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How a Kentucky lawmaker’s friendship with a Jewish woman helped inspire her viral speech decrying anti-trans legislation
(JTA) — Pamela Stevenson, a Democratic state representative in Kentucky, was chatting recently with her friend Zahava Kurland about one of Kurland’s duties at her Orthodox synagogue: preparing the dead for burial.
“She was trying to explain to me certain things that had to be done,” Stevenson, who is also a Black Baptist minister, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week. The seemingly esoteric topic was one of many the two women have discussed over more than a decade of weekly Friday-morning conversations — which cover anything from politics and friendship to faith and being one’s true self.
Stevenson said her conversations with Kurland have made her attuned to Jewish sensibilities. “She’s always listening for and giving me information” about Judaism and Jewish experiences, said Stevenson, who was first elected to the Kentucky legislature in 2020.
So Kurland was not surprised when, in a viral speech on Wednesday decrying her fellow lawmakers for signing off on a law that bans gender-affirming care for trans youth, Stevenson also centered antisemitism.
“First, you hated Black people,” Stevenson said, addressing the Republican lawmakers who voted for the legislation. “Then, you hated Jews. Now, you’re hating everybody. So the question is, when the only people left are you, will you hate yourself?”
Kurland said her friend is a listener and naturally empathetic, so she would be sensitive to how hatreds intersect.
“She’s truly well balanced,” said Kurland. “She truly cares about people.”
Stevenson says she looks forward to her Friday morning talks with Kurland. She said the conversations have helped give her a more expansive perspective on life, which drives her to fight bigotry.
“I really believe that I will never know as much as she knows,” Stevenson said. “But I can develop an appreciation for what it’s like and not use my view of the world as the only view of the world.”
What prompted Stevenson’s floor speech was the overwhelmingly Republican legislature’s override of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a law that bans a range of medical treatments and practices for trans youth. It outlaws doctors from providing gender-affirming treatment to youth; requires them to cease care if it has already begun; bans conversations in schools about gender identity or sexual orientation; bans school districts from allowing transgender students to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identity; and allows teachers to refuse to use a child’s preferred pronouns.
The bill was introduced weeks after state Sen. Karen Berg’s trans son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, died by suicide. Berg, who is Jewish, said that referring to the anti-trans bill as a parents’ rights bill is an “absolutely despicable affront to me personally,” according to The Washington Post. Stevenson, who has appeared alongside Berg at rallies, called her “phenomenal” and said, “This is infinitely more personal for her.”
Stevenson said that she mentioned anti-Jewish hatred in her speech because she believes hatreds are mutually reinforcing, and she connects the anti-trans sentiment she sees with rising racism and antisemitism.
“If you have a model where you have to hate somebody to win, then you always have to have somebody to hate,” she said. “People say it was out of nowhere, but it’s really out of somewhere. We’ve gone through the cycles of the Native Americans, the Black folks have been hated for a long time, the disabled. Everybody is always on the bottom of that model. And in just recent years, it was the Muslims, then it was the immigrants, and then it was back around the Blacks again. And so because of this overflow of hate, there’s been an uptick in antisemitic actions.”
Stevenson said her mission is to make people cognizant of the roots of hatred. “People want to say that all the attacks against the Jewish temples and the Jewish people in recent times came out of nowhere,” she said, referring to reports of a spike in antisemitic attacks. “No, it did not. We just have chosen not to pay attention to what’s been said.”
Kurland, who is a member of Congregation Beth Jacob in Atlanta, and Stevenson, a retired Air Force Colonel and an attorney who is running to be Kentucky’s attorney general, met in 2006 when Stevenson was serving in the Air Force and Kurland was working as an accountant in Atlanta. They attended a three-day course with Landmark, the personal development program that presses participants to face uncomfortable truths about themselves.
“When we were closer-in logistically she came over very often for Shabbos meals,” Kurland said. “I often invite people for Shabbos meals and the holidays and I love explaining, you know, how Judaism gave more to the world than anything, anybody, any person. Torah, Judaism has given the world its whole structure for society.”
The Air Force started moving Stevenson around. “That’s when we started talking on the phone all the time, because we couldn’t get together,” Kurland said.
Stevenson is “a committed listener, someone who’s going to hear you and call you out on your stuff,” Kurland said. “It’s not a friendship where you massage each other’s egos. It’s a friendship where you hold each other to account for who you say you are.”
They each speak with outrage at the lawmakers who, they feel, would breach the relationship between a parent and a child.
