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Dianne Feinstein was a ‘woman of valor,’ rabbi says at San Francisco memorial service
SAN FRANCISCO (J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Dianne Feinstein was an eshet chayil, the Hebrew term for a woman of valor, Rabbi Jonathan Singer proclaimed in his opening remarks on Thursday at a memorial service for the U.S. senator who died Sept. 29 at 90.
The event outside San Francisco City Hall was attended by about 1,500 invited guests, all gathered to remember a pathbreaking politician who spent a decade as the city’s first woman mayor.
Singer, the co-senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El — the same synagogue where Feinstein, then Dianne Goldman, was confirmed as a teenager in 1949 — shared the English words of Psalm 23, which begins, “God is my shepherd.” Cantor Roz Barak, Emanu-El’s cantor emerita, sang the psalm in Hebrew.
“She feared no evil, as she courageously pursued justice as a leader in the Senate,” Singer said. “And she gave us hope that we Americans can always be inspired by the values of democracy, even as we walk at times through the valley of shadows.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer were among the prominent speakers. President Joe Biden delivered a recorded message.
“God bless a great American hero. She was something else,” Biden said. “She was a dear friend.”
The service took place on an exceptionally hot San Francisco day, punctuated by the Blue Angels flying overhead as part of Fleet Week, which Feinstein was responsible for establishing in 1981 to honor the armed forces. “Fleet Week would be dedicated to you,” Pelosi noted as the roar of the jets caused her to pause.
Many of the guests, including current and former members of Congress, accented their formal attire with sun hats and baseball caps and fanned themselves with the memorial programs as the sun beat down. A building-sized portrait of Feinstein was displayed outside City Hall, where Feinstein lay in state on Wednesday before a private, family-only burial after the service.
In his remarks, Schumer told a story about his colleague, recalling how she called him in New York shortly after his daughter Alison moved to San Francisco.
“Does your daughter have anywhere to go for the High Holiday services?” Feinstein asked him. He replied that she did not. “Well, then, she’s going to services with me.”
(Feinstein and her third husband, Richard Blum, joined Reform Congregation Sherith Israel in 1992, though it is unknown how long they were members.)
Schumer worked closely with Feinstein to pass the federal ban on assault weapons in 1994. “Dianne Feinstein was a leader of uncommon integrity,” the New York senator said.
Harris described Feinstein as “an American patriot, a giant of the Senate and a dear friend” to her and her husband, Doug Emhoff.
“Dianne commanded respect, and she gave respect. She was a serious and gracious person who welcomed debate and discussion, but always required that it was well informed and studied,” the vice president said.
Pelosi said Feinstein was not only a close colleague in Congress but also a good neighbor in Pacific Heights, their San Francisco neighborhood.
“Dianne loved cultivating people, and flowers,” Pelosi said, describing the hydrangeas growing in Feinstein’s yard as “the most fabulous.” She also knew the senator to be quite the matchmaker and credits her with pairing former Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust.
Feinstein was also an avid painter, giving her friends mugs and painted images of her homegrown flowers, Pelosi said.
Pelosi read off a list of legacies Feinstein leaves behind, including fighting to save San Francisco’s cable cars; authoring legislation to create the breast cancer stamp that benefited research; doggedly battling to pass the federal assault weapons ban; and starting the annual Lake Tahoe Summit with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 1997.
“She left on her own terms,” Pelosi said, recalling Feinstein’s final vote, a day before she died. “She walked into the [Senate] floor and voted to advance legislation to keep the government open for the people,” she said.
An image of Sen. Dianne Feinstein is displayed during her funeral service at City Hall in San Francisco, California, Oct. 5, 2023. (Loren Elliott / AFP via Getty Images)
John Burton, who served in Congress and the state Assembly and chaired the Democratic Party in California, provided written remarks read aloud by Breed. “She had chutzpah, and I loved her for it,” Burton wrote.
Eileen Mariano, Feinstein’s 31-year-old granddaughter and the final speaker at the hourlong memorial service, described the warm, grandmotherly woman she was behind the scenes.
Feinstein would cut her granddaughter’s hair in her kitchen, often slightly crooked, Mariano joked. “She taught me to play chess, although she hated losing,” she remembered, and would sing “You Are My Sunshine” as a lullaby.
“We had an effortless connection,” said Mariano, who works in the San Francisco mayor’s office.
Among the Jewish elected officials in attendance were Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was elected alongside Feinstein in 1992, becoming the first Jewish women to win seats in the Senate; California state Sen. Scott Wiener; San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin; Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg; Rep. Adam Schiff of Southern California; and Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia.
“Let’s remember what she meant to San Francisco,” Wiener said in a statement. “She became mayor during one of the most difficult periods imaginable for our city. She led San Francisco out of the fires of political assassinations, mass cult suicides, and a mass die-off of gay men due to a new, terrifying virus.”
Heading out after the memorial, Steinberg stopped to share his thoughts. “She represented the best in Jewish values,” he said. “As a public servant, she embodied what we need more of in this country — leaders who have strong values, who fight but fight in the right way and are always looking for common ground. And the one thing that matters more than anything else: accomplish something on behalf of the people. That was Dianne Feinstein.”
This story originally appeared in J. Jewish News of Northern California and is reprinted with permission.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.