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Denver drops drug charges against ‘mushroom rabbi’ who promotes religious psychedelic use

(JTA) — A Denver rabbi who promotes psychedelic use as part of spiritual practice will no longer face prosecution after Coloradans voted last month to legalize psilocybin, the chemical compound found in psychedelic mushrooms.

Denver’s district attorney’s office announced last week that it was dropping charges against Ben Gorelick, the founder of  Sacred Tribe, a multifaith community that integrates psilocybin use and ideas rooted in Jewish tradition. A spokesperson for the office told the Denver Post that the move was “in light of the voters’ decision” to pass Proposition 122, which makes growing and sharing psilocybin and other related substances legal for adults over 21 in Colorado.

Gorelick had been charged in February with possessing a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or distribute it, a felony that carried mandatory prison time, even though Denver voters had already chosen to decriminalize psilocybin’s use.

“It’s been a long year for the community, it’s been a long year for us, and we look forward to getting back to practicing our religion, which is what the whole point of this is,” Gorelick told the Denver Post this week.

The charges had sidelined Sacred Tribe’s central purpose, although the group continued to hold Shabbat dinners and other activities for its roughly 270 members, who do not have to be Jewish. Gorelick, who was ordained in 2019 as a rabbi by the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, an online program, had sought publicity and funding to fight the charges on religious freedom grounds.

He argues that there is a longstanding tradition of psychedelic drug use within Judaism, which even other Jewish advocates of psychedelics as part of spiritual practice dispute. Those advocates told the Guardian last summer that Gorelick, who said he screened community members to make sure they sought psilocybin for religious use, had not been known to their tight-knit community before his arrest.

Jewish psychedelics advocates have become more organized in recent years. Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who was ordained as by an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, founded a group called Shefa during the pandemic that aims to one day make chemically-assisted mystical encounters into a normative part of Jewish spirituality. Last year, the group held a first-ever Jewish psychedelics conference.

Long considered illicit in the United States, psychedelics have been the subject of intensifying research, including about their potential as a therapeutic tool for treating trauma. One of the groups promoting the research, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, was founded by a Jewish man who was inspired by a dream about surviving the Nazis to devote his life to promoting psychedelics as a cure for human ills and an insurance policy against another Holocaust.

“I’m one of the very few people who can say they’ve had a legal experience with psychedelics in this country,” Kamenetz said last year. “To be able to speak freely about it without the stigma — because it’s not just people talking about doing illegal things — it’s allowed people to start having a more open conversation about it. When there’s the opportunity to hear from someone who did this in a legal environment, people will listen more.”

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The post Denver drops drug charges against ‘mushroom rabbi’ who promotes religious psychedelic use appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Your Cyber Monday Checklist For Exploring Numood Kratom Drink Flavors

Cyber Monday offers a chance to revisit online brands, compare selections, and find worthwhile deals ahead of the holiday season. Anyone researching Numood kratom drink flavors can use the Cyber Monday shopping period to assess the selection, review the website’s presentation, and check whether advertised offers offer real value. This review takes a practical approach to the upcoming Cyber Monday season. It examines the brand’s current online range, the details worth checking before ordering, and factors that help shoppers make more informed purchasing decisions without relying on unverified promotional claims.

Numood Kratom Drink Flavors–Cyber Monday Checklist

1. Start With Numood’s Current Online Collection

Review the available range first

The first step in any Cyber Monday checklist is understanding what a brand currently offers. Numood’s all-products collection provides a starting point for reviewing its listed beverages and comparing the available options.

For shoppers exploring Numood Kratom Drink flavors, this initial review helps establish the available choices before promotional messaging enters the picture. It also makes it easier to identify which listings merit a closer look.

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Distinguish the current range from campaign announcements

A product being available on the website does not automatically qualify for a Cyber Monday promotion. Seasonal campaigns may apply to selected listings or purchasing arrangements rather than the entire collection.

Numood’s current product pages should therefore be reviewed separately from any Cyber Monday announcement. This distinction prevents shoppers from assuming every listed item is discounted simply because they’re considering a purchase during the sales period.

