Shabbat shalom!
And a tip of the kipah this week to my new JNR staff member, Nox, who we are dog sitting for this weekend. Nox had a bone to pick with the editorial staff this week regarding their support of the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, so he decided to weigh in on the matter on behalf of all dogs with similar fur color, and of course his friends in the Asian canine community.
And another tip of the kipah and joyeux Quatorze Juillet to all my French friends celebrating Bastille Day. Oui, oui! Viva la France! Soup de jour! Pie a la mode! Hopefully things are cooling off in the Paris outskirts, where there has been a week of unrest, looting and violence that erupted from the killing by police of a teenager during a routine traffic stop.
Meanwhile, here in the good old Jew S of A, the culture wars continue to get too much attention, the Supreme Court continues its assault on legal precedence and ethical norms, the orange turd is racking up indictments, and the Zucker-schmuck vs Musk-brain competition continues getting as hot as Phoenix in the shade. Which reminds me of a quick anecdote: once while on a business trip to Phoenix, the pilot on my plane announced that the temperature in Phoenix was currently 112 degrees. I groaned at that factoid, and the lady in the seat beside me, obviously a denizen desert dweller said, “Don’t worry dear, it’s a dry heat”. I’m thinking, dry heat my ass, that’s absurdly uncomfortable. My response: “Thanks for that. My toaster gives off dry heat, but I wouldn’t dare put my tongue on it”. Needless to say, the rest of the plane ride was a bit quiet.
I never thought I would write this, but I am rooting for the Zucker-schmuck and his Twitter killing app, “Threads” to kick Musk-brain’s anti-semitic ass. Any devout fan of this blog knows I am no fan of the Zuck, but in this case, I am all in. I even tried to download the app and get the JNR on it, but was unable to do so since I do not have an Instagram account, and have no intention of adding one since I still do not know what I would use it for. Regarding my support of the Zuck and Threads, I am gleefully hypocritical. Like many others, I am exhausted by the unformed, unfinished child named Elon, who may be a brilliant engineer, but his welding of the brutally managed service that brings random brain farts to the internet needs to end.
One more rant before I get to the Jewie stuff: Moms for Liberty, or as the liberals call them, “Klanned Parenthood” or “Moms for the Third Reich”, need to disappear from the face of the planet. Their sudden rise to influence is weird and dangerous as demonstrated by five of the Republican Presidential contenders speaking at their recent conference in Philadelphia courting their support and riding their recent notoriety. But get this: the leader of their Hispanic group, Catalina Stubbe, believes that under the guise of sex education, Florida schools are teaching boys to masturbate, possibly the work of demonic forces she saw at work in her own child’s classroom. When her seven-year-old’s maths homework repeatedly featured the number 666 (interpreted by some to signal the devil) she knew there were leftists behind it. This and other conspiracies touted by the group led the Southern Poverty Law Center to label them an “anti-government extremist” group, but did not stop Nikki Haley, chasing a long-shot presidential nomination from tweeting, “If Moms for Liberty is a ‘hate group,’ add me to the list”. Nuf said.
Let’s talk Israel. It’s not looking good. Nut-and-Yahoo has decided on brinksmanship, kowtowing to his coalition and deploying what Jonathan Freedland calls, “the salami strategy”, whereby they sliced off one element of the judicial reform salami they thought would not generate as much protest. It’s called the “Reasonableness” clause, and essentially eliminates the courts ability to over-ride the Knesset and executive on appointments and other decisions. Its passing would essentially open the gates for all the other reform measures without any recourse to the courts. Thousands continue to protest, blocking highways and the airport, testing the patience and vigilance of popular support. The Israeli air force pilots and reservists have said they will not serve if the reform passes, which led Bibi to claim, behind closed doors, “We can do without a few squadrons, but not without a government”. Incredible to hear that from Bibi during a time when tensions with the Arab world are extremely high and after the Jenin raid and other terrorist activity have made security issues most critical. The reforms also continue to put a strain on US-Israeli relations which Tom Friedman has noted in his recent NYT editorial, will increasingly come under pressure for a fundamental shift and re-evaluation.
Now, for the stuff you are waiting for, here is this week’s generous selection of Jewie journalistic gems, culled and carefully curated, and copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, JTA, The Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Boston, and other Jewish journals:
- As Tree of Life trial enters final phase, 6 Jewish scholars on what text and tradition say about the death penalty – The victims’ families want Robert Bowers to get the ultimate punishment. What does Jewish law say? Should Robert Bowers, the man convicted of murdering 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history, be executed for his crimes? Relatives of nine of his victims say yes, writing in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle last year that “there is a time for compassion” and “a time to stand up and say enough is enough.” In contrast, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who leads a congregation that met in the same building and was there the day of the massacre, urged the U.S. Attorney General not to pursue the ultimate punishment against Bowers, saying of the pain he caused: “Let him live with it forever.”Broadly, according to a 2014 poll, American Jews are less supportive of capital punishment (33%) compared to all Americans who were surveyed (44%). The forward asked six rabbis, cantors and scholars to share their interpretations of Jewish text and tradition regarding capital punishment, and to challenge each other’s. Click here for more.
