Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETWhen Rabbi Susan Talve heard that Patricia and Mark McCloskey would be among the speakers addressing the Republican National Convention, she decided she could no longer stay quiet.“It’s so upsetting that they have a national audience,” Talve said. “It’s upsetting we make heroes out of people who hate.”The McCloskeys are Talve’s neighbors. Their property’s northern wall abuts the property of St. Louis’ Jewish Central Reform Congregation, where Talve is the rabbi.In 2013, the synagogue placed...…Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETWhen Rabbi Susan Talve heard that Patricia and Mark McCloskey would be among the speakers addressing the Republican National Convention, she decided she could no longer stay quiet.“It’s so upsetting that they have a national audience,” Talve said. “It’s upsetting we make heroes out of people who hate.”The McCloskeys are Talve’s neighbors. Their property’s northern wall abuts the property of St. Louis’ Jewish Central Reform Congregation, where Talve is the rabbi.In 2013, the synagogue placed...WW…

Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETThe last time I saw Majdi Wadi, the owner of the Holy Land Brands in Minneapolis, and his daughter Lianne, we had our arms around one another, on stage in a synagogue auditorium.That was four years ago. The second time we spoke was Monday afternoon, as Wadi’s .Viciously racist tweets and social media posts that Lianne wrote in 2012, when she was 14, had surfaced on the Internet. The reaction was swift and harsh against the 34-year-old company, which has leveraged its authentic hummus into...…Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETThe last time I saw Majdi Wadi, the owner of the Holy Land Brands in Minneapolis, and his daughter Lianne, we had our arms around one another, on stage in a synagogue auditorium.That was four years ago. The second time we spoke was Monday afternoon, as Wadi’s .Viciously racist tweets and social media posts that Lianne wrote in 2012, when she was 14, had surfaced on the Internet. The reaction was swift and harsh against the 34-year-old company, which has leveraged its authentic hummus into...WW…

Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETIt’s the 1960’s. There aren’t many Jews on the block where my chaotic post-Holocaust, fear-nurturing Jewish family lives, in this genteel Toronto neighborhood. There are fewer Jews at my primary school where we learn to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Rule Britannia.” Like zealots, we are taught to belt them out.Too young to understand that I’m being instructed to transgress, all I feel is shame at singing these songs so clearly meant for someone else. I want the Jewish God...…Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETIt’s the 1960’s. There aren’t many Jews on the block where my chaotic post-Holocaust, fear-nurturing Jewish family lives, in this genteel Toronto neighborhood. There are fewer Jews at my primary school where we learn to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Rule Britannia.” Like zealots, we are taught to belt them out.Too young to understand that I’m being instructed to transgress, all I feel is shame at singing these songs so clearly meant for someone else. I want the Jewish God...WW…

Well before the rest of the world was talking about blood plasma and its use in fighting coronavirus, Dr. Shmuel Shoham knew all about it — and where he could probably get a lot of it.By early March, Shoham, an expert on infectious diseases in transplant patients at Johns Hopkins University, had already realized that convalescent plasma — antibodies spun out of the blood of people who had Covid-19 — could be a key therapy in fighting the disease.So he called a friend who is an Orthodox Jew — Chaim Lebovits, a shoe wholesaler from Monsey, N.Y. — to ask him if he could encourage others in his...…Well before the rest of the world was talking about blood plasma and its use in fighting coronavirus, Dr. Shmuel Shoham knew all about it — and where he could probably get a lot of it.By early March, Shoham, an expert on infectious diseases in transplant patients at Johns Hopkins University, had already realized that convalescent plasma — antibodies spun out of the blood of people who had Covid-19 — could be a key therapy in fighting the disease.So he called a friend who is an Orthodox Jew — Chaim Lebovits, a shoe wholesaler from Monsey, N.Y. — to ask him if he could encourage others in his...WW…

(JTA) — Former NBA star and current analyst Charles Barkley has become the latest sports star to speak out against anti-Semitism among Black celebrities.“Listen, DeSean Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Nick Cannon, Ice Cube,” Barkley said in , where he serves as a studio analyst during pre-game and halftime shows. “Man, what the hell are y’all doing? Y’all want racial equality. We all do. I don’t understand how insulting another group helps our cause. And the only person who called y’all on it was Kareem.”“I don’t understand how you beat hatred with more hatred.”Charles on the recent anti-Semitic...…(JTA) — Former NBA star and current analyst Charles Barkley has become the latest sports star to speak out against anti-Semitism among Black celebrities.“Listen, DeSean Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Nick Cannon, Ice Cube,” Barkley said in , where he serves as a studio analyst during pre-game and halftime shows. “Man, what the hell are y’all doing? Y’all want racial equality. We all do. I don’t understand how insulting another group helps our cause. And the only person who called y’all on it was Kareem.”“I don’t understand how you beat hatred with more hatred.”Charles on the recent anti-Semitic...WW…