“As a mother, how dare you interfere with one of the most intimate relationships?” Stevenson said two weeks ago during debate on the bill, addressing Rep. Jennifer Decker, a Republican who was its lead sponsor. “We have no right to interfere in the parental rights.”
Kurland agrees. “These are all decisions to be made between a child and his parents or her parents and their doctor,” she said. “It has no place for the government to have anything to do with anything.”
And both Kurland and Stevenson say religion is a key part of their identities.
“Judaism is the center part of my life,” said Kurland. “It’s what I am, it’s who I am, it’s what I’m about. And as a Jew, you cannot sit by and let another one of God’s human beings [be excluded]. I mean, when we honor other people, we are doing God’s work. We are honoring God. When we cut people out, then we’re not “
Stevenson likewise calls herself “a woman of faith.”
“I believe what is required, in almost every faith that I know of, is to love one another and take care of the people around us,” she said.
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2026 Tribeca Film Festival to Screen World Premiere of Israeli Films, Including Noga Erez Documentary
A still from “What Is To Come.” Photo: Tribeca Film Festival
Organizers of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival announced on Thursday the official lineup for this year’s event in June and it includes the world premiere of three Israeli co-productions.
“What Is to Come” will be screened as part of the festival’s International Narrative Competition. The drama from Israel and the United Kingdom is about a woman named Yehudit who unexpectedly loses her husband and is forced to start over on her own. “In the process, she finds that abrupt and painful detours can lead to bright roads,” according to a synopsis of the film. The feature is directed and written by Ruthy Pribar, and stars Ronit Yudkevitch, Yaakov Zada Danielm and Tovit Adis Semay. “What Is to Come” will make its world premiere on June 8.
Pribar’s debut feature film “Asia” screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 and won three awards, including the Nora Ephron Prize for Pribar, a best actress award for Shira Haas, and best cinematography for Daniella Nowitz. The film also won nine Ophir Awards in Israel.
“Moishe Badhan (or The Tale of a Wedding Entertainer),” will also make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, in the Viewpoints section. Directed by Gidi Dar and written by Shuli Rand, the co-production from Israel and the US is a comedy-drama about a disgraced Hasidic wedding-comedian who is trying to gather enough funds to marry off his daughter. The cast includes Shuli Rand, Tal Friedman, and American Jewish comedian Elon Gold, who is also an executive producer on the film. The world premiere will take place on June 4.
The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival will also feature the world premiere of the documentary “Noga,” about Israeli alternative pop singer Noga Erez. The movie, which was directed and co-produced by Jono and Benji Bergmann, is a c0-production from Austria, Germany, Israel, and the US. It examines how Erez “must redefine her role as an artist on a global stage” after the Israel-Hamas war breaks out in 2023. The film’s world premiere on June 7 will be followed by an acoustic performance by Erez and her longtime partner in music and life Ori Rousso.
Erez is performing twice at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this month. She has never performed at the festival before and has made history as the first Israeli singer to take to the stage at the annual event in Indio, California.
The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival will run from June 3-14. The event will feature 118 feature films including 103 world premieres, which is the most in the history of the festival, and 86 short films. The festival this year will represent 143 filmmakers, including 55 first-time directors, spanning 44 countries.
“Tribeca began 25 years ago as an act of healing, a mission to reunite our community through the power of storytelling. Today, that purpose feels more urgent than ever,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-chair and co-founder of the Tribeca Festival. “This year’s incredible feature and short film lineup includes stories from filmmakers who make us think, feel, laugh, cry, and ask why. Tribeca remains dedicated to the artists’ voices and diverse perspectives that challenge us to see one another more clearly.”
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Over 1,000 Entertainment Industry Figures Back Israel’s Inclusion in 2026 Eurovision Song Contest
A photographer takes a picture of a TV screen in Wiener Stadthalle, the venue of next year’s Eurovision in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
More than 1,000 members of the entertainment industry have signed an open letter expressing support for Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) held in May, in response to demands to have the country excluded from the competition because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.
Creative Community for Peace, a non-profit organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry, penned the initial open letter in 2024 in response to efforts by anti-Israel activists to have the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the ESC, ban Israel from the event and to pressure countries and artists to withdraw their participation from the competition. The open letter voiced support for Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision as well as solidarity with the contest’s participants, while denouncing calls for a boycott of the event.
Hundreds more entertainment industry leaders have since added their names to the open letter, including actresses Amy Schumer and Mila Kunis; singer Matisyahu; actors Jeremy Piven and Jerry O’Connell; television writer, producer, and directors Amy Sherman-Palladino and Matthew Weiner; “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins; and “Nobody Wants This” co-creator Erin Foster.