2. Compare The Flavor Options With Clear Criteria

Look at how the selection is presented

Numood’s listed flavor names clearly distinguish the available options. Blue Razz and Peach Mango offer two different fruit-inspired naming profiles, while Dragonfruit Lychee and Strawberry Watermelon add variety to the collection.

A review of Numood Kratom Drink flavors is more useful when it considers the information the brand actually presents rather than making assumptions about sweetness, texture, or flavor intensity that the listing may not support.

Check the details attached to each listing

Product names are only one part of an online listing. Package information, displayed price, available purchasing formats, and other stated details help clarify what is being offered.

This step also keeps the comparison grounded in the current collection rather than older product descriptions or information from previous campaigns.

3. Check Whether The Cyber Monday Offer Is Clear

Verify the advertised savings

The Cyber Monday promotion should be confirmed through the actual offer details. A banner or seasonal headline can introduce a campaign, but it does not independently confirm the discount available on a particular item.

For anyone comparing Numood Kratom Drink flavors, this verification helps distinguish real savings from general seasonal marketing.

Assess the offer on its own terms

A discount is only one consideration in a purchase decision. The amount saved, the total order cost, and any conditions attached to the offer all affect its practical value.

The most useful Cyber Monday checklist focuses on whether the advertised terms match the intended purchase. No particular discount should be assumed unless Numood confirms it.

4. Review Numood’s Purchasing Options

Compare individual purchases with available bundles

Numood’s website also presents purchasing options beyond individual product listings, including bundles and subscription arrangements. These options may matter for shoppers comparing different ways to place an order.

The key distinction is between an option that genuinely helps and one that increases the purchase size. A bundle may be worth considering when its contents match the shopper’s original plans, but a larger order does not automatically offer better value.

Examine recurring purchase arrangements carefully

A subscription differs from a one-time purchase because it can involve recurring charges and a continuing order schedule. Before selecting this option, shoppers should review the displayed price, billing frequency, cancellation conditions, and any stated benefits.

This part of the checklist helps keep the buying decision aligned with the intended order rather than encouraging additional commitments without a clear reason.

5. Look Beyond The Product Page

Evaluate the website’s information and navigation

A useful online shopping experience allows visitors to move between the collection, individual listings, and relevant purchasing information without unnecessary confusion.

The review should remain based on what the website actually presents. A polished layout can improve browsing, but it doesn’t replace accurate item details or purchase conditions.

Read the policies before placing an order

Shipping and returns are important parts of the overall transaction. Numood’s published information states that processing generally takes three to five business days, while delivery timing depends on the carrier and destination. These terms should be checked for updates before ordering.

For shoppers evaluating Numood Kratom Drink flavors, these details provide a more complete picture than the product listing alone. Understanding the policies in advance helps set realistic expectations about delivery and what to do if an order arrives incorrectly.

6. Build A Shortlist Before Cyber Monday Checkout

Narrow the options to the most relevant listings

Browsing an entire collection can make it harder to compare the details that matter. A shortlist gives shoppers a more manageable way to review the available options before deciding whether to purchase.

At this stage, Numood Kratom Drink flavors should be evaluated according to the available product information and the shopper’s own criteria, rather than an assumption that every option needs to be included in the final order.

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Make the final decision using confirmed information

Before checkout, review the selected items, quantities, and final amount payable. Confirm that any promotional code has been applied correctly and that the displayed order total reflects the intended purchase.

A careful final review brings the process together: the selection has been examined, the offer has been verified, and the terms of the order have been considered.

Final Thoughts

Numood’s Cyber Monday shopping checklist begins with its current collection and continues through offer verification, purchasing options, website information, and order policies. Each step contributes something different to the final decision, making the review more useful than a product-by-product promotional rundown. For shoppers exploring Numood Kratom Drink flavors, the official collection provides a starting point for comparing the available listings.

