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Jewish Journal

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September 16, 2019

The Process to Replace Leadership of Women’s March Was a Sham

Leave a Comment / Columnists, Online /

The announcement in today’s Washington Post that Women’s March co-chairs Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland will no longer serve on the board is only part of the story. The other part is that the process to replace them has been a sham.

Before highly-controversial Sarsour, Mallory and Bland even began the process to find their replacements, they already had overstayed their official term, violating their organization’s bylaws. What followed was an undemocratic, opaque process, with some local Women’s March organizers thinking the previous co-chairs would handpick the new board.

“I’m sure it’s going to be all internal, and they will put in their own people or reelect themselves,” Angie Beem, president of the Washington state chapter, told The Jewish Journal after the announcement.

 In fact, one of the new board members, Zahara Billoo, who runs the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) San Francisco office, has compared Israeli soldiers to ISIS terrorists, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, and has written that being pro-Israel is being “pro-terror, pro-violence, pro-land theft, and pro-apartheid.”

Sarsour first announced to Women’s March organizers that it was time to step down six months ago. The Post reports the trio officially stepped down on July 15, although they did not announce it publicly nor update the website.

The original Women’s March, Inc. bylaws, which were written when the first board was solidified in 2017, stipulate leaders must step down and be reelected every two years. However, it was weeks after the co-chairs’ term had ended when the organization began its search for new board members.

“As you may know, Women’s March board has two-year terms, and we are now approaching the end of this first board term,” wrote Sarsour in an email to Women’s March state and local level chapter leaders, co-signed by Chief Operating Officer Rachel Carmona. The letter, entitled “Women’s March Board Transition Update” was sent March 21, 2019, by a source connected to Women’s March, Inc. and was reviewed by The Jewish Journal.

“We have officially opened the process for the 2019-2021 board to shape the next phase of our work,” wrote Sarsour and Carmona, attaching a Women’s March board application. “This open process will include a formal application and review by a board nomination and selection committee, comprised primarily of members of the 2019 March Steering Committee who volunteered to be part of this process.”

“Founders have one rotating seat & Carmen is in it,” Sarsour tweeted after the announcement of the new board, referencing how Carmen Perez will stay on the board of the organization. However, nowhere in the bylaws of Women’s March, Inc. is a rotating seat for founders mentioned. “This AMAZING group of women stepped up, most of whom I worked w/ YEARS before WM,” Sarsour wrote.

Sarsour, Perez, Bland and Mallory were not elected into leadership. 

“The initial directors shall be those persons whose names and addresses are set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation and they shall serve until the next meeting of members at which directors are elected and until the election and qualification of their successors,” specifies Article I of Women’s March, Inc. bylaws.

Scandals have plagued leadership under Sarsour, Mallory, Bland and Perez, including support of those espousing anti-Semitic stances. More than 10,000 people signed a petition demanding they step down from Women’s March, Inc. Teresa Shook, the founder of the movement, has called for them to resign over their missteps with Jewish and LGBTQ women.

The controversy began when Mallory faced criticism for sitting on stage with Louis Farrakhan as he declared “the powerful Jews are my enemy.” Perez, who will remain on the board, has posed holding hands with Louis Farrakhan on Instagram. Sarsour also is associated with Farrkhan; she delivered a speech at a 2015 rally organized by him in his celebration.

In 2019, 100,000 attended the official Washington D.C. Women’s March – 400,000 less than who showed up into 2017. Since its founding in 2017, the organization has lost the majority of its partners; over 287 organizations have pulled support from Women’s March Inc. including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Emily’s List, the Human Rights Campaign and the Democratic Party.

Currently, only 10 chapters remain officially affiliated with Women’s March, Inc.

Three weeks after the email regarding a shift in leadership, Women’s March, Inc. sent out affiliate agreements to other march groups. It promised “Women’s March, Inc. will ensure that there is at least a minimum of two board seats reserved for Women’s March Chapter representation,” which “individual WM Chapter organizers can self-nominate and WM Chapters will then vote based upon their geographic area for the desired WM Chapter board rep.”

However, this directly contradicts the letter Sarsour and Carmona sent, who wrote the new leaders will be selected by the Steering Committee, which was handpicked by the board, not local organizers. There was no mention of a democratic process.

These agreements seemingly offered local marches a voice in leadership, and operated more like a cease-and-desist letter rather than an opportunity to have a voice in the upcoming elections.

