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A kosher baker rejected a synagogue’s order for rainbow Pride treats. The firestorm has been fierce.
(JTA) — The request for rainbow-frosted cupcakes came from a repeat customer — a local synagogue that had relied on the West Orange Bake Shop to make kosher desserts for its special events. But this year, bakery co-owner Yitzy Mittel decided to decline the order. He couldn’t bring himself to produce the Pride-themed goods.
Mittel, an Orthodox Jew, had made a similar cake for an order the year before. But the experience unnerved him, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, because his understanding of Jewish law holds that LGBTQ symbols are “antithetical to what we stand for.”
The symbols are “a celebration of something which is against Torah,” he said. “I didn’t want to be making that cake.”
After consulting with both a rabbi and an attorney, Mittel and the northern New Jersey bakery canceled the orders, sending the synagogue elsewhere to find kosher Pride treats.
In the weeks since that decision, Mittel has gotten validation from the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last week that a Colorado web designer had the right to refuse to build a wedding site for a same-sex couple. The ruling expands on a 2018 decision, in which the court ruled a Colorado baker had the constitutional right, on religious grounds, to refuse to create a wedding cake for a gay couple.
But the local Jewish community is still reeling. Multiple rabbis have accused the baker of bigotry, and some local Jews are boycotting his shop. The area’s Jewish federation privately said it would stop buying from Mittel before publicly walking back its position. And Eshel, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews and their families, announced an “ally training” in West Orange this coming Sunday in response to the incident.
“The reason why Eshel exists is because these sorts of incidents, when they happen to someone over and over again, make people feel unwanted and unwelcome in their communities,” said Miryam Kabakov, the advocacy group’s executive director. “This is just one small example, but the effect overall is to drive people away from Orthodoxy who are trying to live frum [observant] lives, leaving them feeling like there is no place for them.”
The firestorm comes at a time of widespread advocacy by political conservatives against LGBTQ inclusion and rights. Pride events across the country have faced pushback this year.
Some of that has taken place in Jewish communities. In another New Jersey town 30 miles away, Orthodox rabbis successfully petitioned their mayor to remove four Pride flags that were flying in front of a synagogue on a central street. The mayor later apologized and put the flags back up.
But what happened in West Orange offers a particularly potent example of how culture wars can play out in — and divide — Jewish communities, in part because of the symbolism of a kosher bakery citing what it says are Jewish values to justify declining the order of a local synagogue.
“While I know this has happened in other parts of the country I hadn’t expected it here,” wrote Dan Cohen, senior rabbi of the Reform Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in nearby South Orange, on Facebook. “Then I learned that the bakery in question is a kosher bakery, and as a result, the bias was coming from within our Jewish community.”
The initial order was placed June 6 by Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in nearby Millburn. Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald, the synagogue’s director of congregational learning, planned to pick up the order, which reportedly specified that the treats be decorated with rainbows. A staff member also reportedly made a separate order the same day for rainbow cupcakes for the synagogue’s youth group.
Schwartzwald did not return multiple JTA requests for comment. Attempts to reach the synagogue’s current youth group advisor were unsuccessful.
But according to all accounts, the bakery initially accepted both these orders, only to cancel them later without providing an explanation. It did, however, agree to process the synagogue’s order for cookies without rainbow decorations. (Mittel told JTA that he gave the synagogue a discount for those cookies.)
West Orange Bake Shop produces kosher cookies and cakes from a storefront in West Orange, New Jersey. (Google Maps)
Mittel told JTA that he had canceled both orders and notified the parties within 24 hours. He believes others in the community are impugning his reputation by falsely asserting that he had failed to provide enough notice to the customers.
But when Schwarzwald went to the bakery herself to request an explanation for why the Pride order was canceled, Mittel refused to talk to her. He told JTA he had chosen not to engage because the rabbi had come during peak hours and “wanted to create a scene.”
To Schwarzwald, the message was clear. “I was comfortable drawing conclusions that meant that I was going to take my purchasing elsewhere,” she told the New Jersey Jewish News. “It seems clear that the bakery has made the decision that Pride is not something they want to support. It’s their choice, it’s their legal right, and I can choose to spend my dollars wherever I want.” She was ultimately able to fulfill the orders at a different kosher bakery in West Orange.
The issue blew up as other rabbis in the area learned about what happened and commented publicly.
