Editor-in-chief: David Suissa
September 24, 2020
Outraged protesters have taken to the streets in Louisville after it was announced that only one of the three officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor would face charges. Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her own home during a “no knock” raid. The only indictment to result from the raid gone wrong is wanton endangerment, based on the officer shooting through closed window blinds. More at CNN.
The criminal law is not designed to address every human tragedy. That is the lesson of the tragic death of Breonna Taylor… The charge will not satisfy the mob. Neither the peaceful protesters nor the radical rioters, who have taken to the streets since shortly after Ms. Taylor was killed on March 13, are interested in the facts of the case. They could not care less how the law applies to the evidence a Lexington grand jury pored over this week.
No charges for two officers, and a wanton endangerment charge for Brett Hankison, who fired his weapon indiscriminately into Taylor’s apartment. These charges do not ease any of the pain for people of color; they send a state-sponsored message of indifference to the value of Black lives.
Police officers who kill citizens are rarely convicted. But in this tragic situation, in which the woman killed was not only unarmed but asleep in the moments before a police officer took her life, we hoped that for once, justice would be on our side. This is yet another disappointing reminder that it’s not.
Israel is in the midst of its second nationwide lockdown and an identity crisis to boot. The virus has spread out of control and people are distressed at the government’s seeming inability to get a handle on things. As for the identity crisis, Israelis are engaged in an ongoing debate about whether synagogues and anti-Netanyahu demonstrations should have been shut down for the public good. More at Jerusalem Post.
If demonstrations, where thousands of people gather close together every week to protest against Netanyahu, are allowed – but synagogues are closed on Yom Kippur – then the state is saying that the democratic value of the right to demonstrate takes precedence over the Jewish value of prayer. But if prayer inside synagogues is allowed while protests are banned, then the state is saying that Jewish values trump all others.
the question is not whether the principle of saving a life supersedes worshipping in the synagogue. This question was answered centuries ago by our Torah sages and is abundantly clear and unequivocal. Saving a life is above all else… Now, however, during the second wave, questions and doubts are justifiably beginning to surface: Is the government really authorized to determine that the principle of saving a life applies? Perhaps political considerations are at play? The fact is protesters have received permission.
Prayer and protest have become entangled like two quantum fields. You can’t deal with one without also dealing with the other. You can’t restrict one without also restricting the other. If synagogue goers intend to be stupid and reckless and risk themselves and their families – so will we (say the protestors). If protestors intend to be stupid and reckless and risk themselves and their families – so will we (say synagogue goers).
According to a new report from the Washington Post, Trump has made antisemitic comments behind closed doors, such as saying that Jews are “only in it for themselves.”
Trump, last night, said a Muslim-American member wasn’t actually American. Today, it’s reported he said Jews “are only in it for themselves.” But the big thread this morning is how Dems are gonna step on a rake because of a perceived anti-Catholic bias in a ACB hearing
Like Richard Nixon, Donald Trump is able to combine personal anti-Semitism with a public record of support for Israel. What can’t be plausibly denied, however, is that he is an anti-Semite.
Donald Trump is a mess. But that doesn’t excuse the way many Democrats have fallen short on protecting Jews. Just because Donald Trump sucks doesn’t mean that Orthodox Jews aren’t being beat up on DeBlasio’s turf.
Liberals are concerned about Trump’s number one choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, not least of all because she is a devout Catholic and a member of the controversial “People of Praise” organization. The positions of the Catholic Church on matters such as gay marriage and abortion may be antithetical to some Democratic positions, but does that mean it’s fair to criticize Ms. Barrett for her faith? More at ABC.
…this is not a matter of anti-Catholicism or even liberal bias against conservative Catholics. Barrett’s nomination would raise an important new problem: Is there a tension between forthrightly serving as one of the final interpreters of the Constitution and swearing an oath to an organization that lacks transparency and visible structures of authority that are accountable to their members, to the Roman Catholic Church and to the wider public?
Going after Barrett’s charismatic faith will do nothing to block her progress through the Senate. It will not add to anti-Trump enthusiasm among the Democratic base, which has long since reached max capacity. But it could well alienate key voting blocs who don’t find charismatic Christianity as weird and scary as many white progressives evidently do.
…many religious practices seem unfamiliar, weird and even threatening to outsiders. Catholics believe that the Eucharist transforms consecrated bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. Mormons baptize proxies for the dead. Some Jewish and Christian sects conduct exorcisms. All of these practices can be easily caricatured, ridiculed and othered… One way to protect against assuming the worst of our fellow citizens is to work toward charitable descriptions of one another’s practices.
The Yom Kippur synagogue readings include selections from the Prophet Isaiah, the Book of Jonah, and the sections of the Torah describing the ritual of the scapegoat. Here are three takes on the meanings of these readings:
We read: “Is this the fast I desire, a day for men to starve their bodies? Is it bowing the head like a bulrush, and lying in sackcloth and ashes? No, this is the fast I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free; share your bread with the hungry …” and so forth… the plain meaning of the text seems a standing challenge to the rationale for rabbinic committees obliging anything; a challenge to Halachic life as a whole…
…whether or not you believe in God, or whether you like synagogue or hate it, this shit is real. Running from destiny is real. Feeling you can’t do something because you know how it will turn out, no matter what you do, is real. Other people suffering because of you is real. Getting a second chance is real — and so is being a brat. And ultimately, the realness of our existence is that worms eat plants and they die and we get mad. And sometimes we get mad at God, too.
…the entire procedure [of the scapegoat] is a means of achieving atonement for the sin of mechiras Yoseph. This sin – is paradigmatic of an overarching problem that prevents the geulah – the redemption – sinas chinam… The Avodah of Yom Kippur prescribes chesed, acts of kindness, as the remedy for this sin – a sin which is representative of sinas chinam.
How bad is Israel’s coronavirus wave? How close are we to a vaccine? Have school reopenings led to an outbreak? Here are this week’s most important questions answered by the numbers:
The Israeli government said on Thursday that it was tightening its second national lockdown after coronavirus infection rates soared this week to about 7,000 new cases a day, among the highest in the world.
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate begins Phase 3 trials in the United States today. Trials for the single-dose vaccine will include up to 60,000 adult participants at nearly 215 sites in the US and internationally… Johnson & Johnson is now the fourth company to begin large-scale clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, behind Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
A new study has found minimal evidence that the novel coronavirus is transferring inside K-12 school buildings despite reports of students and faculty across the country contracting the disease… Researchers found 0.23 percent of students had confirmed or suspected cases of the virus, while the rate among educators was 0.51 percent.