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BOSTON (JTA) – A month after Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel stood on the front line of the 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, to demand voting rights for African Americans, another march unfolded in Boston.

There, on April 23, 1965, King led more than 20,000 people on a march from Roxbury, the city’s historic Black neighborhood, to the Boston Common. They stretched for nearly a mile, in a historic moment for Boston and its Black community.

Now, in honor of both King’s birthday and the 50th anniversary of Heschel’s death, Boston Common is home to marchers again. On Friday, Jewish Bostonians and allies walked in a procession from the nearby Central Reform Temple to the park for the city’s dedication of a new monument of King and his wife and civil rights partner Coretta Scott King.

“We thought this would be a wonderful moment to rekindle the alliance between the African American Civil Rights community and the Jewish community,” Rabbi Michael Shire, the synagogue’s rabbi and a faculty member at Hebrew College told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone conversation a few days before the event.

King had professional and personal ties to the city he came to call his second home. He had earned his PhD in theology at Boston University. It was also the place where King first met and courted Coretta Scott, who was earning her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music.

The Embrace, a massive sculpture and public memorial designed by renowned artist Hank Willis Thomas, honors the couple’s legacy and the role this city played in their lives. Unveiled Friday, the 20-foot-high bronze sculpture evokes the Kings in a hug that was inspired by a photograph taken in 1964, soon after the announcement that King had been chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Embrace is the largest American-made bronze sculpture in the country, according to Imari K. Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston, the nonprofit leading the memorial.

“It is Boston’s Statue of Liberty,” he told WBUR.

The procession, which drew about 100 people, was meant to evoke the bond between the two giants of faith and the ties between the Black and Jewish communities represented by the Selma march, when Heschel famously carried a Torah scroll.

Rain cleared enough for the Boston Jews to carry a Torah of their own, which was rolled to this week’s portion, the beginning of the Book of Exodus. “It is a story of freedom and liberation,” Shire said before the procession. “As we march today, we will think about how that story is ever present in all of our lives.”

Jill Silverstein, a synagogue board member who cofounded its racial justice committee following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, said the committee members studied slavery and racism today, and engaged in self-reflection, said Silverstein, who watched the monument’s progress from her home nearby and called it “exquisite and different.” She said the march on Friday, which the synagogue group discussed with Embrace Boston leaders, is a first step in taking action as partners with others to combat racism.

“It‘s a rekindling of our commitment to racial justice, equity and equality,” Silverstein said.

The march comes at a moment of challenge. Antisemitic incidents and sentiments are on the rise, according to watchdog groups; Boston has been home to several in recent years, including the stabbing of a rabbi in 2021 that ignited shows of solidarity within the Jewish community. What’s more, several recent episodes have challenged Black-Jewish relations, including an extended antisemitic outburst by rapper Kanye West and the promotion of an antisemitic film by NBA star Kyrie Irving.

Emmanuel Church, an Episcopal congregation where the synagogue is located, and Congregation Mishkan Tefila, a Conservative synagogue in Brookline, were early partners for the event that the two synagogues intend as the first step to deepen their work with Black churches on pressing issues of racial and economic justice.

“In this atmosphere of antisemitism and racism, Blacks and Jews need to speak loudly in support of each other and against hatred and prejudice,” said Rabbi Marcia Plumb of Mishkan Tefilah in an email. (Plumb and Shire are married to each other.)

Among others who marched was Rabbi Jim Morgan, who leads congregations at both Harvard Hillel and for residents of Hebrew Senior Life communities, which sent a handful of residents to the event.

“There are people in my community who had taken part in the civil rights movement in the 1960s,” Morgan said.

Other cosponsors include the American Jewish Committee New England; the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston; Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action; the Miller Center at Hebrew College and Center Communities of Brookline, residences of Hebrew Senior Life.

On Friday evening, Reverend Liz Walker, co-chair of the Embrace Boston committee and the pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, will speak at Central Reform’s Friday night Shabbat service,

“The moment is almost beyond words … because of what the Kings meant here in Boston,” Walker, one of Boston’s most prominent Black clergy members, told JTA by phone. She said she planned to speak about how, at a time of divisiveness and polarization, a memorial “that speaks of love, unity, courage and justice” stands out.