“When we refuse basic Jewish services to members of our community who are articulating who they are, we are excluding and dividing,” wrote Robert Tobin, rabbi of the Conservative B’nai Shalom in West Orange, in a blog post on June 22. He highlighted the Conservative movement’s recent strides toward LGBTQ inclusion, and an interpretation of the Torah that holds “humans are created in the image of God with a variety of potential gender identities and with the possibility of gender fluidity.” Tobin also reportedly addressed the incident in a sermon, according to the New Jersey Jewish News.
David Vaisberg, senior rabbi at the independent Temple B’nei Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey, tweeted that he was “so disappointed” in the bakery, which is located in a strip mall next to a kosher Chinese restaurant.
“They make great baked goods but have shown themselves to be against the LGBTQ+ in canceling orders of rainbow baked goods in Pride month,” he wrote, adding that he was letting the bakery know why they had lost his business and advised followers to “please do the same.”
In his Facebook post, Cohen addressed the argument that an observant Jew can cite Torah as the basis for their objection to serving a Pride-themed cake. “If I’m being honest, we all pick and choose which sacred texts we embrace and which we ignore,” he wrote. “If by contrast, you CHOOSE to focus on the Biblical texts that exclude people, that denigrate others or are hurtful and judgmental, you aren’t religious. You’re simply a bigot.”
Parts of the Orthodox community have become open to LGBTQ inclusion in recent years. Organizations including Eshel and Jewish Queer Youth advocate for LGBTQ people and families in Orthodox spaces, and some prominent Orthodox figures have come out as gay in recent years.
But others in the community remain opposed to LGBTQ inclusion, citing passages in the Torah specifically forbidding gay sex. The flagship Modern Orthodox campus, Yeshiva University, has cited its status as a religious institution in an ongoing legal battle over its refusal to recognize an LGBTQ student group. The recent death by suicide of a gay Y.U. graduate, his friends said, highlights the pain of being Orthodox and gay.
Mittel says his business is being unfairly targeted by those who disagree with his personal religious choice, which he says is on par with declining to fulfill a church’s order for cakes decorated with crosses — something he says he has done in the past.
“There’s other bakeries out there that will do it,” he said about making Pride-themed kosher baked goods. “Why should I?”
He also insists that he is not homophobic. “If somebody came in and told me they want to pay me three times the price to write on a cake, ‘I hate gay people,’ I wouldn’t do it,” he told JTA. He added, “Symbols carry a lot of weight.”
Tensions reached a new high after a local news site published a leaked internal memo from Dov Ben-Shimon, the CEO of the local Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest. In the memo, Ben-Shimon advised staff to no longer purchase baked goods from Mittel’s shop, citing “the Jewish value of B’tzelem Elohim, that each one of us is created in the Divine Image and deserves to be treated as such.”
“While it is their right to refuse service, it is also our prerogative not to support their establishment,” Ben-Shimon wrote.
The memo upset some local Jews who felt it was inappropriate for the federation, which serves Jews of all denominations, to make a judgment against a Jewish-owned kosher business whose owner believed he was following Jewish law.
Speaking to JTA, Ben-Shimon characterized the memo as an internal purchasing directive and said it did not reflect the federation’s current position.
“That internal memo did not reflect an appropriate, thoughtful and responsible communal dialogue,” Ben-Shimon said. “While there is significant pain in the community as a result of actions that we have seen, we believe that Federation’s decision-making process should be filled with love and sensitivity, and we will take steps to ensure that this will be reflected in our actions in the future.”
Describing Mittel as “a decent, good, kind, thoughtful and honorable person who has been placed in a difficult situation,” Ben-Shimon added that the local Jewish community “is blessed to have a wide array of opinions, ideologies and beliefs” and said he sees the federation’s role as working “to continue to strive for tolerant, respectful dialogue and discourse.”
In a follow-up correspondence from the federation, published by the New Jersey Jewish News, Ben-Shimon wrote, “We sincerely regret that our actions have caused divisiveness in our community as our aim is to bring the variety and richness of our many constituents together.”
Mittel told JTA that he has spoken to Ben-Shimon since the story was published, and that the two had a positive conversation. Saying that his bakery has been visited by “obnoxious” people since news of the cancellation came out, he said it was he and not LGBTQ people who had become victim to intolerance.
“I don’t think it’s good for the Jewish community to be adversarial to each other,” Mittel said. “There’s no need for that. We have enough people disliking us without us causing strife to each other.”
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The post A kosher baker rejected a synagogue’s order for rainbow Pride treats. The firestorm has been fierce. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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International Bowls Organization Reverses Ban on Israel at UK Championship After Facing Backlash
People hold an Israeli flag as a helicopter carrying hostages released amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel arrives at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv district, Israel, Nov. 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
An international bowls organization on Tuesday revoked its ban against Israelis from competing in the upcoming Bowls World Indoor Championships in the United Kingdom following global outcry.
