What’s Jewish About Farming?
What’s Jewish About Farming?
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April 11, 2019
Eighteen Jewish groups Urge Congress to Pass Bill to End Trump’s Travel Ban
(JTA) Eighteen Jewish organizations called on Congress to pass a bill seeking to end President Donald Trump’s executive order banning citizens of certain predominantly Muslim countries.
On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., introduced bills in the Senate and House, respectively, to repeal three versions of the president’s travel ban. The current version places entry restrictions on citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen.
HIAS, an immigrant advocacy and aid group formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, organized the letter sent Wednesday to members of Congress.
“We stand in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors, and in support of refugees and asylum seekers from around the world,” the letter reads. “As American Jews, we are proud of our country’s legacy as a place that welcomes people who are forced to flee their homelands in search of safety.”
Among the signatories are official groups representing the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish denominations as well as the Orthodox social justice organization Uri L’Tzedek. American Jewish World Service, the Anti-Defamation League, J Street and the National Council of Jewish Women also signed.
Last year, the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s executive order mandating a ban on travel from several Muslim majority countries, a decision criticized by major Jewish organizations. Trump had issued similar bans twice before but they were blocked by lower courts.
Eighteen Jewish groups Urge Congress to Pass Bill to End Trump’s Travel Ban Read More »
Jake Gyllenhaal to Bring ‘Lake Success’ to HBO
Jake Gyllenhaal will take on his first TV series role in “Lake Success,” HBO’s adaptation of Gary Shteyngart’s 2018 novel about a Jewish hedge fund manager who takes a bus trip to find his college sweetheart.
Gyllenhaal will play Wall Street millionaire Barry Cohen, who flees Manhattan in the wake of an SEC investigation and his young son’s autism diagnosis, searching for a simpler life. Back in New York City, his left-behind wife embarks on a new relationship while raising the child on her own.
“Gary’s novel is a beautifully executed character study highlighting the depth of human contradiction and complication, set against the timely backdrop of America today,” said Gyllenhaal and producing Riva Marker in a joint statement. “We are thrilled to partner with HBO, who has consistently been home to some of the most exciting and acclaimed premium content over the past two decades.”
Shteyngart will also serve as executive producer and share writing and showrunning duties with Tom Spezialy.
Gyllenhaal will next be seen in “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in the dual role of Quentin Beck/Mysterio. It opens in theaters July 5.
Jake Gyllenhaal to Bring ‘Lake Success’ to HBO Read More »
Conservative Rabbinical Group Appoints Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal as its New Head
(JTA) — The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly appointed Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal as its new chief executive.
Blumenthal, the spiritual leader at Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, Maryland, will start in July, the organization announced Thursday.
He succeeds Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the first woman to serve as chief executive of a major rabbinical organization. She announced in March 2018 that she was stepping down.
Blumenthal, 52, started working at Shaare Torah after being ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999, when the synagogue was in its startup phase. The congregation now counts 300 families among its members.
In addition to his congregational work, Blumenthal has served on various committees in the Rabbinical Assembly. He helped create a Camp Ramah day camp in Washington, D.C., and the Jewish Millennials Engagement Project, an initiative to reach out to young Jews.
Rabbinical Assembly President Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin praised Blumenthal in a statement, calling him “someone who will make a real impact on our rabbis and our global movement.”
Rabbis Harold Kravitz and Cheryl Peretz, who served as co-chairs of the selection committee, said they “believe Jacob has the ability to look at innovative ways to move forward our movement and its rabbis.”
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Founder of BDS Movement Denied Entry Into U.S.
Omar Barghouti, the founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has been barred from entering the United States.
According to National Public Radio (NPR), Barghouti, who lives in Israel, was set to fly out of Ben Gurion International Airport on April 10 to embark on an East Coast speaking tour when he was told at the airport that the United States would not let him enter the country. He was not given a reason why; a State Department official told NPR, “We cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, told NPR, “It is disturbing that policymakers and the American people will not have the opportunity to hear from Omar directly about his views.”