About The Author

Palmina Thomson is an SEO strategist, editor, and niche researcher with more than 20 years of experience in digital content and online brand communications. Her work focuses on developing search-friendly articles that align with reader intent while maintaining factual accuracy, editorial clarity, and consistent structure. She specializes in topical research, content planning, and compliance-aware writing for competitive online markets. Her editorial approach emphasizes useful brand reviews, practical purchasing information, and clear distinctions between verified details and promotional messaging.

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I’m an empathetic Zionist. But it’s time for all of us to stop counting our dead.

There are, and always have been, several types of Zionism, as Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s Yom Kippur sermon reminded me. I first had to declare the type of Zionist I am in 1994 at a meeting at the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles that brought together Arabs and Jews to create a speakers’ bureau that would advocate for Middle East peace at synagogues, churches and mosques in southern California.

Approximately 20 people gathered in a small room and a moderator asked each of us to speak briefly about what brought us to the meeting. One by one as the people in the room spoke, they listed the atrocities both Jews and Palestinian Arabs had suffered, including the Holocaust, the Nakhba, the mutual massacres that had taken place in British Palestine before 1948, the suicide bombings and the destruction of Palestinian homes. When it was my turn to speak, I began, “I am a Zionist.”

My Zionism was anchored in 20 years of conducting archaeological excavations in Israel, and a 1986 trip to the Soviet Union to help Jews emigrate to Israel, during which I was arrested three times by the KGB. I was an American, but an active Zionist.

I continued, “But it is time for all of us to stop counting our dead. Jews and Arabs both have enough suffering to go around. We don’t need to justify ourselves to each other by enumerating the terrible losses we have experienced.  Let’s focus our attention on understanding and making peace with one another.”

My words had an impact. We moved forward to plan the bureau. I was paired with a leader of the Palestinian community in LA who looked like he could be my older brother. We spoke at universities, synagogues and churches for two years, at a time when the promise of peace was bolstered by the Oslo Accords. But when Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister in 1996, I felt I was no longer speaking about an Israeli government that shared my aspirations, and that phase of my life ended.

Today, in the post Oct. 7 world, I feel like I am sitting in that same meeting room, only it encompasses way more than 20 people. Often, when I hear or read about the present Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I hear about the 1,200 people killed on Oct. 7, and the tens of thousands killed thereafter. The death of every child is tallied and the sufferings of every hostage recalled. We can do better.

I am an empathetic Zionist. I support the Jewish state of Israel, and I also feel empathy for its victims. My definition of empathy bridges radical differences between individuals and forces a person to look through another person’s eyes. Sympathy allows one to feel the pain of someone closely related; empathy allows one to understand a thoroughly different person. As a Jew, I sympathize with the Oct. 7 victims, the hostages and their families; but I also empathize with the Palestinians who have suffered and died in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

I believe today, as I did in 1994, that the first step toward empathy is a cease fire, not only on the battlefield, but on the frontlines of the constant bickering about who has suffered more. After almost 100 years, the time has come to empathize with the victims instead of counting them.

And we should begin with the children. A child’s suffering can change minds, whether the trauma is witnessed firsthand or through a photograph or a written description. Who in my generation can forget the 1972 picture of the Vietnamese “napalm girl,” nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked and screaming after a South Vietnamese napalm attack on her village severely burned her back? The Pulitzer Prize-winning photo influenced public opinion and the anti-war movement. As Anne Frank had triggered worldwide empathy for Holocaust victims, Kim Phuc made the Vietnam war seem insupportable.

Who today are the children who can teach us about Gaza? I would choose three: Ariel and Kfir Bibas, four years old and nine months old respectively, and five-year-old Hind Rajab.

Kfir and Ariel Bibas were kidnapped along with their mother Shiri from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 and murdered in captivity; their bodies were returned to Israel on February 20, 2025.

Hind Rajab was five years old when she and her uncle, aunt and three cousins left Gaza City by car. Israeli shelling killed all in the car except Hind and her cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh. Layan telephoned the Palestine Red Crescent Society and was heard pleading for help and screaming as she was shot. Hind, still alive, stayed on the telephone for three hours. She died from IDF gunfire, and when the Red Crescent workers finally arrived, they too were killed.

