Weekly roundup of world briefs

Australians make ‘YEmulkes’ of unwanted Kanye West merch

(JNS) — The Talmud recommends taking the evil inclination into the Jewish study hall. Two Australians have found a different way to sanctify the destructive.

Antoinette Barbouttis, of Sydney, wanted nothing more to do with her collection of clothing featuring one of the most prominent antisemites, Kanye West. So, she and her friend John Safran, a Jewish-Australian filmmaker and writer, brainstormed how to make kosher lemonade out of hateful lemons.

Safran’s unique idea? Turn the several Ye shirts and a dozen Yeezy shoes into yarmulkes.

“You’re not even breaking our spirit. We’re responding with some weird kind of Jewish self-deprecation by saying, no, we’re here, we’re not tucking in our Stars of David, just because there are spells of antisemitism and people are trying to intimidate us into hiding,” Safran told Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service.

After Barbouttis learned of Ye’s hateful rants last fall, she decided she was done. “As soon as it was antisemitism, I thought, that’s next level-kind of dangerous,” she said. “I’m not into that.”

The friends teamed up with costume tailor Chrissy Seo to turn Barbouttis’ unwanted collection and Safran’s quirky idea into reality. Making a yarmulke out of thick sneakers isn’t easy, but the tailor didn’t mind.

“I was laughing the whole time,” she said.

Barbouttis is considering selling the three “YEmulkes,” donating a portion of the proceeds to the Jewish community.

No word yet on whether the German shoe company Adidas — which is stuck with $530 million worth of unsellable Yeezy merchandise, and whose net income dropped 83 percent from 2021 to 2022 — finds its own creative way to repurpose its wares.

Ohio closes investigation of neo-Nazi homeschoolers

(JNS) — Ohio’s Department of Education appears to have closed an investigation without pressing charges against a couple that operates the Dissident Homeschool Telegram message channel with thousands of members.

One founder, who said the group responded to “having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material” to homeschool her children, posted photos of a cake she baked for Adolf Hitler’s birthday, Vice News and The Huffington Post reported, based on Anonymous Comrades Collective research.

The couple said they hoped their and others’ children would “become wonderful Nazis.”

Stephanie Siddens, interim superintendent of public instruction at the department, told Vice the group “outraged and saddened” her, and “there is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community.” But Vice reported that the department’s investigation seems to have closed without finding any legal repercussions given the state’s policies on homeschooling.

The state is limited to “ensuring that the minimum educational requirements are met, and that the academic assessment report shows that a child is demonstrating reasonable proficiency,” the state said.

One parent who homeschools her children in Ohio told Vice the “amount of oversight is just shocking to me, because there’s really no oversight. It’s basically just a rubber stamp.”

Last year, James Pasch, the regional Anti-Defamation League director for Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, said that antisemitic incidents in Ohio had increased nearly 100% in the past five years. “We need educators and school board members and superintendents to value and push for anti-bias education, bully prevention, education, Holocaust education,” he said at the time. “We need parents to force that issue with school.”

The number of U.S. homeschooled students went up from 850,000 (1.7%) in 1999 to 1.69 million (3.3.%) in 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In the 2021-22 school year, an estimated 3.135 million U.S. students were homeschooled, down from 3.751 million in 2020-2021, according to the National Home Education Research Institute, a Salem, Ore-based nonprofit.

New Israeli law strips citizenship from convicted terrorists who are paid by the Palestinian Authority

By Ben Sales

(JTA) — Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted overwhelmingly to strip citizenship from people who are convicted of terrorism and receive a stipend from the Palestinian Authority.

The bill passed 94-10 on Wednesday, with opposition coming from some Arab lawmakers. The lopsided vote in favor of the measure stands in stark contrast to other more controversial proposals from Israel’s right-wing government that have come amid a recent escalation in terror attacks. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician, supports giving some convicted terrorists the death penalty and is pushing for a broad Israeli military campaign to root out Palestinian terrorism.

According to the law, any Israeli citizen or resident who is convicted of a terrorism charge and receives financial support from the Palestinian Authority, which governs some Palestinian areas of the West Bank, can be deprived of their citizenship and deported to either the West Bank or Gaza.

