Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is in the news again for controversial comments, specifically the following statement regarding the House of Representatives rule that members must still wear masks in the House chambers. “You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany. And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.” She has been criticized by people across the political spectrum, including Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) who tweeted, “It’s a grotesque idiocy mixed with a neurotic lack of self awareness,” and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) who wrote, “Marjorie Taylor Greene: A troubled person who is unfit to serve in Congress.” Greene was previously criticized for claiming that space lasers controlled by the Rothschild family were responsible for the California wildfires. She denied the charge that her claim was anti-Semitic, with what explanation?

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), 117th Congress is licensed under United States Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. “I don’t even have a clue who the Rothschilds are or what my comments meant. I was just quoting from the Daily Stormer website. They obviously specialize in storms so clearly they would know about things shooting down from the sky.”

B. “I never used the word Jew or Jewish, so how could my comments possibly be anti-Semitic?”

C. “I didn’t even know and didn’t find out until recently that the Rothschilds were Jewish.”

D. “I’m not blaming the Rothschilds because they are Jewish. I’m blaming them because they are Democrats.”

E. “You can’t say I’m anti-Semitic for blaming the Rothschilds, who I didn’t know were Jewish. I am pretty sure, however, that space lasers are Jewish because I saw Fiddler on the Roof, and there’s no doubt that Laser Wolfe was a Jew.”

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Israeli actress Gal Gadot tweeted about the current military crisis between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, “My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation, Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.” In response, Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized her for her comments. What did he say?

Gal Gadot by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A. “She chose to write a neutral post as if she was from Switzerland.”

B. “I wonder what kind of woman she is, to not stand up for her country.”

C. “She is everything that a real super hero is not.”

D. “Gal Gadot has aligned herself with the anti-Israel Hollywood elite. There can be no side by side in peace when the other side wants to destroy us.”

E. “I accused Yitzhak Rabin of having ‘murdered Holocaust survivors on the Altalena.’ I was put on leave from my job at the Israel Law Center because I mocked President Reuven Rivlin for advocating on behalf of Israeli-Arab rights. I support right-wing reactionary leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Brazil’s  Jair Bolsonaro. And I was suspended from Facebook for anti-Muslim comments such as ‘Do you know where there are no terror attacks? In Iceland and Japan. Coincidentally there’s also no Muslim population there.’ I’m 29, unemployed, and I live with my daddy at the official prime minister’s residence. So why wouldn’t I criticize Gal Gadot for caring about humanity?”

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Parliamentary elections were held last week in Scotland, with a major issue being the possible move toward independence from Great Britain. The drive for independence has grown much stronger since Great Britain decided to leave the European Union. Pro-independence parties gained a majority of seats in the election, and the largest party, the Scottish National Party, has stated that they will hold a national referendum on the issue. Jews have been in Scotland since at least the 17th century, and the Jewish population grew to more than 20,000 after World War II. However, at this time it is estimated that there are only about 6000 Jews remaining, centered primarily in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee. Rabbi Mendel Jacobs of the Lubavitch of Scotland is known for what action that related to traditional Scottish culture?

Edinburgh Piper by David Blaikie is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. Rabbi Jacobs ruled that Jewish men are not allowed to wear tartan kilts, the traditional Scottish clothing. He based his ruling on Deuteronomy Chapter 22 Verse 5, “A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.”

B. Rabbi Jacobs ruled that Jewish men are only allowed to wear tartan kilts, the traditional Scottish clothing, if it has his rabbinical certification. He based his ruling on the shaatnez prohibition, wherein Jews are not allowed to wear clothing that combines wool with linen. Jews can bring their kilts to the Rabbi for inspection. If he determines that the item only contains wool, he stamps the clothing with a kashrut certification symbol similar to the kosher O-U symbol. However, in this case the symbol is a letter L in a circle (for linen), with a red diagonal line through the L. Jews entering Rabbi Jacobs’ shul wearing a kilt must show the O-L stamp to the synagogue gabbai for approval before being allowed in.

C. The Jacobite is a steam engine train, part of the Scottish West Highland Railway Line, that travels through the Scottish Highlands and is very popular with tourists. The train was used in many of the Harry Potter movies and presented as the Hogwarts Express. Rabbi Jacobs has declared that Jews are not allowed to ride the train, as the association with the name Hogwarts renders the train unkosher. He said this is based on the principal of marit ayin which states that things that are technically kosher but appear to violate the law are therefore deemed unkosher.

D. Rabbi Jacobs created a kosher tartan, the traditional Scottish cloth consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands, representing clans in Scotland. His tartan design includes blue and white for the Israeli and Scottish flags, gold for the golden items in the Biblical tabernacle, silver representing the silver decorations on a Torah scroll, and red symbolizing kiddush wine. The tartan design can be purchased in the form of a kilt, necktie, mouse pad, yarmulke, and a tallit.