Miranda Marquit, lead organizer of Women’s March of Idaho Falls, told The Jewish Journal that up to this point, all it took to be affiliated with Women’s March, Inc. was to list your march on its website. She confirmed that although it is listed on the website, Idaho is no longer affiliated with Women’s March, Inc.

“While the controversy surrounding this year’s march has some influence, the biggest thing is that we’re considering changing the format to do something more locally focused,” Marquit explained. She noted all Women’s March, Inc. provided its affiliates was an eight-page “Sister March Guide” and an invitation to an occasional conference call.

When asked how often she gets email invitations to the Women’s March calls, Marquit says, “I honestly just delete them without opening them.”

The agreement, sent out March 25, stated that if local marches do not affiliate, they must cease all use of the WM emblems within five days and immediately remove the name “Women’s March” from the chapter’s assumed name, domain names and social media accounts. It also asserts that non-affiliated marches must cease selling “Women’s March” merchandise, which funds grassroots activism.

Women’s March, Inc. also requires its affiliates do not “challenge the validity or ownership of any of the WM emblems,” which includes the term “Women’s March.” 

This is unusual, given that the Women’s March already gave up its legal claim to trademark the term “Women’s March,” which 14 other organizations disputed they owned in court.

Even odder was that Women’s March, Inc. not only sent out the draft affiliate agreements to groups with whom they wanted to solidify their partnership, but also to sporadic activist groups with the name “Women’s March” − even those that had no ties with it.

A leader of a large Women’s March group in California confirmed to The Jewish Journal that it had received the affiliate agreement, even though the chapter has openly divorced itself from Women’s March, Inc. and is affiliated with Los Angeles-based Women’s March Foundation.

In exchange for affiliation, Women’s March, Inc. offers online training, public relations support, amplification of local actions on its social media pages, web support and access to “network-wide communications platforms like Slack.” 

The organization did not offer to distribute any of its funding to grassroots organizers who sign on with it. In contrast, March On, a competing women’s march organization, has given 19 percent of its total funding directly to affiliates, investing approximately $250,000 in local groups, March On told The Jewish Journal.

In July, Samia Assed, who runs the New Mexico Women’s March told The Jewish Journal she has not received any funding or organizing resources from the parent organization, but Carmen Perez once came and spoke at a meeting.

Assed said she would sign the agreement because “I won’t splinter the movement. I won’t weaken it.” However, she had problems with the leadership. “Do I believe Linda and Tamika are anti-Semitic? No. Do I think they acted stupidly? Yes.”

In September it was announced she had joined the Women’s March Inc. board.

For many local chapters, not having a say in major decisions is a deal breaker.

“I don’t see how there will be an election when we have no say in anything they do. I don’t know how they would do the vote,” Beem said of the new board’s selection process. “If we had that kind of power, we could have voted them out. But it takes the board members to vote out a board member, and you know none of them are going to go against each other. I don’t see how an election can happen in this vacuum.”

The Process to Replace Leadership of Women’s March Was a Sham Read More »

National SJP Says Conference Will Be Held at University of Minnesota

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) announced on Sept. 16 that they will be holding their annual conference at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities on Nov. 1-3.

NSJP’s website states that the conference, titled “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation,” will recognize that “support for the Palestinian cause is increasing within mainstream politics,” citing the elections of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), both of whom support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The conference will also provide information on Palestinian history.

“The history of Palestine, and the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1947-1948,” the website states. “It is important that this be recognized by those who claim to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people, many of whom engage solely in anti-occupation advocacy– that is, advocacy which relies on a version of Palestinian history limited to the Green Line. In doing so, they forego the rights of those Palestinians in refugee camps, in diaspora, and in 1948 lands.”

The website proceeds to call for “the fullness of Palestinian liberation.”

SJP UMN chapter sponsored a pro-BDS resolution that passed as a student-wide referendum in March 2018; UMN President Benjie Kaplan denounced the resolution at the time as potentially having a “harmful impact to our campus climate” and condemned BDS for not delineating “between opposition to the policies of the government of Israel and opposition to the existence of Israel.” 

