August 30, 2019

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is speaking out against a Jewish newspaper for publishing articles containing inflammatory rhetoric about the LGBTQ community.

Last month, the director of the organization’s New York-New Jersey region sent a letter to the publisher of The Jewish Press expressing concerns about articles denigrating LGBTQ people. The Brooklyn-based paper largely serves the Orthodox Jewish community.

The letter from Evan Bernstein to Naomi Mauer specifically mentions a July op-ed, titled “The Pride Parade: What Are They Proud Of,” that likens gay people marching in the Pride Parade to animals, adulterers and thieves.

“One of the obvious differences between man and animal is that man can curb his desires while animals cannot,” Irwin Benjamin wrote.

Bernstein wrote a letter to the newspaper on July 18, a week after the op-ed appeared.

“[W]e are especially concerned about the impact that The Jewish Press’s use of editorial discretion will have on LGBTQ Jewish youth, in particular, who may already be questioning their place in the Jewish community,” the letter said.

The ADL said it sent the letter in response to more than 25 complaints submitted through its website about the paper’s articles.

Three days before the letter was sent, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency had reported on accusations that the editor of the paper, Elliot Resnick, repeatedly made racist and homophobic remarks on his Twitter account. Resnick in social media posts over the last year has called African religions “primitive” and the gay rights movement “evil.” He also questioned the existence of white supremacists and white nationalists and asked how an adult having sexual relations with a teenager constitutes assault.

At the time, Resnick defended his comments to JTA. Mauer, the publisher, said she told Resnick that the tweets were “unacceptable” but that the paper was not taking any further action.

The Jewish Press describes itself as “the largest independent weekly Jewish newspaper in the United States,” and has a print and online circulation of 95,000, according to its publisher. The publication says it champions “Torah values and ideals from a centrist or Modern Orthodox perspective.” It was a JTA client before ending its subscription in December 2014.

ADL said it made multiple attempts over the span of a month to secure an off-the-record meeting but was unable to do so. Mauer told JTA that the paper had agreed to a meeting, but the ADL canceled when The Jewish Press insisted that it be recorded.

“How recording the meeting would defeat their stated purposes eludes me,” Mauer wrote in an email. “Frankly though, I think that their attempted spin underscores the wisdom of recording the proceedings.”

Asked about ADL’s criticism of the articles, Mauer said the paper was open to hearing its concerns but that as an Orthodox paper, it aims “to reflect the teachings of the Torah in all of our work.”

“We are mindful, however, those teachings are sharply inconsistent with the fundamental views of [t]he LGBTQ community,” Mauer wrote. “But we are also not in the business of trying to hurt people. A meeting with the ADL, given their recent focus on LGBTQ issues, we thought, would help us to better determine whether we were within proper journalistic guidelines in our treatment of those issues — or whether our language can easily be misconstrued.”

Meanwhile, Bernstein told JTA that having off-the-record meetings with publications is standard protocol for ADL.

“We wanted to have a discussion, not something that was going to potentially be used in print,” he said. “We wanted to be able to have a private discussion, and we were not able to have a private discussion, and that’s a shame.”

While Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law prohibit homosexual acts or same-sex physical relationships, a number of Orthodox authorities have called for sensitivity to observant Jews who are gay. Last month, a young Orthodox man from South Africa committed suicide in Israel, reportedly because he was struggling with his sexual orientation.

“The story here is about the teenagers within the LGBTQ community and the struggles they are facing within the Orthodox communities in which they live,” Bernstein said. “Many of these teenagers are shunned from the only lives they know after they come out, and these same communities have access to and could likely read these Jewish Press articles.”

(JTA) — A federal judge in New York formally ended the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein, the Jewish financier who authorities say killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York shelved the indictment on Thursday charging Epstein, 66, with sex crimes in the early 2000s in Florida and New York.

During the session, Berman included a reference to a court hearing two days earlier at which 16 women spoke about their claims against Epstein of sexual abuse, some allegedly committed when they were under the age of consent. Statements by several other women were read by their lawyers.

The judge said he was incorporating by reference the hearing’s transcript while he “underscores the significance of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.” Among other things, the victims’ law ensures crime victims have the right to be heard at public court proceedings regarding the accused.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has promised the Justice Department will pursue those who enabled Epstein to carry out the sexual assaults.

Epstein was arrested last month. He had pleaded not guilty.

In requesting the shelving of the indictment 10 days earlier, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who is not related to the judge, said the law required the dismissal after Epstein killed himself in jail on Aug. 10, The Associated Press reported.

(JTA) — An Israeli judge ordered the deportation of a Jewish convicted sex offender back to his native Yemen in a precedent-setting ruling.

The Makor Rishon daily reported Friday about the case of Avraham Salem Alhadad, who immigrated to Israel in 2007 on a student visa.

Alhadad’s visa expired while he was serving a 5 1/2-year prison term handed down in 2014 for molesting and sexually assaulting a minor from his own family. The former student of a religious seminary, or yeshiva, in Bnei Brak was declared an illegal alien upon his release this year.

His application to be naturalized under Israel’s Law of Return for Jews and their relatives was denied citing his criminal record. His application for asylum, based on his claim that his leaving Yemen in 2007 for the Jewish state would expose him to persecution there, also was dismissed.

Last week, a judge ordered the Interior Ministry, which was seeking Alhadad’s deportation to Yemen, to detail how it intended to deport him to a country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.

According to Makor Rishon, Israel has never deported a Jewish person to Yemen or any other Arab country.

Until the deportation plan is presented, Alhadad, who is married and has a 6-year-old son in Israel, is being held at the Givon detainment facility for those staying in Israel illegally.