E. Rabbi Jacobs moved to Scotland in 2017, and soon after he noticed that the name of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, appeared on signs as Rabbie Burns (which is the traditional Scottish spelling). Misinterpreting that the famed poet was actually a rabbi, Rabbi Jacobs held a celebration for the local Jewish community on Burns Day, the poet’s birthday, where he served a dinner of kosher haggis, the traditional  dish of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, cooked inside the sheep’s stomach. Said Rabbi Jacobs, “If we can eat kishka, why not eat haggis like Rabbi Burns?”

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Democratic political operative James Carville, chief architect of Bill Clinton’s presidential election, gave an interview recently to the online news site Vox on the election of Joe Biden, and the current state of the Democratic Party. He praised President Biden (“It’s very difficult to find something to complain about.”). And he offered advice and criticism to the Democratic Party for their overall poor results (other than winning the presidency) in the last election (“We won the White House against a world-historical buffoon. And we came within 42,000 votes of losing.”). What “Jewish-referenced” comment did Carville offer?

James Carville by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A. Speaking of the division between Republicans and Democrats over the last few administrations, Carville said, “Not every problem is intractable, like the Israeli/Palestinian issue, chas v’chalila. Most issues really do have points of compromise. We just need politicians who are willing to compromise.”

B. Said Carville, who was an advisor to Ehud Barak in the 1999 Israeli elections, “Do I think anything is possible in politics? Hey. I'm the guy who helped Ehud Barak defeat Bibi Netanyahu for prime minister in 1999. I haven’t seen anybody else doing that lately, even with that guy under indictment. Guess you could say I’m a goy with a yiddishe kop!”

C. Referencing the way that politicians communicate, using too much “jargon-y language,” Carville said that political speech needs to be more accessible. He went on to say, “I always tell people that we’ve got to stop speaking Hebrew and start speaking Yiddish. We have to speak the way regular people speak, the way voters speak.”

D. Regarding his general philosophy about political work, Carville said, “Coming from Louisiana, I always say that we have to view American politics like red beans and rice. You have to take your time to get where you’re going. Put the beans in a pot, put it on the stove on low, and give it most of the day. Don’t rush it. If you’re patient, you’ll end up with a simple but delicious feast. I told this story once when signing books in New York and this lady said to me, ‘That’s just what my Bubby always said to me. Be patient. But she talked about her cholent sitting on the stove overnight’.”

E. Carville married Mary Matalin in 1993. She was a Republican political consultant and operative, having worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney. Said Carville, “People ask me all the time how I could marry Mary? I have no idea (well, really, I have no idea why she would marry me). But knowing that we made our marriage work is what gave me the chutzpah to push President Clinton to get Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to shake hands at Camp David.”

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Among the nominations for Best Picture at the 2021 Academy Awards was The Trial of the Chicago Seven, and that movie featured Sacha Baron Cohen, nominee for Best Supporting Actor (neither won). Cohen played Abbie Hoffman, Viet Nam war protestor, co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies), and one of the defendants in the trial of the Chicago Seven, charged with intent to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Hoffman said that Judaism informed his world view in regard to the importance of rebellion, as he wrote in his autobiography Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture. “Intellectual arrogance and moral indignation grow out of the ghetto history. For 5,000 years, Jews always had the opportunity to rebel against authority, because for 5,000 years there was always someone trying to break their backs.” What was Abbie Hoffman’s “Jewish” interaction with pediatrician Dr. Spock, a fellow anti-war protestor?

1970, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - Jane Fonda - Jane Fonda by Tommy Japan 79 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. Dr. Spock was president of the synagogue where Abbie Hoffman was bar mitzvah, and presented him with a gift from the congregation.

B. Abbie Hoffman cooked gefilte fish from scratch for Dr. Spock when Spock invited him for dinner while they were both hiding from authorities in the Virgin Islands.

C. Dr. Spock performed Abbie Hoffman’s circumcision.

D. One of the protest activities at the 1968 Democratic Convention was a Friday night Shabbat service and protest led by Rabbi Michael Lerner. Following the service, Hoffman and Dr. Spock danced the hora arm in arm.

E. Abbie Hoffman, who is a Kohen, met Dr. Spock for the first time when they both spoke at an anti-war rally in New York’s Central Park in 1967. Rather than extending his hand in greeting, Hoffman held up both hands with fingers spread in the traditional pose of the Kohanim, the Jewish priests, much to Dr. Spock’s bewilderment. It turns out that Hoffman confused Dr. Spock with Mr. Spock, who co-opted the Kohen sign as the Vulcan salute on Star Trek.