“We have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” the letter stated. “We believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music.”
“Music should bring us together,” said O’Connell. “No artist should be silenced for where they are from. These boycott efforts destroy the very connections the arts are meant to build.”
Those who signed the initial open letter back in 2024 include Helen Mirren, Boy George, Liev Schrieber, Sharon Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Debra Messing, David Draiman, Mayim Bialik, Julianna Margulies, and Ginnifer Goodwin.
“Artists and culture are being dragged into the angry, misinformed politics of the moment,” said Osbourne in a released statement. “Attempts to exclude Israelis from the international stage twist art into a tool of division and erode the shared humanity that the arts are meant to preserve. I’ve watched this play out for over three years, and it just breaks my heart.”
The 2026 Eurovision semi-finals will take place on May 12 and 14, and the final live show will be on May 16. The competition is being held in Vienna, Austria.
After the European Broadcasting Union confirmed late last year that it will allow Israel to participate in the 2026 ESC, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland announced they will not participate in this year’s event.
Spain’s national broadcaster RTVE said it will not broadcast or participate in the event, which marks the first time the country has completely boycotted the ESC since it began participating in the competition in 1961. Spain’s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun called the move “brave.”
Meanwhile, the EBU confirmed this week that for the first time ever the live shows of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest will be available to watch for free in the United States. It will air on YouTube but also be available for viewing in the US on the Peacock streaming service.
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Yale University Admits Role in Crumbling Public Trust in Higher Education
Graduates enter Old Campus at Yale University for Commencement Day exercises, in New Haven, Connecticut, US May 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut blamed itself and other elite colleges for having played a role in crumbling public trust in higher education in a new committee report published on Wednesday.
Racial preferences in admissions, prohibitive sticker prices, declining academic standards, and advocacy of divisive progressive causes which polarized the American public to the point that “national divorce” became a byword on social media in recent years all contribute to a sense that elite higher education considers itself a class apart and above regular people, the report said.
Citing polling showing that just over a third of Americans, 36 percent, have “confidence” in higher education as opposed to 57 percent who did in 2016, it noted that “trust in higher education has declined faster than in other institutions and sectors.”
The statistics reveal uncertainty regarding the purpose of higher education and its relevance to a democracy that is contemptuous of gatekeepers and hollow indicators of status.
Yale University’s own opaque system of “preferences” in undergraduate admissions — which it said privileges the wealthy, athletes, and some minorities — is one source of discontent that needs to be addressed, the report said.
Yale University infamously adopted racial preferences under the leadership of president Kingman Brewster in the 1960s, despite growing evidence that the practice created an environment of academic maladjustment and racial division. This led to the creation of segregated programming and academic programs for African Americans, as well as a summer remedial program for minority students — PROP (Pre-Orientation Program) — that was eventually rebranded in the late 1990s when its apparent subtext proved unpalatable to a new generation of students.
“We recommend that Yale reduce preferences for special classes of applicants. We also believe that the admissions system can be made more effective and less onerous for applicants by establishing and making a public minimum standard of academic achievement necessary for consideration,” the report continued. “Under the current system, Yale informs potential students that everything matters, leaving applicants scrambling to second-guess what the university wants.”
The report authors, drawn from across Yale’s faculty, went on to recommend adopting a “minimum SAT score” or “Yale specific entrance exam” to “ensure that no student is admitted without the requisite academic preparation ability.”
Elite undergraduate admissions is a matter of growing importance to the Jewish community, as it has seen its representation in some Ivy League institutions plunge. According to a report issued by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance in March, Jewish undergraduate enrollment at Harvard has plummeted to lows not seen since the eve of World War II and the Holocaust, falling to just 7 percent.
The same report also found that Jews are the only minority group at Yale University whose admittance rates have declined since the university expanded the size of its undergraduate class in 2018. The revelation has revived memories of elite education’s 20th century practice of “restriction,” by which admissions officers relied on a “holistic assessment” of applicants to deny admission to Jews.
Yale’s new report also touched on the charged issue of viewpoint diversity, a point of vulnerability for most universities.
“The campus has not been immune from pressures toward conformity, intimidation, and social shaming that have affected the rest of higher education and, indeed, the rest of American society,” it said, referencing a 2015 viral incident in which a Yale undergraduate shrieked at professor Nicholas Christakis because he had implored progressive students not to be hypersensitive over Halloween costumes portraying people of color. “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.