A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:
Obama reassures Jewish donors
President Obama ” title=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/another-spin-event-for-the-jewish-community/2011/03/29/AGssWNeH_blog.html” target=”_blank”>said Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post, because “they are paying him to be reassured. When you plunk down that kind of cash you don’t want to be told you’ve put your money on the wrong horse.” Still, the president has a long way to climb, ” title=”http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0611/Reassuring_the_donors.html” target=”_blank”>reportedly “scrambling” in recent weeks just to fill those seats at all at the fundraiser.
Kentucky gubernatorial race and religion
While the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor all agreed to leave religion out of the campaign, they haven’t been able to stick to the agreed upon rules, and things are ” title=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathanmiller/choose-another-people-why_b_880108.html” target=”_blank”>Jonathan Miller wrote at The Huffington Post, “During my 14 years in state politics and public service, I never encountered serious anti-Semitism. Just the opposite: When I spoke to rural crowds about the Talmud or my own spirituality, I was consistently met with warm feedback.” But Abramson might have some ” title=”http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/21/national/a100103D52.DTL” target=”_blank”>start a new initiative to study anti-Semitism after massive outrage erupted when the school said it would close its Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA). The new initiative will be called the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism. It will reportedly cover “‘new’ antisemitism, Muslim antisemitism,”” title=”http://www.frumforum.com/yales-anti-semitism-u-turn” target=”_blank”>said Fred Messner at FrumForum, we can’t just forget this saga. “The new initiative marks a victory for opponents of anti-Semitism, but the experience of the past few weeks has given Jews reason to doubt the steadfastness of Yale’s commitment to the program.”
No ‘rabbi’ on Argentina’s ballot
An Argentine court ruled last weekend that candidates on local elections may not have the title, “rabbi,” appear with their names on the ballot, ” title=”http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/rabbi-banned-from-ballot-fair/question-1895799/” target=”_blank”>said Fef at Sodahead.com. “I hope the court wrote its decision with sincerity and not anti-Semitism.” Voters will also have the chance to vote for neo-Nazi: Alejandro Biondini of the Social Alternative party, who Jewish groups ” title=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8588536/Israel-dog-stoning-reports-strongly-denied.html” target=”_blank”>according to reports. And it was thus sentenced to death via stoning. But later reports indicated that the story wasn’t true, had been inflated, and all that happened was the canine was caught by a dog catcher. Even before the truth came out, some were skeptical about the whole thing. “Does something smell iffy about this story? Or am I being too skeptical?” ” title=”http://www.opposingviews.com/i/jerusalem-justice-dog-to-be-stoned-to-death” target=”_blank”>said PETA’s Jennifer O’Connor at Opposing Views.
