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Jewish Journal

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December 31, 2018

Brooklyn Woman’s Apartment Door Vandalized With Swastikas

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

An elderly Jewish woman found swastikas drawn on her apartment door on Dec. 28 during Shabbat.

The woman, 77-year-old Miriam Marc, was told by her neighbors at around 4 p.m. that the two swastikas were on her door. Each swastika, drawn in red marker, was 12 inches in length and were on each sides of her door.

“I see this I am in a shock, in a shock and I’m like choking,” Marc told CBS New York. “I cannot talk.”

Marc’s late husband was a Holocaust survivor; Marc herself fled anti-Semitism in Europe. She attends weekly Holocaust survivor meetings, but she is now afraid to go and is unable to sleep at night as a result of the swastikas on her door.

“I feel like they targeted me,” Marc told the New York Post. “I don’t do nothing bad to anyone. I’m a quiet old woman.”

It is not yet known who the perpetrator is, as there aren’t any security cameras on the outside of her building. The building superintendent told Brooklyn News 12 that he will be installing security cameras around the building as a result of the vandalism.

The vandalism comes as New York City experienced a 22 percent increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes from 2017 to 2018.

Brooklyn Woman’s Apartment Door Vandalized With Swastikas Read More »

N.C. Woman Arrested for Throwing Bricks at Messianic Synagogue

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

A woman in North Carolina was arrested on Friday for vandalizing a Messianic synagogue.

The woman, identified as 57-year-old Lisa Marie Burns, allegedly threw bricks at Congregation Shaarei Shalom on Thursday in Cary, which is west of Raleigh. She also allegedly spray-painted the words “F U” on the front door of the congregation, as well as broke the headlight of a Mercedes and spray-painted a Porsche.

According to police, Burns admitted to committing the vandalism and “indicated her disdain for people of other religions and ethnic backgrounds” while in custody. She is being charged with ethnic intimidation and property damage and was jailed with a $2,000 bond, which she posted.

Burns’ arrest and alleged vandalism comes after the synagogue faced threats in November; 20-year-old William Josephus Warden was arrested for the threats.

“We’re not going to respond by being afraid,” Rabbi Seth Klayman told CBS 17. “We’re not going to respond with despair. We’re not even going to respond with bitterness. The ultimate goal would be to see a transformed heart.”

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Judd Apatow Responds to Louis CK’s ‘Comeback’ Show

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

On the last day of 2018, director/comedian Judd Apatow, along with thousands of others, went to Twitter to slam Louis CK’s leaked “comeback” stand-up show. CK, who was accused of and later admitted to doing sexual misconduct a year ago, has been shunned from the stand up community ever since. His new routine includes calling Parkland students boring, Auschwitz and the LGBTQ community.

CK kicked off his set mentioning that following his #MeToo scandal, he would “rather be in Auschwitz” than in New York City. “I mean Auschwitz now, not Auschwitz back then. There’s a gift shop, Starbucks. People buy tickets to go there.”

CK later takes a swing at gender pronouns and the Parkland shooting survivors.

“Why does that make you interesting? You didn’t get shot,” CK said. “You pushed some fat kid in the way and now I gotta listen to you talk?”

Apatow called the bit “hacky, unfunny and shallow” while saying it “is just a symptom of how people are afraid to feel empathy.”

“It’s much easier to laugh at our most vulnerable than to look at their pain directly & show them love and concern,” Apatow wrote. “Louis CK is all fear and bitterness now. He can’t look inward.”

The “Knocked Up” and “40 Year Old Virgin” director is no stranger to raunchy comedy and has experience writing taboo jokes for TV and film. He further explained to Twitter users and fans the difference between jokes and what CK presented.

“I am not a sensitive comedy watcher,” Apatow wrote. “I just think it is weak material.  Compare it to the work of our greats. Would Richard Pryor have done a routine about how shooting victims were boring?  People will want to make it political but it is more about his fear of self discovery.”

Judd Apatow Responds to Louis CK’s ‘Comeback’ Show Read More »

Palestinian-American Sent to Prison for Life by PA for Selling Land to Jews

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

A Palestinian-American was sentenced to life in prison in the Palestinian territories for selling land to Jews.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the man, identified as 53-year-old Issam Akel, was found guilty on Monday by the Palestinian Grand Criminal Court of brokering a deal for the Jewish group Ateret Cohanim to purchase a house in Old City Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter. Akel is an East Jerusalem resident, where he has an Israeli ID card that provides him immunity from the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Under PA law, selling land to Jews is a crime that could result in the death penalty.