Additionally, in April 2018 SJP University of Minnesota hosted an event titled “Palestine 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Palestine.” Two students who attended the event, Maya Strohm and Shay Gilbert Burke, wrote in a letter to the Minnesota Daily campus newspaper at the time that the event featured a speaker who argued “that Jews have no connection to the land of Israel and that Zionism is antithetical to Judaism” and “Jews introduced terror to Palestine, not Christians and Muslims.” 

“This blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric does not open discussion,” Strohm and Burke wrote. “Instead, it drives our communities further apart.”

The NSJP 2018 conference was held at UCLA in November 2018; the Los Angeles City Council and myriad Jewish groups called on UCLA to cancel the conference. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed at the time that the university wouldn’t cancel the conference due to the First Amendment. City Councilman Paul Koretz was among those who protested the conference on Nov. 18.

StandWithUs Executive Director of Research and Strategy Max Samarov said in a statement to the Journal, “Last year, [the] National SJP openly called for silencing speakers who support Israel’s existence.  They also called for the destruction of Zionism, and violence against Israelis. While free speech laws may require UMN to allow the conference, this should not stop university leaders from unequivocally condemning SJP’s long record of hate. We also encourage UMN to use this as a teachable moment to educate the campus community about anti-Semitism and foster civil dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” 

AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “At the heart of the national SJP organization and its campus chapters is an anti-Zionist ideology that incites its members to engage in activities designed to harm not only Israel, but Israel’s on-campus supporters, primarily Jewish students.  In the name of BDS, SJP students routinely disrupt and shut down events organized by Jewish and pro-Israel students; vandalize pro-Israel flyers, displays and student property; denigrate Jewish and pro-Israel student groups with spurious charges of racism, Islamophobia and white supremacy and engage in sustained campaigns of defamation, marginalization and harassment against presumed pro-Israel students. These behaviors time and again deprive Jewish and pro-Israel students of their freedom of speech, assembly and association, and deny them access to a campus safe from harassment.”

She continued: “SJP’s intolerant behaviors are often viewed by university administrators as politically-motivated and are often overlooked and unaddressed, leaving Jewish and pro-Israel students vulnerable and afraid. However, harassment is harassment, regardless of the motivation of the perpetrator or the identity of the victim.  We urge the University of Minnesota, and frankly all university leaders, to make clear to SJP and all its students that while anti-Zionist speech is protected under the First Amendment, the intolerant behavior such rhetoric often incites will not be tolerated. Jewish and pro-Israel students must be afforded the same protections as all other students.”

UPDATE 1: Students Supporting Israel (SSI) President Ilan Sinelnikov said in a statement to the Journal, “As members of Students Supporting Israel attended the NSJP last year at UCLA to find out how radical NSJP is with its Intifada chants and chants that call upon the destruction of Israel. We suggest that the University of Minnesota won’t let such an event take place as there is no reason for radical groups to be on our campuses. If the event will take place, SSI will make sure to act upon it again.”

UPDATE 2: A spokesperson for the University of Minnesota confirmed that the NSJP conference will be held on campus.

“Any registered student group is allowed to reserve space on campus, provided they comply with relevant policies,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Journal. “The University of Minnesota encourages students and student groups to exercise their freedom of expression and a broad spectrum of ideas. We do not make decisions based on content.”

National SJP Says Conference Will Be Held at University of Minnesota Read More »

Hofstra Student Says She Has Experienced Several Instances of ‘Subtle’ Anti-Semitism on Campus

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Hofstra University student Leilah Abelman wrote an op-ed in the school’s newspaper Hofstra Chronicle alleging myriad instances of anti-Semitism she has experienced on campus, saying “anti-Semitism is alive and more insidious than I expected.”

Abelman, an Orthodox Jew, recalled an instance in which a professor told her “to re-evaluate” her religion after she told him that she was going to be absent during the High Holidays. The professor also told her “to be less sensitive” when she complained that a student in class said “the Jewish tradition of marrying within the religion” is analogous to “Nazi eugenics.”

Additionally, the “professor told the class to imagine a world without Jews in it,” Abelman wrote.

A different professor led a class discussion on if the alleged gunman of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in October is “truly evil” and many students concluded that the shooter “could not be considered evil as he did what he believed was right.” The professor later apologized to Abelman, but did not discuss the issue again with the class.

