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NEW YORK, NEW YORK
A judge allowed Yeshiva University to deny an official LGBTQ club from forming on campus while a discrimination case continues in court.
- Background: In April, the Pride Alliance sued the Modern Orthodox university for discrimination under city law for its continued refusal to allow an LGBTQ club for students.
- What’s new: On Wednesday, Judge Lynn Kotler of the New York County Supreme Court denied the Pride Alliance and other plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, the Y.U. Commentator reports.
- Why it matters: Plaintiffs seeking a preliminary injunction must show they have a good chance of winning. Kotler noted that it is unclear whether Y.U. is bound by NYC’s human rights law, as the plaintiffs argue. Y.U. contends that it is exempt as a “religious corporation.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) is asking the Treasury Department and the IRS to review and consider suspending the nonprofit, tax-exempt status of several “extremist and hate groups” highlighted in a recent Anti-Defamation League report.
- Torres’ letter cites militia groups like the Oath Keepers Educational Foundation, American Phoenix Project and American Patriot Vanguard III% MC/RC, Jewish Insider reports.
- Quotable: “These organizations crowd out legitimate 501(c)3 protections and fuel social discord. Allowing this critical program to be used by bad faith actors reduces tax revenue, abuses our regulatory system, and could empower bad actors by providing them a tax advantage,” Torres writes.
MUSEUM NEWS
An exhibit opening today at The Jewish Museum focuses on art looted during World War II.
- “Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art” includes 53 works of art and 80 Jewish ceremonial objects that survived the traumatic period and passed through many hands and sites.
- The museum has also commissioned four contemporary artists to create new works that address the exhibition’s themes.
- The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 9, 2022.
The Center for Jewish History will reopen its galleries to the public on Monday, Aug. 23.
- On view will be the exhibit “An Unlikely Photojournalist: Emile Bocian in Chinatown,” a collaboration with the Museum of Chinese in America.
- Bocian, born in New York to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, became a photojournalist in the 1970s and ‘80s for The China Post, a Chinese-language daily in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
TODAY’S BIG IDEA
Society’s failures around COVID do not bode well for its response to climate change, writes Andrew Silow-Carroll, the editor in chief of The Jewish Week: “Forget saving humanity – Americans couldn’t band together to save their own kids.”
SHABBAT SHALOM
This week’s portion, Ki Teitzei, teaches that defending the rights of workers is a biblical mandate. “If we choose to become an employer,” writes Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, “then we must take responsibility to ensure our workers do not live in poverty.”
- More wisdom: The weeks before Rosh Hashanah are not just a time for repentance, but for forgiveness, writes Rabbi David Wolpe.
NEWS QUIZ
Larry David “screamed” at attorney Alan Dershowitz at a popular convenience store on Martha’s Vineyard, the New York Post reported Wednesday. What was their beef about?
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- Dershowitz was sampling every single flavor from the ice cream selection, before eventually deciding on plain vanilla.
- David suspected Dershowitz of stealing his newspaper, which keeps disappearing from his beachfront rental.
- David criticized Dershowitz for cozying up to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other members of the Trump administration.
- David terminated his relationship with Dershowitz after he saw him at the beach wearing a multicolored thong.
Answer below.
WHAT’S ON
The National Library of Israel presents a conversation with Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani, chief editor of Maktoob, the only project in the world dedicated to translating Arabic literature into Hebrew. He and British-Nigerian-Israeli writer Akin Ajayi, co-founder of the The Tel Aviv Review of Books, will discuss how Maktoob uses translation to rid “Hebrew-language literature of its orientalist conceptions of both Arabs and Arab countries,” and “combat the segregation of Jews and Palestinians.” Register here. Sunday, 1:00 pm.
Join Rabbi David Markus and Shari Berkowitz of Temple Beth-El of City Island: Your Shul By the Sea, present a weekly kabbalistic journey for seven weeks leading to Rosh Hashanah. Each week will be themed to the sefirot, with inner practices to support preparation for the High Holy Days. Register here. Sunday, 8:00 pm.
CANDLELIGHTING, READINGS
Friday
- Light candles at 7:28 p.m.
Saturday
- Torah Reading: Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19
Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1-10 - Shabbat ends 8:28 p.m.
Answer to News Quiz: 3.
Photo, top: A detail from “Purim” by Marc Chagall is featured in the exhibition “Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art,” on view at the Jewish Museum Aug. 20, 2021 through Jan. 9, 2022. ((c) 2021 Artist Rights Society (ARS)/New York /ADAGP, Paris/Chagall)
