martyrs” has gone up by 4%… In 2017, the PA’s total expenditure for directly funding terror is 1.237 billion shekels or $355 million.” [PMW]

Trump Administration’s Mixed Signals on Taylor Force Act — by Aaron Magid: The White House agrees with the “high-level goals” of legislation aimed to stop the Palestinian Authority’s payments to families of terrorists’ an administration official told us. “While the Administration agrees with the high-level goals of the Taylor Force Act, it is currently in Congress’s hands and we will continue to closely monitor the specifics of the legislation,” the administration official said. Last week, Stuart Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, expressed skepticism regarding the efficiency of the Taylor Force Act in combating Palestinian terrorism. “It is not clear that the Taylor Force Act as currently drafted would help accomplish these objectives,” he said during a House hearing. [JewishInsider] 

ON THE HILL — U.S. State Department Faces Cuts, Israeli-Palestinian Peace Programming Untouched” by Amir Tibon: “The projected U.S. State Department and Foreign Operations budget for 2018 includes a deep $5.6 billion cut in funding, as presented by the House Appropriations Committee. One policy issue that won’t be affected by cuts, however, is peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians. Out of the entire “reconciliation programs” budget of $26 million around the world… the bill plans to direct almost 40 percent of the budget “for reconciliation activists between Israelis and Palestinians.” The amount, $10 million, is the same amount appropriated to the cause of peace in the region for 2017.” [Haaretz]

“43 Senators Want to Make It a Federal Crime to Boycott Israeli Settlements” by Eric Levitz: “In an official statement denouncing the bill, [ACLU] the civil-liberties group noted that businesses and individuals who do no business with Israel for purely pragmatic reasons would not be subject to criminal punishment — only those who do so on the basis of their political beliefs. Which is to say, “the bill would punish businesses and individuals based solely on their point of view. Such a penalty is in direct violation of the First Amendment.”” [NYMag] 

–MoveOn[dot]org tweeted yesterday: “Regardless how you feel about BDS, Congress must reject action to criminalize free speech & peaceful protest. The Democrats in House and Senate must say no to H.R. 1697/S. 720. Free speech and peaceful protest are integral to democracy.” [Twitter]

JI INTERVIEW — Elissa Slotkin, a former Obama administration official who also served at the CIA and the Pentagon, discussed her congressional run against incumbent Republican Congressman Mike Bishop in an interview with JI’s Aaron Magid: A Hebrew and Arabic speaker, Slotkin’s last post was Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security affairs during the end of the Obama administration. During her time in the Pentagon, she visited Israel at least six times and helped bring the F-35 fighter jets to Israel. Striking a close friendship with Amos Gilad, the former Director of the political-military affairs bureau at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, she also worked on U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs including the Iron Dome.

Slotkin on Trump’s Mideast peace push: “The only way that this gets done is through strong American leadership. The only way that the two sides (Israel and the Palestinians) even come to the table is if the U.S. with a very strong lead convenes pushes both sides to make forward progress on the issue. But, if the parties are unwilling to come to the table, then, unfortunately, we are in a number of additional years with the same conflict with the same problems.” [JewishInsider] 

“Trump ends covert CIA program to arm anti-Assad rebels in Syria, a move sought by Moscow” by Greg Jaffe and Adam Entous: “The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside… Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests… The move to end the secret program to arm the anti-Assad rebels was not a condition of the cease-fire negotiations, which were already well underway, said U.S. officials… “It’s probably a nod to reality,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official… “This is a force that we can’t afford to completely abandon,” Goldenberg said. “If they are ending the aid to the rebels altogether, then that is a huge strategic mistake.”” [WashPost] 

Shalom Lipner: “Putin victory = Iran win = lots of unhappy Jews and Sunni Arabs in the Middle East tonight.” [Twitter]

