(JTA) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Massachusetts man accused of using a homemade explosive to commit arson at a Jewish-sponsored assisted living facility.
John Michael Rathbun, 36, was charged on two counts Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
The targeted facility, Ruth’s House in Longmeadow, a suburb of Springfield, is situated within one square mile of several other Jewish facilities, including three synagogues, a Jewish private school and a Jewish community center. The facility is owned by JGS Lifecare.
Rathbun was arrested on April 15 and has been in federal custody since April 17.
His homemade bomb, discovered on April 2, was made of a five-gallon plastic gas canister filled with flammable liquid, with burnt paper later identified as a Christian religious pamphlet placed in the nozzle of the canister, according to the complaint. Part of the pamphlet was charred after being lit on fire in an attempt to ignite the gas.
Jewish porn star Ron Jeremy was charged in Los Angeles with rape and sexual assault against four women.
The Los Angeles District Attorney announced the charges on Tuesday in separate incidents that date back to 2014, Deadline reported.
Jeremy, 67, whose legal name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, tweeted later Tuesday that “I am innocent of all charges. I can’t wait to prove my innocence in court!”
Jeremy is being held in a Los Angeles County jail. Prosecutors are recommending bail be set at $6.6 million. His arraignment was postponed until Friday.
He could face a maximum sentence of 90 years to life in state prison. The case is still under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, CNN reported.
Jeremy is charged with raping a 25-year-old woman at a home in West Hollywood in May 2014; with allegedly sexually assaulting two women, ages 33 and 46, on separate occasions at a West Hollywood bar in 2017; and raping a 30-year-old woman at the same bar in July 2019.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson, who also is prosecuting Harvey Weinstein, according to Deadline.
Jeremy is in the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Appearances in Adult Films for appearing in more than 2,200 movies.
Being Black and Jewish, I was always very aware of anti-Semitism and racism. My life will always be characterized by the separation, the hatred and “the othering” of my people.
I was born in Ethiopia. I came to Israel as an infant, but my upbringing was filled with asides about the way Jews were discriminated against in Ethiopia. My parents never said it outright; they barely spoke about their life in Ethiopia. For them, Africa was the past. Israel is the future — and a hard-fought one at that. But every now and then, if I catch them in the right mood, they will tell me about Ethiopia, the beautiful scenery, the simple lifestyle and the Jewish community.
Hiding in these happy stories were small comments about the neighbors. You wouldn’t notice them if you didn’t listen carefully. My parents said they never walked alone at night because “it was dangerous for Jews to walk by themselves,” and that they never stayed in the same place for a long time because it wasn’t legal for Jews to own land. The nickname the neighbors gave them was “Falasha,” a derogatory term which means “landless, wanderers, strangers.”
Only under pressure, after I asked several times, “How did my grandfather die?” did my mom look at me with tears streaming down her face, and say, “They murdered him. They murdered him because he was a Jew.”
My parents view these horrors as simple hate against their community. They didn’t know there was a term for that: anti-Semitism.
My family’s story defines a lot of who I am today. It is the reason why Zionism is such a big part of my identity and why I vigorously fight for the right of Israel to exist. While I was growing up in Israel, anti-Semitism wasn’t a problem but I needed to learn a new term: racism.
Ashager Araro playing with a friend as a child. (Courtesy of Araro.)
One of my most vivid childhood memories was when my English teacher decided to put me in a separate classroom. This classroom had fewer students who covered the material at a much slower pace. Everyone in this classroom was Ethiopian. I presumed we were put there to help us out, give us more attention and make sure we would be able to keep up with the other students. This policy was fine in principle. However, it turned out, the only characteristic that determined if you ended up in the remedial class was your ethnicity.
Growing up in Israel, anti-Semitism wasn’t a problem, but I needed to learn a new term: racism.
I wasn’t judged according to my potential, but rather by the color of my skin. And even though this decision may have come from “a good place,” it delivered the message to Ethiopian students that we were incapable of doing things by ourselves; we could not measure up to others and would always need extra help.
The @womensmarch movement didn’t stop me from supporting #feminism, the #BLM movement won’t stop me from supporting the black community in their fight for equality.
