rs Rechnitz

American Bar Association: Delay Kavanaugh until FBI investigates assault allegations

cnn

The American Bar Association is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt the consideration of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until an FBI investigation is completed into the sexual assault allegations that have roiled his nomination.
In a strongly worded letter obtained by CNN Thursday, the organization said it is making the extraordinary request "because of the ABA's respect for the rule of law and due process under law," siding with concerns voiced by Senate Democrats since Christine Blasey Ford's decades-old allegations became public.

A Michigan professor supported a student’s study-abroad application — until he realized Israel was her destination

wash post

He sees his struggle in the tradition of the grass-roots fight for divestment from apartheid South Africa, as well as the American civil rights movement. Some critics see him as anti-Semitic, or else as allowing his political bias to undermine the education of his students.

The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women

.vpnmentor.

Have you ever been harassed in the street? Received a crass message on a dating app? Had a coworker make a comment about your appearance that just didn’t sit right?

You’re not alone.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Blessing Before Yom Kippur

Rav Soloveitchik on the Avoda of Yom Kippur

The Two Voices: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Teshuvah

Israeli official colluded with Manafort in anti-Semitism scandal

ynetnews

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday that he has asked Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to ask US officials for clarification on the identity of the Israeli official who assisted President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort to slander the opposition candidate in Ukraine during the Obama administration.

An indictment submitted against Manafort said that he acted, together with a senior Israeli official in order to discredit the leader of the opposition in the eastern European country, Yulia Tymoshenko, and to label her as an anti-Semite.

According to the indictment, Manafort and the Israeli official colluded to ensure that Israel would publish a statement against an anti-Semitic comment made by one of Tymoshenko’s supporters.

Two Prominent Jewish Republican Donors Cut GOP Ties Over Trump

haaretz.

 Two prominent Jewish donors to the Republican Party announced over the past days that they are cutting their ties to the GOP because of U.S. President Donald Trump. The two donors, Seth Klarman and Leslie Wexnner, have both contributed millions of dollars to Republican groups and candidates in recent years. They are both also known as major Jewish philanthropists and supporters of Israel.

Wexner anounced his decision last week following a visit by former U.S. President Barack Obama to Ohio. Wexnner, who in 2012 gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups supporting Obama’s Republican election rival that year, Mitt Romney, said he now misses Obama’s humility and candor. He then stated, speaking at a philanthropic event: “I’m no longer a Republican.”

Newspapers in Ohio made headlines from the statement, describing Wexnner as the largest Republican donor in the state prior to last week’s announcement. In the current election cycle, Wexnner and his wife have donated $2.8 million to “With Honor,” a political action group that supports both Republican and Democratic candidates who have served in the military and who promise to 

engage in bi-partisan legislation if elected to Congress.

The Columbus Dispatch quoted Wexnner as saying: “I won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party. I’ve been a Republican since college, joined the Young Republican Club at Ohio State. I’m an independent now.”

Sharia court in Israel places Jewish girl in Arab custody

RUTZ 7

An anti-assimilation group in Israel says it has challenged a decision issued by a state Islamic court in Israel which awarded full custody of a Jewish girl to her Arab grandmother, despite the objections of the girl’s mother.

According to the Yad L'Achim organization – which works to counter efforts to missionize Jews in Israel and to combat assimilation – a state Sharia court which serves Israel’s Muslim minority population awarded custody of a two-year-old Israeli girl, named Yasmin, to her Arab grandmother.

Eight years ago, Yad L’Achim officials say, the girl’s grandmother moved to Israel, along with her three children, after the head of the household had passed away.

The family moved to a mixed city with a significant Arab population. The family had a difficult time adjusting, and found itself in dire financial straits. One of the three children soon dropped out of school, and eventually married a local Arab man.

Two years ago, the young woman, gave birth to a daughter, Yasmin, who was raised at first by her Jewish grandmother.

After her Jewish grandmother died, however, the young woman’s Arab husband urged her to let his mother care for Yasmin. The young woman agreed, and her mother-in-law cared for Yasmin while she could recover from the loss of her mother.

ISRAEL MOURNS ARI FULD

.jpost

Thousands gathered to mourn Ari Fuld from late Sunday night into early Monday morning in Kfar Etzion, a religious kibbutz in the West Bank.  

Fuld, 45, left his home for a routine shopping trip and became a national legend for the way he shot a terrorist after he himself was mortally wounded by the Rami Levy supermarket in the Gush Etzion junction.

The father of four, was the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and had miraculously dodged a bullet while serving as an IDF soldier in Lebanon.

“If there is one word to describe my brother, it was a hero,” his brother Moshe told the mourners who surrounded the small chapel on the edge of the Kfar Etzion cemetery just after midnight on Monday.

“Who else could manage upon sustaining a fatal [stabbing] injury, to draw his pistol, jump a fence and shoot his attacker to make sure that his attacker would not hurt anyone else; only my brother, only my brother,” Moshe said

Trump officials reportedly angry at US Jews for not cheering embassy move

timesofisrael.

The Trump administration is reportedly frustrated with the American Jewish community for not embracing the US president more warmly after he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.

A new report released Sunday by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a branch of the Jewish Agency, quoted a White House official who alleged the president’s predecessor, Barack Obama, would be beloved for doing the things Trump has done.

Elizabeth Smart pleads with officials to reconsider release of kidnapper

cbsnews

SAN FRANCISCO — Elizabeth Smart pleaded Thursday with authorities in Utah to reconsider releasing one of her kidnappers. Smart was held captive for nine months in 2002 when she was just 14.

Smart says the release of 64-year-old Wanda Barzee, years earlier than expected, was a shock.

In 2002, Smart was 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City bedroom. Nine months later she was discovered.

She had been held captive by a onetime street preacher, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife Wanda. Smart says Mitchell raped her almost daily with Barzee's help.

"She is a woman who had six children, but encouraged her husband to continue to rape me," Smart said Thursday.

In 2011, Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison. In June, the Utah parole board set Barzee's release date in 2024, but last week announced it had miscalculated credit for time served in federal prison. She will now be set free Sept. 19.

In Unprecedented Move, Israel Indicts Husband for Refusing to Grant Wife Jewish Divorce

haretz.

Jerusalem police charged a man Wednesday with violating a legal order after he has refused to grant his wife a Jewish bill of divorce, known as a "get," for almost 20 years.

The man has been in prison since 2000 for his refusal, but with criminal charges filed, his case is the first in Israel in which a husband has been indicted for refusing to grant his wife a get.

According to the indictment, the 61-year-old defendant, who can only be identified publicly as M., and his wife, S., were married 26 years ago. In 1998, the two began divorce proceedings in the course of which M. refused to grant his wife a get.