The NYPD Chief Made It Personal

Providence puts an Israel boycott on the ballot. Rhode Island's capital votes in November on barring investment in countries "conducting ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation, or genocide." It skips Israel's name; Providence for Palestine doesn't skip it in interviews. Mayor Brett Smiley, a convert to Judaism, opposes it. ¹

About 200 Haredi protesters shut down a highway over one draft dodger. Police caught a Bnei Brak yeshiva student dodging the draft during a Haifa bus fare check Sunday. The Jerusalem Faction blockaded the Geha Interchange Monday for hours, chanting "We will die and not enlist!" It's the first big draft protest since summer break. The backstory →²

Israel closed its investigation into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers. The IDF found no "reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct" in the April 2024 strike. Britain, Canada and Australia called the decision "shameful"; Poland summoned Israel's ambassador. José Andrés says the convoy was hit "systematically, car by car." ³

Hero: Jessica Tisch. New York's police commissioner, and a member of Central Synagogue, showed up Monday, a week after a man punched a congregant and headbutted a guard while shouting slurs during Shabbat services. "As a proud Jew and a lifelong member of this congregation, you have my word that I stand with you," she told them. Jews are about 10% of the city's population and half its hate crimes. ⁴

Villain: Avrotros. The Dutch broadcaster is pulling out of next year's Eurovision over Israel's participation, saying the contest is no longer "neutral" with "a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict." Spain, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia are out too. A singing contest just picked a side in a war it isn't part of. ⁵

It's 12 Elul, 18 days out from Rosh Hashanah, which starts the evening of Sept. 11. The custom of blowing the shofar every weekday morning through Elul, the pre-holiday wake-up call, is already underway in shuls that keep it. ⁶⁷