“Netanyahu puts Trump on notice over Syria” by Ben Caspit: “An Israeli source intimately familiar with what is happening behind the scenes told Al-Monitor emphatically, “This is not just some disagreement. This is a real clash, pitting Israel against Russia and the United States. It reflects Israel’s conspicuous disappointment with the way that the Americans let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin outmaneuver them, leading to the sellout of Israeli interests in the Golan Heights and Lebanon versus the Shiite axis.” … “The Americans completely conceded to the Russians,” a senior Israeli military official told Al-Monitor… “The very names of Iran or Hezbollah do not appear in the agreement, and there is no expression of Israeli concerns at all. Our security needs are completely ignored.”” [Al-Monitor] 

“Why Israel Can’t Support a Cease-Fire in Syria” by Shmuel Rosner: “Israel is following Iran’s patient game, and what it sees is Iranian and Hezbollah operatives in the area between Damascus and the Golan Heights. It sees a gradual process that ultimately strengthens Iran and its proxies, and leaves them in charge of strategic areas in Syria, including right on Israel’s border. The way Israel sees it, the cease-fire… is a gain for Iran, whose advance amid the gradual surrender of the Islamic State makes a mockery of vows to contain its growing influence. It is a loss for Israel.” [NYTimes]

“US accuses Lebanon’s Hezbollah of weapons buildup” by AFP: “Ambassador [Nikki] Haley expressed alarm over the build-up of weapons by Hezbollah, a situation that demands the international community’s attention to prevent the further escalation of regional tensions,” said a statement by the US mission. She stressed that the international community must “apply more pressure on Hezbollah to disarm and cease its destabilizing behavior, especially toward Israel.” [DailyMail] 

IN THE SPOTLIGHT — “Rosenstein casts shade on Comey’s leak of memos on Trump talks” by Josh Gerstein: “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested in an interview aired Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey broke with Justice Department policy when he arranged to leak memos about his conversations with President Donald Trump… Rosenstein… was also asked whether [Robert] Mueller’s relationship with Comey made Mueller a less than ideal choice. “I made the decision to appoint Director Mueller based upon his reputation… But, I can assure you that if there were conflicts that arose, because of Director Mueller or anybody employed by Director Mueller, we have a process within the department to take care of that,” Rosenstein said.” [Politico] • Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions [NYTimes] 

PTI: At one point during Trump’s Oval Office interview with the NYTimes yesterday, his daughter Ivanka arrived at the doorway with her daughter, Arabella, who ran to her grandfather and gave him a kiss. He greeted the 6-year-old girl as “baby,” then urged her to show the reporters her ability to speak Chinese. She obliged. [NYTimes]

“Jared Kushner to appear before Senate Intelligence Committee Monday” by John Santucci and Benjamin Siegel: “White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has agreed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russian election meddling on Monday, July 24, ABC News has learned. The closed-door session sets up what could be one of the most highly anticipated interviews for lawmakers to date.” [ABCNews] 

“Big German Bank, Key to Trump’s Finances, Faces New Scrutiny” Ben Protess, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Jesse Drucker: “Mr. Kushner’s company bought the space from Africa Israel Investments, a company owned by Lev Leviev, which has a sizable real estate portfolio in Russia.” [NYTimes] 

“Why is Jared Kushner by far the least popular Trump family member?” by Jason Le Miere: “Part of that reaction may be down to Kushner’s lack of visibility. Unlike Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka, Kushner is rarely heard from in public, whether giving interviews, speeches or on social media. Or perhaps Kushner is less popular with the president’s base because he has been portrayed as a Democrat and a moderating voice. Or it could also be due to the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew. Although Ivanka Trump has converted to Orthodox Judaism, it is Kushner who has been the target of concerted anti-Semitic abuse.” [Newsweek] 

