President Trump Has Attacked Critical Race Theory. Here's What to Know About the Intellectual Movement

 https://time.com/5891138/critical-race-theory-explained/

 In his speech at the National Archives Museum, the President posited that using critical race theory as a framework to consider the history of the U.S., including its use of slave labor, encourages “deceptions, falsehoods and lies” by the “left-wing cultural revolution.”

“Students in our universities are inundated with critical race theory,” he said. “This is a Marxist doctrine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed. Critical race theory is being forced into our children’s schools, it’s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it’s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families.”

Republicans' dishonest war against 'critical race theory'

 https://theweek.com/articles/982474/republicans-dishonest-war-against-critical-race-theory

 For years now, conservatives have been spinning a narrative that the left is trying to destroy academic freedom. Easily "triggered" liberal "snowflakes" on campus are too sensitive to the rigorous arguments of speakers like Milo Yiannopolis and Ben Shapiro, and so "woke mobs" shout them down instead of engaging with their facts and logic.

It's a load of nonsense. But meanwhile, conservatives (naturally) are waging an actual assault on academic freedom. They are whipping up a frenzied moral panic about something they call "critical race theory," attempting to use state power to muzzle left-wing academics and suppress the study of history and racism, which they intend to supplant with their own delusional propaganda.

 The conservative picture of "critical race theory" bears no resemblance whatsoever to reality. Much like "cancel culture," which is now just a mindless catchphrase conservatives use to deflect blame for anything from trying to overthrow the government to stuffing a racehorse full of steroids, their version of "critical race theory" is a made-up bogeyman being used to whip up a screeching panic among the conservative base so as to suppress honest discussion about American history and racism.

 

The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/gops-critical-race-theory-fixation-explained/618828/

 Most legal scholars say that these bills impinge on the right to free speech and will likely be dismissed in court. “Of the legislative language so far, none of the bills are fully constitutional,” Joe Cohn, the legislative and policy director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told me, “and if it isn’t fully constitutional, there’s a word for that: It means it’s unconstitutional.” This does not appear to concern the bills’ sponsors, though. The larger purpose, it seems, is to rally the Republican base—to push back against the recent reexaminations of the role that slavery and segregation have played in American history and the attempts to redress those historical offenses. The shorthand for the Republicans’ bogeyman is an idea that has until now mostly lived in academia: critical race theory.

What is critical race theory?

 https://www.foxnews.com/us/what-is-critical-race-theory

What exactly is critical race theory? The answer to that question appears to have eluded many, as controversies over racial diversity trainings and curricula have swept the nation in recent months.

 

 

Scams Involving Fraudulent Use of NortonLifeLock Branding

https://www.nortonlifelock.com/blogs/feature-stories/fraudulent-use-nortonlifelock-brand 

 With more people spending more time than ever on their computers, we have seen an uptick in reports of scams abusing our company name.  Although we are continuously working to block, shut down and otherwise prevent this abuse, scammers are always coming up with creative new ways to defraud people.  Be aware of these common types of scams, which start through email, phone, text and sometimes even your browser.

‘Robert E. Lee and Me’ dismantles Confederate mythology

 https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2021/0125/Robert-E.-Lee-and-Me-dismantles-Confederate-mythology

Historian and retired brigadier general Ty Seidule issues a full-throated indictment of the “Lost Cause” and dethrones the Confederate general.

Experts Debunk GOP's Attempts To 'Cancel' Critical Race Theory

Torah and moral issues

  I just received the following email and thought it worth sharing and hope to get some helpful responses

Dear Rav Eidensohn

I hope this email finds you well. 

