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Sponsoring Israeli missiles doesn’t fly for everyone in a Facebook group for ‘Kosher Restaurant Foodies’
(JTA) — Elan Kornblum, the creator of the popular Facebook group Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies, has not been shy about marshaling the group’s 98,000 members in support of a charitable cause.
The group, whose usual fodder focuses on the quality of food (and rabbinic certification) at kosher restaurants around the world, has mobilized in response to extreme weather events, community members’ medical expenses and to feed the hungry. In the days following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, it sent boxes upon boxes of food to JFK Airport, to be loaded onto specially chartered flights to Tel Aviv.
Five weeks later, though, the group erupted over another of Kornblum’s donations to Israel: an IDF artillery shell headed for Gaza that was scrawled with the text, “GKR Foodies stands with Israel.” Kornblum said he was able to get the message on the missile via a gift of $180 to an Israeli charity.
“On behalf of the group, the IDF soldiers will be sending a present to Hamas tomorrow,” Kornblum wrote in a post on Nov. 12. “Specifically this 155 mm artillery shell. Yes, you can get writing on a missle [sic]. Jewish ingenuity at its finest– Introducing the MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE CAMPAIGN!”
Kornblum wrote that the money would go to purchase supplies for soldiers. The public post received more than 750 likes and was shared more than 60 times outside of the group. But not everyone agreed that it was a good idea.
“I hate it,” one member said. Another replied to the post, “May Hashem have mercy on us all.”
The discussion over the fundraiser, which spawned more than 200 comments, is an example of how debate over the Israel-Hamas war has seeped even into Jewish spaces that are meant to be a sanctuary from the sometimes all-consuming political discourse on social media. And, in a forum composed largely of observant Jews, who tend to be more centrist and right-wing, on average, than American Jewry at large, it threw the fault lines of communal discussion into stark relief.
Some commenters objected to the fundraiser because they support a ceasefire — a calling-card of left-wing Jews. But even some who support Israel’s campaign in Gaza said they were uncomfortable with having the name of their Facebook group written on a weapon of war.
“If somebody said, ‘Do you consent to being part of this?’ I would have said, ‘absolutely not,’ and I would probably have a much stronger reaction,” said Daniel Saleman, a New Jersey-based accountant and member of Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies since 2015. “I had absolutely no say in it.”
Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies isn’t the only social media operation to find itself dealing with matters of war and peace post-Oct. 7. Jewish influencers whose content does not typically center around Israel have found their roles shift over the past six weeks, as they feel compelled to use their platforms to weigh in on the war.
“I feel a moral responsibility to speak about it, specifically because I don’t feel like anyone who is not Jewish does talk about it,” Morgan Raum, a Jewish food influencer with more than 150,000 followers on Instagram, told NBC News earlier this month. “If I’m not talking about it, who is?”
The “Foodies” Facebook group was born from a print magazine, Great Kosher Restaurants, that has since become an online guide to kosher dining options. The Facebook group has 10 administrators, including Kornblum, along with one moderator, all of whom manage group membership, settings and posts.
Many dissenters on Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies objected to the tone of the post. Saleman commented that the post was “in poor taste.” He added that because the post settings were public, it could be used as anti-Israel propaganda. Other commenters shared similar sentiments.
Comments on the post called it “very misguided and in terrible taste,” and “abhorrent and gut wrenching.” A member who said they were a parent of two Israeli soldiers wrote, “Let’s not glorify war, let’s not make light of the war that is being fought for our country and our people.” Another group member wrote, “This is one of the most horrific things I have ever seen. That a Jew would do this.”
The backlash came quickly. Less than an hour after the post went up, Kornblum commented defending it. “I’ll say it again, IDF uses missles [sic] to destroy Hamas buildings and targets, it does not use it for civilians,” he wrote. “I can’t believe we need to explain that in this group.”
