Another nominee set to be promoted in President Donald Trump’s administration is facing scrutiny after past remarks expressing admiration for Nazis surfaced ahead of his confirmation hearing.

Several top Republican senators have already pledged to block the nomination of Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel, following revelations of racist and antisemitic comments he made over text message. The office enforces the Hatch Act, which bans federal employees from taking part in certain political activities and protects government whistleblowers.

Ingrassia already holds a position in the administration, serving as a White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security.

According to a Politico report, Ingrassia wrote in May 2024 that he has “a Nazi streak from time to time” in a chat of six GOP operatives and influencers. The comment came after another chat participant joked that Ingrassia “belongs in the Hitler Youth with Obergruppenführer Steve Bannon” — portraying the Republican strategist instrumental in Trump’s 2016 victory, who remains influential within the MAGA movement, as having a senior Nazi paramilitary rank.

Another participant also suggested that Ingrassia do a joint show with Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier, on Rumble, a video platform that has amplified far-right antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Fuentes maintains an active Rumble page featuring his live shows, which are filled with antisemitic and anti-Israel content.

“Lmao,” Ingrassia replied.

In April 2023, Ingrassia published a blog post titled “Free Nick Fuentes,” urging Elon Musk to reinstate Fuentes’ X account after he was banned in 2021 for repeated violations of the platform’s content rules. Ingrassia was also reportedly in attendance at a 2024 rally at which Fuentes declared, “Down with Israel.”

Ingrassia, who also faces allegations of sexual harassment, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday as part of his confirmation process. Last month, a group of 13 Jewish organizations sent a letter to the committee urging members to scrutinize Ingrassia’s “support for extremist views and individuals” and expressing doubt about his qualifications.

“He’s not going to pass,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Monday.

Ingrassia’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, initially dismissed the texts as satire meant to mock liberals who call Trump supporters Nazis. “In reality, Mr. Ingrassia has incredible support from the Jewish community,” he told Politico, “because Jews know that Mr. Ingrassia is the furthest thing from a Nazi.”

Paltzik later suggested, without evidence, that the messages might have been AI-generated or doctored to damage Ingrassia’s reputation.

Ingrassia is the latest in a line of Trump administration appointees who have been scrutinized for remarks offensive to Jews and other minorities. Trump withdrew the nominations of some of his candidates amid outrage.

It also follows recent incidents of high-profile right-wing antisemitism, including the discovery of a Republican staffer displaying a swastika at his desk on Capitol Hill and the leak of a Telegram chat involving Young Republican activists trading antisemitic rhetoric, including informal references to Hitler and the Holocaust.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York and co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, called on the White House to pull Ingrassia’s nomination. “As I’ve said many times: if President Trump were truly serious about combating antisemitism, he would start with his own administration,” Nadler wrote on X.

The post A Trump-nominee said he has a ‘Nazi streak.’ Will he still get a key administration role? appeared first on The Forward.

Tidbits is a Forverts feature of easy news briefs in Yiddish that you can listen to or read, or both! If you read the article and don’t know a word, just click on it and the translation appears. You’ll also find the link to the article in English after each news brief. Listen to the report here:

ייִט״אַ. — אין אַ גאַלעריע אין מאַנהעטן האָט זיך לעצטנס געעפֿנט אַן אויסשטעלונג פֿון אילוסטרירטע מאַנוסקריפּטן געשאַפֿן אין אַמאָליקע ייִדישע ייִשובֿים איבער דער וועלט.

די אויסשטעלונג געפֿינט זיך אָבער נישט אין קיין ייִדישער אינסטיטוציע, נאָר בײַם חשובֿן „גראָליער־קלוב“ אין ניו־יאָרק, באַקאַנט ווי „אַמעריקעס עלטסטע און גרעסטע געזעלשאַפֿט פֿאַר ביבליאָפֿילן“. דאָס איז צום ערשטן מאָל וואָס עס געפֿינט זיך דאָרט אַן אויסשטעלונג אויף אַ ייִדישער טעמע.

די אויסשטעלונג איז צעטיילט אויף צוויי חלקים. אויף דער לינקער זײַט זעט מען מאַנוסקריפּטן פֿון איטאַליע, פֿראַנקרײַך און דעם איבערישן האַלב־אינדזל. אויף דער רעכטער זײַט — פֿון אַמאָליקע ייִדישע קהילות אין מוסולמענישע לענדער ווי תּימן, צפֿון־אַפֿריקע, איראַן און איראַק.

