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Hollywood Hype
The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – The Academy Awards ceremony—with all its traditional Hollywood hype and international attention—is set to take place in Los Angeles on March 2. The Oscars represent the best talent the big screen has to offer, and the annual extravaganza has become a symbol of fashion, glitz and glamor. It offers a global stage for the stars to parade their dazzling designer gowns and over-the-top outfits to their adulating admirers.
Apparently, the famous after-party is where protocol and etiquette are abandoned in a competition of who can be daring enough to show as much flesh without getting arrested for indecent exposure.
I think the Oscars—and Hollywood, in general—have become equally emblematic of talent and trash. We can respect and admire art and talent, and, of course, a good movie with a meaningful message can leave impressions for life on millions of minds and hearts. And at the same time, it is all so superficial, so empty. Are we celebrating art? Perhaps. But so much of the periphery seems to be dominated by an outer beauty and an inner emptiness.
Hollywood is hollow. I see bright lights and blank faces.
How many celebrities can we hold up to our children as role models? This one died of an overdose; that one is in jail for sexual harassment. How many die of old age? How many have good marriages or have celebrated a golden wedding anniversary? (I’ll settle for silver!) The divorces are certainly much more spectacular than the weddings.
None of it seems real. Never mind fake news, it’s a fake world in La-La Land.
Now, let me share a Talmudic story.
Rabbi Gamliel was a first-century sage, and the head of the Yeshivah and the Sanhedrin—the Jewish Supreme Court based in Yavneh after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. It happened that the sages felt it necessary to depose Rabbi Gamliel from his position, as they considered him to have been demeaning to his colleague, Rabbi Yehoshua. He was replaced by Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, who appears prominently in the Haggadah on seder eve every Passover.
The Talmud recounts that on the day Rabbi Gamliel was replaced, hundreds more benches were needed in the study hall for all the new students who now flocked to study Torah.
Why? Because the rabbi was very strict in his admissions policy.
He insisted that to be accepted in the yeshivah, a student needed to be tocho k’baro. It means that his inside (his thoughts and feelings) must be like his outside (his conduct). Not only his outer behavior needed to be appropriate but also his inner character. If not, the student wouldn’t be accepted.
When Rabbi Gamliel was replaced by Rabbi Elazar, the admissions policy changed dramatically; anyone who wanted to study Torah could now join.
They dismissed the guard at the door, and permission was granted to the students to enter. On that day, many benches were added to the study hall to accommodate the numerous students. One opinion stated that four hundred benches were added to the study hall. And one said: Seven hundred benches were added to the study hall (Brachot 28a).
I suppose that we can debate which admissions policy is best. The most famous yeshivahs and universities today have stricter admission policies than most. Indeed, their graduates excel. On the other hand, there is a case to be made for an open-door policy that would be inviting for every student to learn and grow in Jewish wisdom and practice.
At any rate, I am sharing this story to give you a taste of the values and standards that our sages wanted their students to aspire to. To appear pious and devout on the outside, and be crude and callous on the inside is dishonest, hypocritical and unbecoming for a student of Torah.
Personally, I would advocate that the broadest admissions policy be welcoming to every Jew, young or old, to get a taste of Torah and allow it to enrich their lives. At the same time, we need to aspire higher and aim to develop students who will embody the lofty ideals of traditional Torah personalities in their chosen lifestyles. We need to be honest, consistent, wholesome and genuine. Creating a religious impression while being a degenerate hedonist is dishonest. Such a life is a lie; it’s not real.
We can find this message in Parshat Terumah this week. Moses is instructed to build the Mishkan—the very first Sanctuary for God—in the wilderness. It would house the sacred vessels that would later be in the Temple in Jerusalem. The holiest of all was the aron, the ark that contained the Tablets of Testimony with the Ten Commandments and was placed in the Holy of Holies.
The ark was to be made of acacia wood, and coated with gold on the inside and outside. How did Betzalel, the young genius who was the architect and designer of the Mishkan, construct the ark? Rashi tells us that he made three arks, one slightly larger than the next. The largest and smallest were made of gold, and the middle one was made of wood. He placed the wooden ark inside the larger golden ark and then the smaller golden ark inside the wooden ark. So, he now had a wooden ark coated with gold on the inside and the outside. Gold, wood, gold—it was brilliant in its simplicity.
The message? We need to be pure gold outside and inside. We should always try to be honest, wholesome and holistic. And we should produce students who are sincere, genuine and real—not plastic, barren or bare. Their outer personalities and their inner characters should be alike, a match, and consistent.
Hollywood produces lots of talent. Yeshivahs produce real people, inside and out.
The post Hollywood Hype first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.