** Good Thursday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email Editor@JewishInsider.com **

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Inside Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Plan to Revolutionize Entertainment on Mobile Screens [Variety] • Abramovich’s steel company hit by costly repair work [TheTimes] • 10 Israeli start-ups that are gunning for the self-driving car market [CNBC] • Israeli Spreadsheet management co DataRails raises $6m [Globes] • Viber acquires Chatter Commerce, maker of mobile shopping keyboard ShopChat [VentureBeat] • De Blasio to Durst: Back off on Barry Diller’s Pier 55 [RealDeal; NYTimes]

MEDIA WATCH: “Univision Draws Interest From Potential Bidders Amid IPO Delays” by Matt Jarzemsky, Arian Campo-Flores, Sarah Rabil and Joe Flint: “[John] Malone and [Greg] Maffei met with Univision backers billionaire Haim Saban and Providence Equity Partners’ Jonathan Nelson at the Sun Valley media conference this month, the people said. However, the two sides were far apart on valuation, and it is unclear if a deal—with Mr. Malone or anyone else—could be reached. It is also unclear what terms were discussed. Univision’s owners also haven’t ruled out an IPO in the first half of next year, some of the people said.” [WSJ]

COVER OF BUSINESSWEEK: “The Sinclair Revolution Will Be Televised. It’ll Just Have Low Production Values” by Felix Gillette: “If you encountered [Boris] Epshteyn at the Trump National Golf Club bar in Bedminster, N.J., you might expect him to hard-sell you on a real estate investment in the Urals or, failing that, a delicatessen in Newark… Three times a week he records brief video commentaries that are sent to Sinclair’s 65 or so newsrooms around the country… In recent segments, Epshteyn has praised the Trump administration’s trade policies, encouraged states to cooperate with his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, critiqued Democrats’ lack of a “coherent and authentic” message, and knocked other news outlets for their insufficiently admiring coverage of Trump.”[Bloomberg]

STARTUP NATION: “6 Reasons Israel Became A Cybersecurity Powerhouse Leading The $82 Billion Industry” by Gil Press: “The young people serving in 8200 and similar IDF units experience real-life and leading-edge cybersecurity challenges and solutions. But as these units work like startups, they also get to experience teamwork, leading other people, having responsibility for making significant decisions, and surviving failure, all a great preparation for entrepreneurial life.” [Forbes] 

PROFILE: “Avi Gabbay, Israel’s Surging New Threat to Benjamin Netanyahu” by Bernard Avishai: “Fifty years old, balanced, affable, and gregarious, Gabbay projects the gravitas one sensed in Barack Obama during the 2008 primaries… But the parallel with Obama ends there. Gabbay’s story is not that of an unlikely minority candidate who organized at the grassroots… For decades, the Party has suffered from the same time type of disconnect from working-class voters that now seems to plague the Democratic Party in the U.S. Gabbay is trying to bring that dynamic to an end… Before Gabbay, Mizrahim who disapproved of Likud’s support for settlers and the ultra-religious struggled to find common ground with Labor’s Ashkenazi élites, intellectual socialists, and union hacks. Gabbay, the former kid from a transit camp who rose to run an iconic corporation, might bridge the gap… In this, Gabbay’s election may be a lesson for American Democrats as well.” [NewYorker] 

KAFE KNESSET — Barak is back — by Tal Shalev and JPost’s Lahav Harkov: Former PM and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is still enjoying his status as Internet-commenter-in-chief and put up yet another video on his Facebook page, this time comparing Netanyahu to a Mafia don. “The time hasn’t come to put this to an end? What, have we gone crazy?” Barak asked, listing the various corruption scandals that have come to light in the last year. “Everything all around is criminal, but the boss is clean. Where is this familiar from? That’s right, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘The Godfather.’  It is similar, but without the style. But there, it is the movies, and here, it is real life. Even there, when they decided to bring it all down, they couldn’t prove the submarines. The Godfathers were sent to jail over lawn furniture and electricians.” For those on the Ehud Barak style watch — he wasn’t wearing a puffy jacket this time. Barak was wearing a pink button-down shirt, and standing in a backyard with ivy and a wooden porch behind him, a style of house that looks more American than Israeli. Barak’s Israeli Facebook followers have been wondering where his videos are made – a source told Kafe Knesset this week that he is still in New York. That, of course, still does not explain why he wore a winter jacket in his previous video. Read today’s entire Kafe Knesset here [JewishInsider]

