A Gunman Lunged at a Candidate
Ohio's Amy Acton is fine. He had two handguns on him.
A man armed with two handguns lunged at Ohio's Jewish gubernatorial candidate. Patrick Havas, 38, pushed toward Amy Acton at Monday's Canfield Fair before troopers stopped him; he never drew a weapon, though two bystanders were knocked down. Acton, who would be Ohio's first Jewish governor, was unhurt. Her campaign said the violence "has no place in Ohio." 1
A Brooklyn district leader is blaming "Zionists" for the borough's rent. Carmella Charrington compared Bed-Stuy housing costs to "atrocities" in Gaza; activist Nerdeen Kiswani accused "Zionist landlords" of "building settlements" in Crown Heights. Yeshiva University historian Jeffrey Gurock calls the blending of housing anger and Israel rhetoric "a new phenomenon." 2
Nearly 20,000 people made aliyah in the Hebrew year that just ended, and the mix flipped west. France was up 65%, the U.S. up 15%, Britain at a 40-year high. Russian aliyah fell by nearly 40% as the wartime surge fades. 3 The backstory →
Hero: Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. He personally signed the order deporting the French co-owner of a Koh Samui zoo who banned Israeli visitors and turned to antisemitic abuse online, ruling the man's conduct "threatening, harassing and physically abusive" and against public order and good morals. 4
Villain: Kevin Dimino. The French co-owner of Samui Exotic Park barred Israeli visitors from his zoo, hung a Palestinian flag over the dispute, and met the online backlash that followed with what Thai officials called overt antisemitic statements of his own. He has seven days left to appeal his deportation order. The Israeli he clashed with online, Yaacov Ohayon, was separately ordered deported Friday and given a 15-day suspended sentence and a $150 fine for threatening Dimino. 4
Today is 26 Elul, 5786, three days before Rosh Hashanah 5787 begins at sundown Friday. Tradition has the shofar blown every weekday morning this month, a month-long alarm clock before the new year opens the books. 5
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