NPR also notes that the Israeli government held off on renewing Barghouti’s travel documents over the past few years due to him “using his resident status to travel all over the world in order to operate against Israel in the most serious manner.” The Israeli government eventually renewed his travel document in February.
According to Canary Mission, Barghouti said during a 2010 talk in San Diego that Palestinians “have a right to resist by any means, including violent means.” He similarly said during a 2014 speech in UCLA that the Palestininas can pursue “‘resistance by any means, including armed resistance.’” In a 2014 speech at Wayne State University, Barghouti accused Congress of being “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” In a 2013 Norway speech, Barghouti said, “We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
Barghouti also co-founded the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) in 2007, which has reported ties to the terror groups Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Founder of BDS Movement Denied Entry Into U.S. Read More »
A Moment in Time: Before It’s Too Late
Dear all,
While flying home from my recent conference, I saw another plane soaring across the sky. I scrambled for my camera and was able to snap one quick shot before the other plane was forever gone from my view.
In this case, it was just a photo for my aviation collection.
But life is filled with opportunities to capture something special …. before it’s too late.
One more conversation.
One more place to visit.
One more chance to get someone to smile.
One more time to speak up for yourself.
One more dream to realize.
One more act of tzedekah/ giving of your time and being.
One more cuddle.
One more apology.
One more opening to forgive.
Composer and lyricist, Jerry Herman, reminded us to capture life “Before the parade passes by” (Hello, Dolly!) How deep is his wisdom!
So we do everything we can to harness our moment in time – before the “plane” passes by. There are so many opportunities out there!
With love and shalom,
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
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Final Israeli Vote Tally Shows Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked Not Entering Knesset
(JTA) — Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, formerly two young rising stars on Israel’s right, will not be part of the incoming Knesset, according to the final vote tally from Tuesday’s elections.
The numbers released Thursday night in Israel show Bennett and Shaked’s party, the New Right, falling just short of the 3.25 percent vote threshold necessary to enter Knesset. The party’s 138,000 votes fell fewer than 1,500 short of the threshold.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party will have 36 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, the most of any party, gaining a seat in the final tally at the expense of the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism. UTJ will have seven seats, the fourth most. Right-wing parties won a 10-seat majority overall.
Likud’s main rival, the centrist Blue and White party, will hold 35 seats.
The defeat of Bennett and Shaked is a steep fall for politicians who found quick success upon launching their careers in 2012. In the outgoing government, Bennett was education minister and Shaked was justice minister, the youngest person to ever hold the position.
Shaked was a controversial opponent of the Supreme Court and said she wanted to stop what she called leftist judicial activism. Bennett has long advocated the annexation of Israel’s West Bank settlements — a position that Netanyahu endorsed shortly before the election.
Last year they split from the religious Zionist Jewish Home party to form the New Right, an ultimately unsuccessful bid to attract a wider base of voters.
Final Israeli Vote Tally Shows Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked Not Entering Knesset Read More »
Anti-Semitic Fliers Found at University of North Carolina
(JTA) — Several anti-Semitic fliers were found on bookshelves and tables in the library at the University of North Carolina.
The fliers include references to “an evil Jewish plot” and said “do everything you can to fight the silent covert Jewish attempt to enslave and kill good Americans,” according to the UNC Hillel.
They were discovered this week, the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper reported.
“I am extremely disappointed and appalled that anyone would write these abhorrent messages and direct them toward members of our Jewish community,” UNC Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said in a statement sent Wednesday to the campus community. “This behavior conflicts with the University’s long-standing commitment to fostering an environment where all students, faculty and staff can be free from harassment.”
The campus Hillel said in a statement: “We are disgusted by the vile and hateful rhetoric on these flyers. The language is reminiscent of centuries-old, anti-Semitic rhetoric that incited the murder of thousands of Jews in pogroms throughout Eastern Europe and the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. This racist, repulsive language has no place on any campus or in any society.”
The statement said the UNC administration “has been responsive to the concerns of the Jewish community.”
Two weeks ago, the university’s Unsung Founders Memorial and an art installment outside the Hanes Art Center were vandalized with “racist and other deplorable language.”