As discussion on the post devolved from criticism of the campaign to personal attacks on group members, Kornblum shut down the comments section, one of his tools when conversation gets too negative. He reopened the comment feed the following morning, then closed it down again — after posting another comment defending the missile message, at least his fourth since publishing the post.
“For the record, I’ll just note there are about 450 reactions on this post,” he wrote. “287 likes, 145 loves, 3 angry. We keep posts up dependent on what the group as a majority wants. I think the group has spoken. Thanks. Talk later.”
Kornblum told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he saw the donation as a standard way to demonstrate support for Israel at war — of a piece with the group’s other efforts.
“Being that we run the group and we stand behind Israel, this was my way of showing it,” Kornblum told JTA. He’s used the group’s name in other contexts such as deaths or lifecycle events, he said.
“A lot of times I’ll say, ‘On behalf of the group, we send condolences,’ ‘We send mazel tov,’” he added. “So when I speak on behalf of the group, it’s myself and my company and the group. So I thought it was a nice message.”
This is not the first time a message written on an Israeli rocket has spread online. On Oct. 29, the day after “Friends” co-star Matthew Perry died, an image of a rocket with the Hebrew message, “This one is for Chandler Bing,” appears to have first been shared on Instagram by comedian and digital creator Matan Zur, who is currently serving in the Israel Defense Forces. The image went viral when it was shared by Israeli tech blogger Hillel Fuld on X. That picture, too, generated backlash for making light of both the war and of Perry’s death.
Writing messages on rockets is a tradition that dates back at least to World War II. American soldiers in a Black platoon in 1945 famously posed for a picture with a basket of ammunition tagged with the words “Happy Easter Adolph.” Another famous photo from 1944 or 1945 shows Joseph Wald, who served in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army, holding an artillery shell bearing the Hebrew words “Gift for Hitler.”
Left: Technician Fifth Grade William E. Thomas and Private First Class Joseph Jackson pose with artillery shells on Easter morning, 1945; Right: Joseph Wald, a soldier in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army, holds an artillery shell inscribed with the words, “a gift for Hitler” in Hebrew, sometime in 1944 or 1945. (Images via Wikimedia Commons. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg)
And over the course of the Ukraine war, a project similar to the Israeli campaign run through SignMyRocket.com was created by Ukrainian information technology student Anton Sokolenko. The initiative has raised nearly $1.7 million dollars and written more than 5,100 messages across a variety of weapons, according to its website.
The donation page for the Israeli project, on the website of a charity called the Chesed Fund, says more than $12,000 has been raised for this particular fundraiser for IDF soldiers, which pays for protective gear. But the Chesed Fund did not respond to a JTA inquiry about the missile messages, and it isn’t clear from the webpage that having a message written on a bomb is an option. To tag a missile, donors must first donate through the webpage and then call one of two U.S. phone numbers to relay the proposed text. The phone numbers do not appear on the Chesed Fund site, and the missile initiative has spread only through word-of-mouth and social media posts like Kornblum’s.
Kornblum is unfazed by the debate over his post. He said this was not the first time discussion on the group has veered away from its namesake subject, kosher restaurants. He has no regrets, says he would write the same post again, and added that if members left the group over the missile message, “that’s totally up to them, that’s OK.”
“I’m not afraid to talk about hot topics,” he said. “We do it a lot. We’ve spoken about the Pride Parade and we’ve spoken about BLM on the group, we’ve spoken about, obviously, COVID.”
Saleman, who objected to Kornblum’s post, agreed that discussion of the war wasn’t necessarily out of place in the Facebook group.
“You can’t really separate Jewish culture and kosher food and Israel,” he said. “So obviously, as things are happening in Israel, it makes sense that there are definitely certain portions of the group that are kind of dedicated to that.”
And he said he’d seen more contentious arguments between the group’s users — about condiments.
“There’s definitely lots of controversy but it’s not this type of controversy,” Saleman said. “People can get very heated about charging for spicy mayo. And the people have probably gotten more heated about that than they did about the bomb thing.”