- Go Euro Jews! European Jewish student group sues Twitter over its handling of antisemitism and Holocaust denial – BERLIN (JTA) – Europe’s main Jewish student organization is fed up with the antisemitism, Holocaust denial and other hate speech burgeoning on Twitter — so they are taking the social media company to court. The Brussels-based European Union of Jewish Students and the Berlin-based HateAid non-profit group on Wednesday announced they have sued Twitter in Berlin District Court for failing to uphold its own pledge to remove hate speech from the platform. The action — which included the placement of a hashtag prop in front of the German parliament building, in an inversion of a symbol that Twitter itself popularized — was sponsored by the Berlin-based Alfred Landecker Foundation, as part of its Digital Justice Movement, started by HateAid. Click here for more.
- Why I decided to give my dog a ‘bark mitzvah’: “The chairs were set up, the wine was chilling for the kiddush, and the homemade baked goods for the oneg ready to be served,” writes Linda Matchan, a Boston-based journalist. “Then came the guests. Bessie. Joy. Bella. Lyla. Carl. Miggy. Lui. Daisy. A dozen dogs, plus their humans.” Coco the mitzvah dog wore a yarmulke and tallit, and not one but two rabbis officiated. It’s a tradition, strangely, that has been adopted by many non-Jewish dog owners. And one that reminded me of our old departed friend Rico, who had his bark mitzvah back in 2020. Read the essay ➤
- Helen Mirren plays Golda Meir in a new film – The two are also (kind of) related. Helen Mirren, star of a Golda Meir biopic that arrives in theaters next month, discovered on Thursday that she is distantly related to the former Israeli prime minister. Genealogists also found that Mirren – who is not Jewish – has family connections to two Israeli presidents, Chaim and Ezer Weizmann. (Getty) Click here for more.
- Elie Wiesel reviewed ‘Oppenheimer’ — and it made him shudder: Combing through their archives for coverage of J. Robert Oppenheimer ahead of the much-anticipated July 21 release of a biopic about him, The Forward found a March 1969 article with a famous byline: Eliezer Wiesel. The article, written in Yiddish and translated by archivist Chana Pollack, is a rare piece of theater criticism from the Nobel laureate on a Broadway play about the physicist. Wiesel was moved by the contradictions of the father of the atom bomb — and by the performance of actor Joseph Wiseman. The drama “ripped through me and made me hopeful once more about the individual’s struggle,” Wiesel wrote, “and the visions of artists and dreamers.” Read the story ➤
- 🇮🇱 Israel news: U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, said “there is no way in hell” she’ll attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress next week … Israel’s former attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, warned that the country is on the “brink of dictatorship” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to weaken the judiciary advanced in the Knesset … Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed on Wednesday that he invited Netanyahu to visit Kyiv, but that the Israeli leader turned down the offer.
- Jonah Hill controversy: Eulogy of a “nice Jewish boy”? – Over the weekend, the internet was aflame over Jonah Hill, the Jewish actor, and his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Brady, a professional surfer. The two broke up in 2022 and Brady shared screenshots of what she described as Hill being “emotionally abusive” in a series of text messages. The Forward deputy opinion editor, Nora Berman, and one of their culture writers, Mira Fox, each have a take: Opinion | This might be a case where ‘lashon hara’ is warranted: The Talmud warns against public humiliation, although it makes room for exceptions when the accuser is of a lesser social standing than the accused. Since the dawn of the #MeToo movement, Nora writes, many rabbis have weighed in on the intersection between lashon hara, negative gossip that is generally prohibited, and the fact that “abuse thrives in silence.” Read the essay ➤ Jonah Hill’s therapy-speak exposes the dark side of the Nice Jewish Boy: Hill is “a little neurotic, a little nebbish” Mira notes, “but funny, successful and self-aware, and working on himself in therapy to boot.” She notes that “Jews have long been in therapy and talked about being in therapy,” adding: “It’s one of the things that makes the Nice Jewish Boy, well, nice.” But in the texts that went viral, Mira says, Hill twists therapy terms like “boundaries” and “triggering” into “conversation-ending bludgeons.” Read the essay ➤
That’s enough already! I hope you are enjoying the dog days of summer! Please remember to stay safe out there!
Brad out.
Jew News Review 