Describing King and Heschel as prophetic voices, Walker said, “Those relationships [between faith leaders and the community] are more vital than ever and have to be lifted up because they are going to guide the world through this kind of minefield of negativity and animosity.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post As Boston dedicates a massive monument to Martin Luther King, local Jews march in solidarity appeared first on The Forward.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Images via Getty Images

• Air New Zealand poked fun at an anecdote in Prince Harry’s “Spare” in a tweet on Thursday.
• In his memoir, Harry recalled Meghan Markle booking a ticket for her father with the airline in 2018. 
• Twitter users had mixed reactions to the “#SussexClass” tweet.

Air New Zealand got a shout-out in Prince Harry’s new memoir, and the company wasted no time capitalizing on the moment.

In “Spare,” officially released worldwide Tuesday, the British royal recalls when his now-wife Meghan Markle, in an effort to protect her father, Thomas Markle, from relentless press coverage, booked a first-class seat for him with the airline in 2018. 

“We told him, leave Mexico right now: A whole new level of harassment is about to rain down on you, so come to Britain. Now,” Harry wrote. “Air New Zealand, first class, booked and paid for Meg.”

On Thursday, Air New Zealand took the opportunity to poke fun at the anecdote from the Duke of Sussex’s controversial book with a tweet. 

—Air New Zealand ✈️ (@FlyAirNZ) January 12, 2023

Twitter users shared their opinion on the airline’s social media move. Some laughed at the joke, while others called the tweet unprofessional.

“Wow, I had a really good impression of Air New Zealand until seeing this. Surprisingly petty. Gross,” one user wrote.

“You have all missed Air NZs wicked sense of humour. Clearly you have not flown with them and watched their safety videos. Very funny,” another tweet read.

The memoir has been the subject of much public speculation of Harry’s claims, Insider reported. Since resigning from their Royal Family duties in 2020, Harry and Meghan moved to the US and began opening up about their experiences in interviews, a Netflix docuseries, and most recently, Harry’s memoir. 

The “Spare” author shared many bombshells about his past – including details on his last night of freedom with Meghan, a psychedelic drug trip, and his late mother, Princess Diana.

Musk’s lawyers had argued he wouldn’t be able to get a fair trial in San Francisco because too many potential jurors there would be biased against him after he took over Twitter, which is based there, and promptly laid off half of its staff.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

• A judge denied Elon Musk’s request to move his securities fraud trial from San Francisco to Texas.
• Musk’s lawyers had claimed too many potential jurors would be biased against him after he took over San Francisco-based Twitter and promptly laid off half of its staff.
• In a hearing Friday, the presiding judge disagreed, saying Musk “does have a lot of fans out there.”

Elon Musk has lost his bid to move his upcoming securities fraud trial to Texas from San Francisco over concerns of a potentially biased jury.

Musk’s legal team recently asked to move the trial out of San Francisco, arguing that too many potential jurors would be biased against Musk after he recently took over Twitter and laid off half of its staff.

In a motion filed last Friday, Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, argued that a “substantial portion of the jury pool in this District is likely to hold a personal and material bias against Mr. Musk as a result of recent layoffs at one of his companies as individual prospective jurors — or their friends and relatives — may have been personally impacted.

Spiro claimed such bias was compounded by “negative and inflammatory local publicity” around Musk’s management of Twitter and that it would have made it impossible for Musk to get a fair trial in the city. He petitioned for the trial to take place in Texas instead; Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas in 2021.

In a hearing Friday, US District Judge Edward Chen rejected the relocation request.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Chen said, according to Bloomberg. “Mr. Musk does have a lot of fans out there.”

After Musk’s legal team asked to move the trial, lawyers for the Tesla shareholders in the case responded by poking fun at Musk.

“What they refer to as ‘biased’ coverage is, in fact, factual reporting about his management of Twitter, Inc., and has no bearing on the jury’s ability to render a fair verdict,” attorneys Adam Apton and Adam McCall wrote. “If ‘negative’ attention was all that was required to disqualify a jury pool, Musk would effectively be untriable before a jury given his knack for attracting ‘negative’ coverage.”

