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This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Jewish law forbids human composting, but for some Jews it’s the way to go   New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has until Dec. 31 to sign into law a bill legalizing human composting. Several Jewish lawmakers were among those who voted for the practice, which is already legal in five states: California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.   What is it? For starters, it’s different from cremation. Using a scientific process that takes about a month or two, the body is decomposed into usable soil. Proponents say it aligns with an ecological mindset that sees human beings as part of nature, obligated to care for the Earth even after they die.   Dust to dust: Anne Lang of Boulder, Colorado, told her family she wanted this kind of burial before her death, of lymphoma, in May. “She is still with us,” said her daughter, Zoe Lang. “I think she would be thrilled to know she is coming back as a flower or a tree with a beautiful view.”   A grave error: Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky, who leads a Conservative synagogue in Manhattan, argues that there is a difference between returning a body to the Earth, as Jewish law dictates,  and having those left behind receive a tangible benefit from the process. That’s why, he said, “it’s dishonorable to eat fruits or pick flowers growing directly above graves, nourished partly by decomposing human flesh.”   Read the story ➤ ALSO FROM THE FORWARD The memorial to Charles Lindbergh is on private property, but in a very public place. (Getty) Why is there still a bust of Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer and antisemite, in Rockefeller Center? From now until Jan. 1, more than half a million people will view the Christmas tree at the iconic New York landmark each day. But while public tributes to Lindbergh have been debated or taken down around the country in recent years, this monument evaded the attention of the press, politicians and activists. Until now. Read the story ➤   FBI says antisemitic crimes plunged – but report skips major Jewish areas: For months, politicians, advocacy groups and law enforcement leaders have been wringing their hands over a rise in antisemitism. Which made the FBI report released Monday saying that antisemitic hate crimes had plunged from 959 in 2020 to 396 last year something of a shock. Turns out the number of law enforcement agencies sharing their data with the FBI plunged too, from 83% to 62%. Those declining to participate after the FBI switched its reporting system include the major Jewish centers of Los Angeles and New York, which alone reported 198 antisemitic hate crimes in 2021 that are not in the FBI report. The data is “essentially useless,” sniffed one expert. Read the story ➤   Opinion | I’m a convert who used to love Hanukkah: “It was love at first light,” writes Winnie Hahn, who grew up in a Korean immigrant family and converted when she met her husband. For years, Hahn decorated their home and bought presents for their children for each night. But that mass-marketing of a Jewish festival left her feeling empty. This year, she writes, “all I want for Hanukkah is Hanukkah. I want a rededication to this holiday that celebrates Jewish resilience, particularly in a year when antisemitism is once again scratching barely healed scars for so many Jews.” Read her essay ➤    But wait, there’s more… Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and New York political leaders vowed Monday to stem the tide of violent antisemitism by strengthening efforts to hold perpetrators accountable. It’s Taylor Swift’s 33rd birthday, and we’re wondering if that’s a Hebrew letter on the cover of her latest album. Coincidence or Kabbalah? Our lox columnist lost his keys in the back room at Zabar’s. He turned to Sherlock Holmes and Orson Welles for help. WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY The Biden administration heeded calls from Congress and Jewish groups who urged a ‘whole of government’ approach to combat antisemitism. (Getty)   President Joe Biden formed a new group Monday to combat antisemitism, Holocaust denial and Islamophobia. And, after last week’s antisemitism summit at the White House, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt and Shelley Greenspan, the White House’s Jewish liaison, plan to host a Zoom conversation