Your Daily Spiel is The CJN‘s daily roundup of trending stories in the Jewish world
Canada: The Liberals (click here to look back at their first hundred days in power) have introduced a new bill that would repeal the former Conservative government’s citizenship legislation (including a provision that revokes citizenship from dual Canadian citizens convicted of terrorism or treason), McGill University students are “fearful” of what’s to come following the student body’s passing of a BDS motion, and Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid opened up to the National Post about how BDS is “completely contradictory to the Palestinian cause.”
Montreal business students are, for the third year in a row, on their way to Israel to learn about entrepreneurship, The CJN continues its look at adoption in the Jewish community (this week’s segment looks at foster care, specifically), and a spotlight will be shining on Israeli culture in Toronto (featuring music, film, theatre, etc.) for the next two months.
U.S.: President Obama signed a bill that opposes BDS (but doesn’t apply to settlements in the West Bank), ‘sauna Rabbi’ Jonathan Rosenblatt has quit his position at a Bronx synagogue following an uproar over his having chats with boys in the sauna, presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has attacked Donald Trump for claiming he’d be an “honest broker” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, has received a $10 million (US) gift for Holocaust research, the Zionist Organization of America is demanding that the City University of New York (CUNY) investigate reported instances of anti-Semitism on campus, and Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s known for his domestic policy but not much else, is apparently taking foreign policy advice from a former U.S. army colonel who once suggested that Israel gassed Syrians to frame dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Israel: An Israeli lawmaker is urging the Knesset to revoke BDS founder Omar Barghouti’s permit to live in Israel, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin dropped plans to visit Australia (much to their leaders’ chagrin) to meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow instead, a 7-year-old boy has discovered a 3,400-year-old statue during a hiking trip in northern Israel, a top Hamas official has stated that the terrorist group does not want to engage in war with Israel, a record number of Israeli teens are experiencing online anti-Semitism, religious LGBTQ Jews are coming out online, infamous Israeli mob boss Eitan Haya has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Ynet looks at Israel’s most popular baby names, by decade.
World: Hungary’s Jewish community is set to bury human remains from the Holocaust in a Jewish ceremony, Brazil is opening its first Jewish immigration memorial, Israel has condemned a German city’s decision to award Code Pink (a pro-BDS, anti-Israel NGO) with a €10,000 ($15,000 Cdn) tolerance prize, U.K. prime minister David Cameron, while speaking of England’s strong ties to Israel, called East Jerusalem construction “genuinely shocking,” Iran is offering compensation for the families of Palestinian terrorists who seek to murder Israeli Jews (glad to see they’re putting all that money to good use), and a story of an Italian babysitter who saved three Jewish children during the Holocaust is getting a ton of shares online.
Technology: An Israeli Arab scientist is being lauded for his revolutionary work in nanotechnology, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Benjamin Netanyahu today to celebrate 25 years of cooperation between the tech giant and Israel, Israeli high-tech company MobilEye (known for its driverless car) is teaming up with Nissan to incorporate its map technology, an Israeli study proves that consistent cellphone use can damage a man’s sperm count, and the Forward has the Jewish answer to the new Facebook reaction icons that debuted yesterday:
Culture: Jude law read a Holocaust-era letter to the Nazis from a Jewish author recently, at an event promoting awareness of the challenges refugees in Europe are currently facing.
Topher Grace has edited together the Seinfeld reunion episode Larry David presents in the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s gold, Topher. Gold.
Seinfeld ReunionI edited all the Seinfeld scenes from Curb season 7 into one episode. It’s more like a radio play, but if you sew together all the dialogue from audition scenes, read-throughs and rehearsals together… a 9 minute hint at what the plot of a reunion might have been.
Posted by Topher Grace on Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Drake and Rihanna teamed up (again) to perform their new single, Work, at the BRIT Awards last night.
The cast of The Big Bang Theory appeared on Conan last night, where the talk show host reminded us that Johnny Galecki and Mayim Bialik once shared a kiss together on Blossom oh so long ago. Of course, their cast-mates were able to coerce them into recreating the scene for us, and it gets pretty steamy.
We all know that Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is nominated for an Oscar for his work on The Revenant, but were you aware that Jewish-Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern (who Leo thanked only as “Chivo” in his Golden Globes acceptance speech) is nominated (he’s won awards two years in a row now) for cinematography? Let’s see if he can secure the Oscar hat trick this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncgFQAISaGo
In an episode of WTF with Marc Maron, the Jewish host welcomes Sacha Baron Cohen for a delectably Jewish-themed conversation, and this video of Senator Al Franken reading mean tweets about his support for Hillary Clinton is charming, simply charming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KI_DorjrpE
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