https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309862
Islamic scholar in America claims the US government allows theft in order to spawn hatred, force Jews to leave for Israel.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
'We'll go to elections': Government faces crisis over cannabis law
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309863
A fierce debate erupted within the coalition government Wednesday over an upcoming vote on a bill to significantly expand access to medicinal marijuana in Israel.
The bill, drafted by New Hope MK Sharren Haskel, would broadly decriminalize ownership of cannabis when it is intended for one’s own use for medicinal purposes.
While the coalition largely backs the legislation, the United Arab List has thus far refused to agree to support the bill, forcing the government to push off the preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum.
Deaths Due to Use of Lethal Force by Law Enforcement
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/
Results:
Victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%); however, black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims. Fatality rates among military veterans/active duty service members were 1.4 times greater than among their civilian counterparts. Four case subtypes were examined based on themes that emerged in incident narratives: about 22% of cases were mental health related; 18% were suspected “suicide by cop” incidents, with white victims more likely than black or Hispanic victims to die in these circumstances; 14% involved intimate partner violence; and about 6% were unintentional deaths due to LE action. Another 53% of cases were unclassified and did not fall into a coded subtype. Regression analyses identified victim and incident characteristics associated with each case subtype and unclassified cases.
Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?
In the inaugural issue of the Torah u-Madda Journal, R. Yehuda Parnes argued that heresy is forbidden to be studied. This led him to condemn study in "areas that spark and arouse ideas which are antithetical to the tenets of our faith." Further developing his point, he left no doubt as to what he meant by "the tenets of our faith." "Torah u-Madda can only be viable if it imposes strict limits on freedom of inquiry in areas that may undermine the yod gimel 'ikkarei emunah." In other words, in his view, it is the "Thirteen Principles of Faith" of Maimonides that are determinative with regard to what constitutes heresy.
At first glance this may not appear to be at all controversial. After all, who better than Maimonides would be qualified to set forth the dogmas of Judaism? The immediate reaction of many Orthodox Jews would probably be the same as R. Parnes' in identifying heresy with anything that opposed any of the well known Maimonidean principles. Indeed, a recent author has written: "It should be stressed that all Torah scholars agree on the validity and significance of the Principles." Similarly, another one has written: "The fact is that Maimonides' Thirteen Principles are all derived from the Talmud and
the classic Jewish tradition, and were never in dispute. With reference to these statements, a comment by Gershom Scholem, made in a entirely different context, is relevant: "This seems to me an extraordinary example of how a judgment proclaimed with conviction as certainly true may nevertheless be entirely wrong in every detail." This is so, for even a cursory examination of Jewish literature shows that Maimonides' principles were never regarded as
the last word in Jewish theology. This despite the fact that Maimonides contended that anyone who even had a doubt about one his principles was a heretic worthy of death!
Why was Maimonides controversial?
7-All Jews must accept the 13 Principles of FaithControversial when proposed.
Luminaries such as Hasdai Crescas and Yosef Albo asked: Is the rest of Judaism any less important? All agreed that the principles are indeed in Judaism, but many were uncomfortable with the idea of a formal creed, that would separate “good” Jews from “heretics”. More importantly, Judaism stresses action, that is commandments, not belief. Belief is not central in Judaism. Your thoughts are your own, and you are not accountable for them. So Jews ignored the 13 principles for many centuries.
Sages and Saints (Naso 5779)
https://rabbisacks.org/sages-and-saints-naso-5779/
What is much more puzzling is the position of Maimonides, who holds both views, positive and negative, in the same book, his law code the Mishneh Torah. In Hilchot Deot, he adopts the negative position of R. Eliezer HaKappar:
Conservative Media Is Amplifying the Critical Race Theory Opposition
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/conservative-media-critical-race-theory-opposition
The Black Lives Matter protest movement not only turned a spotlight on horrific incidents of police violence, but forced Americans to confront systemic racism and explore tragic moments in the country’s history. Thoroughly addressing the Tulsa Race Massacre, establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery, and shedding light on the racist origins of local and federal policing have helped spur a long-overdue reckoning. But conservative lawmakers and the right-wing media industry are now hell-bent on stifling educators from teaching about America’s history of racism and how it still impacts people of color today.
In making “critical race theory” their new culture war scapegoat,
conservative networks have relied heavily on reactionary commentary
coming from concerned parents and school employees. Over the past few
weeks, Fox News featured numerous guests who fit that bill, but in the
cases of 11 of them, the network failed to fully disclose their
professional conservative ties, according to a report
from the progressive nonprofit Media Matters for America. The news
watchdog found that Fox introduced the guests as everyday
Americans––teachers, members of school boards, and parents of
students––who just want to voice their concerns. But the network either
downplayed or omitted their conservative career ties, such as GOP
strategist, think tank staffer, Republican lobbyist, and professional
pundit.