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The post Sponsoring Israeli missiles doesn’t fly for everyone in a Facebook group for ‘Kosher Restaurant Foodies’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Kanye West Wears Swastika Shirt in X Video, Hints at New ‘Swasticoin’ and Wearing Nazi Symbol at Next Super Bowl
Kanye West walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on February 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, wore a swastika shirt in a video he posted on his X account over the weekend, and it closely resembled the shirt with the Nazi symbol he recently sold on his website.
In the clip, which has since been deleted, the 47-year-old “Runaway” singer wore a black long sleeve shirt that was emblazoned on front with a large white swastika, the symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party during World War II that is still used today by extremists.
The Yeezy founder wore the offensive shirt while responding to an accusation made by Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy, who claimed Ye’s meme coin is a scam. On Saturday, Portnoy – who is famous for his Barstool pizza review videos – called Ye the “worst human alive” in a post on X while claiming the rapper’s meme coin is fake.
“Rumor is Kanye (worst human alive) may be launching a scam meme coin and morons will buy it,” wrote Portnoy, who is Jewish. “Snipers will get rich. Normal people will get crushed. People will cry. I fear I was the only honest man to ever exist in celeb coins.”
A meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency that is often inspired by internet memes or other trends.
Responding to Portnoy’s claims, the “Flashing Lights” rapper said in a now-deleted video, while wearing the swastika shirt: “Dave Portnoy, I don’t know you. I saw you was tweeting… I have no idea who you are, we’ve gone back and forth joking. But when you start telling people that my coin is not real and you try to play with my money, that is the last time that we’ll be talking online.”
“Never mention money,” West wrote in the caption of his video.
Portnoy re-posted the clip on this X account and continued to attack Ye. “I thought Adam Sandler cured him of being a Nazi,” he wrote.
Sandler wrote and performed a song celebrating 50 years of “Saturday Night Live” earlier this month, and the lyrics included a mention of the Jewish actor discovering 50 years later that his favorite musician – Ye – is antisemitic. Portnoy also said of Ye, “I f–king hate this guy so much.”
On Friday, Ye took to X to explain his affinity for the swastika symbol. “The swastika to shows n—as that we don’t have to be afraid of white people,” he wrote in the since-deleted message. “When I grew up in Chicago there were gang bangers who were scared to go downtown where the white people were.” The rapper – who has four children with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian – also talked on X about possibly launching a new meme coin called “Swasticoin.”
Ye said in a separate, and now-deleted, post on Thursday that he will wear his swastika shirt at next year’s Super Bowl. “Next year I’m performing at the superbowl wearing my wittle T shirt,” he wrote. “People with money bought my wittle t shirt.”
He also posted a photo of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. In the picture of the infamous punk rock couple, Vicious is wearing a shirt that features a swastika in the center. Spungen was murdered in 1978 and Vicious was arrested for her murder, but before his case when to trial, he died of a heroin overdose in 1979. In the photo’s caption, Ye posted an emoji of a goat, which is most likely a nod to the acronym GOAT (greatest of all time). The photo has since been taken down.
Since the early morning of Feb. 7, Ye has continued to make a series of antisemitic and offensive comments on X, all of which he deleted shortly after posting. He talked about disliking Jews, praised Hitler, and called himself a Nazi and a racist – comments which he said he is “never apologizing” for. He also sold on Yeezy.com a t-shirt featuring a swastika and bought a commercial that aired during Super Bowl LIX this month to direct viewers to his Yeezy website to purchase the item. The website was then shut down by Shopify, the e-commerce platform that the Yeezy website uses to sell its products. Yeezy.com is back online but only features a message on the home page that says “Yeezy stores coming soon.”
Ye said on X this month he would never “trust or work with Jewish people” again, he doesn’t “like or trust any Jewish person,” “I love Hitler”, and “Me loving Hitler is old news.” He insisted that he was “completely sober” while writing the series of antisemitic posts and said, “This is how I really feel how I really felt and how I will always feel.”