on Friday that is open to the public. (JTA, AP)     Elon Musk, Twitter’s new CEO, continues to revamp the platform toward what he has called his “free speech absolutist” ideals. He disbanded the company’s Trust and Safety Council on Monday. When the independent group was set up in October, the Anti-Defamation League praised it as a potential stopgap for antisemitic content. (NBC News)     Parents in New York who want to withdraw their children from yeshivas over poor secular education are often blocked by social pressure and rabbinical courts, according to a New York Times investigation. The courts also often limit school choices as part of divorce. “This is really the only way to perpetuate this way of life,” said one aggrieved mother. (New York Times)     A Denver rabbi who promotes psychedelic use as part of spiritual practice will no longer face prosecution after Colorado voters legalized psilocybin, the chemical compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. “We look forward to getting back to practicing our religion,” said Ben Gorelick, who is also known as the “mushroom rabbi.” (JTA)     The first kosher supermarket in the United Arab Emirates opened Monday night in Dubai, catering to the thousands of local Jewish families as well as tourists and those visiting on business trips. The store will also offer cooked meals-to-go for Shabbat. (Twitter)     Shmaltz Brewing, maker of He’Brew beer, shut down in 2021 after 25 years. Now the company is being relaunched by a 26-year-old rabbinical student. “What about our Jewish values can be used to inform our food practices?” he asked. “How, through beer, can we embrace the values of welcoming in the stranger, freeing the captive, opening the eyes of the blind?” (JTA)   Quotable ➤  “What the cartoonish Kanye clown show distracts us from is what’s going on under the big top — how the virus of antisemitism and hate and division is spreading and attacking the foundations of our culture.” – Ari Emanuel, Hollywood uber-agent, in a Chicago Tribune OpEd.   Shiva call ➤  Lord David Young, a politician who advised Margaret Thatcher and other British prime ministers, died at 90. He was also involved in several Jewish charities and served as the chairman of the Jewish museum of London. What else we’re reading ➤  American Jews confront antisemitism with resolve and worry … Israeli artificial intelligence startup helps firms like Nike and PayPal hire for diversity … Meet the Iranian American rabbi that Lizzo championed in her People’s Choice Awards speech. ON THE CALENDAR Carl Reiner, center, on the set of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ with Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke. (Getty) On this day in history (1925): Dick Van Dyke was born. The Dick Van Dyke Show was conceived and run by the Jewish comedian Carl Reiner. Reiner initially envisioned himself as the show’s lead, but when CBS demanded it be recast, he picked Van Dyke, inaugurating a longtime comedic partnership. Reiner later wrote the film The Comic specifically for Van Dyke, who throughout his life spoke of Reiner as one of his foremost creative influences.   Last year on this day, Naftali Bennett became the first Israeli prime minister to visit the United Arab Emirates.   In honor of National Violin Day, we’re remembering that time in 2018 when Albert Einstein’s violin sold at auction for $516,500.   On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the 19th of Kislev, when the founder of Chabad, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, was freed in 1798 after being imprisoned on charges that his teachings threatened the authority of the Russian Czar. Tonight at 7 p.m. ET: Join Jodi Rudoren, our editor-in-chief, and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times for a conversation about Donald Trump, antisemitism, and the current state of politics. Register here ➤ VIDEO OF THE DAY Nissim Black, an Orthodox rapper, released the music video to his new Maccabee-themed single. “With ‘Victory,’ I tried to pull the miracle of Hanukkah closer to the individual,” Black said. “A lot of times, Jewish holidays seem to be remembering something that happened in the past and to our ancestors we don’t have a connection to. By calling the Hanukkah miracle ‘my victory’ it brings it closer to home. Which it should be.”    –––   Thanks to Lauren Markoe, Jodi Rudoren and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.

