Heroes & Villains
Somebody earned it. Somebody asked for it. Every Friday we pick one of each.
Heroes
Isaac Herzog
Kol HaNeshama, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, has been targeted five times since August. On Yom Kippur morning, two youths showed up asking to book a bar mitzvah for their dog. Police arrested three minors. Israel's president called the rabbi Friday and again Sunday, after checking with police. A president phoning a Reform shul should not be news.
John Banville
The Irish novelist was set to headline Cultur Alh, a festival at the University of Granada. When the festival dropped Jewish-Argentinian novelist Ariana Harwicz, who has called boycotts of Israeli artists "antisemitic," Banville withdrew. More than 350 writers and cultural figures, including Fernando Savater and former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, signed a petition behind her. He gave up a headline slot over a writer he wasn't obligated to defend.
Netanel Shukrun
The father of six from Alei Zahav was shot while driving near a West Bank spring on Sunday. His last act was warning his 16-year-old son, Yoav, that a gunman was closing in; Yoav ran and survived. Shukrun died of his wounds. At Monday's funeral, Yoav told mourners: "Thank you for shouting to me when the terrorist came in. Thank you for saving my life."
Erielle Reshef
The MS NOW anchor grew up in Oklahoma City's small Jewish community, her mother running the local federation, her father from Tel Aviv. She's anchored the night an Egyptian president fell, reported from the Gaza border, and was one of the first correspondents at the 2018 Tree of Life shooting. Now anchoring across MS NOW's lineup, she says what a lot of journalists in her seat won't: her Jewish identity is an asset in the job. "I will allow the values of Judaism to guide my humanity in this business, but ultimately I'm a journalist committed to fact."
Robert Kraft
The Patriots owner pushed Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from the tour after Macklemore turned his MetLife Stadium set into a Free Palestine protest, projecting war images and Palestinian flags while Jewish fans in the crowd left in tears. Kraft rallied other stadium owners behind an ultimatum, and tour promoter Messina Touring Group made it official Monday: no remaining venue will host him. Kraft called it protecting fans from "hate speech."
Sergii Gurbych
A Ukrainian-born researcher at Vilnius University built VILNISH, an AI tool that reads handwritten Yiddish and Hebrew, because, in his words, "I want to know more about the world where my grandfather lived." His grandfather escaped the Lodz Ghetto in 1942. In May, Felicita Trueblood sent him about 50 Yiddish letters her great-grandfather wrote between 1927 and 1934. A month later she had full translations and details about his death her family never knew.
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.
Dennis Baum
The AfD's leading candidate in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt election, Ulrich Siegmund, built his campaign around nostalgia for Simson mopeds, a brand Baum's Jewish family founded before the Nazis seized it. Baum's response: "We find any association with the AfD repulsive and an insult to our family name." He called the party antisemitic outright.
Dave McCormick
The Pennsylvania senator told Jewish Insider at the Republican Jewish Coalition's summit that his party deals with antisemitic candidates at the ballot box: "You beat the s**t out of them. You beat them in elections." He pointed to Rep. Randy Fine's blowout win over a neo-Nazi primary opponent as proof, and said it with his own party's name attached.
Julie Menin
New York City's first Jewish council speaker will walk a bipartisan Fashion Week runway on September 9, dressed by Elie Tahari, the Israeli American designer who built a billion-dollar label from nothing. Their pitch, from organizer Skye Ostreicher: "When we label someone 'Jew' or 'Zionist,' it's easy to hate them versus if you see them as a human first."
Dana Nessel
Michigan's attorney general, its first Jewish one, said on a podcast with The Atlantic's David Frum what her own party mostly wouldn't: Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's "hurt people hurt people" response to March's attack on Temple Israel read to her as "making excuses for somebody who sought to murder over 100 pre-K school children." She's still never voting Republican; asked about backing Mike Rogers instead of El-Sayed, she said she'd "amputate my right arm" first. A Democrat criticizing her own party's nominee by name, six weeks out.
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.
Daphne Barak-Erez
She was one of three Supreme Court justices, with colleagues Kasher and Stein, who unanimously struck down the government's push to close Army Radio this week. Defense Minister Israel Katz had ordered it shut, claiming the station hurt wartime morale and didn't reflect the public. The court found no "evidentiary basis" for that. Justice Kasher: "it's unconscionable that someone with governing authority will decide that, since they don't like a broadcaster's words, the broadcaster's microphone must be shut off."
