Fake #rabbi curse, banned #pilgrimage; Russian disinformation fuels Ukraine–Israel tensions

#Russian #disinformation networks sought to fan #tensions between #Ukraine & #Israel over shipments of #stolen #Ukrainian #grain

Russia-linked #bot network Matryoshka circulated #videos #falsely claiming that an Orthodox rabbi “cursed” President Volodymyr Zelensky due to the dispute, or that #Ukraine may bar Israelis from the #Uman pilgrimage

https://kyivindependent.com/fake-rabbi-curse-russian-disinformation-fans-ukraine-israel-tensions/

#HybridWarfare #RussianAggression

"Introduction to the #Zohar: The Wisdom of Truth by #Rabbi #YehudaLeibHaLeviAshlag addresses with extraordinary precision the questions serious learners carry but rarely find answered: what #Torah and #mitzvot are actually for, why we suffer, how the soul relates to G-d, what the Zohar is and why it matters now. The #BaalHaSulam wrote this from inside the catastrophe. In his final section he writes that all the glory of #Israel in #Poland and #Lithuania has been reduced to a handful of refugees in the #HolyLand, and that it falls to those who remain – #sharithapletah – the surviving remnant, to repair what has been broken. That weight runs through every word.

He opens with six questions, none of them rhetorical..."

https://jewishpress.com/the-ladder-is-not-the-goal/

"#Exodus: The Genesis of God’s People, published in July 2025 by #ZviGrumet, is a thoughtful and engaging study of the #biblical book of Exodus that illuminates how the #Israelites transformed from families of enslaved people into a nation following their understanding of God. #Rabbi Dr. #Grumet, a veteran educator and scholar of the Bible, brings more than four decades of teaching experience to his work.

Grumet serves as Director of Education at the #LooksteinCenter for #Jewish Education at #BarIlan #University and as editor-in-chief of Jewish Educational Leadership."

https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2026/04/26/book-on-exodus-is-mind-expanding-and-enjoyable/

"For the longest time, guides about raising #children had a long shelf life. Had #Rashi written a commentary on how to raise children in 1080, it would likely be just as relevant in 1580.

In contrast to past decades when #parenting guides remained relevant for generations, today’s society changes so quickly that old #childrearing advice often loses value. This shift is evident in Inside the #Teenage Mind: Raising an #Orthodox #Teen in the 21st Century (#MosaicaPress) by #Rabbi #DavidSchlusselberg, a book that addresses the unique challenges parents face in raising Orthodox #teenagers today."

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/book-review-inside-the-teenage-mind/

Israeli gov't formally honors #Rabbi as “the spirit of the nation," a man accused by many of #Gaza #warcrimes, oft seen in viral videos blowing a shofar while razing homes of arabs and praying for military to "flatten Gaza".

He has bragged of bulldozing 50 homes a week, hailed the casualties inflicted by #Israel as 'tens of thousands of dead who were eaten by the dogs', and his name #Zarbiv, has become a colloquial euphemism meaning to "flatten" or "obliterate".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/21/rabbi-who-boasts-bulldozing-palestinian-homes-light-torch-israel-national-day

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/normalizing-racism-not-jewish-and-not-democratic/

"This past week, I was fortunate to acquire a particularly handsome example of a work that, while not always widely appreciated outside #bibliophilic circles, deserves to be counted among the most ambitious productions of #nineteenthcentury #Hebrew #printing – the #Trieste #Haggadah of 1863.

Students of #Jewish #art will recognize immediately the significance of this edition. Indeed, the noted art #historian #BezalelRoth went so far as to assert that only one nineteenth-century Haggadah could truly be called groundbreaking in both conception and execution: the #TriesteHaggadah.

Issued under the title #LHaggadaillustrata, the volume presents the Hebrew text alongside a refined #Italian #translation by #Rabbi #AvrahamChaiMorpurgo. The translation is not merely serviceable; it reflects a careful engagement with earlier #machzorim and #Haggadot across several #European traditions, resulting in a text that is both accurate and stylistically polished."

https://jewishpress.com/the-trieste-haggadah-of-1863/

"#JennaWeissmanJoselit was looking for a project that wasn’t so “heavily freighted” after her #book on the #American “embrace” of the #TenCommandments came out in 2017. “Out of the blue,” an editor at the #Jewish Lives #biography series, a #Yale #University Press and #LeonDBlack Foundation project, asked her to #write a book about #Rabbi #MordecaiKaplan, founder of #Reconstructionist #Judaism.

“Without missing a beat and without thinking what this entailed, I said, ‘Yes, yes. Of course, of course,’” the Charles E. Smith #professor of #Judaicstudies and of #history at #GeorgeWashingtonUniversity told JNS.

She didn’t question why she was chosen. “I’m not the obvious person. I’m not an intellectual #historian,” #WeissmanJoselit said. “I don’t swim in those high-minded #philosophical, #theological waters.”

The historian had known of #Kaplan and had explored a “smidgen” of his diaries, but not all 70 years of them..."

https://www.jns.org/feature/reconstructionist-judaism-founder-mordecai-kaplan-a-restless-soul-who-speaks-to-the-moment-per-new-book

"A retired #rabbi and his son were sentenced Wednesday in #Milwaukee for having destroyed a local #mural in 2024 that depicted the #StarofDavid transforming into a #swastika.

Rabbi Peter and Zechariah “Zee” Mehler were ordered to pay $1,000 total in restitution to #IhsanAtta, the property owner who had put up the mural. Peter, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge for criminal damage, was also fined $50, while Zee, who had pleaded guilty in December, was given a withheld sentence of 25 hours of community service." 🤔

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-891452