Who’s afraid of ‘Critical Race Theory’? Jews should embrace the right’s latest bogeyman
Critical Race Theory has become the latest misunderstood academic bogeyman in politics. From Donald Trump to Senator Josh Hawley to Jewish publications across the nation, everyone seems to think that the greatest threat facing our nation is a rather obscure academic discipline that examines systemic racial inequality in America.
It’s no surprise that conservative politicians want to paint anything addressing the impact of racism as somehow “evil” or divisive. Unfortunately, the deliberate demonizing and misconstruing of an important academic methodology is affecting the general public’s view of this work and driving a wedge between marginalized groups like Black and Jewish Americans. “We live in a world in which everyone is being told to side either with the ‘racists’ or the ‘anti-racists’” wrote the writer Bari Weiss in Tablet Magazine recently. “Jews who refuse to erase what makes us different will increasingly be defined as racists, often with the help of other Jews desperate to be accepted by the cool kids.”
As a Jewish scholar who uses Critical Race Theory in my work, let me assure you: This take is wrong. Jews have nothing to fear from Critical Race Theory.
Critical race theory is not anti-Semitic
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/critical-race-theory-is-not-anti-semitic
As the rhetorical battle over Israel and Palestine wages, some progressives find ourselves caught in the middle. Too many leftist groups have taken a Palestine-by-any-means-necessary approach that can veer into anti-Semitism. The right-wing in the U.S. is gleefully pointing to the anti-Semitism as a reason to blame critical race theory for all manner of evils. Critical race theory is not anti-Semitic, and it’s not anti-Palestinian either.
A key reason for liberals to recognize nuance in the Middle East is that some on the right in the U.S. are trying to twist the anti-Israel rhetoric of the few into a reason for all Jews to support conservative politics. This may entice some to support any and all of the current Israeli government’s policies over recognition of the many problems with Trumpian authoritarian politics. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal recently published a claim that progressives' use of critical race theory fosters anti-Semitism. When people on the left act as if Hamas’s attacks on Israel are unproblematic and take issue with Israel’s right to exist, however, we play into the right’s recruitment of U.S. Jews.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Banning critical race theory will gut the teaching of Jewish history
Yet in nearly two dozen states, the movement to impose restrictions on the teaching of history is gaining momentum. Incited by a national hysteria over “critical race theory,” advocates of these educational fatwas are borrowing a page from authoritarian governments like Vladimir Putin’s Russia in a clumsy effort to avoid discussing the messy, controversial and painful moments in America’s history.
And as a professional historian, I can tell you that these bans will be terrible for anyone teaching or studying Jewish history.
What
exactly is critical race theory, and how is it apparently — in the
words of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is seen as a
potential presidential candidate — teaching our kids “to hate each
other” and “hate our country”?
Failed Louisiana Holocaust education bill was used to pan critical race theory
But Mintz had second thoughts once he began learning more about the content and the backers of the proposed legislation. Its sponsor, a Republican state representative named Valarie Hodges, had also expressed hostility toward teaching the histories of other racial and religious minorities. Some of the original bill’s language seemed to suggest that lessons on the Holocaust would be framed partially as a celebration of the American military. And during debate, the bill’s supporters would “deploy Jews rhetorically, without involving Jews,” he said.
The Conservative Case Against Banning Critical Race Theory
https://time.com/6079716/conservative-case-against-banning-critical-race-theory/
The case against CRT, in short, is not about a fixed set of ideas. It is about wanting to avoid certain feelings of discomfort or even shame. But the right has encountered this idea before—and seemed not to like it. Until recently, commentators on the political right have claimed that universities are captured by “leftist” students who “don’t think much” about free speech, or who “don’t want to be bothered anymore by ideas that offend them.” A “jargon of safety” in universities, complained commentator Megan McCardle, is then used to “silence” those who don’t agree.
Ironically then, if there is a lesson to be learned from the war on
CRT, it has nothing to do with how to talk about race—and everything
with how the Trumpian revolution continues to devour the principles of
American conservatism.
Texas Democrats leave state to try to stop GOP voting bill
The cross-country
exodus was the second time that Democratic lawmakers have staged a
walkout on the voting overhaul, a measure of their fierce opposition to
proposals they say will make it harder for young people, people of color
and people with disabilities to vote. But like last month’s effort,
there remains no clear path for Democrats to permanently block the
voting measures, or a list of other contentious GOP-backed proposals up
for debate.
In Israel, activists and families push for stiffer sentences for child sex abusers
“The Israeli public still looks at child abuse as something that happens to others,” said Anat Ofir, director of the Child Abuse Prevention Initiative at the Haruv Institute, which launched a media campaign five years ago to raise awareness of the issue.
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