Rabbi "Paskens" That ‘Sacred Texts’ Require Jews To Vote for Harris

An influential Washington, D.C., synagogue is facing backlash from furious congregants after its rabbi claimed Jews “need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris” in order to comply with “sacred texts.”

Adas Israel, whose membership has included Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is one of the oldest and largest synagogues in Washington, D.C. But members have become increasingly frustrated with the leadership’s “insulting” left-wing advocacy that has left congregants “dreading the upcoming high holidays,” the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The controversy came to a head at a Jewish Democratic Council of America event earlier this month, when Adas Israel Co-Senior Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt cited Jewish scripture as a basis for why Jews must vote for Harris.

“I could tell you that we need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris because as Jews our sacred texts tell us we need to build a world where we feed the hungry, where we care for the sick, where we love the stranger, where we guard and nurture this planet,” said Holtzblatt on the JDCA Zoom call with Harris supporters. “Those are her values. That is what her policies seek to achieve.”

Holtzblatt, who officiated Ginsburg’s funeral and has appeared on The Forward’s “Forward 50” list, is a vocal supporter of Harris and led a Passover seder at the vice president’s home last spring. She did not respond to a request for comment regarding which Jewish texts support her assertion that Jews “need to elect” Harris

Holtzblatt’s comments drew criticism from some Adas Israel congregants, who said the synagogue’s political bias has become “insufferable.”

“[T]o be lectured that as Jews we are compelled to vote a certain way is frankly insulting,” wrote a longtime congregant in an email to Adas Israel’s rabbinical leaders. Two other Adas Israel congregants independently shared the exchange with the Free Beacon.

“[T]ying ‘our sacred texts’ to a political candidate in this way is, at best, simplistic. And easily rebutted with myriad other examples from scripture,” wrote the members. “The reality is that Adas has become borderline insufferable for anyone who doesn’t share what is assumed by leadership to be the universal point of view. It’s politics all day everyday; politics always from the same direction—no balance.”

Members are also reportedly irked by Adas Israel’s decision to have Hamilton director Lin-Manuel Miranda, a non-Jewish Democratic activist, headline the synagogue’s Yom Kippur programming in October.

“[T]here are many more Adas members than you might realize, who are put off as well (some of whom are BCC’d here),” wrote the congregants. “I have spoken with a number who are dreading the upcoming high holidays, headlined bizarrely by father and son Miranda (hawking his book no less!).”

 

Mendel Furst a Satmar Lakewood Rebbe accused of grabbing a 10-year-old student by the neck and dragging him up stairs

The prosecutor in the case of a Yeshiva teacher accused of endangering the welfare of a child by grabbing him by the neck and dragging him up a flight of stairs has offered the teacher a deal in which he would avoid trial but would have to forfeit his teaching position – or any work at a school – for three years.

The deal was proposed in Ocean County court on Wednesday. It follows a July 10 hearing at which the prosecutor asked for additional time to determine that the victim’s family wasn’t being subject to “undue pressure or threats” from rabbis. If he accepts, the Hasidic schoolteacher who faces charges of abusing the 10-year-old boy will be admitted to New Jersey’s Pre-Trial Intervention program.

The defendant, Rabbi Mendel Furst, who teaches at a Satmar boys’ school in Lakewood, allegedly grabbed the child by the neck and dragged him up a stairwell, leaving scratches and bruising around his neck, according to a Lakewood police report from January.

Furst was seen in surveillance video committing the offense as a way of scolding the boy on Nov. 12, 2023, police said. He was charged with fourth-degree cruelty and neglect of a child.

In response to Shtetl’s request, the police only released heavily redacted bodycam videos of officers executing their search warrant, while neither prosecutor nor police would share the surveillance footage they obtained from the school. However, the attorney for the boy’s family wrote a memo describing what he saw in the school surveillance footage. A man’s “right hand was wrapped around the child's hand in a head lock,” the attorney, Terrance Turnbach, wrote. “At one point in time on the video, the child's feet are actually in the air while being restrained.”

“The child was visibly carried up the staircase in this manner while the Rabbi was chanting ‘What do you say to the wicked, there will be no peace to the wicked’ in Hebrew in a sing song chant,” Turnbach added.

In Ocean County criminal court on Wednesday, the prosecutor, Kimberly Carr, said that she and the alleged victim’s father supported pre-trial intervention, a program that allows defendants to avoid a trial, as long as Furst agrees to certain conditions.

