Uncategorized
A Seattle synagogue was tagged with anti-Israel graffiti. It left the vandalism up to make a point.
(JTA) — A Seattle congregation that was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day left up the message for more than a day as a reminder of the hate that still exists in the world, its rabbi said.
It’s a familiar scene for Temple De Hirsch Sinai, the last major Jewish congregation located in the city’s once-heavily Jewish Capitol Hill neighborhood, just up the hill from its downtown and historic Pike Place Market. The historic Reform synagogue had also been tagged with antisemitic graffiti six years ago.
The synagogue said the latest vandal spray-painted a number of phrases and imagery on Sunday night. The messages were put up in a fenced-off part of the congregation, meaning the perpetrator had to breach synagogue property to leave them, and security cameras captured the act on video.
Among the messages left on the property: a Star of David, the word “apartheid,” a phrase that appears to read “Israel has lied,” and a face with “Im [sic] still here” written underneath.
“It was with great deliberation, great preparation,” Rabbi Daniel Weiner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They were very nonchalant and very deliberate about what they were doing. It was timed to be as hurtful as possible.”
The FBI and the local police department are investigating the incident, but Weiner said the temple didn’t clean up the graffiti right away. They wanted to remind the community about the present dangers of antisemitism.
“With people oftentimes downplaying its significance amongst the various ‘isms’ that are out there, I thought it was important to understand, even in deep-blue Seattle, that these feelings, these perspectives, exist,” Weiner said. “And people are willing to act on them in criminal ways.”
Back in 2017, the congregation had been vandalized with graffiti reading “Holocaust is fake history,” employing the dollar sign instead of an “s” as emblematic of a common antisemitic trope linking Jews to the idea of inventing the Holocaust for financial reasons.
Then, too, Weiner made the decision to leave the graffiti up for a day before bringing in local “artistic teens” to cover it with colorful, positive murals. The temple erected a plaque commemorating those murals, which this week’s vandal ripped down — though the murals themselves were left untouched.
Weiner said he doubted the two incidents were perpetrated by the same person. He attributed the 2017 incident, with its invoking of the “fake news” phrase used frequently by former President Donald Trump, as “a more direct reflection of the Pandora’s box that the previous president reflected in our society.” He also doesn’t think the people targeting the temple have any connection to it, but are simply choosing “the most identifiably Jewish institution in the city” to reflect a hatred of Jews and Israel.
What has been clear to the congregation both times, Weiner said, is that the level of support they receive from the local community far outweighs the work of “marginalized haters.”
“We yet again are so incredibly grateful for the immense outpouring of support that confirms for us that the vast majority of people in our community stand with us,” he said.
The synagogue wasn’t the only one to be hit with graffiti on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Greater Synagogue of Barcelona was also targeted with anti-Israel messages this week.
—
The post A Seattle synagogue was tagged with anti-Israel graffiti. It left the vandalism up to make a point. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
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.
Uncategorized
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.
Uncategorized
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.