I wanted to ask you whether you have ever written about an approach to reading the Torah when it conflicts with our modern sensibilities and moral compass. I am trying to come to some kind of resolution of some questions that my kids ask me. In particular, my son is learning the second perek of Kiddushin now and finds it very difficult to understand how the Torah could allow a father to marry off his minor daughter and even allow a person to be boel a ketana (my son told me that it works for a 3 year old) for the purpose of kiddushin (which I assume is permitted midin Torah but I am not sure). How do you understand that halacha from the Torah? Do we limit it to some time in the past and say that at the time the Torah was given, that was acceptable in terms of the morality of the day but that the Torah does require us to progress morally as well and that today - given the development of society in terms of individual rights and freedoms -  the Torah would not condone those types of actions either? And maybe that is why the Gemara that says that it is assur.  If so, are we limiting the Torah by saying this and saying that some of it might not be relevant today (maybe something like korbanos without a Beis Hamikdash)? Or maybe we say the underlying principles are still relevant but the details may play out slightly different in real life? Or do we say that the modern push to individual freedoms and equality are inconsistent with the Torah and that those issues, even if they sit uncomfortably with us today, are "moral" or "Hashem's will" and marrying a 3 year old girl is "moral" or a reflection of Hashem's will somehow and that we need to try to align our thoughts with the assumptions that the Torah appears to be making about these issues?

If you are able to share with me your approach to these issues (including any psychological insights you might have), or point me to some mekoros that might be useful, I would be very grateful.

Thank you so much

What insurrection? Growing number in GOP downplay Jan. 6

 https://apnews.com/article/politics-michael-pence-donald-trump-election-2020-capitol-siege-549829098c84b9b8de3012673a104a4c

Flouting all evidence and their own first-hand experience, a small but growing number of Republican lawmakers are propagating a false portrayal of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, brazenly arguing that the rioters who used flagpoles as weapons, brutally beat police officers and chanted that they wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence were somehow acting peacefully in their violent bid to overturn Joe Biden’s election.

 

An open letter to Trevor Noah

 https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-open-letter-to-trevor-noah/

 I just watched your 10-minute monologue on the Israeli-Hamas conflict for your popular television program “The Daily Show” (May 11). Frankly, it wasn’t easy viewing. In fact, I began talking back to the screen, but, obviously, to no avail, so I chose instead to write you this open letter.

You framed your comments quite cleverly by suggesting there were competing narratives out there, depending on who was doing the talking and the starting point of their version of history. And then, as if nothing more than a curious third party, you waded into the debate, essentially assigning yourself a certain moral credibility because of your “non-combatant“ status.

 

Republican congressman calls out 'bogus' claims by GOP colleagues trying to downplay the Capitol riot

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9586293/Republican-congressman-calls-bogus-claims-GOP-colleagues-downplaying-Capitol-riot.html

 

• Representative Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan, said on Sunday that some of the claims his colleagues made about the Capitol riots are bogus
• Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, claimed the FBI was targeting 'peaceful patriots' when it arrests Capitol rioters
• Andrew Clyde, of Georgia, said that if you did not know the footage from the riot was from January 6 'you would think it was a normal tourist video'
• Jody Hice, meanwhile, said it was Trump supporters who were killed in the riot
• Upton said at least one of his colleagues who made these claims was there that day and he does not know what would motivate them to make these claims
• Lawmakers are trying to hammer out a deal to create an independent commission to study the events of that day
• It remains unclear whether House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy will sign off on it, but some want him and the former president to testify
  

Israel needs to better coordinate the image war - editorial

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-is-fighting-an-image-war-and-losing-editorial-668370

Israel may be winning the war against Hamas terrorists on the battlefield, but it is again losing support in the court of public opinion as international sympathy tips in favor of the Palestinians.

 

Citing danger, top Haredi rabbis urge avoiding visits to Western Wall on Shavuot

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/citing-danger-top-haredi-rabbis-urge-avoiding-visits-to-western-wall-on-shavuot/

 Chaim Kanievsky and Gershon Edelstein, leading figures in the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, warn against endangering oneself at Old City holy site, or ‘goading’ the ‘haters’

Two dead, 184 injured in grandstand collapse near Jerusalem

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306324 

https://www.kikar.co.il/392089.html

A 40-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy were killed and 184 people were injured when a grandstand collapsed at a synagogue in Givat Ze’ev near Jerusalem during Shavuot prayers on Sunday evening.