The post The Jewish debate over human composting + Biden launches antisemitism task force appeared first on The Forward.

South Africa’s parliament was on Tuesday set to debate a report by a panel of experts that found preliminary evidence President Cyril Ramaphosa may have committed misconduct over a stash of foreign currency hidden at his private game farm.

Ramaphosa has denied wrongdoing over the scandal, which has been dubbed “Farmgate” by the media. He has challenged the report in court and not been charged with any crime, but some opponents have called for his resignation.

Later on Tuesday lawmakers will vote on whether to adopt the panel report, which would trigger the start of an impeachment process.

But the vote is not expected to pass, after the governing African National Congress (ANC) party – which has a majority of seats in the National Assembly – last week told its parliamentary caucus to reject it.

The vote comes days before an ANC leadership contest that will decide whether Ramaphosa gets to run for a second term on the party ticket at a 2024 election.

The foreign currency hidden in furniture at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm was stolen in 2020 but only came to light in June. The theft has raised questions about how Ramaphosa, who came to power on the promise to fight graft, acquired the money and whether he declared it.

Ramaphosa has said a much smaller amount of money than the millions of dollars reported was taken and that it was the proceeds of game sales. He said he reported the theft when he heard about it, contrary to allegations.

When four federal police officers came to arrest Roberto Jefferson, a close ally of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the veteran politician made clear he was going nowhere.

“Run,” he told them. “You’re going to get hurt.”

The former federal lawmaker then threw three adulterated stun grenades at the police and sprayed their armored car with over 50 shots from his Smith & Wesson 5.56 mm assault-style rifle, according to his testimony and those of the arresting officers. Two cops were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds and Jefferson only surrendered after an eight-hour standoff.

The high-profile Oct. 23 shootout, just a week before Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid, underscored one of the most daunting challenges facing his leftist rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The president-elect has pledged to “disarm” an increasingly gun-toting country where personal firearms have become a symbol of Bolsonaro’s conservative base.

“We see, with the case of Roberto Jefferson, how dangerous it is for civilians to have high-caliber weapons. It’s something that puts police at risk, and also society,” said Bruno Langeani, from the Sou da Paz Institute, who is informally advising Lula’s transition team.

Reuters interviewed eight other people working on, or advising, Lula’s transition team on bolstering gun controls once he takes office on Jan. 1. Although their plans are not settled, they aim to revoke dozens of executive orders Bolsonaro signed to loosen gun laws, which sparked a surge in firearms ownership.

Nearly three-quarters of Brazilians opposed Bolsonaro’s weakening of gun laws, pollster Datafolha said in May.

The priority will be to reimpose civilian prohibitions on certain high-caliber weapons, including the rifle used by Jefferson, the sources said.

They also plan to make it harder to get new firearms licenses, and more expensive and onerous to renew old ones. The transition team is also looking at ways to streamline opaque databases run by the army and the federal police, they said.

But that’s the easy part.

There are now around 1.9 million privately owned weapons registered in Brazil, according to the Igarape and Sou da Paz institutes, up from around 695,000 in 2018 when Bolsonaro was elected. Minimizing that vast stock of firearms, many of which are owned by diehard Bolsonaro fans who loathe Lula and dispute his election victory, will be “challenging,” said Gabriel Sampaio, a transition team lawyer.

The political context is a sharp departure from Lula’s 2003-2010 presidency, when he passed sweeping gun laws to combat violent crime. Those measures included a voluntary buy-back scheme that removed around 650,000 weapons from circulation.

Lula’s team is now discussing an obligatory buy-back to get assault rifles out of civilian hands and give them to security forces, transition sources said.

Sou da Paz Institute’s Langeani estimated there are between 40,000 and 70,000 legal assault rifles in civilian hands. A mandatory, competitively priced buy-back, with the government paying 15,000 reais to 20,000 reais ($2,850 – $3,800) per rifle, would remove some of the country’s most dangerous firearms, said Langeani and other Lula advisors.

Nearly 700,000 Brazilians have taken advantage of Bolsonaro’s looser gun laws to register as “hunters, marksmen or collectors,” or “CACs,” and stockpile weapons. The number of CAC licenses has grown almost 500% since 2018.

Yet oversight of those gun-owners is miniscule. Last year, army auditors carried out 622 in-person visits to gun-owners with expired or inactive licenses, and seized under 400 weapons, according to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security. In at least 10 Brazilian states, home to around 80 million people, they carried out no visits at all.

The Jefferson incident is a case in point.

Despite being one of Brazil’s most well-known inmates, under house arrest for allegedly organizing “anti-democratic acts,” he had an assault rifle, a 9mm Tanfoglio handgun, “lots of ammo,” and prohibited grenades in his home, according to his testimony.

Jefferson also told police he currently had 20-25 weapons, and had once owned as many as 100 firearms.