“Decrying ‘betrayal,’ Hungarian Jews say Netanyahu ignoring them” by Raphael Ahren: “Wrapping up his three-day trip to Hungary, Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday delivered addresses in the headquarters of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary… Both prime ministers focused their remarks on bilateral ties, neglecting to directly address the community… The chilly reception for the prime minister — including scathing criticism from the Jewish community’s president — underlined Hungarian Jewry’s unhappiness with Netanyahu’s decision to embrace Orban despite accusations of anti-Semitism… Highlighting the community’s angst over the issues, Mazsihisz President Andras Heisler delivered a speech ahead of the two leaders, lambasting Orban for the Horthy and Soros controversies, and Netanyahu for the non-recognition of non-Orthodox Jewish streams in Israel.” [ToI]

“Israel and George Soros” by Itai Bardov, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in DC: “George Soros has a consistent record of reckless antipathy toward Israel… Mr. Soros supports N.G.O.s that libel Israel by falsely accusing it of genocide and war crimes. One N.G.O. Mr. Soros funds wrote the same number of reports from 2000 to 2010 blasting Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East, as it wrote against Iran, Syria and Libya combined. This double standard, not Mr. Soros’s supposed “humanitarianism,” is why many are rightly critical of him. There is no contradiction between speaking honestly about Mr. Soros and simultaneously fighting anti-Semitism wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.” [NYTimes] 

“Israeli Student’s Use of Auschwitz Artifacts in an Art Exhibit Prompts a Furor” by Megan Specia: “The student, Rotem Bides, told Israeli news outlets this week that she had collected the objects during five visits to the site of the former Nazi concentration camp… Ms. Bides said that her grandparents were Holocaust survivors — one grandfather was in Auschwitz — and that the art was intended to explore her personal history… Ms. Bides later told The New York Times that the items “are not from the Auschwitz camp and not from the Auschwitz museum, but from the nearby area,” but she declined to elaborate…The artwork was meant to be part of an exhibit starting on July 26 at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba, a city near Tel Aviv, Israel. But the college removed it… after reports circulated that it contained stolen artifacts.”[NYTimes]

“Radiohead finally take the stage in Israel, play their longest concert in 11 years” by Alex Young: “Defying protests and calls for a cultural boycott, Radiohead took the stage at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday night… Radiohead certainly let their music do the talking on Wednesday night, as the band served up a 27-song set that amounted to their longest performance in 11 years… According to reports from the ground, Yorke spoke sparsely throughout the night, saying at the end of the show, “A lot of stuff has been said about this, but in the end, we played some music.”” [COS; BBC] 

“Is Israeli spy thriller False Flag, the new Homeland” by Gerard Gilbert: “False Flag is being marketed as “the new Homeland”, perhaps inevitably since the global hit starring Claire Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison began life as the low-budget Israeli TV drama called Prisoners of War. “It’s a big compliment but the big difference is the focus”, says False Flag’s co-creator Amit Cohen. “Homeland puts the focus on the professionals and does it in an amazing way, but the uniqueness of False Flag is that it is told from the point of view of ordinary people… They don’t know anything about the espionage world. This is their first encounter with the world of shadows. We didn’t put the focus on terrorists or spies – we were looking at Israeli society and Israeli characters to tell the story.”” [Independent] 

“Nev Schulman is getting married in the Hamptons this weekend” by Christine Burroni: “The ceremony is set to take place in Schulman’s father’s back yard, “where Nev used to run around as a kid,” and the reception will follow on the beach where Schulman took Perlongo on their second date… Perlongo will walk down the aisle in a gown by Israeli designer Inbal Raviv and jewelry by Edgar Mosa.” [PageSix] 

