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Large painting of Jesus at Merchant Marine Academy will be uncovered and moved to a chapel
(JTA) — A large painting of Jesus will be moved out of a room at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, and mandatory events will not take place in its presence.
That decision by the academy, announced on Friday, concludes a dispute over the painting’s fate that pitted religious freedom advocates against conservatives. The religious freedom advocates objected to non-Christian midshipmen being forced to look at the painting. The painting’s defenders saw calls to remove it as an example of progressive overreach.
The 10-foot by 19-foot painting, “Christ on the Water,” also known as “Jesus and Lifeboat,” depicts Jesus hovering over a lifeboat full of stranded sailors. It now hangs in an administrative building in the academy on Long Island. Objections to the painting were less about its imagery and more about a number of mandatory events held in its room, including one of the most grueling for midshipmen: adjudicating whether they had violated the honor code.
Jewish midshipmen and others complained about the painting’s placement last month. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a group that advocates for service members who are concerned about facing backlash for complaints, asked the academy to move the painting into the academy’s chapel.
The admiral who runs the academy, Joanna Nunan, said the painting was too big to move. But she had an alternative solution, one that pleased the 26 complainants: She installed curtains that would be drawn over the painting during mandatory events in the room, but would be pulled back at other times.
Nunan and the academy faced significant pushback for that decision from Republican lawmakers who wrote angry letters to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg demanding that he reverse the decision.
“Covering this painting isn’t about ‘constitutional concerns,’ it is just the latest example of the Left’s woke agenda,” Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican who is running for Senate, told Fox News.
On Friday, the academy announced another change. The painting would be moved to the chapel — the very suggestion originally put forward by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. (“Victory!” declared a release from the Foundation.)
That would take a while, the academy’s statement said, so in the meantime, the room would not be used for any mandatory event, including honor code reviews.
“In balancing our responsibility to foster a community of mutual respect and adhere to the law, we have decided to discontinue use of the Elliot See Room for official business,” the statement said. “The Room will remain available to members of our community who wish to view the painting. Finally, we will engage a vendor to clean and restore the painting and eventually display it at the Academy’s Chapel.”
A separate Academy statement to Fox News said the academy would also “remove the covering so members of our community may view the painting.”
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The post Large painting of Jesus at Merchant Marine Academy will be uncovered and moved to a chapel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.