A matzah NFT: Clubhouse and BuzzFeed’s Passover event will feature a digital afikomen
(Vlad Fishman/Getty Images)
(JTA) — It was only a matter of time before the NFT craze collided with the Jewish world.
In case you’ve missed a large portion of pop culture news in recent months, NFT stands for “non-fungible token” — a singular piece of the impossible-to-hack blockchain code. Creators have been selling works of art, music and other things as NFTs for up to millions of dollars (sometimes tens of millions), creating a historically enormous bubble of sorts. The idea is that the owner of an NFT owns the original coding file of the image or other product that can’t be replicated.
On Sunday, the on-the-rise app Clubhouse will host a Passover seder with several celebrity guests, rabbis, Holocaust survivors and philanthropists — and the digital afikomen will be a matzah-themed NFT artwork up for auction.
“If Clubhouse is the home in which Passover will take place, then hiding an NFT matzo — a singular piece that only one person can find — is the new hiding of the Afikomen,” fnnch, the digital artist behind the NFT, said in a news release.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the events nonprofit Value Culture.
“All donations will go towards supporting anti-hate, food security, and mental wellness initiatives,” Value Culture Adam Swig said in the release.
Rabbis David Wolpe and Sandra Lawson will host the event, and guests will include Jeff Garlin, Tiffany Haddish, Mayim Bialik, Michael Rappaport and Chloe Fineman. Randi Zuckerberg, an entrepreneur and sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, will executive produce the show, which is co-sponsored by BuzzFeed’s Tasty food video platform.
A Brooklyn Hasidic rabbi is under investigation for promoting child marriage
Pedestrians walk past a yeshiva in the South Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, April 9, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(JTA) — A Brooklyn rabbi is under investigation for allegedly arranging marriages between children as young as 15 years old.
The Forward reported Thursday that the New York Police Department and Administration of Child Services are looking into the accusations against Yoel Roth, who runs Yeshiva Tiferes Hatorah in the Williamsburg neighborhood as well as a community in upstate Liberty, where many of the young couples he allegedly has married off now live.
Frimet Goldberger, a writer who grew up in the Hasidic community, posted about the practice earlier this month, sharing a picture of a newly engaged couple: The girl is 17 and the boy is 15.
“I am sharing this photo so you know what underage forced marriage looks like,” Goldberger wrote.
While men and women in Hasidic communities typically marry young, marriages are generally not done before the age of 18. In New York state, one must be 18 years old to marry, though a 17-year-old can marry with a court’s permission.
According to the Forward, Roth believes that boys should be married off at a young age to prevent them from masturbating. Former followers of Roth said he arranged marriages without permission from the parents of the bride and groom, and often does not allow parents to decide the date of the wedding or even to know the age of their child’s future spouse.
Roth’s secretary, Shaul Indig, denied the claims to the Forward.
“If you do something good, there’s always people who criticize you,” he said.
The NYPD and Administration of Child Services declined to provide specific information about the investigations to the Forward.
Israeli cargo ship hit by missile near Yemen in suspected Iranian attack
The Israeli-owned Helios Ray cargo ship docked in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Feb. 28, 2021. The vessel sustained minor damage last month in an explosion reportedly set off by Iran. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — An Israeli-owned cargo ship was struck by a missile in the Arabian Sea in a suspected Iranian attack, an Israeli security official said.
The ship was sailing from Tanzania to India and continued its voyage after the attack Thursday, the official told Reuters. He was not named.
The vessel, which is owned by the XT Management firm from Haifa, was flying a Liberian flag and did not sustain major damage, the report said.
Since 2019, Israel has been attacking ships carrying Iranian oil and weapons through the eastern Mediterranean and Red seas, according to a New York Times article published Friday. The Iranians recently have begun to retaliate by targeting Israeli vessels, the report said.
Last month, an Israeli cargo ship, the Helios Ray, sustained minor damage when explosives attached to its hull were set off by what The Times said was an Iranian commando unit.
Earlier this month, an Iranian ship, Shahr e Kord, was hit in an explosion and slightly damaged about 50 miles off the coast of Israel. The state-run Iranian shipping company said the vessel had been heading to Spain and called the explosion a “terrorist act.”
Boris Johnson wishes Jewish Britons a Happy Passover in Yiddish-flecked message
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wished Jewish Britons a Happy Passover in a video message on Friday. (Screenshot from Twitter)
(JTA) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wished Jewish Britons a Happy Passover in a video message shared Friday on social media that noted with some Yiddish at least one advantage to the Zoom seder.
Johnson acknowledged that the holiday would be celebrated again in isolation for many with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, even as Britain outpaces much of the world in vaccinating its population.
“Sadly for the second year in a row, this most sociable of festivals is taking place at a time when families and friends and neighbors are unable to come together as they usually would,” he said.