“Some of my best friends are Jewish, and I don’t trust any of them,” Ye added. In some of his other deleted comments this month, the rapper claimed, “I stand on everything I said And nobody finna ever make me apologize again.” He additionally shared a screenshot of a search he did on Google that read “in 2025 how do you apply to become a Nazi.”
More recently, Ye contradicted some of his previous statements. On Feb. 19, he wrote on X, “after further reflection I’ve come to the realization that I’m not a Nazi” and wrote on Feb. 21 that he does like Jewish people “very much.”
Portnoy called Ye “one of the absolute greatest pieces of s–t of all time” while speaking to the Daily Mail shortly after the rapper’s Feb. 7 antisemitic rant on X.
“I am Jewish and proud of it, so anyone who is pro-Hitler and says he is a Nazi, I have no room for in my life,” he said. “I think the people who prop him up, surround him and say he’s not a jerk — if he’s sick, put him in a hospital. I have no room for people like Kanye in my world. Kanye is one of the worst humans of all time … Kanye may be sick. In which case, get him his meds and put him in a mental institution.”
Ye also went on an antisemitic rant on X in 2022. He later apologized for his remarks and said he “definitely was drinking” when he made the comments.
The post Kanye West Wears Swastika Shirt in X Video, Hints at New ‘Swasticoin’ and Wearing Nazi Symbol at Next Super Bowl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Ilhan Omar Says Trump Has ‘No Legal Right’ to Take Over Gaza, Blames Harris Loss on Israel-Hamas War
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks at a press conference with activists calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in front of the Capitol in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2023. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) blasted President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinian civilians in Gaza, arguing in a new interview that the United States has “no legal right” to take over the enclave and calling on the leaders of neighboring Arab countries to “stand in solidarity” against Israel.
During a Friday interview with progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo, Omar fielded questions about the Trump administration’s approach to resolving the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Hasan asked Omar to reveal her feelings about Trump’s suggestion that Palestinian civilians be transferred out of the war-torn enclave in order to rebuild it.
“Well, I just think the irony of Trump being elected to be the anti-imperialist president coming in and talking about taking over Canada, Greenland, and now kicking all the Palestinians out of Gaza to turn it into a resort for himself and his billionaires, and then the fact that the American people don’t see it is just fascinating,” Omar responded.
The Minnesota Democrat argued that Trump has “no legal right to take over Gaza” and that the Palestinians are going to “fight for that right” to stay in the coastal enclave, which borders southern Israel.
Earlier this month, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the White House, held a press conference following their private meeting in the Oval Office. Trump asserted that the US would assume control of Gaza and develop it economically into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. Trump’s proposal was met with widespread backlash and skepticism across the US Congress.
Omar also blasted leaders of neighboring Arab countries for their “cowardice in allowing for the destruction of the Palestinian people,” urging them to “stand in solidarity” with the civilians of Gaza.
Hasan, who is also an outspoken opponent of Israel, said that Democrats “haven’t given a damn about Palestinian livelihoods over the past 18 months,” noting the pro-Israel stances of high-profile liberals such as Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). He then asked Omar if she believes the Democratic Party will become more adversarial toward Israel in an effort to counter the Trump administration.
Omar said she’s “not sure” if the Democratic Party will adopt a more anti-Israel ideological bent, citing the alleged “erasure of the Palestinian people, the ethnic cleansing, the genocide” that has supposedly happened in Gaza over the past 16 months. She cautioned that Democratic support for Israel will continue “until there is a price to pay and that price is felt.” The congresswoman claimed that American support for Israel will undermine its moral authority in speaking up against genocides that occur in the world.
Omar also suggested that 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris lost the White House in November because of the Israel-Hamas war. The lawmaker pointed to polling data that indicated large swaths of voters “stayed home because of the bloodshed, the genocide that was televised on their phones.”
