Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Roseanne Barr coming to Israel

Fresh off a racism controversy that got her fired from her award-winning television show, comedian Roseanne Barr says that she will travel to Israel in order to study with a Rabbi.
'I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there, and that's where I'm going to go and probably move somewhere there and study with my favorite teachers,' Roseanne, 65, said on a recent podcast with celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

"I have saved a few pennies and I'm so lucky I can go ... and study with any rabbi that I can ask to teach me, and it's my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman."

ABC canceled her show in June over a tweet mocking Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and an African-American. The tweet said the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

The reboot of Barr’s immensely popular late 20th-century sitcom had drawn high ratings.
Barr later deleted the tweet about Jarrett, which drew widespread criticism, and issued an apology, saying she had made “a bad joke about her politics and her looks.”

Barr, who is Jewish, and Boteach, a rabbi to several stars, have been friends for 20 years. She has not given any in-depth interviews on the tweets and her firing.


Barr has been an increasingly vocal supporter of Israel, saying in April that she hopes to one day make aliyah and maybe even run for prime minister of Israel. “I want to move to Israel and run for prime minister. I do have that fantasy. If God calls me, I’ll go,” she said at the Jerusalem Postconference.

“I want to make aliyah, I do…I still have this fantasy of being an old Jewish lady living in the Jewish homeland... I want to buy a farm there and maybe bring my family,” added Barr.

Barr has consistently lambasted BDS in recent years. Speaking at a conference in 2016, she said, “BDS is right-wing and fascist….BDS [members] do not want peace, nor do they want peace negotiations.”

More recently she blasted 21-year-old New Zealand pop star Lorde after she decided to cancel a show in Israel.
“Boycott this bigot: Lorde caves to BDS pressure, cancels Israel concert,” Barr said at the time.

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