September 1, 2019

(JTA) — A New Jersey rabbi was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his involvement in the human trafficking and prostitution of a 17-year old girl.

Rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 37, of East Brunswick, New Jersey, also will have to undergo a year of supervised release. The sentence was announced on Wednesday.

Goodman had pleaded guilty to a charge of with interstate travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise, CBS New York reported Friday.

Goodman met the teen at the hotel on Feb. 1, 2018 and paid to have sex with her after answering an online advertisement for the girl, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. He turned himself in nearly a week later to the East Brunswick Police Department while accompanied by his attorney.

At the time of his arrest, he was running a religious learning center out of his home.

Goodman is registered as a Tier 3, or high-risk sex offender, after being arrested in 2013 for molesting a youth while serving as a camp counselor in 2001. He accepted a plea deal and served prison time for that incident.

(JTA) — The Cleveland Browns have cut Jewish placekicker Greg Joseph.

Joseph was cut on Saturday after spending a year with the team. He was released on waivers, which means another National Football League team has the opportunity to pick him up.

The team had to trim its roster ahead of its first regular season game against the Tennessee Titans on September 8.

Joseph, 25, was picked up by the Browns last summer when he was cut by the Miami Dolphins after signing with the club as an undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic University. He played football and soccer at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, Florida.

(JTA) — The rabbi who lost his finger in the April shooting attack on the Chabad of Poway in California has received a lifelike prosthetic finger.

The silicone prosthetic is meant to help his hand function properly and is removed for sleep.

Sam Heifetz, a third-generation prosthetist at Orthocraft Prosthetic and Orthotic Services in Brooklyn, created the High Definition Silicone Restoration or lifelike prosthesis for Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, COlLive reported.

He lost one index finger in the attack by alleged gunman, John Earnest, who shot with an assault rifle at close range.

“His lost finger during the horrific attack in his synagogue is a physical reminder of hate but his counterattack of inner strength, trust in God and bringing good to the world sheds light over and over,” Heifetz said, according to the news website.

One Poway Chabad member, Lori Kaye, was killed in the shooting attack on the last day of Passover, April 27. Three other members, including the rabbi, were shot.

After being shot, Goldstein ran to the social hall where congregants had gathered — as had several children, including his granddaughter — and he began waving them out of the building to safety.

“I just ran, not even knowing my fingers were blown off,” he said.

(JTA) — The photos of thousands of students and faculty of Yeshiva University appear on a white nationalist and anti-Semitic website.

The photos were posted on the Vanguard News Network Forum, in a thread that mocked Jews’ for their appearance. The thread first appeared on June 3rd, 2018, and on June 27th, 2018, the first Yeshiva University students are posted, according to the YU Observer student newspaper. The most recent post of YU students was on Aug. 29.

The photos include images of YU high school students as well. They came from YU website and publications and albums, according to the report.

Some students have filed a report with the New York Police Department.

“Those photos are part of a much larger collection of images and commentary that includes anti-Semitic and racist language,” Josh Joseph, senior vice president of YU said in a statement on Friday. “The content of the online forum targeting members of our community is appalling and offensive. Targeting individuals on the basis of their religion, ethnicity or race is inexcusable. While this situation is obviously disturbing, our Security team has investigated and found no direct threat to the individuals appearing in the photos or to Yeshiva University.”

Brandeis University, which has Jewish roots, informed its students and staff last week that photos of some of its students and faculty members are posted to the same thread. The university said in a letter addressed to the campus community that it does not believe that there is a threat to campus safety or to the people in the photos.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s far-right and libertarian Zehut Party overwhelmingly approved an agreement between party head Moshe Feiglin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to drop out of next month’s national elections.

Some 73 percent of Zehut members voted in favor of the deal Sunday in an on-line referendum. Feiglin made the announcement on Sunday evening.

Under the agreement announced on Thursday, Zehut and Likud will not merge, but Feiglin will receive a ministerial position in a Likud-led government in an economic capacity. Also, a bill to ease restrictions on medical cannabis — a cause championed by Feiglin — will be brought to the Knesset.

Some opposition politicians have called the deal an illegal bribe by Netanyahu, who failed to form a coalition following April’s election. The deal is an effort to shore up right-wing votes from smaller parties.

The party combines far-right ideology and libertarian policy, and has appealed to Israeli voters across the political spectrum. The party fell short of the 3.25 percent electoral threshold in April.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will extend “Jewish sovereignty” over all communities in the West Bank.

He made the remarks Sunday to the new first graders on the first day of school at a national religious school in the Jewish settlement of Elkana, located in the northern West Bank.

“We will not uproot anyone here. There will be no more Gush Katif; there will be no more uprooting, and with G-d’s help we will apply Jewish sovereignty over all communities as part of the land of Israel and the State of Israel,” he told the students.

Gush Katif refers to the evacuation in 2005 of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

September 1 annually is the first day of school throughout the country. The prime minister later visited the ORT Samaria High School for Girls in Elkana.

The remarks come more than two weeks before Israel’s national elections.

Prior to elections in April, Netanyahu called for extending Israeli sovereignty over all Israeli settlements and said he would not distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements.