The World Bowls Tour (WBT) earlier this week disinvited three Israeli athletes from competing in the international championships set to take place Jan. 10-26 at the Potters Resorts Hopton-on-Sea in Norfolk. The move affected Daniel Alomin in the singles, and Amnon Amar and Itai Rigbi in the open pairs. Bowls is a sport in which a player rolls a ball, called a bowl, toward a smaller stationary ball, which is called a jack. The object of the game is to roll one’s bowl closer to the jack than that of their opponents.
The WBT suggested on Sunday that the ban was enforced after they faced pressure from pro-Palestinian groups because of Israel’s involvement in the WBT Scottish International Open in Scotland in November 2024. The organization also claimed security concerns as the main reason for the ban.
On Tuesday, the WBT said in a new statement that the three Israeli players are welcome to compete in the UK competition next month following “significant additional security measures.”
“The WBT acknowledges that this has been a difficult time for all involved and we are pleased that we have been able to achieve an outcome that includes players for all supporting countries,” the organization added.
In a separate lengthy statement, which was not publicly shared but obtained by The Guardian, the WBT also apologized for the initial ban.
“We would firstly wish to extend our sincere apologies to both you and to PBA Israel, for any upset or offense that we have caused by the withdrawal of the invitation to the three members of PBA Israel in advance of the January 2025 championships. This was absolutely not our intention; however as we made clear, we had found ourselves in a very difficult position in relation to the security of the venue and to the competitors and other attendees,” the statement read.
“However, over the past 48 hours we have been exploring practical ways in which our concerns could be overcome, so as to enable the invitation to PBA Israel to be reinstated,” the statement continued. “We are pleased to say that following discussions with various partner agencies, we have been able to confirm today an increase in the security presence at the event. The WBT Board is accordingly satisfied that this increased level of security which will be in place is sufficient to be able to welcome the PBA Israel Team to the event starting on 10 January 2025.”
The WBT concluded by explaining that it “felt compelled” to initially ban Israeli athletes from next month’s competition to ensure “the safety and security” of everyone involved in the tournament. “Following significant feedback and credible concerns regarding the potential risks posed to competitors we had felt it necessary to act responsibly, so to ensure the wellbeing of everyone involved,” the organization added.
The WBT board of directors announced the initial ban against Israeli athletes on Sunday in a released statement that was posted on Facebook. They said the decision was made following “recent challenges” experienced by the WBT directors regarding Israel’s participation in the WBT Scottish International Open.
“There has been a significant escalation in related political concerns. These issues have been extended to the upcoming World Indoor Championships,” they noted. “As a result of the intensity of the situation, the WBT Board, in consultants with our event partners and other relevant stakeholders, have made the difficult decision to withdraw the invitation for Israel to participate.”
“This decision was not taken lightly and has been made in the best interests of the events [sic] success and integrity,” they added. “Bowls is, and always has been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the Championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone involved. We remain hopeful that circumstances will allow us to welcome PBA Israel to the WBT stage in the future.”
World Bowls, which is an international sports federation for the sport of bowls not affiliated with WBT, said it had no connection or involvement in the decision to ban Israel.
The ban was widely condemned by Jewish groups and supporters earlier this week. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said, “There can be no justification for this overt act of discrimination against Israeli participants, who are excluded solely on the basis of their nationality.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which is a British volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism, claimed the WBT “caved to pressure from the anti-Israel mob.”
“World Bowls Tour says that bowls is a sport that unites people. But that apparently does not apply to the Jews, who are excluded,” a CAA spokesperson said. “This decision is a disgrace to international sport and sends the message that racist intimidation works. Athletes should be judged by their skill, not their race, ethnicity, or nationality. Unfortunately, that principle does not apply to Jewish athletes.”
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to the directors of WBT and pointed out that the ban is a clear breach of the UK’s Equality Act. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UKLFI, warned WBT that if it did not reverse the ban, the Israeli athletes could file legal proceedings against the organization for breach of the Equality Act. UKLFI similarly contacted John Potter of Potters Resorts and Ambassador Cruise Lines, the sponsor of the Bowls World Indoor Championships, about the allegedly illegal ban.
Local MP Rupert Lowe, whose constituency includes the venue where the Bowls World Indoor Championships will take place in January, said he was “genuinely disgusted” by the ban. He said about the Israeli athletes: “As far as I am concerned as the local MP, these individuals are welcome in our constituency.”