I stand behind causes & values I believe in, regardless of organizations that take ownership on them. pic.twitter.com/OkzmdHZ214
This messaging can outlast one’s childhood and permanently taint one’s self-esteem. Thankfully, I come from a very strong family that always reassured me that I could do anything I set my mind to. While this act of discrimination didn’t permanently damage me, I’m sure it damaged others.
In my adult life, I continuously feel that people expect me to choose which group I’m going to side with: Jewish or Black people. I don’t understand that, as these are not mutually exclusive struggles. My parents lived in a majority Black country. Still, their Black skin didn’t protect them from anti-Semitic persecution. I live in a majority Jewish country, but my Jewish identity doesn’t shield me from racism. We need to fight both of those fights.
The fight against racism and anti-Semitism is ongoing; we need to fight both battles. It’s our responsibility to do so. To choose one without the other not only harms people like me but erases us from both the communities I love.
Ashager Araro is the founder of the Bettae Ethiopian Israeli Heritage Center in Tel Aviv.
Los Angeles real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid shared a disputed Albert Einstein quote on Instagram that compares Zionists to Nazi Germany.
The Algemeiner reported that Hadid’s June 23 Instagram post attributed the following quote to Einstein: “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.”
Hadid wrote in the caption, “I hope few would listen and few can open there [sic] eyes. And few that can soften their Hearts and few can look into their own soul and few that can save lives and like my father and family opened there [sic] homes to the fleeing Jewish families from Hitler the Butcher.”
However, the Algemeiner noted that there is no evidence that Einstein ever said such a quote. Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement, “[Winston] Churchill said it best: A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth puts its pants on. [An] anti-Semite desecrated Einstein’s good name and demonized an entire people. Never mind it’s a made up quote. Hate is ugly and corrosive, however it is wrapped up.”
The Israellycool blog suggested in a 2014 post that the disputed Einstein quote may have come from a 1948 letter that Einstein signed warning against the Herut (Freedom) Party forming in Israel at the time. The letter argued that the party was akin to Nazism and fascism.
“Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in [Menachem] Begin’s behalf, and the creation of Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports fascist elements in Israel, the public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement,” the letter stated.
Einstein was Jewish and a supporter of Zionism; he once said, “[The] Zionist cause is very close to my heart … I am very confident of the happy development of the Jewish colony and am glad that there should be a tiny speck on this earth in which the members of our tribe should not be aliens.”
In 1952, the Israeli Foreign Ministry offered the role of presidency to Einstein; Einstein declined.
“All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions,” Einstein responded. “For these reasons alone I should be unsuited to fulfill the duties of that high office, even if advancing age was not making increasing inroads on my strength.”
He added: “I am the more distressed over these circumstances because my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.”
Hadid has previously been under fire for sharing a cartoon in a May 31 Instagram post accusing Israeli soldiers of engaging in the knee-to-neck technique used on African American man George Floyd while in police custody, resulting in his death. Hadid issued an apology over the post, which later was deleted.
Pre-millennials may not be familiar with Claudia Oshry, but to the generation that has grown up on social media, she’s a superstar, with thousands of loyal followers on Instagram. Having parlayed a college blog into an influential brand that also includes the YouTube show and podcast “The Morning Toast,” she launched a stand-up comedy career two years ago and hit the road, with great success. Her debut special, “Disgraced Queen,” recorded in January in Englewood, N.J., will be released digitally on June 30.
Oshry, 25, clad in black pajamas and unicorn slippers, expounds on pop culture, reality TV icons, partying, sex and (over)sharing raunchy stories. She occasionally bursts into song and makes lots of Jewish references throughout the 75-minute show. Like her idol Joan Rivers, she’s self-deprecating, sharply funny and makes herself the butt of the joke — sometimes literally, as her anatomy is a big part of her act. All topics are fair game.
“I like to joke about things that I think most people can relate to. I joke a lot about my weight because I think people can relate to it and, as a Jewish woman, I’ve been on that struggle bus for quite a few years,” Oshry told the Journal. “It’s hard to toe the line between being funny and not being offensive, but if I’m making fun of myself, no one can really get offended by it.”
