In January, I used the Colleyville, Texas, hostage-taking, as the basis for a podcast on anti-Semitism. Now here I am doing another one just a few weeks later. Recent events, though, make taking another look necessary. These events include two incidents coming a week apart inside the Kentucky legislature, a hate-filled national conference that attracted politicians and policymakers, a university finally acting against Jew hatred on campus, and an environmental group’s clearly anti-Semitic request. 

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The end is near, seriously, at least according to a panel of the world's climatologists and other scientists. Either we fix things NOW and in a transformative way (the report's words), or this world of ours and everyone in it are in for a really bad time. Really bad time,

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The politicians say it's time to let our masks down. They follow the polls. The scientists say not yet. They follow the evidence, and especially the appearance of hard-to-detect new strain dubbed the Stealth Variant. It is showing up all around the world. One in five people globally is already infected. The Torah portions we've been reading and will continue to read through next week have much to say about how leaders should lead--and how they should not.

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The level of political discourse here has sunk so low that it poses a threat to American democracy. A member of Congress cheers a former president for saying data collectors should be executed. Another member urges people to send their friends and family members into "liberal frenzies" when they talk about injustice. A senator wants truckers to block our roads even if it will result in higher inflation and emptier shelves. Another senator thinks people who cause violence on planes should nevertheless be allowed to fly on those planes. Judaism, of course, has much to say about such political discourse, including that some who use it "should be thrown to the dogs."

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Calling Israel an apartheid state is wrong on several levels. This podcast is focused, though, on the potential danger to the world if the nations of the world cut off all contact with it. Just listen to what Israel has given to the world since just this last December!

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A woman on the Supreme Court? A BLACK woman, no less? Too many people don't think women are qualified to hold any responsible position. Too many others don't think black women especially are so qualified. The Torah has three words for such people: Get over it! Women are men's equals in EVERY way. And ALL people, regardless of any artificial designators meant to keep us apart from each other, are descended from the First Couple and are ALL EQUAL TO EACH OTHER.

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Hand a protestor a bottle of water in Alabama and you can go to jail for "incitement to riot." Deliberately drive your vehicle into a crowd of protestors and "unintentionally" injure one or more of them, and you are free of any liability in Oklahoma. These are two of the ways Republican legislators and governors have created to diminish our right to peacefully protest. Live in a traditionally Democratic district in many "red" states, and you may not be allowed to vote. American democracy is under attack by elected officials who have sworn sacred oaths to defend that democracy. Jewish law has much to say about our right--our obligation--to protest injustices and our right--our obligation--to see to it that every citizen has the right to vote.

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The FBI says last Shabbat's hostage crisis in Colleyville, Texas, had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. The FBI is wrong. It had everything to do with it, as you will hear. There is a bigger problem, though, with what the FBI said: That kind of denial game by law enforcement agencies  is one of the reasons Jew-hatred is increasingly on the rise here--and it's even worse in the rest of the world. There's a lot packed into this podcast and it really is important that you hear all of it.

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The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a good friend of the Jews and of the State of Israel. He saw blacks and Jews as allies, struggling to break the shackles of racism and to help make this world a better one than it is. This is a longer than usual podcast, but there is a lot of history here about anti-Semitism in America from 1776 on, and some of the facts presented may even surprise many people. It may be a long episode, but it's really one you should listen to.

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Twice this week, abortion either directly (on Monday) or indirectly (today, January 7) is before the Supreme Court. In today's case, it likely will be raised in a COVID-19 vaccine mandate case, with at least two justices arguing--hypocritically--that freedom of religion allows people who oppose abortion on religious grounds to refuse the current vaccines. What the two justices ignore are freedom of religion rights. As to why they will bring abortion into the case (as they have in the past in mandate cases)--you really need to listen to this episode.

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