However, according to polling data compiled by Blueprint, a Democratic-aligned data analytics firm, the Israel-Hamas war had minimal impact on Harris’s election performance. Voters largely rejected Harris and supported Trump due to the Biden administration’s record on inflation and immigration, the poll found. Perception of Harris being “too pro-Israel” ranked among the bottom three “reasons to not choose” Harris. Notably, perception of Harris being “too pro-Palestine” ranked higher in the list of concerns among respondents.
Since being elected to Congress in 2018, Omar has established herself as a harsh critic of Israel. She has accused the Jewish state of committing “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza and erecting an “apartheid” government in the West Bank. The lawmaker has also publicly declared support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), which seeks to turn the Jewish state into an international pariah as a first step toward its eventual destruction.
In the 16 months following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of roughly 1,200 people and abduction of 250 others in southern Israel, Omar has positioned herself as one of the most vocal opponents of the Jewish state’s defensive military efforts. Omar was among the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, falsely arguing that the Jewish state’s military operations “indiscriminately” killed Palestinian civilians. She has repeatedly issued calls for an “arms embargo” on Israel and has suggested that the Jewish state could violate the terms of the current ceasefire deal to continue its so-called “genocide.”
The post Ilhan Omar Says Trump Has ‘No Legal Right’ to Take Over Gaza, Blames Harris Loss on Israel-Hamas War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Ousted US Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush to Star in New Show on Anti-Israel Zeteo Network
US Reps. Cori Bush (left), Jamaal Bowman (right), and Rashida Tlaib (center). Photo: Reuters
Former US Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush are set to launch a new show on the controversial anti-Israel Zeteo network.
On Thursday, Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan, a prominent anti-Israel journalist, announced that Bowman and Bush have agreed to star in a new monthly show on his network.
Let’s go baby! https://t.co/dgoMhBVYRW
— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) February 20, 2025
In the trailer, the former lawmakers say that their show “Bowman & Bush” will expose the shady inner-workings and backroom dealings of the federal government.
“We’ll be breaking down what’s really happening in Washington, DC,” Bowman says.
Bush, one of the most strident opponents against Israel during her term in office, laments in the trailer that “outside groups, including AIPAC, spent millions and millions of dollars to unseat me, to try to silence me.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most prominent pro-Israel lobbying group in the US, spent millions of dollars last year in the Democratic primary races of Bush and Bowman, both progressive firebrands, successfully unseating them.
Bush explains in the trailer that her show will deliver an unvarnished look into the
the corruption, the lobbying, the big money” that influences federal politics, “and how it could all be working better for you.”
Following Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, both Bush and Bowman issued intense criticism of the Jewish state’s defensive military efforts in Gaza.
The progressive former lawmakers called for a “ceasefire” between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group less than a month removed from the Oct. 7 massacre. They each falsely accused Israel of engaging in an array of war crimes in Gaza, including “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and imposing a “famine.” The duo also dismissed Israel’s counterterrorism initiatives in the West Bank as “apartheid.”
Bowman specifically, declared the mass rapes of Israeli women on Oct. 7 a “hoax,” before walking back his comments following widespread backlash. He has accused Israel of advancing “white nationalism” and “settler colonialism” and also suggested he may no longer support Israel’s unequivocal right to exist or defend itself.
Bush ultimately lost her reelection campaign to St. Louis attorney Wesley Bell in August while making her opposition to Israel a key talking point of the race. Bowman came up short against Westchester County executive George Latimer.
Zeteo, the network on which “Bowman & Bush” is set to air, has positioned itself as a major source of anti-Israel content creation. Hasan, the network’s founder and main host, has declared the ongoing war in Gaza a “genocide” and repeatedly pressured US lawmakers to implement an arms embargo against the Jewish state.
Moreover, Zeteo’s high production value and elaborate sets have raised questions surrounding its funding sources, with critics alleging it has received money from Qatar. In response, Hasan has denied receiving “any money from foreign governments or foreign citizens,” adding that “every investor in Z is an American citizen [who] has nothing to do with Qatar.”
The post Ousted US Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush to Star in New Show on Anti-Israel Zeteo Network first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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