Abelman also documented instances where she has experienced anti-Semitism from individual students. Two female students declined to room with Abelman and another Jewish girl after Abelman mentioned that they’re “religious Jews.” Another student backed out of living in the same suite as Abelman after Abelman said she wasn’t comfortable with the student’s boyfriend staying the night, telling other students that Abelman is a “crazy Jewish girl she almost had to live with. And can you believe she only wears skirts in front of guys? How ridiculous!”

In one of her classes, a student argued that the Holocaust shouldn’t be required learning “since everyone knows about it already.” After Abelman pointed out that recent polls have shown that around a third of Europeans aren’t familiar with basic Holocaust knowledge, the student replied that it’s because the Holocaust is “American history.”

Abelman criticized the Hofstra administration at the conclusion of her column, saying administrators have told her that they can’t take any action because the instance didn’t break any university rules.

“Anti-Semitism at Hofstra may be more subtle than a swastika spray-painted onto a Jewish professor’s office door, which happened at Columbia University last year,” Abelman wrote. “However, it is just as dangerous, if not more so, in a time when Jews are the most targeted minority in the state of New York, Jewish men are attacked in broad daylight on the streets of Brooklyn and Jewish children are targeted during holiday services at their synagogue.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “It’s important to call out & educate about #antiSemitism on campus. Together, we can ensure that universities are places for growth, not #bias or #hate incident.”

StandWithUs Co-Founder and CEO Roz Rothstein said in a statement to the Journal, “Jewish and pro Israel students are experiencing subtle and overt anti-Semitism in greater numbers. We need to hear them, and take them seriously. Universities may need to institute sensitivity training, as should be the case with the professor at Hofstra who suggested to a Jewish student that she re-examine her faith.”

Hofstra University Assistant Vice President of University Relations Karla Schuster said in a statement to the Journal that the university has “tremendous concern” over the allegations in Abelman’s op-ed.

“Hofstra University condemns anti-semitism and is committed to ensuring that our campus promotes diversity, inclusion and freedom from all forms of discrimination,” Schuster said. “We will thoroughly investigate the claims made in the Chronicle editorial and take all appropriate steps to protect and further the rights of all campus members to be free from discrimination. Hate of any kind has no place at Hofstra and it will not be tolerated.”

Hofstra Student Says She Has Experienced Several Instances of ‘Subtle’ Anti-Semitism on Campus Read More »

Women’s March Announces That Sarsour, Mallory, Bland Resigned

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Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Bob Bland have stepped down as co-chairs of Women’s March, Inc. on July 15, according to a statement released on Sept. 16.

The Women’s March said in a statement on their website that Sarsour, Mallory and Bland “will transition off the Women’s March Board and onto other projects focused on advocacy within their respective organizations.” Bland, who served as co-president of the Women’s March along with Mallory, told The Washington Post that the leadership was in the works for some time. 

Sarsour, who is a surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, told the Post, “I am grateful to the women who stepped up to shepherd the Women’s March. This is what women supporting women looks like.”

Co-chair Carmen Perez is staying with the Women’s March.

The statement went onto list the names of 16 new board members for the organization.

The Women’s March has been plagued with accusations of anti-Semitism, stemming from Sarsour, Mallory and Perez expressing warmth toward Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a December report from Tablet alleging that Mallory and Perez accused Jews of being behind the American slave trade, among other allegations of anti-Semitism. 

Some of the reactions from the Jewish world include:

Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement to the Journal that he’s “grateful” that the Women’s March is “taking back control from extremists who hijacked this vital American campaign for social justice, creating an anti-Semitic litmus test for social activism that denounces Zionism and demonizes Zionists.”

Women’s March Announces That Sarsour, Mallory, Bland Resigned Read More »

‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ to Become TV series

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

“Fleishman Is in Trouble,” the best-selling novel about a father whose wife suddenly leaves him and their kids, will become an FX limited series. Author Taffy Brodesser-Akner is adapting her novel and will executive produce with Sarah Timberman, Tracy Underwood and Carl Beverly for ABC Signature Studios.

“I can’t believe how lucky I am to get to work with these producers and with this studio. I wrote a novel thinking it was just a little story that I had to get out into the world, and never allowed myself to think that the story would continue on like this,” Akner told Deadline on Sept. 12, noting that the story was inspired by several friends’ divorce experiences.

Her second novel, a family story about wealth, class and inheritance called “Long Island Compromise,” has been sold to Random House.