Who are the adults today who can teach us to empathize with those children? I would choose two: Noam Chayut and Aziz Abu Sarah.

Noam Chayut was an Israeli soldier patrolling the West Bank. In his memoir, The Girl Who Stole my Holocaust: A Memoir, written in 2007, he describes an encounter with a 10-year-old “scrawny” Palestinian girl wearing “light colored clothes.”  On the outskirts of a village there were children playing, she among them. With no particular intent, Noam approached and smiled at her, but she did not smile back. She was terrified, frozen for a second, which allowed Noam to look into her eyes. Then she ran away. But what he saw in her eyes was himself. He saw the soldier, the occupier and he saw someone else, someone evil. He did not see himself as evil, but she did. He empathized with her terror, and it changed his life.

As a young Palestinian man, in 1998, Aziz Abu Sarah visited Yad VaShem with trepidation. He felt if he “empathized with the enemy it would be a betrayal of his own pain,” he wrote in The Future is Peace. But he went anyway, and after he arrived at the underground chamber memorializing the death of one and a half million Jewish children he “walked out of the museum a different person.”

Both Noam and Aziz looked at children they were taught to regard as enemies. And the adversaries who populated their world became human. It is imperative that the deaths of Hind Rajab, Ariel and Kfir Bibas teach us about the trauma of our perceived foes. If we cannot empathize with them and their families, I doubt that Israelis and Palestinians can come to any understanding.

I recognize the very problematic long term political and structural problems inherent in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But how will we ever learn how the other side thinks and feels if we do not try to understand each other’s pain? Seeking mutual empathy can be the beginning of a path to a new and peaceful community.

The post I’m an empathetic Zionist. But it’s time for all of us to stop counting our dead. appeared first on The Forward.

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Let my people grow: Jewish online cannabis retailer braces for new federal law to take effect

For the past several years, Jewish cannabis company Tokin’ Jew has offered a little something to take the edge off just about every Jewish occasion.

High Holidays have you feeling stressed? Try “High, Honey,” the company’s THC-infused honey stick. Passover Seder dragging on a little too long? An edible called “4 Cups,” the first officially certified kosher-for-Passover THC gummy, will help get you through it.

Now the company that brought the world cannabis-infused chocolate Hanukkah gelt and THC-laced hamantaschen is facing a decidedly less festive future. In a couple months, the products responsible for the majority of its business will no longer be legal due to a change in federal law.

And it’s not just Tokin’ Jew. The new restrictions, set to take effect in December, threaten to upend a multibillion dollar e-commerce industry that has flourished for nearly a decade.

For co-founders Ben Kraim and Will Cohen, who have spent years building a business around the unlikely intersection of Judaism and cannabis, the change threatens to undo much of their lives’ work.

“It’s not easy being a Jewish weed brand, Kraim told the Forward. “Our brand is incredibly niche, so the prospect of losing access to the customer base we worked hard to build up is especially upsetting.”

What began as a humble meme account has grown into a thriving online operation, selling everything from novelty Judaica gifts and smoking accessories to kosher-certified edibles with clever names like “Apple of My Chai” and “Guava Nagila.”

The company has also cultivated a devoted community, bringing together observant and secular Jews, along with cannabis enthusiasts of all backgrounds, through a shared appreciation for Jewish humor and high-quality kush.

Now, Tokin’ Jew Flower, the division of their company, which Kraim said accounts for approximately 60 to 70 percent of sales, faces an uncertain future.

The legal foundations for Tokin’ Jew dates back to the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized products containing no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC by dry weight. That provision created an opening for companies to manufacture and ship hemp and hemp-derived products, including THC gummies, across certain state lines without needing to abide by the state-by-state licensing systems governing recreational marijuana use.

A booming industry followed. But Kraim acknowledges that the relatively lax federal regulations created opportunities for “bad actors” to sell questionable products.