Oshry expected to see young millennial fans in her audiences — those as obsessed with “The Bachelor” franchise and “Bravo-lebrities” as she is — but was surprised to find a wider age range. She knew that audiences in New York, New Jersey and Boston would appreciate her Jewish jokes and references, but she didn’t delete them when she played to crowds with few Members of the Tribe. “I’m so proudly Jewish,” she said. “It’s so much a part of my shtick and who I am.”
Raised in a Modern Orthodox home, Oshry grew up in a “Jewish bubble” in New York, attending a Jewish school, camp and visiting Israel many times from eighth grade to last year. She fondly recalls her bat mitzvah as “the best night of my life.” Per a DNA test, she’s 99.9% Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish. “I’ve always had a deep connection to my heritage and Jewish ancestry,” she said.
“It’s hard to toe the line between being funny and not being offensive, but if I’m making fun of myself no one can really get offended by it.” — Claudia Oshry
During the Holocaust, her relative Rabbi Ephraim Oshry wrote about keeping Jewish laws and practices alive while imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps, burying his notes. He survived, unearthed them and published “Responsa From the Holocaust” after the war. “We learned about him in school,” she noted. “I was so proud.”
Today, Oshry and her husband, Ben Soffer, a creative marketer for influencer and branding campaigns, keep a kosher home. “I feel very connected to Judaism in a very spiritual way and it’s hard sometimes for me to apply that in terms of the practices,” she said. “I am always trying to better myself and do more, observe more Shabbats. My husband is more religious than me and keeps us on track. He’s always pushing me to learn more and observe more and I love that.” The couple, who’ll celebrate their third anniversary in September, first met at a college party. “He was a few years older and knew my sister. We went out and it took four months to trick him into falling in love with me,” Oshry said.
The third of four sisters who were close and remain so, she nevertheless “had a case of self-diagnosed middle child syndrome. I think my craving for attention came from being one of so many,” she said. “I was always trying to make people laugh. I would sing and I would dance. I genuinely thought that I was giving everyone the gift of my talent. But when I look back at that time, I think that everyone thought that I was annoying, not talented.”
Still as energetic but more self-aware and with greater perspective by the time she enrolled at New York University, Oshry started to blog about her terrible internship as @GirlWithNoJob, promoting it on Facebook and later Instagram, where it became a sensation and provided her with lucrative branding and other opportunities.
Although she knew she was funny, she hesitated to try stand-up. “The thought of getting on stage and telling a joke and people not laughing scared me into not doing it,” Oshry said. But a test gig she booked at Caroline’s in New York sold out, leading to more shows and nearly two years on the road. She ended it before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and doesn’t plan to tour again till 2021. “I’m very much a homebody, so being stuck in my house is not the worst thing in the world,” she said, confiding that despite her outsize public persona, “I’m very introverted and shy in a lot of social situations. I’m really pretty calm. Maybe it’s just that I’m tired from being a lunatic all day.”
Oshry’s future plans definitely include having children. Beyond that, she’s open to trying everything, including TV, movies, music and books. “I will do anything that doesn’t include nudity,” she said. “If you asked me five years ago if I’d like to do stand-up, I’d probably have said no. But doing stand-up and going on tour has changed the course of my career forever, so I don’t say no to much. I just want to make sure that whatever I’m doing, I’m contributing positively to the world, making people laugh, taking their minds off things for a while, being a positive light.”
“Disgraced Queen” will be released June 30 through the Comedy Dynamics network via Comcast, Amazon Prime Video, Spectrum, Apple TV, Dish, Google Play, DirecTV, Vimeo YouTube and more.
A senior British lawmaker from Labour has been removed from her party position after she praised and retweeted an article that claimed falsely that Israeli secret services trained U.S. police in knee chokes.
The leader of British Labour, Keir Starmer, asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down as the party’s point person for education issues, she wrote Thursday on Twitter. Long-Bailey had run against Starmer for party chief in April.
The tweet that precipitated the move came earlier in the day. Long-Bailey wrote that “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond” and enclosed a link to an article about the British actress and anti-capitalism activist.
In the Independent article, Peake is quoted as saying that “Systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
The article included a denial of the claim by the Israel Police, whose spokesperson, Micky Rosenfeld, said that “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway.”
The case of Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25 when an officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes, has triggered an international outcry over perceived police racism.
Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called the claim a false “conspiracy theory,” adding in a statement that she had asked Long-Bailey to retract it and that failing to do so would demonstrate her unsuitability to her position.
Hours later, a spokesperson for Starmer wrote in a statement: “This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet. The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory.”
Long-Bailey on Twitter then wrote that her endorsement was of Peake’s “significant achievements” and not “of all aspects of the article.” She added that she had meant to explain this to Starmer but that he “sadly had made up his mind.”
Labour under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was a close ally of Long-Bailey, has been widely panned for failing to deal with anti-Semitism in its ranks.
Starmer vowed to take firmer action, leading to a warming of relations between his party and Jewish supporters and organizations that had protested Corbyn’s leadership on the issue of anti-Semitism and Israel.
(this was sent to my synagogue list on June 3rd, 2020)
“My innards, my innards shudder! I writhe in pain! The walls of my heart pound!” (Jeremiah 4:19).
The words of Jeremiah came to me as I watched George Floyd die, gasping for air under the heartless clamp of a wretched man, pinned to the ground by people who were oblivious to the humanity of the person trapped under the weight of their indifference.
This outrage came at the end of series of outrages perpetrated against blacks. Those of us who have witnessed recordings of these and other outrages have nothing left but fury and disgust. Police brutality, especially against blacks, has to cease. Racist violence must be stamped out. The racial inequality in our country has to be addressed relentlessly,
Protests are not just inevitable; they are required. I am, like those of you reading this, disgusted by the brutality and find the racial inequity an affront. This seems to be a moment of rare and conscious near unanimity in our country. I don’t believe that most Americans are racist; most Americans hate racism and in this we are united. The protests speak for all who demand an end to police brutality and want to work toward against racial inequity. Whether we agree or disagree with a given stand or statement does not matter. We have reached a time, not a chronological time, but a spiritual and moral time. We hope, a turning point.
And after the protests, after all the analysis, all the rear-view mirror thinking, all the distinguishing between protestors and anarchists and opportunistic looters, what racism exactly is and how to combat it, we will be left with one set of questions, arching over everything: what shall we do?
President Obama said it well:
. . . the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away. (italics in the original). The content of that reform agenda will be different for various communities. A big city may need one set of reforms; a rural community may need another. Some agencies will require wholesale rehabilitation; others should make minor improvements. Every law enforcement agency should have clear policies, including an independent body that conducts investigations of alleged misconduct. Tailoring reforms for each community will require local activists and organizations to do their research and educate fellow citizens in their community on what strategies work best.
From what I have seen, our local city and county leadership is doing a good job at responding to this crisis in a thoughtful way. There has been an astonishingly small loss of life. They see their job as facilitating protests and first amendment rights. The violence and looting are deplorable and unjustifiable. The violence and looting must come to an end.
After we restore civil order, we must address the foul moral disorder. We all will have great work to do. I hope and trust that the thoughtfulness of our elected and appointed local officials will continue into action. Once we see what our local leaders propose, we will figure out a way, as a community, to support their work. We will also join with other organizations to work for effective change.
Whoever would have believed that COVID-19 might not top the list as the most transformative event of the year. The protests after the deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, and some of the excesses that ensued, may, over time, have the more lasting impact.
It all emanated from police brutality. Black people had had enough. Well-meaning demonstrators, and some with more felonious thoughts, took to the streets — during a pandemic, no less, shouting slogans and sending germ particles into the air, throwing all caution to the wind. The time for racial justice would wait for no quarantine protocols.
This heightened consciousness of structural racism galvanized protestors across the nation. Somewhere along the way, however, it all became immersed in the “cancellation culture,” which pervades college campuses and the Twittersphere — with its focus on silencing, moral revulsion and exile. Suddenly, police shootings and chokeholds were bedside the point. Racism was everywhere, and those who may have supported any of it must disappear from our culture and public square.
In a nation that practiced slavery for nearly the first 100 years of its existence, race has insinuated itself into every aspect of American society. Eliminating all of it — scrubbing a culture clean of prejudice — even if innocuous; even if not malignant; even if blue-state, white Americans accept eternal blame — is a challenging national project. Is purging all this historic racism possible? Isn’t that too much to expect all at once?