The army said he had held a CAC permit since 2005, which was suspended after the October firefight.

Jefferson’s lawyer, Luiz Gustavo Cunha, said his client was legally entitled to have those weapons at home.

“He believes any politician who wants to disarm their population wants to turn them into slaves,” Cunha said.

Weak enforcement is not the only obstacle Lula faces.

Transition sources expect legal challenges from CAC permit-holders who bought expensive foreign firearms in good faith.

Brazilians imported a record $75 million worth of revolvers and pistols in the first 11 months of 2022, nearly double last year’s total.

Bolsonaro has turned Brazil into a top ten export market for U.S.-made civilian firearms, according to official U.S. data compiled by the Security Assistance Monitor, rising from 26th position in 2018 to ninth this year. U.S. firearms exports to Brazil hit a record $13.3 million through October 2022 versus $3.2 million four years ago.

Booming demand has also been reflected in a vocal constituency for gun-friendly legislation.

The October election saw the rise of a new wave of pro-gun lawmakers, elected as part of a more conservative Congress, who plan to push U.S.-style pro-gun laws.

Marcos Pollon, a newly-elected federal lawmaker who leads lobby group PROARMAS, which models itself on the U.S. National Rifle Association, said he would fight Lula’s efforts to suppress a vibrant sector.

“To destroy overnight an entire industry for political revenge … is a dictatorial measure,” he said. “We believe the legislature will respond to guarantee peoples’ rights to practice their sports and exercise legitimate self-defense.”

Ahead of the election, Bolsonaro encouraged his followers to arm themselves as insurance against potential electoral malfeasance. He has yet to concede defeat, and his politicization of gun ownership has contributed to a tense atmosphere, with groups of his supporters camped outside military bases, urging the armed forces to overturn the result.

On Monday night, Bolsonaro supporters tried to invade the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, clashing with security forces and setting fire to vehicles, after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of an indigneous leader who had allegedly “summoned armed people to prevent the certification of” Lula.

He is not the only Bolsonaro supporter to call for an armed response to the election result.

In a video from a protest last month, businessman Milton Baldin urged CAC permit-holders to come to Brasilia to protest Lula’s electoral certification. “Come here and show your presence,” he said, adding that Brazil’s yellow-and-green flag “may well end up red – but with my blood.”

Baldin, who was arrested last week for his alleged anti-democratic comments, declined to comment.

A growing number of legal weapons have ended up in the hands of some of Brazil’s most violent gangsters, Reuters has reported. That trend has only accelerated, federal police sources said.

On Nov. 8, the federal police raided an alleged ring of cocaine traffickers, money launderers and arms dealers. Of the 110 people arrested, 30 had CAC permits, two officers told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss findings that aren’t public.

Jefferson is no hard-boiled criminal, but illustrates how Bolsonaro’s rhetoric and looser gun laws can lead to violent crime, said Claudio Mannarino, the mayor of Comendador Levy Gasparian, 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro.

He was having coffee in his house around midday on Oct. 23 when he heard what sounded like fireworks. Soon afterwards, Mannarino began to receive messages that Jefferson, his neighbor, had fired at the federal police.

Jefferson was jailed last year for threatening democratic institutions. In January, the cancer-stricken politician was assigned to house arrest, but was banned from social media.

On Oct. 21, Jefferson’s daughter published a video on her Twitter account in which he called Supreme Court Justice Carmen Lucia a “prostitute,” among other insults.

Two days later, four federal cops approached his home to detain him for breaking the terms of his house arrest.

He greeted them with a hail of bullets.

After his surrender, Jefferson apologized to the injured officers, saying in his statement he hadn’t shot with malice.

Federal prosecutors were unmoved. Last week, they charged him with four counts of attempted murder, resisting arrest, and weapons charges.

Cunha, Jefferson’s lawyer, said his client was innocent, alleging his initial imprisonment and subsequent arrest warrant were illegal.

“They became criminals by carrying out an illegal arrest warrant,” Cunha said of the police.

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