Furst would have to avoid contact with the alleged victim and his family, go to anger management classes, and not work as a teacher or school administrator for three years. Furst’s attorney, Yosef Jacobovitch, said they needed time to consider the proposal; they are due back in court on Sep. 4.

But at the previous hearing, on July 10, Carr was reluctant to agree to  PTI. She said that the victim’s father who had initially opposed Furst’s participation in the program “received phone calls from rabbis on behalf of this defendant inquiring as to the basis for his opposition to the program.”

The morning of that hearing, the father’s attorney told Carr the father had a “change of heart” and now supported PTI. The prosecutor was suspicious about this change and said she would evaluate further, before agreeing to the deal.

“I want to have an opportunity to make sure that that change of heart is not a result of undue pressure or threats that are coming on behalf of the defendant,” Carr said. “To not ask those questions, I feel, would not be doing my due diligence.”

In response, Jacobovitch said that any inappropriate calls made to the alleged victim’s father were not made from him. “There was absolutely nothing that was presented to the victim or his father that would make him change his position,” Jacobovitch said. “That definitely did not come from us. And if that was the case, you know, obviously we would apologize for that.”

The judge, Linda Baxter, then advised Jacobovitch: “I’m going to underscore what I know the state is going to say to you, which is that your client and you should both do whatever you can to make sure that third parties do not reach out to the alleged victim or his father, because that’s not helping.”

At the time, the judge proposed the next hearing be on Aug. 7, but postponed it to Aug. 14 after Jacobovitch asked to have it changed — likely because Aug. 7 would’ve fallen during the last nine days of the Three Weeks, a period between the fast days of Shiva Asar B'tammuz and Tisha B’av, which many Orthodox Jews consider an unlucky time. 

Jacobovitch would not stop to talk to Shtetl’s reporter at the courtroom on Wednesday, and his law firm has not returned a call from Shtetl.

New details of how Israel eliminated Fuad Shukr

A Hezbollah official revealed new details about the assassination of the terrorist organization's most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukr, last month, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the source, on the day on which Shukr was eliminated, he received a phone call telling him to go up the five floors to his apartment in which he had stayed throughout the day.

As soon as Shukr entered his apartment, an Israeli airstrike blew up the apartment, killing him and other members of his family instantly.

According to the report, the phone call to Shukr was made by someone who hacked Hezbollah's internal communication network.

Shukr was assassinated on July 30 in an airstrike in a suburb of Beirut, days after he was responsible for the massacre of 12 children in a Hezbollah rocket attack that struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams in northern Israel.

Shukr was also responsible for the bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 in which 241 American servicemen were murdered. The US has a $5 million bounty on his head

 

Don Lemon of CNN "Surprised" when he interviews Atlantic City Residents

 

 In a recent on-the-ground interview, former CNN anchor Don Lemon found himself at odds with the sentiments of Atlantic City residents regarding the state of the U.S. economy. The segment, intended to gauge public opinion, quickly became a contentious exchange as multiple locals voiced their support for former President Donald Trump, citing a stronger economy and greater financial stability during his administration.

Lemon, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, was visibly surprised as interview after interview revealed a consistent theme: many residents felt more financially secure under the previous administration.

“Four years ago, it was a lot better. I made a lot more money than I do now,” said one man, reflecting on his personal experience. When Lemon attempted to fact-check the claim, the man responded with laughter, dismissing Lemon’s statistics with a simple, “I know nobody likes him, but we had good times with Donald Trump.”

Another woman echoed these sentiments, expressing frustration with the current economic climate. “The economy was good, life was good,” she said, underscoring a growing disconnect between the realities faced by many Americans and the messaging they receive from the media.

Throughout the interviews, Lemon repeatedly insisted that the economy has improved under Joe Biden. However, these assertions were met with skepticism and even outright laughter from the locals. Many residents pointed to their struggles with rising grocery prices and the overall cost of living as evidence contrary to Lemon’s claims.

This street interview highlights a significant divide between media narratives and the lived experiences of everyday Americans. While economists may present data supporting economic growth under the Biden administration, many people, especially in working-class areas like Atlantic City, are not feeling the benefits.

President Herzog Is Surveying the Jewish People – Go Tell Him How You Feel!

 

President Isaac Herzog announced the launch of a pivotal global survey to shape dialogue and leadership development within the Jewish world — the first step of his Voice of the People initiative. The survey will help create a new worldwide Jewish advisory council to address the most pressing challenges facing Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora.