More than a year after the pandemic began, Passover arrives as 44% of the United Kingdom’s population has received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and infections have plummeted across the country.
While many restrictions remain in place, some are beginning to lift and starting Monday, Britons will be allowed to gather outdoors in groups of six from a maximum of two households. Johnson noted that the timing will facilitate the “matzah ramble,” a British tradition of hikes and picnics during the intermediate days of Passover.
But the gradual lifting of restrictions comes too late to affect seders, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday nights, and must still largely be confined to one household or take place over Zoom.
Here’s what Johnson said about the Zoom seder:
“Even second time around, it’s not quite what everyone is used to, but the haroset will be just as sweet and the matzah just as meaningful,” the prime minister said. “And you get something generations of Jews have dreamed of for millennia: the ability to mute the table’s inevitable kvetch.”
Brazilian president’s adviser accused of making white supremacist sign during legislative session
Filipe Martins makes the controversial "OK" gesture during a legislative session in Brasilia. (Brazilian TV screenshot)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A senior aide to Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of making a white supremacist hand symbol during a legislative session.
Filipe Martins, Bolsonaro’s special adviser for international affairs, caused an uproar on Wednesday with his polemic “OK” gesture made while sitting behind the Brazilian Senate’s president when he was talking about the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Among Brazilians, the gesture can mean “f*** you.” But over the past few years, white supremacists have used it to push the idea of “white power,” according to the Anti-Defamation League and other watchdogs.
The Curitiba Holocaust Museum took it to mean the latter.
“We were astonished. It’s similar to the sign known as ‘OK,’ but with three straight fingers in the shape of a ‘W,’ the gesture became a symbol of hatred,” the museum tweeted.
Martins, 33, claimed that he was fixing his lapel. He also said he has Jewish heritage.
“A warning to clowns who wish to support the thesis that I, a Jew, am sympathetic to ‘white supremacism’ because in their sick minds they saw an authoritarian gesture in an image that shows me adjusting the lapel of my suit,” Martin tweeted after images and video quickly spread on Brazilian social media.
Martins, the son of non-Jewish parents, is a former atheist who became a Pentecostal Christian, Veja magazine reported in 2019. On social media, he once called himself “Jewish but Christian.”
Despite having little foreign policy experience, Martins has used his close ties to Bolsonaro’s sons to become one of his most trusted advisers.
Biden administration formally resumes assistance to Palestinians with $15 million in COVID aid
President Joe Biden as a candidate had pledged to return aid to the Palestinians mostly cut off by the Trump administration. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration formally relaunched U.S. assistance to the Palestinians with $15 million in COVID relief.
The money, which will go to nongovernmental institutions distributing medical care and food assistance in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, reverses Trump administration policies of all but cutting off aid to the Palestinians, fulfilling a pledge Joe Biden made as a presidential candidate.
By distributing the money to nongovernmental groups, the Biden administration may be able to circumvent laws that ban aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it subsidizes the families of Palestinians who have violently attacked Israelis and Americans.
“This small step in advancing the well-being of the Palestinian people is fully in keeping with American values,” the State Department said Thursday in announcing the disbursal.
Bipartisan slate of senators calls on Biden to maintain tough Iran posture
Sen. Robert Menendez speaks at AIPAC's annual policy conference at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., March 6, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of senators has called on President Joe Biden to aim for an expansive deal that would severely limit Iran’s capacity to do harm.
“Looking ahead, we strongly believe that you should use the full force of our diplomatic and economic tools in concert with our allies on the United Nations Security Council and in the region to reach an agreement that prevents Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons and meaningfully constrains its destabilizing activity throughout the Middle East and its ballistic missile program,” said the letter sent Thursday to Biden spearheaded by Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who is the committee chairman, and Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is its ranking member.
Biden has said he wants to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as soon as possible because he sees it as the best means of keeping Iran from accelerating toward a nuclear weapon. The agreement trades sanctions relief for a rollback in Iran’s nuclear program.
Donald Trump as president quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, and in retaliation Iran has broken some of its commitments regarding uranium enrichment. A number of other world powers remain committed to the pact.
Biden wants to negotiate tougher conditions after reentering the deal along with agreements that limit Iran’s missile production and adventurism in the region.
While the signatories acknowledged their “differing views on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” as the 2015 nuclear plan is called, they said “we must confront the reality that Iran has accelerated its nuclear activity in alarming ways.”
Republicans oppose reentering the accord at all, and the letter, signed by 43 senators, does not deal with whether the agreement should be revived in any way or jettisoned for a new one. It also points to widening differences between the parties when it comes to Iran policy: Just 14 of the signatories are Democrats. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee backed the letter.
The letter also calls on Biden to consult with allies, including Israel, in considering Iran policy.