די פֿאַרשידנאַרטיקע אויסשטעלונג, וואָס איז קורירט געוואָרן פֿונעם ייִדישן טעאָלאָגישן סעמינאַר, נעמט אַרײַן בערך 100 חפֿצים, צווישן זיי — סידורים און מחזורים, פּסח־הגדות און כּתובות. ס׳רובֿ פֿון זיי זענען אָנגעשריבן אויף לשון־קודש.

מע קען אויך זען עטלעכע בריוו פֿון עגיפּטן פֿונעם צוועלעפֿטן יאָרהונדערט, אונטערגעשריבן פֿונעם באַרימטן רבֿ, פֿילאָסאָף און דאָקטער משה בן מיימון, בעסער באַקאַנט ווי דער רמב״ם (ראַמבאַם). אין איין בריוו, דאַטירט 1170, בעט ער פֿאָנדן בײַם ייִדישן ציבור כּדי אויסצולייזן די ייִדן וואָס מע האָט פֿאַרשפּאַרט אין תּפֿיסה נאָך דעם ווי די קרײצצוגן האָבן פֿאַרכאַפּט די עגיפּטישע שטאָט בילבעיס, 50 מײַל צפֿון פֿון קאַיִר. אין מיטל־עלטער האָט אין בילבעיס געוווינט אַ ממשותדיקע ייִדישע קהילה.

סע זענען דאָ עטלעכע אינטערעסאַנטע אונטערשיידן צווישן די צוויי אָפּטיילן פֿון דער אויסשטעלונג. בײַ די אייראָפּעיִשע מאַנוסקריפּטן קען מען זען אַ סך אילוסטראַציעס פֿון מענטשלעכע פֿיגורן. אָבער בײַ די ווערק געשאַפֿן פֿון ייִדן אין די מוסולמענישע לענדער געפֿינען זיך זייער ווייניק בילדער פֿון מענטשן. אַנשטאָט דעם זעט מען די השפּעה פֿונעם מוסולמענישן קונסט־סטיל, ווי למשל קאָמפּליצירטע אוזאָרן און בלומען־מאָטיוון.

„ווען מע קוקט אויף די מאַטעריאַלן — האָט געזאָגט דוד קרעמער, אַ תּלמוד־פּראָפֿעסאָר און ביבליאָטעקאַר בײַם טעאָלאָגישן סעמינאַר — זעט מען ווי אײַנגעגלידערט די ייִדן זענען געווען אין דער אָרטיקער קולטור. עס ווײַזט אונדז אַז די ייִדן און זייערע שכנים זענען געווען פֿון דער זעלבער וועלט.“

די אויסשטעלונג וועט אָנגיין ביזן 27סטן דעצעמבער.

צו לייענען דעם טעקסט אויף ענגליש, גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.

To read this in English, click here.

The post Exhibit: Jewish manuscripts from Muslim and Christian lands appeared first on The Forward.

When Isabella Vinci stepped out of the mikvah on Nov. 11, 2021, she thought she had done everything that would be required to become Jewish. A beit din, or rabbinic court, had approved her conversion after nearly a year of study with Rabbi Andrue Kahn at Temple Emanu-El, a Reform congregation in New York, including a congregational course and one-on-one meetings.

Within a year, she visited Israel on Birthright and returned on an immersion program to teach English in an Orthodox public school in Netanya. Friends, rabbis and colleagues, she said, embraced her as Jewish.

Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority did not.

In a pair of decisions issued in January and again in last month, immigration officials rejected Vinci’s application for aliyah under the Law of Return and then denied her administrative appeal.

The letters point to two main problems: She studied for conversion online during the COVID period, and she did not prove sufficient post-conversion participation in a synagogue community — particularly while living in Israel.

Vinci, 31, had to leave behind the life she had built in Tel Aviv and move back to the United States. She is now preparing a court petition with the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal‐advocacy arm of Reform Judaism in Israel.

For decades, IRAC and other non-Orthodox advocacy groups have complained about attempts by religious parties in Israel to block the recognition of conversions outside of Orthodoxy. But Vinci’s advocates say she was blocked from citizenship despite a Supreme Court ruling from 2005 allowing overseas conversions, regardless of denomination.

Her rejection also reflects a gap between the Diaspora and Israel, they say, in everything from religious practice to the adaptations made necessary by the pandemic.

“The whole world — from rabbis to strangers who hear my story — tells me I am Jewish. They see that I am putting everything on the line to be a part of our people. The only ones telling me that I’m not Jewish are within this government agency,” Vince said in an interview, describing months of silence and what she felt was the government’s unwillingness to consider new supporting documents. “Why aren’t they putting in the work and the effort to actually understand where I’m coming from?”

