With an immediate rise in antisemitism following last month's conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the OU Advocacy Center, which represents Orthodox Jews in America, is winding down a massive effort in the last several weeks of having its members around the country meet with members of Congress.

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The group launched its "Unite and Advocate" campaign in late May, holding virtual meetings with approximately 20 members of Congress from across the country so far, expecting to meet with more in the coming weeks.

The campaign came as a result of nationwide attacks on Jews and increasing concerns for the security of Jewish day schools and other institutions.

"The time for action is now, and this is the OU's greatest priority. Lives are at stake both here and in Israel," said Rabbi Moshe Hauer, OU's executive vice president, in a news release.

"To our US representatives who have stepped up, and have begun speaking out and taking action to provide support to the Jewish community, we are grateful. To those who have not, we look forward to fruitful conversations." According to the release, nearly 240 individuals from across the country signed up to participate in the campaign and were provided activism training. The volunteers then meet virtually with representatives from their areas to express their concerns.

Lindsay Barsky, OU Advocacy's congressional affairs director, said that like other organizations, the OU has hosted lobbying missions to Capitol Hill annually and sends out action alerts throughout the year to its members to contact their representatives. But a widespread effort such as the ongoing Unite and Advocate Campaign has not been needed

A number of volunteers – business and synagogue leaders, real estate developers, executive directors of large organizations – who have joined the effort have served as leaders in their districts and so have active relationships with Congress members.

According to Barsky, the campaign is advocating that Congress support Israel's right to defend itself from ongoing attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations; double funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $360 million in the fiscal year 2022, compared to $180 million in 2021; and urge Congress to back the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which will help federal agencies monitor cases of domestic terrorism and improve law enforcement's ability to combat domestic terror threats.

The campaign is also asking the members to urge US President Joe Biden to nominate a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism, and for the members of Congress to make public statements condemning the recent waves of anti-Semitism in the United States.

Barsky said that while US representatives are accustomed to hearing regularly from lobbyists about concerns, it's quite another for the representatives to hear firsthand from their constituents about how the current climate of antisemitism is affecting them.

"During these meetings, we've had members share terrible personal instances of antisemitism that the representatives and their staff had no idea occurred on a day-to-day basis," reported Barsky.

"It's one thing for the members of Congress to speak or debate about such things from a conceptual standpoint, but it's another thing altogether for the representatives to hear Americans who've come from places like Paris, who came from Iran [which kicked out its Jews years ago], who came from countries where it's been very difficult for Jews to live with any feeling of safety, to then share with the representatives that here – in major American hubs such as Midtown Manhattan, they're afraid to go out wearing a Star of David or a head covering."

She added, "That's not something that our representatives hear every day."

Barsky also noted that neither the community members nor the representatives in the meetings shied away from controversy.

"We've had uncomfortable conversations with our good friends in the Democratic Party about what's going on in the progressive wing and how we can support them as they combat that hostility towards Israel in Congress because it's not easy for them," said Barsky.

Public officials, she concluded, must be outspoken about antisemitism; otherwise, it provides cover for more antisemitic acts.

And that, she insisted, is "unacceptable and un-American."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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On Monday, the suspect was summoned to the Cyber Crimes Unit, a department in the Lahav 443 Major Crimes Unit, for questioning. He was slated to be arraigned at the Ashkelon Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

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In recent weeks, Netanyahu and his family have been the subject of numerous threats on social media.  Last month, the prime minister filed several complaints with the police about content inciting the murder of himself and his wife.  

One such complaint was filed against a Facebook user who wrote a post expressing a wish that Netanyahu's son Yair "would soon be orphaned of both his parents."

The Cyber Crimes Unit has also arrested a 21-year-old soldier from northern Israel who is suspected of posting threats to harm the prime minister. The police are investigating his posts. The soldier was remanded to police custody for three days by the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court.

Attorney Gal Wolf, the public defender assigned to the soldier's case, said that her client "has no criminal past" and that "he is cooperating with the investigators and stresses that he had no intention of hurting anyone."

According to Wolf, "We expect the police to finish their investigation soon and avoid a needless extension of [his] remand." 

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Visiting the scene in Rockland County, about 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo met on Sunday with victims who had been attending the Hanukkah celebration at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg.

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"This is terrorism, it is domestic terrorism," Cuomo told reporters. "These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, color, creed."

The suspect was identified by police as a local man from Greenwood Lake, New York. Authorities said he was arrested in New York City's Manhattan borough after fleeing the site of the attack in the small town of Monsey by car.

Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said at a news conference that the suspect will be arraigned later on Sunday on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

According to Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, the attacker had his face partially covered with a scarf when he stabbed five people, two of whom were in critical condition.