“I think everybody in this industry knew things were a little too good to be true,” he said.

What he and many others expected, however, was tighter rules, not the effective elimination of their business model.

“We all thought eventually the federal government was going to create more regulation in this space,” he said, adding that he would have welcomed stronger oversight.

“We like to joke that it’s our Jewish guilt that keeps us from selling a subquality product. But we absolutely support stricter regulation – something that would have been entirely feasible.”

Instead, another provision tucked into the federal spending bill signed by President Trump in November 2025 dramatically narrowed the definition of legal hemp. Under the new rules, finished products containing more than 0.4 milligrams per container of total THC and similarly intoxicating cannabinoids will no longer qualify as federally legal hemp.

The restrictions were originally scheduled to go into effect November 2026, but Congress granted a brief extension that pushed the deadline back to December 11.

According to Kraim, it is not only companies like theirs that will be affected. Growers, manufacturers, packaging businesses and warehouses may have to shut down altogether.

“These are people’s entire livelihoods that they now have to just set ablaze,” Kraim said.

“At least we have this brand that can take many shapes and can live on in so many other ways,” he said. “But if you’re a hemp farmer, you are in big trouble.”

The news comes just as Tokin’ Jew has been experiencing explosive growth. According to Kraim, the company now has approximately 250,000 followers across social media platforms, with its Instagram content reaching between 18 million and 22 million people monthly. Orders have roughly tripled over the past year.

But the founders’ relationship with their customers goes beyond sales.

From the beginning, Kraim, who was raised modern Orthodox, and Cohen, who was raised in a Reform community, viewed their company as a way to connect Jews to their identity through humor, particularly those who may feel alienated from more traditional expressions of Judaism.

That same sense of community was on full display when they announced the impending restrictions.

“We were flooded with comments and DMs and emails,” Kraim said, describing messages of sympathy, appreciation and personal testimonials about the company’s products.

What struck him most were the offers of assistance.

“We got tons of messages from people willing to offer a hand,” he said. “‘How can I help? My uncle owns a dispensary. Let’s protest.’ People just coming in hot, trying to help in any way that they can, which is just so beautiful and so Jewish.”

Others began stocking up, taking advantage of the products’ long shelf lives. The company is even considering producing its popular kosher-for-Passover gummies early so customers can buy them before the ban takes effect.

For customers who rely on the products for more than recreation, but relief, Kraim worries about what will happen when home delivery is no longer an option.

He described phoning one of their biggest customers only to discover an elderly Jewish woman on the other end of the line. She told the team how much she relied on their products and how convenient home delivery was, particularly because multiple ailments and limited mobility made it difficult for her to get to a dispensary.

“We were tearing up by the end of the call,” Kraim recalled.

Gabrielle G, a Tokin’ Jew customer since 2024, who declined to give her last name, called the news “truly devastating for the Jewish stoner community.”

“Their Advent calendars were a highlight of my Jewish holidays,” she told the Forward. “I hope they find a solution because TJ feels like family.”

Regardless, TokinJew.com will continue selling accessories, apparel, home goods and Judaica, with plans to expand its offerings.

They’re also planning a gradual move into licensed dispensaries, beginning in New York and eventually New Jersey. But that involves developing separate production, distribution and regulatory requirements for each state, a daunting prospect for a company that spent years developing its national online operation.

“But us Jews are the masters of the pivot,” he pointed out. “We historically have troubles thrown our way, and we always have to figure out our next step.”

For a company whose product line is largely inspired by the Jewish calendar, the date of the new bill feels particularly poignant: The new restrictions are scheduled to take effect on December 11, the evening Jews around the world light the eighth and final Hanukkah candle, commemorating the miracle of a single day’s supply of oil burning for eight.

“We have our plan A, B and C,” Kraim said. “One of which is praying for a Hanukkah miracle.”

The post Let my people grow: Jewish online cannabis retailer braces for new federal law to take effect appeared first on The Forward.

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