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NY Post Responds to Rep. Omar’s 9/11 Remarks: ‘Here’s Your Something’
The New York Post wrote on the cover of their April 11 issue, and in the subsequent editorial, that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) trivialized the 9/11 terror attacks during her March 23 speech at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event in Los Angeles.
Omar said during the speech, “For far too long, we [Muslims] have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”
The New York Post’s April 11 cover had, in response to Omar, “Here’s your something: 2,977 people dead by terrorism.”
The New York Post's cover for Thursday calls out Ilhan Omar for trivializing the 9/11 terrorist attacks as "some people did something" pic.twitter.com/xToghXSGw5
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 11, 2019
The Post’s editorial stated, “Wow. What a way to describe the heinous surprise attack on America that claimed 3,000 lives. Especially when Omar’s focus was Muslim rights: That made it all the more vital to note that the terrorists acted in the name of Islam — as self-described ‘jihadists’ in a war against America, Israel and the West.”
“To call them merely ‘some people’ is to deny a cancer festering in the world Muslim community,” the editorial said.
The editorial went on to further criticize Omar for saying in her speech that there is an expectation that the Muslim community “needs to hide every time something happens.”
“Again, by ‘something happens,’” she means (but won’t say) “when Muslims commit acts of terror,” the editorial states. “No one expects Muslims to ‘hide’ after an attack by Islamist terrorists. No group should be blamed for the deeds of a few of its members. But defeating terrorism requires facing the facts of who’s behind it and why.”
The editorial also pointed out that CAIR was formed in 1994 and that they have been listed as “an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to steer US funds to the terror group Hamas.” Jeremy Slevin, Omar’s communications director, told The Washington Post that Omar meant to say “that the organization had doubled in size after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) defended Omar in an April 11 MSNBC appearance by saying that Omar’s comments were taken “out of context” because Omar “was talking about civil liberties and civil rights issues.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted in defense of Omar stating, “I’m not going to quote the NY Post’s horrifying, hateful cover. Here’s 1 fact: @IlhanMN is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. She‘s done more for 9/11 families than the GOP who won’t even support healthcare for 1st responders- yet are happy to weaponize her faith.”
I’m not going to quote the NY Post’s horrifying, hateful cover.
Here’s 1 fact: @IlhanMN is a cosponsor of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. She‘s done more for 9/11 families than the GOP who won’t even support healthcare for 1st responders- yet are happy to weaponize her faith.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 11, 2019
Omar is one of 213 co-sponsors of the aforementioned legislation; she is not one of the original sponsors.
However, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), told the Washington Free Beacon, “It is deeply disturbing that a sitting Member of Congress would trivialize the deaths of thousands of Americans, one of the most pivotal events in U.S. history.” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.), who lost his right eye while serving in Afghanistan in 2012, tweeted, “First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something.’ Unbelievable.”
First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as “some people who did something”.
Unbelievable. https://t.co/IKtoZWWmIT
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 9, 2019
Omar has not directly addressed the New York Post editorial publicly, but she did re-tweet a tweet from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) stating, “@Ilhan full comments clearly speak to post 9/11 #Islamophobia Manipulating her remarks is defaming & dangerous for her & her family. Stop with this recklessness.”
@Ilhan full comments clearly speak to post 9/11 #Islamophobia Manipulating her remarks is defaming & dangerous for her & her family. Stop with this recklessness. @rupertmurdoch this is on you – stoking hate, fear & division, putting REAL lives at risk. Shame on you. https://t.co/fpemnGxQKk
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) April 11, 2019
NY Post Responds to Rep. Omar’s 9/11 Remarks: ‘Here’s Your Something’ Read More »
Image of the Week: Yemenite Seder
A Yemenite Habbani family celebrates Passover in Tel Aviv. At a Yemenite seder, there is no individual seder plate; the entire table is the seder plate. Lettuce, scallions, celery and radishes are arranged beautifully on the table, among small bowls of meat, eggs and Charoset.
Photo credit: Zoltan Kluger/Wikimedia Commons
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