Such an overhaul requires cutting corners; illiberal impulses might be called upon.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JUNE 07: Protesters gather in Parliament Square Garden around the statue of Winston Churchill which has graffiti with the words “was a racist” outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 07, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
“White privilege” entered the national vocabulary fast and furiously. Suddenly, it became a term of art white America started to embrace — all in the spirit that this moment of time presented. A pandemic and a rapid succession of events involving police misconduct introduced a perfect storm for social change.
Yet, might it possibly be moving too fast? A demand for wholesale white atonement won’t be well received by the comfortably politically incorrect. Many white Americans do not feel privileged because of the color of their skin. It will take some convincing. Sadly, this protest movement is not without an element of militancy — a “by any means necessary” perspective Malcolm X first voiced.
Decapitating Confederate statues may send disgusted marchers in opposite directions. It’s likely few wish to see Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello torched or his statue along the National Mall defaced. Yes, he owned 600 slaves. But he was a product of his time. A former president who authored the Declaration of Independence ought not be a candidate for cancellation.
Winston Churchill’s colonialism and Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution are weighted differently in the moral universe. Yet there are those who maintain that the havoc and horror these men wreaked are morally equivalent, and no distinctions should be made.
Americans, under their Constitution, are permitted to join the Ku Klux Klan or protest the removal of a statute of Robert E. Lee. But it now appears that much of this movement has no patience for the First Amendment. Counter-protests are counterproductive. Toppling statues is taking justice into its own hands. Vigilante self-help is more satisfying.
Cancellation often is a rash and impulsive act. As a remedy, it is extreme, and should be held in reserve.
More changes are coming. But are they necessary, and are we ready for them? Most importantly: Will they produce actual solutions to our racial divide?
In a move of lightening rebranding, the product faces of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Cream of Wheat and the shape of Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup bottles are all being either retired or are the subjects of discussion over packaging makeovers.
UCLA professor Gordon Klein was suspended for refusing to grant preferential treatment to Black students shaken by George Floyd’s death.
Comedians are staying away from colleges and the coddled minds of their student bodies. American laughter now comes with ground rules. Racial humor isn’t even allowed the portal granted to internet porn.
Standup comic Jackie Mason’s reference to “schv*rtze” in his act is unimaginable today. And don’t expect to see Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” on cable anytime soon. Prejudice, even on the open frontier, is no longer a laughing matter.
“Wokeness” has become a contact sport, with the racially insensitive as tackling dummies. Showboating celebrities use Instagram to proclaim how mortified they are by their privilege. The title “Gone With the Wind” now finally makes sense — a howling PC wind has swept it away, all because it trivializes slavery.
I’m the son of two Holocaust survivors. To my mind, “Schindler’s List,” “The Pianist” and “Sophie’s Choice,” unquestionably classics of the genre, nonetheless trivialize the Holocaust.
And yet, I know that canceling these movies would be a moral and aesthetic crime.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 22: Protesters attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House on June 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests continue around the country over the deaths of African Americans while in police custody. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Call me Shylock if you must, but please don’t ban “The Merchant of Venice.” A long list of distinguished artists hated Jews or created vile anti-Semitic characters: Voltaire, Ezra Pound, Evelyn Waugh, Charles Dickens and T.S. Eliot. Richard Wagner supplied the soundtrack for the Nazis. In a nod to modern times, rapper Ice Cube recently tweeted his way into a box of anti-Semitic oblivion.
Painters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas clearly were on the wrong side in the Dreyfus Affair. Yet, their paintings belong in museums.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone and actor Gary Oldham have made unfortunate statements about how Jews control Hollywood. Actors Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, John Cusack, Mark Ruffalo and Viggo Mortensen have lashed out at Israel in hypocritical ways that call into question their attitudes toward Jews.
Refuse to watch their movies, eschew their books, glance at their canvases askew — but banishing them is positively un-American, a treacherous step toward an Orwellian nightmare.
Therefore, to the leaders of this movement, I must ask: Isn’t the Klan and those for whom Black lives truly don’t matter still your nemeses? Why rattle those with few racist bones? The same people who once walked through fire now are being made to tiptoe on eggshells.
Cancellation often is a rash and impulsive act. As a remedy, it is extreme, and should be held in reserve. Our future depends on knowing the difference between bedsheets used for sleeping and those worn while burning a cross.