"One of the rabbi's children was also stabbed," Gestetner told reporters.

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Under the proposal, Eva Drive would become Lori Lynn Lane. It is located near where the 60-year-old congregant lived with her husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, about a mile from the synagogue.

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Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said that people associated with Chabad approached the city to propose the street-name change.

"They did all the groundwork, and our team got the obstacles out of the way," he said. "It should have unanimous and enthusiastic support."

Three people, including senior Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, were wounded on April 27 when lone gunman John Earnest shot at worshippers during Shabbat-morning services.

Earnest has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges, including 113 federal hate crime-related counts.

If convicted of the murder charge, the 20-year-old could face the death penalty, though prosecutors haven't said what sentence they would seek.

He is scheduled to be back in court on Dec. 5 for a status hearing, at which time a trial date will likely be set.

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Jewish Agency chair Isaac Herzog lit a memorial candle in memory of those murdered in the shooting – the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American Jewish history.

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"B'chol dor va dor ('in every generation'), there are challenges for each generation. What strikes me is that some of our challenges today are similar to those of 90 years ago. Anti-Semitism, divisiveness among the Jewish people. … We cannot put our heads in the sand. We have challenges we must meet. We must also build the future," he told those gathered.

Among hundreds of other communal leaders at the meeting who stood for a moment of silence were Jewish Agency board chair Michael Siegel, and Pittsburgh community leader and chair of United Israel Appeal Cindy Shapira.

Shapira told the gathering of global Jewish leaders: "What happened after the attack is testimony to the resilience of the Jewish community, as well as the community at large. We remember and repair together."

She explained that she chose to be at the board of governors in Jerusalem and miss the numerous commemorative events in her hometown of Pittsburgh to focus on the resilience of Jews everywhere, saying: "I'm here at this meeting because the Jewish Agency and leadership of Jewish people around the world are in a focused mission to connect the Jewish people to each other and to Israel, security all over the world and bring those to the homeland who want to be here."

Tens of thousands of people around the world will "pause with Pittsburgh" and receive a text message on Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, calling for a moment of silence and naming the 11 Jewish worshippers who lost their lives.

In a powerful show of unity and collective remembrance, she noted, tens of thousands of people worldwide will "pause with Pittsburgh" and receive a text message on Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, calling for a moment of silence and containing a video with a mourning prayer, the names of the 11 Jewish worshippers who lost their lives, a link to virtually join Pittsburgh's local service and the opportunity to share a message of solidarity by text.

Also speaking of her experiences in Pittsburgh in the weeks following the attack, young Israeli emissary Hadar Maravent spoke on a panel at the opening ceremony with other shinshinim (emissaries who defer their army service to work in a Jewish Diaspora community for a year). She recalled working with teenagers in the aftermath, bringing her own experiences of terror attacks in Israel.

"People felt comfortable reaching out to me partly because I'm Israeli and [moving on from anti-Semitic attacks] is familiar to me in a way," she told JNS.

"We talked about anger, frustration and sadness," she said. "I wasn't just a guest in the community; I was there because I needed to be there for the teens and families that hosted me, sharing a message of hope, and that we are stronger together."

Herzog, who met Hadar in Pittsburgh a few days after the massacre, told the leaders gathered that nurturing the future of the Jewish people and promoting the shlichut (sending) of young Israeli leaders will "bring the voice of the Jewish world" back to impact Israel.

As part of the board of governors meeting, the Jewish Agency will approve its new strategic plan, which seeks to tackle the major challenges facing Jewish communities in the coming decade.

According to that plan, Herzog told JNS, the Jewish Agency will "focus our operations on connecting all the geographies within the global Jewish community, with the core strategy coming from the need to address the challenges of the Jewish world, such as divides within the Jewish people, the challenge of anti-Semitism and the security of Jewish community infrastructure around the world."

"Putting forward the idea of a new operational structure will give a platform for local partnerships that have the ability to connect Jews all over the world not only to Israel, but between themselves as well," he said.

In addition, Herzog noted that his organization will continue to focus on encouraging aliyah.

It will also focus on educating Israelis through work with its government agencies to more effectively "listen to the voice of Diaspora Jewry" and assume a major role in more effectively supporting them.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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"Join us in planting 12,000 trees of life! Make the land even more beautiful in their memory," it said on the project's event page.

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"[This is] a great opportunity to help Israeli farmers while paying tribute to the 12 holy victims of synagogue shootings, may their memories be for a blessing," continued the plea. "Show your love for Israel by joining in this wonderful mitzvah!"

A total of 11 Jewish worshippers were murdered on Oct. 27, 2018, when a lone gunman entered the Tree of Life*Or L'Simcha Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh during Shabbat-morning services.