Israeli press reports did not specify how many people the law may apply to. Because Jews who are convicted of terrorism do not receive Palestinian financial support, the law will not apply to them.

“A terrorist who receives money from the Palestinian Authority should fly from here to Gaza, anywhere else,” said Likud lawmaker Ofir Katz, the bill’s lead sponsor, according to the Times of Israel. “Do not stay here.”

But Arab-Israel lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, of the Hadash-Taal party, said the law encouraged “Jewish supremacy” and that according to its terms, “An Arab who commits an offense is a conditional citizen.”

The Palestinian Authority pays monthly stipends to the families of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel or killed while committing violent attacks; Israel and its advocates decry the payments as an incentive for terrorism.

Biden administration ‘deeply concerned’ about Netanyahu’s settlement announcement

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration joined with five European countries to express its “deep concern” about Israel’s decision on Sunday to recognize nine West Bank settlement outposts.

Israel’s cabinet legalized the outposts, which were previously considered illegal under Israeli law, in response to a series of terrorist attacks that killed 10 civilians.

Tuesday’s statement represents the Biden administration’s sharpest criticism yet of Israel’s new right-wing government. It is in line with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s pledge not to judge Israel’s government by the past statements and actions of its cabinet ministers, but by its current actions. It comes days after Biden criticized the Israeli government’s plan to constrain the power of the judiciary, saying that independent courts are part of “the genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy.”

All of the statement’s signatories are known for their good relationships with Israel.

“We – the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Italy, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and the Secretary of State of the United States – are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s announcement that it is advancing nearly 10,000 settlement units and intends to begin a process to normalize nine outposts that were previously deemed illegal under Israeli law,” the statement said. “We strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution.”

The statement went on to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a path to peace Netanyahu has dismissed.

Biden administration ‘deeply concerned’ about Netanyahu’s settlement announcement

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration joined with five European countries to express its “deep concern” about Israel’s decision on Sunday to recognize nine West Bank settlement outposts.

Israel’s cabinet legalized the outposts, which were previously considered illegal under Israeli law, in response to a series of terrorist attacks that killed 10 civilians.

Tuesday’s statement represents the Biden administration’s sharpest criticism yet of Israel’s new right-wing government. It is in line with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s pledge not to judge Israel’s government by the past statements and actions of its cabinet ministers, but by its current actions. It comes days after Biden criticized the Israeli government’s plan to constrain the power of the judiciary, saying that independent courts are part of “the genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy.”

All of the statement’s signatories are known for their good relationships with Israel.

“We – the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Italy, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and the Secretary of State of the United States – are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s announcement that it is advancing nearly 10,000 settlement units and intends to begin a process to normalize nine outposts that were previously deemed illegal under Israeli law,” the statement said. “We strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution.”

The statement went on to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a path to peace Netanyahu has dismissed.

In 2022, Israel’s GDP increased 6.5 percent

(JNS) — According to a report released this week by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the country’s GDP increased by 6.5 percent in 2022.

After relatively modest growth of 2.1 percent on an annualized basis in the third quarter of 2022, GDP growth of 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 pushed the annual growth figure higher, reported Globes.

The high 2022 growth rate follows an even greater 8.6 percent GDP growth in 2021, following a 1.9 percent contraction in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.

With the economy likely to decelerate this year, the Bank of Israel’s most recent prediction for GDP growth in 2023 was 2.8 percent last month.

According to the CBS, Israel’s inflation rate reached a 14-year high in January, jumping 5.4 percent over the previous year.

According to a Reuters poll of economists, the rate was predicted to continue at 5.3 percent.

Sotheby’s is auctioning the ‘earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible ever’

(JNS) — Sotheby’s auction house is selling a Hebrew Bible that Richard Austin, its global head of books and manuscripts, calls “undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history.”

Codex Sassoon dates to the late ninth or early 10th century and derives its name from its most prominent owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942). It “has been definitively dated as the earliest, most complete text of its kind,” Austin stated in a release.

Sassoon’s Hebrew manuscript and Judaica collection is among the most renowned of its kind.

