Red Sox Exec Chaim Bloom Says He’s Heard Antisemitism Stemming From Team’s Woes
Chaim Bloom, the Jewish chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, told the Boston Globe he has received death threats and an antisemitic slur as his team has struggled in recent seasons, JTA.org reported.
Bloom, a Philadelphia native who attended Jewish day schools and who observes Shabbat and keeps kosher, took the helm of the Red Sox in October 2019.
Despite a successful playoff run in 2021, the team has largely underperformed since his arrival. After two last-place finishes and several high-profile player departures, some fans and analysts suggest Bloom’s job is in jeopardy.
In the Globe article, Bloom acknowledged the criticism he has faced but said he tries not to complain. “I don’t think that days are going to be better because [Red Sox fans] know that I’m suffering when we lose, even though I am,” he said.
Insect Named for Hitler Draws Criticism From Organizational, Academic Circles
Connections between the Nazis and Volkswagen Beetles are well known. But an insect that looks like Adolf Hitler bearing his name? That’s like letting the bed bugs bite.
An insect endemic to Southeast Asia and India, with the scientific name catacanthus incarnatus, is being called a “Hitler bug” for a feature on its back that resembles the dictator’s face, JNS.org reported, citing New Indian Express. (Evidently, the nickname stuck to the bugs as far back as 2011, with a Daily Mail story in 2014.)
The bug was previously called the “man-faced stink bug,” due to its notorious smell. It also is widely regarded as a pest for eating fruit and crops.
The man-face has been given a name, and it’s the most notorious one imaginable.
“Naming an insect after Hitler is not funny or clever. It’s disgraceful and appalling,” said Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International. “It makes light of Hitler’s efforts to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe. Hitler murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others. His name should not be lent to anything.”
Frankfurt Cancels Roger Waters Concert, Citing Antisemitic History
Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who is a leading proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well known antisemites,” JTA.org reported.
Waters was scheduled to perform on May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews to their deaths just after Kristallnacht.
The city of Frankfurt noted the historical significance of the concert hall, which it partly owns, in announcing that it was canceling Waters’ planned concert. It cited Waters’ longstanding anti-Israel activism.
“The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behavior of the former Pink Floyd frontman, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world,” the city said in a statement. “He repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel and drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa and put pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel.”
Sara Netanyahu Freed by Police After Protesters Trap Her in Hair Salon
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had to be rescued by hundreds of police on March 1 after being trapped for hours by anti-judicial reform protesters in Tel Aviv, JNS.org reported.
The incident began when protesters identified Sara Netanyahu entering a hair salon. Thousands of protesters converged on the scene, shouting “she won’t be allowed to leave the barber shop” and “shame.”
Police first blocked the entrance to the hair salon the premier’s wife was in to prevent protesters from entering, while mounted officers were called to the scene to reinforce the perimeter. Clashes broke out between the protesters and police.
Security forces were able to extract her from the site at around 11 p.m.
Feds Arrest Michigan Man Who Plotted to Kill Jewish Elected Officials
The FBI coordinated with local authorities in mid-February to arrest a heavily armed man who threatened to kill all Jewish elected officials in Michigan on social media, according to a recently unsealed criminal case, JTA.org reported.
The man appears to have been a former employee of the University of Michigan.
Jack Eugene Carpenter III, a resident of Tipton, Michigan, tweeted on Feb. 17 that he was “heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan govt if they don’t leave, or confess,” according to the FBI’s affidavit. There are several prominent Jewish elected officials in the state, including Attorney General Dana Nessel, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and a handful of state senators and representatives.
Carpenter was charged with transmitting an interstate threat, for which he could receive up to five years in federal prison, and is being held without bail in a federal court in Detroit, according to local reports. He was in Texas when he made the tweets, the FBI said.
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