Jonathan Pollard says Jews ‘will always have dual loyalty’ and would counsel young Jews to consider spying for Israel
Jonathan Pollard, right, bumps elbows with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Dec. 30, 2020. (GPO)
(JTA) — Jonathan Pollard, the convicted spy for Israel whose story haunted the American Jewish community’s relations with the U.S. government for decades, is unrepentant.
“The bottom line on this charge of dual loyalty is, I’m sorry, we’re Jews, and if we’re Jews, we will always have dual loyalty,” Pollard said in an interview published Thursday in Israel Hayom, his first extensive remarks since his release from prison in 2015.
Pollard recalled how much of the Jewish leadership did not stand up for him following his 1985 arrest, when he was a civilian analyst for the U.S. Navy who was found to be spying for Israel.
“If you’re outside Israel, then you live in a society in which you are basically considered unreliable,” he said.
The U.S. Jewish leadership eventually softened in its outlook, and some Jewish leaders lobbied for Pollard’s release, saying his life sentence was excessive.
Pollard’s full interview will be published Friday. In an earlier excerpt published by Israel Hayom, he said he knew he “crossed a line” when he relayed the information to Israel, but added that he believed the United States was withholding from Israel intelligence critical to its security.
Pollard’s arrest and eventual conviction complicated ties between U.S. Jews and sectors of the government. Jews seeking entry into or advancement in the national security apparatus were often rebuffed, with Pollard cited as the reason. The Pollard narrative in part drove the espionage charges brought in 2004 against two top staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — a case that fell apart but drastically changed how AIPAC operated.
Pollard suggested that Jews were deluding themselves if they thought of America as a home and suggested he would counsel a young U.S. Jew working in the American security apparatus to spy for Israel.
“I’d tell him, not doing anything is unacceptable. So simply going home [to Israel] is not acceptable. Making aliyah is not acceptable,” Pollard said. “You have to make a decision whether your concern for Israel and loyalty to Israel and loyalty to your fellow Jews is more important than your life.”
Pollard was paroled from his life sentence in 2015. The terms of his parole were not renewed last year and he flew to Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted him at the airport. Sheldon Adelson, the late owner of Israel Hayom, provided a private plane for Pollard to fly to Israel.
UK professor may have committed hate crime when he called Jewish students ‘pawns’ of Israel, police say
A main street in Bristol, England, home of the University of Bristol, which is facing controversy over a professor's Israel remarks. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — A British university professor may have committed a hate crime when he labeled Jewish students “pawns” of Israel during a lecture, a police spokesperson said.
Avon and Somerset Police made the statement on Thursday — an unusual case of police action on matters that many Britons say fall under academic freedom.
In a Feb. 13 videoconference titled “Labour Campaign for Free Speech,” University of Bristol sociologist David Miller endorsed the “end of Zionism as a functioning ideology.” He also called protests by the university’s Jewish Society, a union of Jewish students, over his previous fulminations against Jews and Israel proof that there’s “a real question of abuse here — of Jewish students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.” He cited the Jewish Society’s support for Zionism.
In 2019, Miller suggested that British Jews were using interfaith events with Muslims, including a chicken soup cookout, to increase the acceptance of Zionism among Muslims.
His February remarks sparked calls by many British Jews for Miller’s dismissal.
About 200 academics from the United Kingdom and the United States, including linguist Noam Chomsky and gender theorist Judith Butler, signed a petition defending Miller as “an eminent scholar.”
On Thursday, the official Twitter account of the University of Warwick liked a tweet defending Miller. A spokesperson said it was a case of “unauthorized access.”
The University of Bristol has said it is committed to academic freedom but also to preventing discrimination.
Germany enacts law favoring naturalization for descendants of ex-citizens who fled Nazis
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer attends a Cabinet meeting in Munich, April 11, 2013. (Wikimedia Commons/Michael Lucan)
(JTA) — The German government has amended its citizenship laws to make naturalization easier for descendants of those who fled the Nazi regime because of persecution, including Jews.
The amendment Wednesday cemented into law two decrees that the Interior Ministry had announced in 2019.
The amendment and decrees affect several hundred applicants who applied for German citizenship but had been rejected because they were born to a German mother and non-German father. Until 1953, German citizenship could only be passed on through the paternal line.
“This is not just remedial, but an apology offered in deep shame,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement about the amendment.
In 2019, he said the decrees were meant to help not only those who fled Nazism but their descendants.
Since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, the German Embassy in London has received more than 3,380 applications for restoring German citizenship under Article 116 of the German constitution for descendants of people persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. In previous years, only about 50 such requests were made annually.
The new decrees loosen the conditions needed for citizenship, for example by allowing individuals with a German mother and foreign father to have their citizenship restored, provided they were born before April 1953.