Exactly six months later, on April 27, 2019, a similar shooting took place at Chabad of Poway in Southern California, where a 60-year-old Jewish woman was killed in the synagogue lobby and three others injured in the attack, also on Shabbat morning during services.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Lawyers for Tree of Life shooting defendant Robert Bowers made the statement in a response to prosecutors' proposal to start the trial in mid-September 2020.

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"Against the hazards of a September-October 2020 trial, the government invokes the rights of crimes victims to be free from unreasonable delay," Bowers' lawyers said.

"The court's view of this invocation of rights should be informed by the fact that this case would already be over – and interests in a speedy resolution vindicated – had the government accepted the defendant's offer to plead guilty as charged and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release."

Bowers' attorneys told a judge in May that he wanted to plead guilty in return for a life sentence.

The US attorney's office in Pittsburgh notified the court in August it is pursuing the death penalty against Bowers, 47, for what was the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

Police said Bowers expressed hatred of Jews during and after the October 2018 rampage.

A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh federal prosecutors declined to comment. Messages were left seeking comment from Bowers' lawyers.

The Bowers team's filing said trial in about a year would run into major Jewish holidays, as well as the home stretch of the presidential election.

The defense lawyers said they need time to prepare for trial, including questions about where it should be held.

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On July 11, James Reardon Jr., 20, tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown in an Instagram post that featured a video of a man shooting a semi-automatic weapon. This launched what New Middletown Police Chief Vincent D'Egidio described as an "intense … rapidly evolving investigation."

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Police described Reardon as an "avowed anti-Semite and white nationalist" whose social media was full of racial slurs. He was arrested after the FBI raided his home on Friday and seized a stockpile of semi-automatic weapons and ammunition, bulletproof armor, and a gas mask, as well as anti-Semitic and white supremacist propaganda.

Reardon is currently being charged on counts of telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing. The FBI has yet to announce if it plans to seek federal charges against the suspect.

In response to Reardon's arrest, the Cleveland branch of the Anti-Defamation League tweeted a message of thanks to the FBI and local law enforcement and "community partners."

"We will continue to employ all our resources to stop the spread of white nationalism and violent extremism," ADL Cleveland stated.

According to Action News 4 out of Pittsburgh, where an anti-Semitic shooter killed 11 people and wounded seven the Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, local police in Youngstown said they intended to provide the Jewish community center with extra security.

Following the arrest, the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation issued a statement of thanks to local police and the Department of Homeland Security that described the pre-emptive arrest of Reardon as "a clear example of everything going right."

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The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Conor Climo, 23, became the target of a Justice Department terrorism task force investigation after he reached out to a white supremacist group.

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Three years ago, Climo was featured on a TV news report, carrying an assault rifle and four magazines. The weapon appeared in a 2017 social media post in which Climo quoted Adolf Hitler.

According to the criminal complaint, Climo corresponded online with an FBI informant. During their discussions, he made racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ remarks. He also discussed plans to attack a synagogue in Las Vegas, as well as the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. Climo also told the informant he planned to make Molotov cocktails and explosive devices.

Climo has been charged with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm, which the Justice Department described in a press release as a component of "a destructive device."

US Attorney for Nevada Nicholas Trutanich said in the Justice Department press release that "threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this country."

Trutanich added that Nevada law enforcement was determined to employ every investigative resource at its disposal to "prevent bias-motivated violence before it happens."

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Arrests related to domestic terrorism in the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, are at 66, exceeding international terrorism arrests, now at 63.

Terrorism cases are "the FBI's number one priority," the FBI official said, noting that every one of the bureau's U.S. field offices is affiliated with a local "joint terrorism task force" involving both federal and local law enforcement agencies.

While militants linked to international terrorism can be prosecuted under U.S. federal laws introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York City, no similar federal laws cover domestic terrorism.

Recent violent extremist attacks in the United States include the killing of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October and a shooting in Kansas in 2017 when an Indian immigrant was killed by an assailant who thought the victim was Middle Eastern.

The figures show international terrorism remains a major focus for the FBI, but the bureau is increasingly treating domestic terrorism as an equally important concern.

The official said domestic terrorism cases relate to racially motivated extremism; anti-government attacks, animal-rights related attacks, and attacks involving abortion clinics or anti-abortion rights protesters.

The internet remains a main source of radicalization for domestic and U.S.-based international terrorists. "Terrorism moves at the speed of the internet," the official said.

Given the availability of radical messages in cyberspace, the official said, "homegrown violent extremists" – those inspired by foreign movements like Islamic State – now can become self-radicalized in just months.

"Attacks inspire attacks," the official added, noting that attacks such as one against mosques in New Zealand are the type which have inspired or been copied by other attackers.

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