“This is following a concerted campaign from the pro-Palestine mob to have these Israelis barred from competing,” he added. “What message does this send? If the mob screams and shouts, they can get competitors of a certain nationality banned from entry? It is insanity, pure insanity. The organizers are cowards. Sport should be a unifier, and it should be above politics.”
After WBT reversed its ban following the public outcry, Lowe thanked the organization for making “the right decision.”
“This is how you deal with the bullies taking to the streets of OUR country every weekend. Stand up to them, don’t accept their hateful tactics,” he wrote in a post on X. “The Israeli team will be welcomed in Great Yarmouth, and I wish them well for the event. The World Bowls Tour have made the right decision. I thank them for that, and their apology to the individuals involved. Wonderful news — 2025 is the year we fight back against the hate mob.”
The post International Bowls Organization Reverses Ban on Israel at UK Championship After Facing Backlash first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘An Act of Terrorism’: New Orleans Attack Suspect Acted Alone, Supported Islamic State, FBI Says
A member of the National Guard Military Police stands, in the area where people were killed by a man driving a truck in an attack during New Year’s celebrations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, Jan. 2, 2025. PHoto: REUTERS/Octavio Jones
A US Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS), but acted alone in the attack that killed at least 14 people, the FBI said on Thursday.
The suspect, who was shot dead at the scene after firing at police, has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan who once served in Afghanistan. He drove from Houston to New Orleans on Dec. 31, and posted five videos on Facebook between 1.29 am and 3.02 am on the morning of the attack in which he said he supported ISIS, the Islamic terrorist group with fighters in Iraq and Syria, the FBI said.
In the first video, Jabbar explains he had previously planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that the media coverage would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at a press conference.
Jabbar also said in the videos that he had joined ISIS before last summer and provided his last will and testament, Raia said.
“This was an act of terrorism,” Raia said. “It was premeditated and an evil act.”
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a suspect in the New Orleans attack, is seen in this picture obtained from social media, released in November 2013, in Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana, US, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division via Facebook via REUTERS
New Orleans officials said the Sugar Bowl college football game that had been scheduled for Wednesday in a New Year’s Day tradition would take place on Thursday afternoon. The city will also host the National Football League’s Super Bowl next month.
The FBI said there appeared to be no link between the attack in New Orleans and the episode in Las Vegas on the same day in which a Tesla Cybertruck packed with gasoline canisters and large firework mortars exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20.
The injured victims in the New Orleans attack included two police officers wounded by gunfire from the suspect, taking place a mere three hours into the new year on Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter. At least 15 people were killed, including the suspect, the FBI said.
Among the victims were the mother of a 4-year-old who had just moved into a new apartment after getting a promotion at work, a New York financial employee and accomplished student-athlete who was visiting home for the holidays, and an 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi.
Witnesses described a horrifying scene.
“There were people everywhere,” Kimberly Strickland of Mobile, Alabama, said in an interview. “You just heard this squeal and the rev of the engine and this huge loud impact and then the people screaming and debris — just metal — the sound of crunching metal and bodies.”
Meanwhile, authorities in other US cities said they had boosted security, including at Trump Tower and Times Square in New York City, adding that there were no immediate threats.
In Washington, police also said they had increased their presence as the capital prepares to host three major events this month: Congress’ Jan. 6 certification of US President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential election win, the Jan. 9 state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, and Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
ISLAMIC STATE FLAG
The FBI said an ISIS flag was found on the trailer hitch of the rented vehicle involved in the New Orleans attack.
US President Joe Biden condemned what he called a “despicable” act.
Public records showed Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston. In a promotional video posted four years ago, Jabbar described himself as born and raised in Beaumont, a city about 80 miles (130 km) east of Houston.
Jabbar was in the regular Army from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from January 2015 until July 2020, an Army spokesperson said. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service.
ISIS is a Muslim terrorist group that once imposed a reign of terror over millions of people in Iraq and Syria until it collapsed following a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.
Even as it has been weakened in the field, ISIS has continued to recruit sympathizers online, experts say.
The post ‘An Act of Terrorism’: New Orleans Attack Suspect Acted Alone, Supported Islamic State, FBI Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Myth of Exodus: Media Bias and Israel’s Growing Population
Some 300 new immigrants from France arrive on a special “Aliyah Flight” organized by the Jewish Agency, at Ben-Gurion Airport in central Israel on July 23, 2018. More French Jews are expected to arrive. Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90.