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Israel celebrated her 73rd birthday with the Yom Ha’atzmaut holiday last week. Among the many ways in which the occasion was noted was the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, by Wanda Howard Battle as part of the Israeli embassy’s virtual celebration.  Battle is a vocalist at Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. She had recently led Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan on a tour of the church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the pastor, and where he had helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Hatikvah was not officially adopted as the Israel national anthem until 2004, though it had been the de facto anthem since statehood was declared in 1948. Hatikvah, under the name Tikvatenu (Our Hope), was originally a poem written in 1878 by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Ukraine. In 1887, Shmuel Cohen of Rishon LeZion sang the poem using a Moldavian folk-song melody. That melody, which is the tune that Hatikvah continues to be sung to, actually has roots to the 16th century in Italy, from a song called La Mantovana (Mantua Dance) by Giuseppe Cenci. The Hatikvah melody has been heard more recently when a singer sampled the tune in one of his songs. Which rap or hip hop musician sampled the music of Hatikvah in a rap song?

HaTikvah Flag by Avital Pinnick  is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A. Tupac Shakur.

B. Drake.

C. Matisyahu.

D. The Notorious B.I.G.

E. The Notorious Bet Ayin Gimel.

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Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth, died last week at the age of 99. He was born into the Greek and Danish royal families, and in 1939 he joined the British Royal Navy. After the war, British King George VI gave him permission to marry his daughter, the then Princess Elizabeth. She ascended to the throne upon George’s death in 1952, and Philip was made a British Prince in 1957. Which of the following is true about Prince Philip and his family?

HRH Prince Philip by Joe Lane is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A. Prince Philip’s sister Sophie was married to a Nazi who was director of the Third Reich’s Ministry of Air Forces and held the rank of Oberführer in the SS.

B. Prince Philip’s mother Alice is honored as a Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Israel for sheltering a Jewish family in her house in Greece during World War II.

C. Prince Philip’s son Prince Charles owns a velvet yarmulke with his official royal crest on it.

D. Prince Philip’s sister Margarita married a German aristrocrat who became a Nazi officer who was later implicated in the “Operation Valkyrie” plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

E. Prince Philip’s son Prince Charles was circumcised by Rabbi Jacob Snowman, the renowned mohel of the Jewish community of London.

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The medical use of marijuana is legal in 36 states, and recreational use is legal in 15 states, with New York joining that list last month. Medical marijuana is legal in Israel, and recreational use is mostly decriminalized, with little enforcement. A draft law is being considered to legalize recreational use, though smoking in public places will not be allowed. Most religious authorities agree that marijuana is kosher, as it is a plant which would not even need certification unless it was processed or included in an edible product. In 2020, archaeologists and scientists studied residue found in an altar at Tel Arad in Israel from the period 760 BCE to 715 BCE and determined that it was the remnants of burning cannabis plants used in a ritual ceremony. What term related to marijuana is believed to have Jewish roots?

Marijuana Plants by Anthony Quintano is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. Linguists believe that the source of the word marijuana is the name מר חנה, Mar Chana, meaning the Sea of Chana, a small body of water in northern Israel in the area that the cannabis plant was grown in Biblical times.

B. It is believed that the word cannabis derives from the Hebrew words, קנה בשם, Kaneh Bosem, which was one of the ingredients of anointing oils mentioned in Exodus.

C. There are many theories behind the use of the number 420 in reference to marijuana. Many think that the number refers to California penal code Section 420 about marijuana, and others contend that Bob Dylan's song Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35 is the source (“Everybody must get stoned,” not to mention that 12x35=420). But the most likely source is Hebrew gematria, where the numerical value of words is analyzed. The Hebrew word עשן, Ashan (ayin, shin, nun) means smoke, which has a value of 420 in gematria.

D. The word ganja, typically used by Rastafarians to refer to marijuana, comes from the Hebrew words גן יה, Gan Ya, meaning Garden of God. Rastafarians believe that the Tree of Life referred to in the Biblical story of Eden is in fact the marijuana plant.

E. One day Shirley Sobchak came home to find her son, Wally, smoking marijuana. She was shocked, and said to him, “Walter! What are you? A putz? Smoking?” Wally, being high, misheard her and said, “Yeah, I’m pot smoking. But don’t worry. I don’t roll on Shabbos.” And thus was born the phrase Pot Smoking for using marijuana.

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Jews around the world celebrated Passover with the traditional seder meal, some in person, many more via online technology, as the pandemic took its toll on the holiday for the second year in a row. One of the primary traditions of Passover is the inclusion of a seder plate, consisting of a variety of symbolic items, including bitter herbs, representing the harshness of slavery suffered by the Jews in Egypt, and a shank bone, a symbol of the korban pesach, or paschal lamb sacrifice. A tradition started 40 years ago that has gained widespread acceptance in many non-Orthodox households is the placement of an orange on the seder plate. Though many see this as a symbol of women’s important role in Judaism, it was in fact started by Jewish feminist scholar Susannah Heschel in support of gays and lesbians. More recently, others have suggested new additions to the seder plate, though none has as yet gained widespread acceptance. Which of the following are among those new seder plate suggestions?