Vinci grew up Catholic in a sprawling, multicultural family, spending early years in Florida and most of her childhood in Omaha, Neb. She never felt rooted in the church and developed her own spirituality as a teen. Jewish relatives and friends were part of her orbit, and she felt increasingly drawn to the religion.

When she moved to New York as an adult, she decided to become a Jew, going through Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, one of the most prominent congregations of Reform Judaism.

Neither the immigration authority nor the Interior Ministry, which oversees it, responded to a request for comment.

But official responses Vinci received show that decisions in her case zero in on whether her path fits internal regulations drawn up in 2014 to vet conversions performed abroad. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that such conversions, regardless of denomination, must be recognized, leaving it to the ministry to set criteria.

Those rules anticipate in-person study anchored in a congregation; if the course is “outside” the congregation, they require a longer, 18-month track. In Vinci’s case, officials treated her 2020-2021 Zoom coursework as external and concluded she hadn’t met the time or community-involvement thresholds.

IRAC’s legal director for new immigrants, attorney Nicole Maor, appealed the initial rejection, sending in a detailed memo. Maor wrote that congregational classes conducted on Zoom during a pandemic should be considered congregational, rather than external. She argued that the criteria’s purpose is to prevent fictitious conversions — not to penalize sincere candidates who followed their synagogue’s rules during COVID.

“The entire purpose of the criteria is to protect against the abuse of the conversion process. A person who converted in 2021, came to Israel on a Masa program to contribute to Israel in 2022-2023, and stayed in Israel to work and support the country in its most difficult hour after Oct. 7 deserves better and more sympathetic treatment,” she wrote.

She also wrote that the ministry had ignored evidence of Vinci’s Jewish communal life in Israel, from school prayer with students to weekly Orthodox Shabbat meals with a host family.

As part of Vinci’s appeal packet, Kahn submitted a letter describing the cadence of Vinci’s studies: roughly five months in Temple Emanu-El’s Intro to Judaism course alongside his own one-on-one meetings beginning Dec. 21, 2020, and continuing “1-3 times a month for 2-3 hours” until her November 2021 conversion — about 11 months in total. He listed key books and practices he assigned and attested to her active participation in synagogue young-adult programming.

A host family in Netanya provided a letter saying Vinci spent “Shabbat with our family every weekend as well as most holidays,” describing a year of Orthodox observance in their home and an ongoing relationship since she moved to Tel Aviv after Masa. The school where she taught also wrote in support.

The ministry was unmoved.

In an interview, Maor, who handles a large caseload of prospective immigrants, said Vinci’s case is emblematic of a larger phenomenon.

“It’s not just bureaucracy,” Maor said. “There’s a recurring theme — a suspicious attitude at the ministry that has become worse in recent years and makes life much more difficult for converts.”

Vinci’s case sits at the fault line between Diaspora practice after COVID and Israeli bureaucracy. Around the world, Reform and Conservative congregations shifted classes, and in some communities, services, to Zoom. Many have retained hybrid models because they work for busy or far-flung learners.

“This reality has led to a widening gap between how Diaspora congregations operate and the demands of the Interior Ministry,” Maor said.

There is also a philosophical mismatch: For the ministry, involvement in the Jewish community post-conversion appears to mean synagogue membership and attendance logs. For non-Orthodox streams, Maor said, Jewish life can be expressed in multiple ways — home ritual, learning circles, social-justice work — especially in Israel, where Jewish rhythms permeate public life.

In Vinci’s Netanya year, that life included like daily school prayer, holidays with an observant host family, and teaching in a religious environment. Maor argues that should count.

Kahn, who says two of his other converts have made aliyah without incident, said he was saddened by Vinci’s rejection given her devotion and the hoops she jumped through to satisfy paperwork and timelines.

“It wasn’t like she was mucking around in Israel, she was really doing the work and legitimately devoted to being Jewish,” he said.

After losing her legal status and appeal, Vinci returned to the United States. She took a legal-assistant job in Kansas City and is scraping together fees to file a court petition.

Maor won’t predict the outcome, but she said often cases settle before a precedent is set. The state agrees to a compromise such as additional months of study, rather than risk a ruling that forces a policy shift.

Vinci hopes the case determines not only where she celebrates the next set of holidays, but also improves how Israel treats a growing cohort of would-be immigrants whose Jewish journeys began on a laptop during a once-in-a-century shutdown and amid rising antisemitism.

“I hope my story sheds light on inter-community love and acceptance,” she said. “In our current political and social climate, the best thing we can do is be united as one.”

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The post After three years in Israel, Reform convert told she can’t make aliyah appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.