A false narrative of mass departures from Israel has gained traction in international media, painting a misleading picture of a nation in retreat.
New data shows Israel’s population reached a historic milestone of 10 million citizens in 2024. While a record 82,700 people emigrated last year, net migration was 26,100 (-0.261 percent) when accounting for the 32,800 new immigrants and the 23,800 Israelis who returned home despite the war, a testament to the nation’s enduring appeal.
In its 2024 estimates of rates of net migration, the CIA World Factbook listed 50 countries ahead of Israel. And yet the media seem relatively oblivious to people fleeing countries like Indonesia, Qatar, Mexico, Peru, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and many other countries at a vastly higher clip.
Investigating how the “flight-from-Israel” story gets told today serves as a case study in confirmation bias and of the power of preconceived narratives against Israel.
In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, atrocities and South Africa’s genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice, media outlets predicted gloom for Israel’s population.
The Guardian spoke, in December 2023, of a “mass exodus.” Less than two months after Hamas’ depredations into Israel, Reuters highlighted “Israelis seeking refuge abroad.” Just two weeks ago, the Associated Press reported how “information points to a surge of Israelis leaving.” This creates an image of a nation in inexorable decline. Yet the nuanced data tells a markedly different story.
Immigration to Israel (aliyah) actually increased by 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023. Roughly 35,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel since the October 7th massacres. A third of the new immigrants to Israel have been aged 18 to 35 years old. The Jewish Agency’s latest figures show robust immigration from diverse regions: 75,000 from North America, 45,000 from Europe, 35,000 from the former Soviet Union, and 15,000 from Latin America in 2023 alone.
The data reveals what Israeli cognitive psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky called confirmation bias; in this case, observers interpret information to confirm their preexisting beliefs about Israel’s inexorable demise. Also on display is the availability heuristic, where dramatic stories of departure receive outsized attention compared to a stream of present or future arrivals.
Another bias in this narrative is the hasty generalization bias, an insidious form of inductive fallacy where isolated instances of emigration are extrapolated to misrepresent future trends.
This fallacy intensified following South Africa’s genocide libel against Israel, as media narratives amplified the unending departure myth despite evidence of increased solidarity and aliyah among South African Jews. Immigration from South Africa to Israel boomed by 20 percent after October 7, 2023.
This media narrative pattern isn’t new. Historical data reveals similar misconceptions during past challenges faced by Israel.
In the 1970s, economic instability was supposed to trigger ballooning departures, yet immigration from the USSR outpaced emigration. During the 1980s, the Lebanon War and intifadas allegedly sparked an exodus, but temporary emigration was offset by returnees and new immigrants. The 2000s saw predictions of a brain drain from Israel amid the tech bubble burst, only for the tech sector to rebound and attract global Jewish talent.
Israel’s latest Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data puts these narratives in perspective. Israel’s population grew by 1.1 percent (129,600 people) in 2024. Although increased emigration and casualties from the Hamas war lent some credence to a temporary departure narrative, the fundamental trend remains positive, and the future is wondrous. The Jewish population stands at 7.7 million (76.9 percent), with 2.1 million Arabs (21 percent) and 210,000 others (two percent).
This persistent gap between perception and reality may reflect motivated reasoning, where emotional or ideological preferences shape how information is processed. In other words, what Kahneman and Tversky called confirmation bias intensifies in the media.
Reporters, sometimes influenced by an ingrained animus toward Israel’s sustainability, repeatedly fall into the trap of catastrophizing temporary challenges to Israel, while overlooking the nation’s proven resilience.
The phenomenon also demonstrates the bandwagon fallacy, sometimes called the “appeal to common belief,” where the repetition of a narrative across multiple outlets creates the illusion of validity.
Each outlet citing others’ similar reports creates an echo chamber that can drown out contradictory data.
As Israel begins 2025 with its largest population ever, it is worth examining how these cognitive biases shape international discourse. The story of Israel’s population growth in the face of pummeling adversity doesn’t fit neatly into preconceived storylines of fragility and exodus.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’ adage applies to exposing any false narrative that diminishes Israel’s future: “Wrestle with it, refusing to let it go until it blesses you, until you emerge stronger, better or wiser than you were before. To be a Jew is not to accept defeat. That is the meaning of faith.”
Neil Seeman is a Senior Fellow at Massey College in the University of Toronto. His latest book is Accelerated Minds: Unlocking the Fascinating, Inspiring, and Often Destructive Impulses that Drive the Entrepreneurial Brain.
The post The Myth of Exodus: Media Bias and Israel’s Growing Population first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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