Free Republic

On Sunday, I was one of roughly 100 people who gathered in Niagara Square to rally for transgender rights and protest President Donald Trump’s administration’s recent legislation on trans bathroom rights. It was amazing to see the outpouring support for the trans community from individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The protest was smaller than I had hoped it would be. After the Buffalo Women’s March, I was optimistic that the thousands of folks who showed up for that event would continue to advocate for the minority groups impacted by the Trump administration, like transgender people. Unfortunately, this was not...

Very sad to see this news story about the desecration of a St. Louis Jewish cemetery. This cemetery dates back to 1893 in the St. Louis suburb of University City. Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery vandalized sometime Sunday evening with over 100 headstones being destroyed or damaged.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace cautioned his colleagues and the network's viewers Sunday that President Trump's latest attack on the media had gone too far. "Look, we're big boys. We criticize presidents. They want to criticize us back, that's fine," Wallace said Sunday morning on "Fox & Friends." "But when he said that the fake news media is not my enemy, it's the enemy of the American people, I believe that crosses an important line."

Foreign-policy hawk Bill Kristol Tweeted out his preference for a political victory by “the deep state” above the nation’s laws and over President Donald Trump’s voters and policies, amid an increasing furor over the forced resignation of Gen. Mike Flynn. The “deep state” is jargon for the semi-hidden army of bureaucrats, officials, retired officials, legislators, contractors and media people who support and defend established government policies. Those “deep state” officials include the intelligence, law-enforcement and national security officials who worked in President Barack Obama’s administration but who are still working in permanent or temporary positions in the White House...

A couple canceled their $325,000 Manhattan wedding after fighting broke out at the rehearsal dinner, leading to lawsuits from each family, the New York Post reported. The brawl broke out Oct. 28 after the father of erstwhile groom Bradley Moss refused to let the brother of bride-to-be Amy Bzura make a toast, according to a lawsuit filed by Amy's father, Bruce.

On Wednesday, The New York Times ran a story in its food section about a new cookbook by New York Times writers Frank Bruni and Jennifer Steinhauer called “A Meatloaf in Every Oven: Two Chatty Cooks, One Iconic Dish and Dozens of Recipes — From Mom’s to Mario Batali’s” (Grand Central Life & Style). In it, the two discussed the book’s recipes and the people who contributed them — chefs, politicians, friends and family. On Sunday, the Algemeiner, a publication with a large Orthodox readership, published a piece criticizing the Times for its coverage of the book — in particular,...

Congressman Lee Zeldin Appointed to United States Holocaust Memorial CouncilBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyWashington, DC — February 10, 2017 … US Congressman Lee Zeldin, member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, was appointed by House Speaker Paul Ryan to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council was established by Congress in 1980 to lead the nation in commemorating the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Council consists of 55 members appointed by the President, five members from the U.S. House of Representatives, five members...

The University of California, Berkeley, the self-proclaimed “home of the free speech movement”, on Wednesday night gave conservatives a Nazi style beat-down on Wednesday night.

A proposed student resolution to ban Sabra company products from the dining hall of a California university “is about more than hummus,” the campus rabbi leading the opposition to the boycott told The Algemeiner. “People ask what the big deal is, because even if the motion does pass the University of California Riverside Student Senate, it’s up to administrators to decide what is served at the school,” said Chabad on Campus director Rabbi Matisyahu Devlin, ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “But Jewish students are afraid; they are disturbed. If the motion passes, the message is clear: We don’t want you here,...

Republican Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger charged on CNN's New Day Friday that President Donald Trump was undermining America’s electoral system and Constitution by calling for a review of voter rolls in search of evidence for massive voter fraud. "This basically undermines the idea of an election, this undermines the Constitution," said Kinzinger, a frequent critic of Trump’s policy who refused to endorse him during the election.

[Jazz critic and longtime Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff died Saturday at age 91. Though a self-identified man of the left, he was hard to pigeonhole. This op-ed appeared in the Inquirer on Feb 28, 1988.] ***** As a former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, I am nonetheless considered a bewildering heretic by many of the ACLU's officers and members. They can't understand how I became pro-life. The lawyer for the ACLU's Reproductive Rights Division refers to me rather contemptuously as having been "born again." Yet I remain an atheist. What changed me on the question of...