“It stands as a critical link from the ancient Hebrew oral tradition to the modern, accepted form of the Hebrew Bible that remains the standardized version used today,” added Austin.

Sharon Mintz, senior Judaica books and manuscripts specialist at Sotheby’s, said the volume represents “a monumental transformation” in the history of the Hebrew Bible.

Sotheby’s stated, “Coming to auction for the first time in more than 30 years with an estimate of $30/50 million, Codex Sassoon will be the most valuable printed manuscript or historical document by estimate ever offered at auction.”

The auction is slated for New York in May.

Israel joins ‘oil exporters club’ with first-ever crude sent to Europe

(JNS) — Israel has shipped its first crude oil abroad, British-Greek hydrocarbon exploration and production company Energean announced on Tuesday.

“We are happy and proud that Energean has facilitated Israel joining the club of international oil exporters,” said Energean CEO Mathios Rigas.

The oil shipment is part of a multi-cargo marketing agreement with Vitol, a Swiss-based multinational energy and commodity trading company, “the first of a new source of East Med energy to reach Europe,” the company said.

Energean Group commercial director Nick Witney said, “While we remain a gas focused company, with our Israeli gas production central to our role in enabling the energy transition, light, sweet crude oil responsibly produced from modern, low carbon intensity facilities is very much in demand, globally.”

Energean began extracting hydrocarbons from the Karish gas field off the northern Israeli coast on Oct. 26, 2022, a day before Israeli and Lebanese leaders signed a United States-mediated maritime border agreement.

The company said at the time that the development was a significant milestone in promoting a vision of a competitive Israeli gas market and increasing the country’s energy security and independence.

Antisemite who threatened Chuck Schumer’s life gets 5 months in prison

(JNS) — Johnathan Ryan McGuire was sentenced to five months in prison for leveling threats, a homophobic slur, and an antisemitic insult against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The Oceanside (near San Diego) native left hateful messages on Schumer’s voicemail on May 3, 2022, including stating he would “send some bullets your way.” He also referenced Schumer’s position on abortion. “Yeah, you guys are real upset, huh?” he said in the voicemail message. “You can’t murder babies anymore.”

The hateful call was apparently inspired by the events of the previous day, when a draft of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade leaked to the press.

McGuire’s attorney claimed mental health and drug abuse problems were responsible for his client’s actions. They were “a cry for help,” the lawyer said.

The alleged cry for help included a host of expletive-ridden messages, which also referenced the senator’s Jewish faith.

The May 23 indictment noted that McGuire possessed two registered firearms, which he purchased in September 2020 and May 2021.

McGuire, who pled guilty last October, told U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson he took “full responsibility for my vulgar and despicable actions.” The judge expressed concern given McGuire’s conduct in earlier years.

In 2021, McGuire pled guilty to sending threatening emails to and leaving threatening phone call messages for members of Congress over the previous two years. He was known to U.S. Capitol Police.

Bethany Mandel pens ‘Jewish case for sending Nikki Haley to the White House’

(JNS) — Nikki Haley’s views on foreign policy, school choice and religious liberty are “clear strengths” that endear her to the Republican Jewish electorate, author and commentator Bethany Mandel wrote in an op-ed on Wednesday in The Forward.

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina held a public announcement of her candidacy for president on Feb. 15.

“Haley counts Jews with deep knowledge of these issues among members of her inner circle,” wrote Mandel of the three key areas she identified.

Among the achievements Mandel details in the piece are the then-governor signing South Carolina’s statewide, anti-BDS legislation—the nation’s first—and Haley’s staunch support of Israel, including firmly backing the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Mandel, who has six children and homeschools the older ones, cited Haley’s support for school choice as another motivator for conservative Jewish voters. She pointed to a 2021 survey from Nishma Research that found the top challenge that Modern Orthodox Jewish families face is the cost of education.

In announcing so early—she is the second candidate to throw her hat into the Republican ring after former U.S. President Donald Trump—Haley faces potential risk (running out of cash) and reward (cementing early support), wrote Mandel, adding that “the enthusiasm of Republican Jewish voters, not to mention friends of the Jewish people and the Jewish state, is well-earned.”