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Los Angeles Should Not Honor a Country that Glorifies its Nazi Generals

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

This Sunday, September 22, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan will be speaking in a rally held in the Grand Park of downtown Los Angeles, right in front of the City Hall, accompanied by state, county and city officials. Grand Park is a public open space managed jointly by City and County of Los Angeles. It is the first time that any foreign leader is accorded this kind of privilege by Los Angeles. It would be no surprise if Armenia were a true ally and friend of the United States, and a country genuinely committed to democratic values shared by America. However it is not the case.

Since gaining its independence in 1991 from the Soviet Union, Armenia has pursued a foreign policy constantly contradicting the US in the South Caucasus region and international arena. Armenia regularly votes against the resolutions promoted by the US in international organizations, such as the one condemning the invasion of the Crimea, when Armenia was one of only 11 countries alongside North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Russia, Venezuela, and others rejecting this resolution. And one of the first actions Prime Minister Pashinyan took was to send an Armenian contingent to Syria to support Bashar Assad’s regime. Just a few weeks ago, Armenia sent another shipment to Damascus cementing its political, economic and military alliance with Russia, Iran and Syria. Obviously, Armenia’s support to a dictator who used chemical weapons against his own population triggered a harsh reaction from the US Embassy. 

Moreover, a state-sponsored glorification of Armenian Nazi collaborators continues to this day. A huge statue of Garegin Nzhdeh, a Nazi general of Armenian origin, adorns the center of Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan. Nzhdeh is considered a national hero and in addition to the statue, a square and metro station in Yerevan are named after him, and his “legacy” is taught to children in Armenian public schools. Nzhdeh cooperated with the Nazis as one of the commanders of the infamous “Armenian Legion” of the Wehrmacht. This unit fought in Crimea, the Caucasus, and southern France, as the Nazis rounded up Jews and resistance fighters to be marched to the death camps. For his war crimes and collaboration with the Nazis, a Soviet court sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment. Nzhdeh’s political theories were as repugnant as his collaboration with the Nazis. He was the founder of a racist movement called Tseghakronism, which translates as “carrier of race.” It refers to those who supposedly represent and carry what is the spiritual and biological essence of the “classical” Armenian. Echoing the theories of Aryan supremacy of his Nazi colleagues, Nzhdeh divided people into true nationalist by blood, mixed races (Hitler referred to “mongrel races”), and the anti-nationalists whom he called ‘bastards’. According to the theory, it is the responsibility of the ‘master race’ to rule Armenia.

Another glorified Armenian Nazi general is Drastamat Kanayan (better known as General Dro), commander of the “Armenian Legion”. The government of Armenia founded the Drastamat Kanayan Institute of National Strategic Studies, and the Ministry of Defense established a medal in his name to decorate military personnel and civilians who excel in military teaching.

Also anti-Semitism seems to be on the rise in Armenia. The famous Los Angeles-based investigative reporter Adelle Nazarian recently wrote the following in her open letter to US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr: “Did you know that, in an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) study of antisemitic attitudes in 100 countries, Armenia produced the third-highest antisemitism index score (58 percent) outside of the Middle East and North Africa?

A majority of Armenians believe that a series of ugly antisemitic conspiracy theories are “probably true,” including that Jews have too much power in the business world (72 percent) and financial markets (68 percent), are more loyal to Israel than to the country where they live (68 percent), have too much power over global affairs (51 percent), and have too much control over the American government (51 percent). The ADL survey revealed that Armenians subscribe to those antisemitic stereotypes at a higher rate than Iranians (56 percent). Let that sink in for a second.

Moreover, a study published by the Pew Research Center documented that 32 percent of Armenians would not accept Jews as fellow citizens.”

It is not a coincidence that due to this rising anti-Semitism Armenia’s Jewish community that had over 5000 members before 1991 has dwindled to barely 100 now.

Furthermore, Armenia is also internationally known and condemned for its illegal military occupation of a large part of neighboring Azerbaijan. In the early 1990s, supported by powerful regional allies, Armenia managed to invade approximately 20% of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory. United Nations Security Council condemned with four resolutions this illegal military occupation that was accompanied by massacres and total ethnic cleansing of the occupied lands of their indigenous Azerbaijani population (over 800,000 of them). Together with 250,000 Azerbaijani civilians expelled from Armenia, Azerbaijan accounts today over 1 million refugees on its soil, which is one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world.