(JTA) — Comedian Chelsea Handler has apologized for posting a video clip of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on her Instagram account.She had defended leaving up the post — from a Farrakhan appearance on “The Phil Donahue Show,” once a popular talk show, on the topic of racial prejudice — for several days.But Handler, who is Jewish, later deleted the clip and sent an email to the Daily Beast.“I want to sincerely apologize for posting the video of Louis Farrakhan,” she wrote. “I didn’t consider the context of his Anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric, that is of course...…(JTA) — Comedian Chelsea Handler has apologized for posting a video clip of the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on her Instagram account.She had defended leaving up the post — from a Farrakhan appearance on “The Phil Donahue Show,” once a popular talk show, on the topic of racial prejudice — for several days.But Handler, who is Jewish, later deleted the clip and sent an email to the Daily Beast.“I want to sincerely apologize for posting the video of Louis Farrakhan,” she wrote. “I didn’t consider the context of his Anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric, that is of course...WW…

Like many of my fellow Reform rabbis, I am deeply concerned about what the pending confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court might mean for our country.Barrett has historically stood against many of the fundamental rights and freedoms that the Reform Movement has supported for decades. Among those, and at the heart of our opposition to her nomination, is a broad reading of the concept of religious liberty. As Reform Jews, we believe that religious liberty consists of both the freedom of and the freedom from religion, meaning that while the government must not be able to...…Like many of my fellow Reform rabbis, I am deeply concerned about what the pending confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court might mean for our country.Barrett has historically stood against many of the fundamental rights and freedoms that the Reform Movement has supported for decades. Among those, and at the heart of our opposition to her nomination, is a broad reading of the concept of religious liberty. As Reform Jews, we believe that religious liberty consists of both the freedom of and the freedom from religion, meaning that while the government must not be able to...WW…

One would think it would be impossible to shame Rudy Giuliani at this juncture, and yet…America’s erstwhile mayor and current personal attorney to the president appeared to have been bested by Borat, who seemed to catch him on film . Giuliani now claims the footage is deceptive and an effort to dampen his own October surprise against Joe Biden.The Guardian that in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” out on Amazon this Friday, Giuliani is shown in a hotel bedroom with Maria Bakalova, the actress playing Borat’s daughter, Tutar.After Tutar removes his microphone, Giuliani reclines on the bed and...…One would think it would be impossible to shame Rudy Giuliani at this juncture, and yet…America’s erstwhile mayor and current personal attorney to the president appeared to have been bested by Borat, who seemed to catch him on film . Giuliani now claims the footage is deceptive and an effort to dampen his own October surprise against Joe Biden.The Guardian that in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” out on Amazon this Friday, Giuliani is shown in a hotel bedroom with Maria Bakalova, the actress playing Borat’s daughter, Tutar.After Tutar removes his microphone, Giuliani reclines on the bed and...WW…

The first time the word “cages” appears in “Hatemongers,” Jean Guerrero’s biography of senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, it’s in reference to Jews.Miller’s great-grandfather Nison Miller, Guerrero writes, arrived by steamship in New York City in 1904, a time when hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews were fleeing poverty and pogroms.At Ellis Island, “nervous or inarticulate Jews could be deemed mentally deficient or deranged,” Guerrero writes. “They were labeled with chalk and placed in cages for another look, along with those who looked diseased.” A couple of generations...…The first time the word “cages” appears in “Hatemongers,” Jean Guerrero’s biography of senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, it’s in reference to Jews.Miller’s great-grandfather Nison Miller, Guerrero writes, arrived by steamship in New York City in 1904, a time when hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews were fleeing poverty and pogroms.At Ellis Island, “nervous or inarticulate Jews could be deemed mentally deficient or deranged,” Guerrero writes. “They were labeled with chalk and placed in cages for another look, along with those who looked diseased.” A couple of generations...WW…

Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETWASHINGTON (JTA) — The man President Donald Trump just named to speak for the Health Department accused George Soros and the Rothschild family of seeking to exploit the pandemic for control and to advance their agendas.Michael Caputo, who advised Trump’s 2016 campaign, last week became the spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly in part because of Trump’s dissatisfaction with how the department secretary, Alex Azar, was handling communications during the crisis.Caputo,...…Last chance to register for "A Bintel Brief Live" in-person or online tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ETWASHINGTON (JTA) — The man President Donald Trump just named to speak for the Health Department accused George Soros and the Rothschild family of seeking to exploit the pandemic for control and to advance their agendas.Michael Caputo, who advised Trump’s 2016 campaign, last week became the spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly in part because of Trump’s dissatisfaction with how the department secretary, Alex Azar, was handling communications during the crisis.Caputo,...WW…