Haley Van Erem
The DOJ Civil Rights lawyer spent nearly a decade there before joining Trump's antisemitism task force, then told investigators the administration pushed Ivy League settlements past what the facts supported: $200 million from Columbia before the probe was finished, $50 million from Brown after her own team found no violation. Rep. Jamie Raskin called it "a pre-baked frame-up." [The backstory →](/backstory/title-vi-investigations)
Tyler Steele
Converted to Judaism in spring 2023, asked his Apple manager in Virginia for Shabbat off that September, was told no, complained about religious discrimination in November, and was fired in January 2024. He took it to the EEOC, which sued Apple last September. Apple settled Aug. 7: $150,000 ($80,000 back pay, $70,000 damages), plus a rewrite of its religious-accommodation policy and mandatory training in its Virginia operations within 90 days. One guy, one Shabbat, a new policy for everyone after him.
Villains
Bo French
The Republican running for Texas Railroad Commissioner once polled followers on whether "Jews" or "Muslims" pose "a bigger threat to America." CNN found deleted posts in which he called for public executions of Barack Obama and Adam Schiff. Karl Rove is voting for Jon Rosenthal, the only Jew in the Texas House, Rove's first Democratic vote in over 30 years. The job regulates oil and gas.
The Cultur Alh festival
Organizers canceled Harwicz's Sept. 26 talk after complaints from campus activists about her views on Israel. The University Network for Palestine says it asked for a rethink but made no threats: "We criticize public stances, not identities." The University of Granada has distanced itself from the call. A novelist longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize got dropped from a literary festival for opposing boycotts of other artists.
Heimir Hallgrimsson
Ireland's national soccer coach said ahead of next week's match against Israel: "We're not playing with genocide, we're playing against genocide. We're not playing with Israel." More than 160 Irish athletes had already signed a boycott letter. The Israel Football Association answered that it hasn't "found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy": "We're not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we're not playing against the coach."
Yehia Amin
Pled guilty to a hate crime for attacking an Israeli tourist in Times Square, days after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Sentenced Tuesday to 90 days, he reportedly flashed peace signs and grinned during sentencing.
Macklemore
He had three years of touring to make his point once. MetLife Stadium got the same set again, deliberately, in front of paying fans who came for the music, some of whom cried. And then had the audacity to say that it wasn’t about them. Pink told him "you don't get to decide that for us."
Sondhi Limthongkul
The Thai conspiracy theorist led a Bangkok rally against Israeli tourists, delivering a letter to Israel's ambassador claiming Chabad centers are buying up Thai land to "advance objectives orchestrated and funded by international Zionist networks." Protesters carried signs reading "Jews out." Activists also failed to shut down a Chabad Rosh Hashanah dinner in Phuket; organizers just trimmed the guest list and ended the night early.
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.
Hans-Thomas Tillschneider
Asked about the Nazi era ahead of that same election, in a state home to about 1,100 Jews, the AfD's deputy chairman said: "All of that happened a long time ago and no longer affects us in the here and now." His party polls near 40%, enough for an outright majority if smaller rivals miss the threshold.
JD Vance
At the same summit, Vance was asked directly about Tucker Carlson, who helped put him on the 2024 ticket and now platforms Holocaust denial. Vance drew a hard line at Nick Fuentes and never said Carlson's name. Conservative host Mark Levin spelled out what a real answer sounds like: "I will not tolerate those who say antisemitic things and promote Jew-hatred, and that includes Tucker Carlson and his ilk." Vance had the same microphone and used it to say less.
Dana Nessel
Michigan's attorney general told a Jewish Democratic gathering Sunday that Jews have "a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival." A caucus leader said the remarks "certainly suggest" she'll vote for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, which one called "turn[ing] their backs on Jewish life in the U.S. or in Israel."
Hasan Piker
He's the streamer El-Sayed's own surrogates spent Wednesday's Michigan rallies avoiding by name, the one who told American Jews on a recent stream: "If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action... against American Jews." A warning to American Jews, delivered with a shrug.
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.
Carmella Charrington
The Brooklyn Democratic district leader blamed "Zionists" for deed theft on a podcast this month, the latest entry in a pattern; she's previously shared content referencing antisemitic conspiracy theories. Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and other Brooklyn Democrats are now calling for her resignation. Bichotte Hermelyn: "Antisemitism has no place in Brooklyn. That kind of rhetoric is unacceptable from anyone entrusted with Democratic leadership, and it demands immediate accountability and reflection."
The IDF's Duvdevan unit
Commandos raiding the West Bank village of Qabatiya on Monday wrote numbers on detained Palestinians, including a "44" on one man's forehead. It's the second such incident this year; the first was in April, at Jenin. MK Ahmad Tibi called it "shocking and disgusting," saying it recalled "dark times." The military's own statement: "lessons have been learned."
Apple
Same story. The company denied Shabbat accommodation, fired the man who asked for it, settled the federal lawsuit, and, per the agreement, "denied wrongdoing." Debra Lawrence, the EEOC's Philadelphia regional attorney, put it plainly: employees "should not have to violate their religious beliefs to keep their jobs." A trillion-dollar company needed a court to explain that.