Sadly, to this day, the occupation continues, and the refugees are not allowed by Armenia to return to their lands.

Prime Minister Pashinyan shows no willingness to peacefully resolve this painful conflict. On the contrary, one of the first steps he took was to send his son to serve in the occupied Karabakh region. And last month he even hinted at the possible annexation of this occupied territory of Azerbaijan to Armenia.

So under these conditions, how can Los Angeles host and honor this Prime Minister and his country that allies itself with US foes, glorifies its Nazi “heroes”, promotes anti-Semitism and is engaged in horrific ethnic cleansing and occupation? I hope the 600,000-strong Jewish community of Los Angeles will raise their voice against this outrageous and disgraceful act that dishonors the beautiful City of Los Angeles and everything it stands for.

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‘Jojo Rabbit,’ Comedy Set in Nazi Germany, is People’s Choice at Toronto Film Fest

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Could a comedy set in Nazi Germany that casts Adolf Hitler as a buffoonish imaginary friend win an Oscar? “Jojo Rabbit” won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, an honor that usually leads to an Oscar nomination, if not a win. Last year, “Green Book” won both, as did “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave” and “American Beauty” before it.

Also getting Oscar buzz is TIFF runner-up “Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach’s drama about the disintegration of a relationship. Scarlett Johansson stars in both.

In “Jojo Rabbit,” Johansson plays a German mother who is secretly hiding a Jewish girl in her home. Her young son, indoctrinated to revere the Fuhrer, is shocked when he discovers this and comes to reconsider what he’s been taught. Director Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”), who is Jewish on his mother’s side and Maori on his father’s, plays Hitler.

The film, based on Christine Leunens’ novel “Caging Skies,” will be released Oct. 18. “Marriage Story” hits theaters on Nov. 6, and streams on Netflix Dec. 6.

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Belgian University Uses Hooked Nose Gesture for ‘Jew’ in Sign Language Dictionary

Leave a Comment / Online /

(JTA) — A gesture signaling a hooked nose is how one Belgian university described “Jew” in its online sign-language dictionary.

The University of Ghent compiled the dictionary and features the gesture in videos on the website.

The European Jewish Association protested in a statement Monday. Its director, Menachem Margolin, said the first two videos depicting a Jew “seem standard.” Both show a presenter stroking an imaginary beard.

“The second involving side-locks are borderline acceptable if misleading,” he said, “and the last two are simply racist and demeaning to Jews, using a gesticulation of a large and hooked nose to define Jew.”

Margolin has asked campus authorities to remove the two gestures from the dictionary.

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Suspect in Shooting of 68-Year-Old Man Outside Miami Synagogue Charged With Hate Crime

Leave a Comment / Online /

(JTA) — A man arrested last month in the shooting of a 68-year-old man outside a synagogue in Miami, Florida, was charged with a hate crime.

Carlints St. Louis, 30, was arraigned last week in criminal court in Miami on charges that include one count of attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon with prejudice; one count of discharging a firearm in a vehicle; and one count of battery of aggravated battery of a person 65 years of age or older.

In late July, Yosef Lifshutz was shot six times in the leg as he stood outside the Young Israel of Greater Miami waiting for daily prayers to begin. Lifshutz, also known as Warren, required surgery.

St. Louis was taken into custody by Miami-Dade Police on Aug. 21, a day after he filled out a report with a nearby police department claiming that a firearm had been stolen from his black Chevy Impala — the car police were seeking in the synagogue shooting.

He was ordered held in jail without bond. A trial date has been set for Dec. 2, the NBC Miami affiliate reported.

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Judith Light Gets Walk of Fame Star

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Two weeks before the Sept. 27 premieres of both Netflix’s “The Politician” and the “Transparent: Musicale Finale” on Amazon Prime, Judith Light was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame Sept. 12 with a ceremony that unveiled her star near Hollywood and Vine. 

Surrounded by friends, colleagues and family, Light gave thanks to her parents and those who supported her along the way. “If you were not in my life, I would not be standing here,” she said. “… You remind of the thrill of the work we do, the privilege we have to tell stories and share them with others. You remind me that our business is an act of service. This star is the representation of our connectedness, our support for each other and our joy in each other…you remind me of who we all really and truly are. We are each other’s star.”

Light’s co-stars America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Dan Lauria (Broadway’s “Lombardi”) and “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway were among those attending the event. 

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