Akel was reportedly in Ramallah when he was arrested in October; it’s not known if he was visiting the city or if he was kidnapped by the PA from East Jerusalem and taken to Ramallah for prosecution.

Akel’s father, Jalal, told the Times of Israel that he was “surprised” by the sentence and rejected the notion that his son had sold land to Jews.

“We knew there was a trial happening, but we didn’t know this would happen,” Jalal Akel said.

A United States official told the Times of Israel that they were “aware” of Akel’s sentencing.

“When a U.S. citizen is incarcerated abroad, the US government works to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” the official said.

Israel is investigating the matter and arrested two members of the PA in response, although they have both been released on bail.

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Bennett, Shaked Form New Israeli Party Before Early Elections

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced on Dec. 29 that they are leaving the Bayit Yehudi party to form a new party called Hayemin Hehadash, which translates to “The New Right.”

Bennett and Shaked said in a press conference that their new party aims to unite secular and Orthodox Jews and takes a hardline stance on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“The New Right party is right-wing, no buts and no sort-ofs,” Bennett said. “In favor of the Land of Israel without compromise, against a Palestinian state, period.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Bennett and Shaked’s move as potentially putting the right-wing government coalition at risk.

“This is a fatal wound to the nationalist camp that can lead to the rise of a left-wing government,” Netanyahu said.

Polls from various Israeli media outlets have estimated that Hayemin Hehadash could win anywhere from six seats to 14 seats in the upcoming elections.

Coalition leaders announced on Dec. 24 that early elections will be held in April instead of November 2019.

Bennett, Shaked Form New Israeli Party Before Early Elections Read More »

Episode 119 – Daphni Leef: Leading Israel’s Biggest Protest

Leave a Comment / Podcasts, Two Nice Jewish Boys /

September 3, 2011. Close to half a million people hit the streets in Israel, 300 thousand of them in Tel Aviv, wielding their megaphones and posters, shouting at the top of their lungs, “The nation demands social justice!”

This was the climax of the 2011 social justice protests which took place in Israel. What started as a small protest against the rise in housing prices quickly transformed into a national phenomenon that took the country by a storm and encompassed a wide range of issues from healthcare and taxation to schooling and public transportation. At the head of the movement, Daphni Leef.

Daphni graduated Tel Aviv University (like one of these Boys) and became a film editor following her studies. But that’s not where this story begins. It begins the day she received a letter ordering her to evict her apartment of 3 years.

We are very excited to be joined by Daphni Leef to talk about her life, about the protests and about social justice.

(Photo by Arielinson)

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Samberg Returns to ‘Brooklyn,’ Hosts Globes, Finds Long-Lost Grandparents

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

The New Year is getting off to a busy start for Andy Samberg. His cop sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” returns for its sixth season on a new network (NBC) on Jan. 10. But first, Samberg will co-host the Golden Globe Awards with Sandra Oh on NBC Jan. 6 and appear in the first episode of the fifth season of the celebrity genealogy show “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” premiering on PBS Jan. 8.

Samberg, whose mother Marjorie was adopted, sought Gates’ help in finding her birth parents. She knew her birth mother was Jewish and born in Germany in 1920, and that she also had a sister who was a famous singer who lived in India in the 1940s. That provided a vital clue that led to her identity. Then, DNA testing and matching enabled researchers to find Sandberg’s paternal grandfather, who was from Sicily and met his mother in San Francisco in 1945. Samberg and his mother were able to meet several new members of their family.

“I’m overwhelmed with happiness for my mom,” he told Gates. “It’s fantastic, it’s finally something my mom gets to know.”

The episode also features “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, who gets a big surprise from Gates, thanks to DNA testing. Martin always thought he was Italian, but it turns out that his grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jew.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” premieres Jan. 10 at 9 p.m. on NBC, The Golden Globes airs live Jan. 10 at 5 p.m. on NBC, and “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” premieres Jan. 8 at 8 p.m. on PBS

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