EW YORK (JTA) – Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom has been expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly, the movement’s rabbis’ association, for performing interfaith weddings. An ordained Conservative rabbi for 44 years, Rosenbloom was expelled by unanimous vote last month after a hearing of the R.A.’s Executive Council. Since 1972, the Conservative movement has prohibited its rabbis from officiating at or even attending intermarriages. Rosenbloom told JTA the council offered to retain his membership in exchange for a promise not to perform any more intermarriages. Rosenbloom declined the offer.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland is urging the local Jewish community to contact Ohio Gov. John Kasich and urge him to veto a bill that would ban almost all abortions after an unborn baby’s heart begins to beat, the Cleveland Jewish News reports. The Ohio state legislature recently gave final approve to legislation that would ban all abortions after an unborn baby’s heart begins to beat. The Ohio House and Senate also approved the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S.B. 127), landmark legislation which poses a historic challenge to Roe v. Wade. The bills now head to the desk of...

JTA - If an actor talked about his Jewishness in an interview in the United States, he wouldn’t make headlines. But in Egypt — where levels of anti-Semitism are high and Jews are often ridiculed on TV shows and in other aspects of popular culture — that kind of revelation is a big deal. Karim Kassem, who has appeared in prominent roles in Egyptian movies and TV series, told an Egyptian talk show host last week that his mother was Jewish. Kassem, 30, revealed that he discovered his Jewish roots as a boy while complaining about Jews. After he said...

In an interview with Al-Jazeera earlier this month, Zahar said that “Trump loves the Jews, and not only because he likes the Jewish religion.” Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar has suggested that US President-elect Donald Trump is secretly a Jew. In an interview with Al-Jazeera earlier this month, translated by MEMRI, Zahar said that “Trump loves the Jews, and not only because he likes the Jewish religion. I do not rule out the possibility that he is a Jew. “He loves the Jewish religion,” Al-Zahhar continued, “and the most important thing in the Jewish religion is Jewish money.” Zahar...

ADL attacked Bannon and Breitbart media, but simply forgot about Soros all during the Obama administration.... Jonathan Greenblatt, President of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Domestic Policy Council for the Obama Administration, in one of the most anti-Israel administrations in history. So, it should not come as a surprise that the organization he leads today attacked President-elect Trump’s appointee Stephen Bannon and Mr. Bannon’s company, Breitbart media, “saying Bannon’s association with “unabashed anti-Semites and racists” is disqualifying.” (This, from the same...

The publication of Thomas Keneally’s book Schindler’s Ark (1982) and the release of the Steven Spielberg Oscar-winning film “Schindler’s List” (1993), made the basic story of Oskar Schindler widely known. German industrialist, Nazi Party member, war profiteer, alcoholic, and shameless womanizer, Schindler (1908-1974) was both a cynical, greedy exploiter of slave workers and an authentic Holocaust hero best known for risking his life and spending his entire fortune during World War II to save over 1,200 Jews by employing them at his Krakow enamelware factory and protecting them by bribing German officials. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, the...

A Syrian child refugee with “Jewish heritage” has arrived at the UK Visas and Immigration office in Croydon, along with other unaccompanied children fleeing the war-torn region. The unidentified English-speaking boy reportedly told social workers that his Judaism was “important” to him – prompting community calls for a recognised Jewish foster- carer to assist with his temporary and long-term placement. ...

JTA - Speaking at a synagogue in Florida, Ivanka Trump assured Jewish voters that her father would “100 percent” move the US embassy to Jerusalem if he is elected president. Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism in 2010 and is married to a Jewish man, called her father, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, an “unbelievable champion” for the State of Israel and for the Jewish people during a talk on Thursday at The Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside, Florida, the Jewish Insider reported. “You won’t be disappointed,” she told the audience during the talk, which was filmed in...

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – After attending a fundraiser for Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week, Robin Bernstein was more pumped up than ever about the Republican presidential nominee. Bernstein is among the minority of Jewish voters supporting Trump, the iconoclastic real-estate mogul and part-time Floridian who has deepened the partisan divide at the mahjong table at other clubs throughout South Florida. For Bernstein, the choice between Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton — whose experience includes stints as first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state — is simple: which candidate will be the best at keeping the country safe....