In a major upset against a candidate backed by Donald Trump, Jake Ellzey wins runoff for Fort Worth-area congressional seat

 https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/27/susan-wright-jake-ellzey-texas-6-congressional-seat/

Susan Wright and Ellzey came out on top of a May 1 special election that featured 21 other candidates. She finished first with 19% of the vote, while Ellzey got 14%.

Trump endorsed Susan Wright in the final days before the May 1 election. He got more involved in the runoff, issuing three statements reiterating his endorsement, starring in a robocall for her and headlining a telephone rally for her on Monday night.

Ellzey relied on support from former Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston, a fellow Navy veteran who came off the sidelines in the runoff. Perry and other Ellzey allies suggested Trump had been misled into endorsing Susan Wright.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who had stayed out of the race, issued a statement congratulating Ellzey on his "hard-fought victory."

Ellzey wins US House seat in Texas in closely watched race

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ellzey-wins-us-house-seat-in-texas-in-closely-watched-race

 Jake Ellzey, the Texas Republican, won a special congressional election against Susan Wright, the widow of late Rep. Ron Wright, who had the support of former President Trump. 

"The Trump candidate goes down in TX special That’ll give folks something to chew on!" David Axelrod, the former senior adviser to President Obama, tweeted.

The Trump factor played out on the periphery during the contest. In 2016, he won the district by 12 points, and lost some ground to candidate Joe Biden in 2020, after securing only a 3-point win there. Political insiders say the race between Ellzey and Wright was a litmus test for Trump in Texas and perhaps a gauge of his influence in general.

At least 50 academics resign from CUNY over anti-Israel resolution

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h17ub1ard

Paper accusing Israel of 'massacring Palestinians' introduced in wake of latest Gaza conflict and stirs uproar among faculty; 'you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas,' Jewish professor laments

World Jewish Congress to Jewish CUNY profs: 'We have your backs'

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310671 

 The appeal to faculty to resign from the union was launched by Yedidyah Langsam, chair of Brooklyn’s College’s Computer and Information Science Department, who said in a letter to James Davis, president of the union, that the resolution made “many Jewish faculty and students uncomfortable with being associated with Brooklyn College and CUNY to the point of fearing for our safety.”

 

The pandemic is 'spiraling out of control' due to unvaccinated people, Trump administration official says

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/25/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html

For anyone who loves freedom and hates mask mandates or remote learning, Dr. Jerome Adams has a blunt message: Get vaccinated.  \

 "And it's coming because this pandemic is spiraling out of control yet again. And it's spiraling out of control because we don't have enough people vaccinated."

Reform movement: Min. Kahana's kashrut reform insignificant, preserves rabbinate monopoly

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310652

 Noa Setat, director of the Reform Center for Religion and State, responded on Twitter to Minister Kahana's proposed reforms in the kashrut certification marketplace:

"Minister Kahana's kashrut reform is indeed a small step in the right direction, but when one examines the intricacies of the law one realizes that this is an insignificant step, when in practice it perpetuates the discrimination of a large non-Orthodox public.

Are Chassidic Rebbes Avoda Zarah?

 

'Sellout’: Anti-vax conservatives come for DeSantis

 https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/07/26/sellout-anti-vax-conservatives-come-for-desantis-1389008

The Republican governor has come under attack from the medical community and Democrats as the Delta strain of Covid-19 sweeps through Florida, turning it into a national coronavirus hotspot. The state recorded more than 73,000 infections last week — four times as many as the start of July — leading to overcrowded hospitals and more than 300 deaths in the most recent seven-day period. Florida is now home to one in five new cases of Covid-19 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 But as DeSantis encourages vaccinations — he said “vaccines are saving lives” — he is facing a backlash from the anti-vaccination wing of his political base. It’s the same group that praised him and helped thrust him onto the national stage for his hands-off approach to the virus. DeSantis, with 2024 presidential ambitions, has to walk the line between keeping his conservative base satisfied and keeping his state from becoming more of a disease hot spot.

 

CUNY professors quit union in protest over anti-Israel screed

 https://nypost.com/2021/07/25/cuny-professors-quit-union-in-protest-over-anti-israel-screed/

At least 50 CUNY professors have resigned in protest from their faculty union after it passed a one-sided resolution condemning Israel for recent attacks on Palestinians and threatening to support the movement to boycott and divest from the Jewish state, The Post has learned.

The controversial resolution approved by delegates of the union, the Professional Staff Congress, outraged many professors — some of whom are descendants of Holocaust victims and have relatives in Israel.

 

CUNY union claimed 'Israel massacres Palestinians,' professors resign

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/union-claimed-israel-massacres-palestinians-cuny-professors-resign-674925

 Over 50 professors from CUNY have resigned from their faculty union, Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY), in protest of the passage of a resolution condemning Israel, the New York Post reported Sunday. Multiple professors were very upset by the controversial resolution, according to the Post.

“With the PSC-CUNY resolution you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (`From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the state of Israel and kill all my relatives who live there,” one professor wrote in his resignation letter, according to the Post.

Part 4: Rabbi Gestetner's Refutation of the Lies of Jacobson & Kahan

Religious Zionists' attitude toward non-Orthodox is slowly evolving

https://www.jpost.com/judaism/religious-zionists-attitude-toward-non-orthodox-is-slowly-evolving-650409 

In June, the Mekor Rishon newspaper hosted its first International Diaspora Conference, online, and with that, held a session about common denominators between Jewish communities around the world under the title “Shared Purpose: Who’s afraid to talk?”

That session was moderated by Prof. Gil Troy, an expert in the Diaspora and a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, and his two panel participants were Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a religious-Zionist leader from the more conservative wing of the sector, and Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, a female French Reform rabbi.

Religious Zionist rabbi: Let Reform have mixed services at the Western Wall

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310396

 A senior Religious Zionist rabbi has called on the authorities in charge of the Western Wall Plaza to accommodate Reform and Conservative prayer groups at a separate section of the wall designated for egalitarian prayer.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, chief rabbi of the Samaria town of Har Bracha and dean of the local yeshiva, penned a piece on Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website Thursday arguing that non-traditional prayer groups should be given accommodation at the Western Wall.

Kahana’s kashrut reforms get rabbinical backing

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/kahanas-kashrut-reforms-get-rabbinical-backing-674863

Last week, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a respected arbiter of Halacha, expressed support for Kahana’s measures, according to the Religious Services Ministry.