“Netanyahu is a serial criminal: he steals from the public to give money to his tycoon friends, and he pushes the State of Israel to commit a war crime of annexation that will cause the death of countless Palestinians and Israelis,” Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab Joint List party, said in a statement that he also tweeted. “His legacy will be a trail of indictments and promises to settlers he hadn’t managed to fulfill.”

(JTA) — The Iranian judoka who last week threw his semi-final match so he would not have to face an Israeli competitor, has fled to Berlin and says he will no longer compete for Iran.

Saeid Mollaei was ranked number one in the world until last week when Israeli judoka Sagi Muki took gold medal at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo in the under-81 kilogram (179 pounds) category.

Mollaei’s mother reportedly called him from Iran moments before his semi-final fight against Belgium’s Matthias Casse and begged him to lose the round so that he would not have to fight the Israeli, bow to him or stand next to him on the winners’ platform.

He has been accused of faking injuries and intentionally losing judo matches in the past to avoid facing the Israeli.

Mollaei was separated from his Iranian trainer and spirited out of the arena and put on a plane to Berlin with the help of International Judo Federation chief Marius Vizer.

“I love Iran very much, but winning a medal is the most important thing for me,” Mollaei told the London-based Iran International television channel in an interview on Sunday.

He says he will compete in the future under the Olympic flag on the so-called refugee team.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Anti-aircraft missiles were fired from Lebanon at an Israeli military base and at military vehicles.

“There are a number of confirmed hits,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. It later confirmed that a military ambulance and a military post were hit, but that there were no casualties.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as Defense Minister, said late Sunday afternoon at a news conference to mark the opening of a Honduras diplomatic office in Jerusalem that “We have no Israeli casualties, not even a scratch.”

He also said: “We are consulting about the next steps. I have ordered that we be prepared for any scenario. We will decide on the next steps pending developments.”

The IDF retaliated with strikes on the source of the missile launches and on other targets in southern Lebanon, the statement said.

A second statement said that the IDF responded by firing some 100 mortar shells, including at the cell that fired on Israel.

Bomb shelters in northern Israeli communities located up to 2.5 miles from the Lebanese border were ordered opened, with residents instructed to remain in their homes and only to enter shelters if they hear a warning siren.

The terrorist group Hezbollah took responsibility for the missile strikes.

Hezbollah said the attack was in response to an Israeli airstrike last week on what Israel said were targets in Syria of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and Shiite militia. The strike killed two Hezbollah fighters. It also was responding to an attack last week on a Palestinian terror group’s positions in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, and the crash of two drones said to be carrying explosives in a Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut that are alleged to be by Israel.

Military bases in northern Israel went on high alert in the wake of the strikes last week.

In a televised speech Saturday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s response had been “decided” and that Israel “must pay a price” for the assault. “The response will come from Lebanon. We will choose the place and time,” Nasrallah said.

President Michel Aoun of Lebanon had called the strikes a “declaration of war.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Sunday evening of the missile attack: “All those who seek to harm us should know that we are ready and willing to defend Israel’s citizens wherever they are, without hesitation. We also say to them that we are prepared and do not want to show just how well-prepared we are. You should know that the border can only be quiet if it is on both of its sides.”

It is not clear if the Sunday attacks make up the entire retaliation decided by Hezbollah.

Later Sunday evening, Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main opposition in the upcoming national elections announced that he would freeze his party’s campaign “in light of the current security situation.”

“When it comes to actions taken against those attempting to harm Israeli citizens or Israel’s sovereignty, there is no opposition or coalition,” he also said.

(JTA) — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account sent out racist and inflammatory tweets including “Hitler is innocent” after it was hacked.

His account also tweeted that Twitter’s headquarters is “blowing up” as well as re-tweeting a tweet saying “Nazi Germany did nothing wrong.”

The tweets were up for about a half hour before they were removed.

Dorsey has 4.2 million followers.

“We’re aware that @jack was compromised and investigating what happened,” Twitter’s communications department tweeted on Friday night. It later tweeted that the account was “now secure.”

Twitter has been accused of being unable to control hate speech and harassment on its platform. It is not the first time that Dorsey has been hacked either.

MONTREAL (JTA)—The Liberal Party of Canada ousted a candidate for upcoming national election after B’nai Brith Canada revealed past allegedly anti-Semitic comments.

Hassan Guillet, a former imam running for election in a Montreal district, was removed on Friday from contention for the Oct. 21 election. Gulliet gained international attention when he spoke out following a 2017 mosque attack in Quebec City.

But according to B’nai Brith, Guillet’s past has included celebrating the release of a pro-Hamas activist Raed Salah, who said Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks; accusing “Zionists” of controlling U.S. politics; and describing Israel as an “apartheid” state.

B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn welcomed Guillet’s turfing and said, “the anti-Semitic tropes of ‘Zionists controlling governments’ and of ‘dual loyalty’ are two of the more abhorrent expressions of paranoid anti- Jewish conspiracy theories.”

The Liberal Party of Canada said in a statement that Guillet’s past comments “do not correspond to the party’s values.”