Results tagged “antisemitism”

There's always a lot of political name-calling on the eve of election day, but we're pretty sure this one is a first. Democratic Queens Council candidate Kevin Kim is alleging that his Republican rival isn't just an anti-Semite — he's also a pagan. Kim's campaign is accusing Dan Halloran of insulting Jews in his attempt to downplay the role of blood sacrifice in the ancient Germanic religion of Theodism, a faith in which the City Hall hopeful has risen to the title of "'First Atheling,' or King," of a New York City area pre-Christian group according to the Queens Tribune.

An update about the fallout from Irish tenor Ronan Tynan's anti-Semitic "joke"—his hope that a potential buyer in his apartment building wasn't Jewish. Well, the potential buyer, NYU Medical Center pediatirian Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, apparently emailed the Yankees about his remarks, and a Yankees spokeswoman told the Post, "[Tynan] admitted that the contents of the e-mail were true. He said it was a bad joke. So we told him that was absolutely intolerable behavior and he needed to apologize." In spite of Tynan's apology (which Gold-von Simson accepted), the Yankees decided to nix his 7th inning stretch singing of "God Bless, America" for the rest of the playoffs.

The five people from the Westboro "Baptist" "Church" who picketed Brooklyn Tech yesterday were drowned out more by the hundreds of Tech students, counterprotesters, and Brooklynites chanting "We Love Jews" and shouting "Go Home" to the freaks from Topeka, who were outnumbered more than forty to one. The Times' Fort Greene blog noted that "many if not most" of the counterprotesters were students who had organized by "word of mouth and Facebook status." You do need something to do in Health class.

The kooky Kansas "church" famed for its God-hates-fags message will be harassing Brooklyn Tech after school today and three synagogues on Saturday. Their spokeswoman, Shirley Phelps-Roper, also issued a contemptuous put-down of Brooklyn— asked whether she feared violent confrontations at the picketing locations, she replied: “Don’t flatter yourself, Brooklyn. We serve the living God. You mess with us, you’ll get double destruction for what you do.”

School's out—here comes trouble. Two teenagers have been arrested after they went on "an anti-Semitic spree" on Thursday afternoon in Manhattan. Two boys, 15 and 16 respectively, drew swastikas in black Sharpie on walls at both the Bialystoker Synagogue and the United Hebrew Center on the Lower East Side. At the Hebrew Center, they also lit off smoke bombs; at the synagogue, they hurled eggs and also wrote an anti-Semitic slur on the wall. The synagogue happens to be the East Broadway temple where Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has worshiped since he was four years old. Silver told NY1, "This is a crime, not against the synagogue; this is a crime against society. When people choose to desecrate a house of worship, it doesn't matter whether it's a church, a synagogue. It is just a despicable act that really should tug at the heartstrings of all of us." It's believed that a nearby surveillance camera led police to the two teens.

Senator Chuck Schumer said nothing more than "apology accepted" after learning of the apology from the Arkansas Senate candidate who referred to him as "that Jew" last week at a GOP gathering. The apology from Arkansas State Senate Minority Leader Kim Hendren was nothing short of a classic. He said, “I ought not to have referred to it at all. When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn’t because I don’t like Jewish people...I don’t speak with a TelePrompTer, and if I had, that reference would have never made it in there." He explained that at the time, he was responding against Schumer's claim on The Rachel Maddow Show that traditional values were behind Democrats. Hendren told Arkansas News that he believed in the traditional values that came from Andy Griffith, Aunt Bea, Barney and Opie (who is a child). He added, "I said there was another Jew that I did agree with, and that was Jesus Christ.” We're guessing that Hendren may have missed this video where Andy and Opie articulated some of their current values.

Over the past week, temples in the NYC area have been vandalized. In Staten Island, swastikas were spray-painted on a Bay Terrace synagogue; there is a $13,000 reward for information leading to a suspect's arrest and conviction. At a Dix Hills, Long Island synagogue, the word "JEWS" was spray-painted on the exterior on Saturday. And also on Saturday, torahs were stolen from a Queens synagogue--the suspect had access to keys and was able to disarm the alarm. The Queens Jewish Center hopes for the safe return of the torahs, which are worth $500,000.

Yesterday morning a painted swastika was found at 800 Bedford Avenue (between Park and Flushing) in Williamsburg, it was one of five that were discovered on that block, and one of many discovered in recent weeks.

After Page Six alluded to The Gansevoort Hotel staff as being just a tad anti-semitic, the hotel retorted saying that the incident on New Year's Eve that led to the allegation was a misunderstanding. Their side of the story includes having to kick out a yarmulke-less (and apparently racist) "ill-behaved boyfriend of a member of Kid ['I love Jewish people'] Rock's PR team." Today Grub Street asked "which member of Kid Rock’s PR team brought in this ruffian," saying they were "not at all surprised that it involves Kid Rock."

Page Six has reports of some nasty antisemitism that went down at the Hotel Gansevoort’s regrettably named G-Spa lounge. A witness tells the Post that a Jewish guest – who had paid for a ticket to the festivities – was insulted by the club’s staff for wearing a yarmulke.