President Isaac Herzog said, “We are currently engaged in safeguarding the State of Israel and reinforcing the strength of the Jewish people amid a challenging war and rising antisemitism. Simultaneously, we face critical issues that demand our attention. In response, we are establishing the Voice of the People council, which will ensure the Jewish people’s ability to thrive in a changing world. The survey we are launching today will shape the council, and therefore shape the discussions impacting the future of the Jewish people. I encourage everyone to participate and contribute to help build our collective future.”

Voice of the People, Kol Ha’am, in Hebrew, was launched to become an incubator for innovative and practical solutions to the pressing challenges facing the Jewish people worldwide, while also fostering international Jewish leadership. Led by CEO Shirel Dagan-Levy, the initiative will set goals and objectives to implement the ideas generated in working groups, aiming to bring about real change in shaping the Jewish future.

The initiative will include the establishment of an international Jewish council composed of 150 leaders from communities around the world — 50 representatives from Israel, 50 from the US and Canada, and 50 from other countries. This council will convene online once a month for two years, culminating in a conference in Israel in March 2025, with all representatives attending in person.

The first step in launching the project involves distributing a survey to the global Jewish community to select the topics for discussion in the first council meeting. This survey will be open for responses for the next 45 days, after which the results will guide the council’s priorities and strategic actions. Twenty survey respondents will be selected to participate in a private conversation with the President during the virtual launch event on September 15, 2024.

NY Times reporter leaked Jewish WhatsApp group data that fell into hands of anti-Israel activists who harassed members

The New York Times said it took disciplinary action against a reporter who acknowledged leaking data about a WhatsApp group chat for Jewish business people that led to its members being doxxed and harassed by activists sympathetic to Palestinians.

Natasha Frost, a Times reporter who was based in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year, downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from the private WhatsApp chat that was launched by Jewish professionals in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists that claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis.

Frost acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that she shared the information with one individual before it fell into the hands of anti-Zionist activists.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Ve'Etchanan

 

Trump and Elon Musk Dance a "Mitzvah Tanz"

 

Haters will say this is AI 🕺🕺 pic.twitter.com/vqWVxiYXeD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2024

Leftists Protested Outside Shas MK’s Home – Ends On A Surprising Note

 Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Haskel, one of the leading protesters against the government, published a long post on his Facebook account on Thursday under the title “A Surprising Meeting,” in which he described how he was hosted at the home of Shas MK Yinon Azoulay.

“We started the protest two weeks ago by standing in front of the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, in front of the home of Knesset member Aryeh Deri, and in front of the home of Minister Moshe Arbel. This evening, it was in front of the home of Shas MK Yinon Azoulay in Ashdod in order to request from him and the members of his party to take another significant step to advance a plan to release the hostages.”

“While I was still talking on the megaphone, MK Azoulay approached me and invited us for a conversation in his home. We went up to the fourth floor, to a modest apartment in a regular apartment building. MK Yinon has six sons. As soon as we came in, Yinon asked one of his kids to prepare drinks for us and served us homemade cookies that his wife made.”

“We introduced ourselves and explained why we came late at night to disturb his rest. I must point out that MK Yinon was attentive and told about what he and the other Shas members have done for the hostages. MK MK promised to convey our words to Deri. At the end, we took a picture and said goodbye.”

He ended: “Until today, we’ve received police intervention during our protest. Today we were treated to listening and friendly hospitality.” He signed the post with the words: “There will still be good days.”

HORRIFIC TRAGEDY: 2 Chassidim Killed When Their Vehicle Rolls Down Embankment In Mountaindale

 

A horrific tragedy struck the Jewish community on Thursday night, as word spread of the deaths of two young men in the Chassidish community who were killed in a car crash in the Catskills.

Catskills Hatzolah and other emergency personnel were at the horrific scene on Church Road in Mountaindale, where a vehicle had overturned, rolled down an embankment, and burst into flames, killing both of the vehicle’s occupants.

Hatzolah personnel rushed to the scene but were tragically unable to save the crash victims.

Chevra Kadisha were at the scene to ensure kavod hameis.

The victims were identified as Yisroel Sholom (ben Yaakov) Oshri Z”L, from the Belzer Community in Boro Park, and Mendel (ben Moshe) Weinberger Z”L, from the Satmar Kehilla.

The Levaya for Yisroel Sholom Oshri will take place on Friday morning at the Belzer Bais Medrash at 1350 39 Street in Boro Park at 10:00am, followed by a Levaya in Monsey at the Belzer Bais Medrash at 12 Maple Terrace. The Kevura will be held in Monsey.

Levaya details for Mendel Weinberger will be published when they become available