Shabbat shalom! And a tip of the kipah this week to President Biden. Uncle Joe may have tripped over a sandbag this week, but he was steady and on his game in avoiding an economic calamity brought to us courtesy of Republicans holding the country hostage over the debt ceiling debacle. I admonished Joe in an earlier post for doing what he said he would never do, negotiate with terrorists, but the reality was that in a split congress, compromise was necessary. While it’s crazy to think that this kind of catastrophic brinksmanship could become normalized, it’s an unfortunate sign of the times. And the fact that no-one on either side seems happy with the legislation is probably indicative of a good outcome, also reinforced by one of the best one day gains on Wall Street in many years (+701 DJIA). Speaker McCarthy (blech) also gets some credit here for keeping the whackos in line. Now, if only we can really do something about the size of the debt, that would be something! But, it looks as though we will continue to kick that can into the next generation.
Or maybe we can turn to God for a solution? I have been doing more driving lately, actually going into our office for work this week, and have noticed a trend in “out of home” advertising, AKA Billboards. If you are on I95, or the Expressway, or anywhere on the Boston-New York corridor, you will invariably be assaulted by billboards either selling you cannabis, divorce and personal injury attorneys, Herb Chambers cars, Casinos, and now, Jesus. “Are you ready to meet God?”, “Are you going to Heaven or Hell?” are just a few I have noticed lately. You may also recall the “He gets us” Super Bowl ad campaign, launched by funding from Hobby Lobby and other evangelical groups as a way to combat decades of bad Catholic Church headlines and falling memberships. And this new billboard trend is not exclusive to the Catholic Church, as you may recall a few times I have mentioned the Anti-Semitism awareness billboards promoted by Jew Belong in the Northeast. And billboard religion is not new to the south, where for decades you could find anti-abortion billboards, many of them pretty gruesome and awful. Maybe it’s the continued trend toward streaming vs live TV, or the easy access and cheaper cost of billboards vs social media advertising, but it is clearly a thing. I am with Woody Allen on this one: “Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on Sundays!”


The news out of Israel this week includes some very intriguing developments on the political front and a story emerging out of Italy that is the stuff of a new season of Fauda. Regarding the former, Bibi continues to walk a tightrope in keeping his coalition together. While he was able to pass a budget a few weeks ago with some very rich handouts for his religious friends, there is another deadline approaching on June 15 that determines the make-up of the judicial selection committee in the Knesset. Amazingly, the current bill negates completely the original intent of the controversial judicial reforms and leaves the status quo in place! Twenty three weeks of protests by hundreds of thousands have forced Bibi to backtrack on at least one major piece of the reform legislation! And there have been a series of other proposed bills that have been pulled back for fear of backlash, or of the opposition calling for a vote of NO confidence.
Even more intriguing is the story emerging out of northern Italy regarding the capsizing of a boat in rough lake waters that left at least four people dead. Turns out that 13 of the boaters on board were Israeli Mossad agents, and another 8 were Italian secret service. One of the dead was identified as Erez Shimoni, a fake name, who goes by the code name of the Hebrew letter “Mem”. More on this story later. But for now, lets get to the good stuff, my weekly collection of carefully curated Jewy news items, copy and pasted from the likes of JTA, The Forward, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Times of Israel and other Jewy journals. Here you go:
- Can Massachusetts really be as anti-semitic as they say? Who is “they” anyway? Like many of you, I have always believed my home state was more progressive than most others. I know we have a bad history around racism, but I was surprised to see the current stats around anti-semitism here in Massachusetts, where according to the ADL we have the 4th highest Jewish population in the country, but we recently ranked second in the country when it comes to white supremacy – trailing only Texas — and we’re No. 6 when it comes to antisemitism, a 41% jump from 2021 to 2022. Click here for more.
- 👟 Adidas resumed selling Kanye West-branded sneakers this week – Months after Adidas cut ties with Kanye West, Yeezy shoes are back on sale, with a portion of the profits going to the Anti-Defamation League and other advocacy groups. The German shoe brand is trying to get rid of the inventory left after it ended its partnership with West amid his antisemitic tirades last fall. Next to Crocs, the Yeezy shoe has to be the ugliest things on the market. (AP)

- TikTok star Montana Tucker follows Holocaust series by emceeing embassy event for Israel’s 75th anniversary – I have no idea who she is, but she is a TikTok star, whatever that means. So, for you younger folks who may follow her dance clips, it’s good to know she is branching out into more serious efforts, and recognizing her holocaust surviving grandparents as well. She has said that she was inspired in part to educate others about Holocaust history and antisemitism by Kanye West’s series of antisemitic rants last fall. She was also disturbed by a 2020 Claims Conference survey on millennial and Gen Z knowledge of the Holocaust that found that 63% of those demographics in the United States did not know 6 million Jews died during World War II. It’s a mitzvah! Click here for more.
- ⚖️ The Tree of Life Synagogue trial of the accused shooter in that horrible massacre is shaping up as a seminar on American Jewish tradition, with witnesses offering an impromptu glossary of Jewish terms and ideas. But, it must be horrible for relatives and witnesses to have to relive the incident in a lengthy trial. A crowded courtroom heard one of the 911 calls made from the synagogue during the first day of the trial of the accused shooter. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the massacre, took to the witness stand and cried as he described how he recited the Shema prayer thinking he was about to die. “I thought about the history of my people,” he said. “How we’ve been persecuted and hunted and slaughtered for centuries.”(JTA)
- The Jewish inventors you never knew: Mr. Potato Head, the sewing machine, the TV remote control, shopping carts, Barbies, jeans, aspirin and a popular Easter candy – all were invented by members of the tribe. Dennis Eisenberg, an illustrator whose professional moniker is DenBerg, explores some of the items we employ on a daily basis. See the drawings ➤

- Lake Maggiore deaths: why were Italian and Israeli secret service agents on a boat in northern Italy? It reads like a pitch for a thriller. A group of tourists board a boat on a beautiful lake at the foot of the Alps. The boat capsizes in a sudden storm. Four drown as others swim to safety. In the days that follow, as authorities struggle to trace hotel bookings for the passengers, it emerges all were affiliated with the Italian and Israeli secret services. Five days after Gooduria, a 16-metre houseboat, was swallowed up by Lake Maggiore, there is growing speculation over what its passengers were doing in this corner of northern Italy.One theory is that the agents were in Lake Maggiore to spy on Russian oligarchs, who have reportedly been buying villas and hotels in the area, circumventing the EU’s financial sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine by funnelling money into Italy from Swiss bank accounts. Another theory is that the Israeli agents were monitoring contacts between Iranian firms and Italian ones based in Lombardy’s industrial zone. Click her for more.
- Amazon aired the final episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel this weekend. While some critics say the series relied on shallow Jewish stereotypes, others claim it thrust a new type of heroine into the mainstream: “the anti-Jewish princess.” I thought this last season was one of the best, and really brought home one of the show’s over-arching themes about feminism during that period in our recent history. I will miss Midge, but will miss her agent even more. (JTA)
That’s all I have this week peeps! I hope you all have a great weekend, and remember, be careful out there!
Brad out.