Passover Seder plate with wine and matzot by Mikael Häggström, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons is licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

A. A group of rabbis and others representing The Jewish Working Group to End The New Jim Crow suggested the addition of a padlock and a key to call attention to the problem of mass incarceration in America.

B. Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael, Spiritual Arts Director of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, suggested the addition of an artichoke to symbolize the issue of intermarriage within the Jewish community. She notes that the artichoke is complex, with its petals, thistle and heart, and thus represents the diversity of the Jewish people. But she also says that the thorny bristles reflect the fact that “the Jewish people have been thorny about” the issue of interfaith marriage.

C. A number of years ago, Rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz, senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts, had seen a sign in a local CVS drug store asking people to buy bags of cashews for U.S. troops who were serving in Iraq. The Rabbi learned that the salty nuts were considered a good way to keep the service men and women hydrated in the dry dessert. The Rabbi went on to urge his congregants to include cashews on their seder plates to honor the soldiers serving in Iraq.

D. In 2015, the world was saddened to see a photograph of a young Syrian boy who had drowned off the coast of Turkey (along with his mother and brother) as their family attempted to escape the civil war in Syria. The father spoke of how he had given his sons bananas every day despite the difficulty of obtaining this fruit in war-torn Syria, in an attempt to make their lives just a bit sweeter. In response to this story, Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom in Vancouver, British Columbia suggested the placing of a banana on the seder plate to remind us of the plight of refugees world-wide.

E. Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia just signed a bill designed to “make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.” One of the provisions of the bill is to make it illegal to provide water or food to someone standing in line outside a polling place, as this is one of the primary ways that Joe Biden, Reverend Raphael Warnock, and Jon Ossoff were able to fraudulently win in the recent Georgia elections. To further promote this “good government” legislation, Governor Kemp has called on all Jewish Georgians to add a glass of water to their seder plates. Said Governor Kemp, “Your tradition says, ‘let all who are hungry, come and eat.’ I support that, so long as this does not take place in a line outside a polling place. If we make it easy for white people to vote, but difficult for minorities to stand in a ridiculously long line suffering from hunger and dehydration, Dayenu!”

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Researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that additional Dead Sea Scrolls have been found and studied, including texts from the Books of Zechariah and Nahum. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient manuscripts (including every book of the Hebrew Bible except for Esther) found in the Qumran Caves of the Judaean desert. The scrolls generally date to the third century BCE through the first century of the common era, and are among the oldest copies of most of the Hebrew Biblical texts. The original discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls took place in 1946 and 1947 when young Bedouin shepherds stumbled upon the caves and large clay jars which contained many of the leather and papyrus scrolls and fragments. The Bedouins who found the original scrolls sold some to local antiques dealers, and they changed hands multiple times. Meanwhile, other caves were searched by Bedouins as well as archaeologists from the American Schools of Oriental Research, yielding additional scrolls and fragments. Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls that have been found to date are housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. How did Israel obtain a number of the Dead Sea Scrolls?

dead-sea-scroll-israeli-museum-jerusalem- by Larry Koester is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. Researchers from the American Schools of Oriental Research sold the scrolls and fragments which they had discovered to the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1959. The IAA then began initial research into the authenticity of the scrolls, before passing them on to the Israel Museum which constructed the Shrine of the Book in 1965.

B. A few of the scrolls were in the The National Museum of Damascus, having been obtained from one of the antiques dealers to whom the Bedouins had sold some of their finds. In 1962, Israeli spy Elie Cohen was working undercover in Syria, and one of his accomplishments was to provide information to the Mossad about the location of the scrolls. The Mossad then arranged for some of their operatives to steal the scrolls and bring them to Israel.

C. A number of the scrolls were in the possession of Jordanian authorities who had obtained them from antiques dealers in Syria and Lebanon. After the Six Day War, Israel gained control over all of Jerusalem, including the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. After negotiations, the Jordanians agreed to turn over to Israel their Dead Sea Scrolls while maintaining possession and authority over other antiquities that were housed in the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount.

D. Many of the scrolls were discovered by Professor Yigael Yadin, an archaeologist and researcher who led an excavation of some of the Qumran Caves beginning in 1951, shortly after Israel’s War of Independence gave Israel possession of the Judaean Desert territory where the caves are located.

E. Professor Yigael Yadin purchased four of the scrolls when they were offered in a Wall Street Journal classified ad under the category “Miscellaneous Items for Sale.”

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