The shareholder’s attorneys added that out of roughly 200 prospective jurors, only two or three said they knew someone who worked for Twitter.

The shareholders’ class-action lawsuit concerns a 2018 tweet from Musk in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share and had “funding secured” to do so. When no such deal happened, Musk paid a $20 million fine and settled fraud charges with the SEC, which accused him of making “false and misleading statements.” As part of the settlement, he neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but he resigned as chairman of the electric car company.

The upcoming trial will determine if Musk’s tweets affected Tesla’s stock, if the company or its board of directors should be held liable, and if investors are entitled to damages.

Musk, his legal team, and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider reviving two lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of overbilling government health insurance programs for prescription drugs, a dispute that could have broad implications for whistleblowers and the government’s ability to go after fraud.

The key question in both cases is whether companies can shield themselves from whistleblower fraud lawsuits by pointing to an “objectively reasonable” interpretation of the law that supports their conduct – regardless of whether they actually believed that interpretation in good faith at the time.

That is what both Safeway Inc and SuperValu Inc, which was acquired by Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI.N) in 2018, argued in lawsuits filed by whistleblowers accusing them of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, granting judgment in favor of the companies. The whistleblowers appealed to the Supreme Court.

“We are glad the court took up this important issue,” said Tejinder Singh, a lawyer who represents the whistleblowers in both cases.

Safeway and United Natural Foods did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Both lawsuits claim that the pharmacy operators billed Medicare and Medicaid for prescription drugs based on artificially high sticker prices, while charging most customers paying for the drugs out of pocket much lower prices through discount programs.

The whistleblowers said that federal law required pharmacies to bill Medicare and Medicaid based on “usual and customary” prices that they actually charge customers. They also said both companies knew they were defrauding the government and worked to conceal their pricing practices.

The 7th Circuit agreed that the companies had overcharged the government. But it found they could not be held responsible for fraud because their billing practices were supported by an “objectively reasonable” interpretation of the law – even if they did not actually believe that interpretation and consciously intended to deceive the government.

The U.S. Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court to take the case and reverse the 7th Circuit, saying the appellate court’s rulings frustrated the intention of a federal law called the False Claims Act that allows whistleblowers to sue for fraud on behalf of the government.

The Biden administration has notified Congress of the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, sparking an immediate objection from a top U.S. lawmaker who has long opposed the deal.

The U.S. State Department sent the informal notification to Congress on Thursday, three sources familiar said, kicking off a process called the “tiered review”, informing top committees overseeing arms sales in the Senate and the House of Representatives of its intention to proceed with the proposed deal.

NATO member Turkey requested in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes. Technical talks between the two sides recently concluded.

The Biden administration has said it supports the sale and has been in touch for months with Congress on an informal basis to win the approval of the lawmakers, however it has failed so far to secure a green light.

“As I have repeatedly made clear, I strongly oppose the Biden administration’s proposed sale of new F-16 aircraft to Turkey,” senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

Under U.S. law, Congress can block a sale by passing a resolution of disapproval, but it is unlikely to do so if President Joe Biden wants to go ahead despite lawmakers’ objections. While Congress has passed such resolutions in the past, it has never mustered the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to overcome a presidential veto.

The notification, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu prepares to visit Washington on Jan. 18 for bilateral talks as the two NATO allies still struggle with a host of disagreements including over Syria and weapons purchases.

Following the tiered review, a process during which the committee can ask questions or raise concerns about the sale, the administration can technically go ahead with a formal notification. But a senior U.S. official said he was “doubtful” the administration would be in a position to proceed unless Menendez dropped his objection.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was disregarding human rights and democratic norms and engaging in “alarming and destabilizing behavior in Turkey and against neighboring NATO allies,” Menendez said in his statement.

“Until Erdogan ceases his threats…and begins to act like a trusted ally should, I will not approve this sale.”

Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of Russian air defense systems resulted in Ankara being kicked out of the next generation F-35 fighter jet program and antagonized the U.S. Congress. Disagreements with Washington over Syria policy and Turkey’s deteriorating track record on human rights and freedom expression also weighs on the Congress sentiment.

The U.S. Congress is also unlikely to approve the sale as long as Turkey refuses to proceed with the ratification of Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership.

The two countries ended decades of neutrality last May and applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey objected and accused the countries of harboring militants, including from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and demanded steps be taken.

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Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker (Ill.) on Tuesday signed one of the most extensive weapon bans in the country, outlawing the sale of nearly 170 so-called assault weapons.

The “Protect Illinois Communities Act” bans the sale and distribution of certain pistols, shotguns, and rifles including AR-15s. The law, which passed through the state’s Democratic legislature, also bans “high capacity magazines” and “switches” that can make handguns fully automatic.

Illinoisans can keep weapons that fall under the ban if they already own them but must register the weapons by Jan. 1, 2024—or face a Class 2 Felony for failing to provide authorities the location of their “weapon of war.”

The law has sparked immediate backlash among state law enforcement: More than two dozen sheriffs across the state say they will not enforce the law.

“This bill puts us in a bind on the oath we took as sheriffs to uphold the Constitution and constitution of Illinois,” McHenry County sheriff Robb Tadelman told Chicago’s ABC 7.

Illinois is now the ninth state to ban “assault weapons”—but its new law could soon face legal challenges in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down New York’s restrictions on concealed handgun carry. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, whose majority opinion was authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, also created a new test for Second Amendment cases.

New regulations must be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the Supreme Court ruled. Modern feelings toward gun rights are not grounds for restricting the constitutional guarantee, according to the Court.

The Illinois State Rifle Association and other groups are preparing to sue Illinois. Dan Eldridge, board member at the Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois, which is seeking relief from the courts, said the law is “not going to last.”

“We will win, and when we’re done with this, we’ll have an energized membership base, we’ll have a pretty big war chest and we’ll go after everything else that we can,” Eldridge said.

The Biden administration celebrated the law’s passage: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre this week said Biden “commends the leadership” of Pritzker, who took “bold action to keep weapons of war off America’s streets.”

State Republicans, meanwhile, say the law is unenforceable.

“I don’t think the majority of gun owners are going to register, and I’m not sure who’s going to round them all up,” said state representative C.D. Davidsmeyer.

The post Illinois’s Dem Gov Cracks Down on Gun Owners With Draconian Weapons Ban appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

There is a game afoot in the Republican Party and we mustn’t fall for it. This game is performance art. In the upcoming months, the Republican House will conduct a performance of epic proportions. They will engage in the art of pretending.

All of this will be done to sully the reputation of the democrats in an attempt to dirty us up in the 2024 election. Fake investigations will be launched. Nothing of importance will be found because Democrats, for the most part, don’t break the law. We leave that to our frenemies on the other side.

But republicans in the house will appear on various television networks. They will all wear the same expressions as befitting the game they are engaged in. Righteous indignation will be their rules of choice. Ah, yes, all games have rules. And this particular game comes with the rule of righteous indignation.

The house republicans will attempt to stir up trouble. They will lie shamelessly; they will pretend democrats are the worst thing since Hannibal Lecter (and possibly worse), and they will assume the masks of false outrage that the democrats did — something wrong.

Expect Fox to play up all these fake stories. They will, of course, aid and abet republicans in whatever ways they can. Your job is not to fall for it. Do not fall for the game and understand that the game comes with stringent rules, including lying, quivering in anger, and saying the word “woke” perhaps hundreds of times.

They will want to get a rise out of democrats. Democratic politicians know this. These politicians are well acquainted with the rules of the game and expect all of this. Keep your blood pressure down by not engaging in the stupidity of the game they will play. Please ignore it and concentrate on the democratic agenda and amplification of the democratic message.

Ignore the game and understand that it is nothing more than politics at its most sleazy. That will save you hours of ruminating. Do not fall into their trap, and in 2024 , we will be the ones firmly in control of the house.

The post The game is afoot appeared first on Palmer Report.