DESSERT: “Kosher bourbon: Buffalo Trace, Jewish owned since 1992” by Alfred Miller: ““Whisky Alert” read the top of the 2010 memo. Issued by an association of groups that grant kosher status to food products, the memo revealed serious doubts about whether the products of Franklin County’s best-known brand were in fact kosher. With its purchase by Sazerac Company in 1992, Buffalo Trace had become a Jewish-owned company, said the author of that memo, Rabbi Sholem Fishbane, referring to Sazerac Chairman William Goldring. For Jews who keep kosher and also enjoy a bit of Buffalo Trace bourbon, that poses a problem due to a relatively obscure Jewish dietary law related to Passover.” [StateJournal]

REMEMBERING: “Raymond Sackler, Psychopharmacology Pioneer and Philanthropist, Dies at 97” by Sam Roberts: “Dr. Raymond Sackler, a pioneer in psychopharmacology, a medicinal products entrepreneur and a leading philanthropist whose family made a fortune from the opioid painkiller OxyContin, died on Monday in Greenwich, Conn. They were major benefactors who helped finance the Sackler Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (home to the Temple of Dendur), the Freer and Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, British cultural institutions, schools in Israel and scores of scientific, academic and cultural programs. Raymond Raphael Sackler was born on Feb. 16, 1920, in Brooklyn to Isaac Sackler and the former Sophie Ziesel, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a grocery store.” [NYTimes]

BIRTHDAYS: Billionaire, art collector and NYC real estate developer, Sheldon Solow turns 89… Retired after 30 years in the US Senate (D-MD) following 10 years in the House of Representatives, Barbara Mikulski turns 81… President of the National Endowment for Democracy (a private, congressionally supported grant-making institution) since its 1984 founding, Carl Gershman turns 74… Long-time member of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as a consul to Hong Kong and ambassador to Germany, Yoram Ben-Zeev turns 73… Commissioner on the US Commission on Civil Rights (2011-2016), Assistant Secretary of HUD in the Clinton administration, presently Vice Chair of the Board of Bank of San Francisco, Roberta Achtenberg turns 67… NY Times columnist, author and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Thomas Friedman turns 64… Molecular geneticist at NYC-based Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Jeffrey M. Friedman turns 63… Broadcast and digital media executive, managing director of FDM Azerbaijan LLC and Azerbaijan International Film Company, both based in Baku, Farrell Meisel turns 62… Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Barbara Risman turns 61…

Past president of the Women’s Department at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, her late father was the US Ambassador to Norway (1997-2000), mother of fashion designers Matthew and Alex, Marcie Hermelin Orley turns 58… Political director of CNN, where he oversees the political coverage across all of CNN’s platforms, David Marc Chalian turns 44… Co-author of “Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame,” he is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a fellow at the New America Foundation, former editor of The New Republic, Franklin Foer turns 43… Singer who burst on the scene as a finalist on the fifth season of American Idol, Efraym Elliott Yamin turns 39… Senior Vice President at lobbyist Capalino+Company, Fred Kreizman turns 39… Managing partner of the communications firm of Main & Rose, writer, speaker and advocate, Beth Doane turns 34… Utility player for MLB’s Philadelphia Phillies, he started at third base for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Ty Kelly turns 29… Sheila Ganjian Navi turns 27… Graduate of Rockville, MD’s Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy and University of Pennsylvania, now a business analyst at McKinsey & Company, Etan Raskas turns 25… Institutional sales associate at BlackRock in San Francisco, Jonathan Tamir Alden turns 25… Associate at Chicago-based kCura, an e-discovery software company, former AIPAC staffer, Ashley Abramowicz… Jack Guggenheim… Goldie Fields…

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Daily Kickoff: Bipartisan backing for Temple Mount metal detectors | Meet the candidate: Elissa Slotkin | Jeffrey Katzenberg’s plan for ‘New TV’ Read More »