What Happened Today: June 28, 2023
Supreme Court defends courts' rights; Anti-Zionist in the White House; Siegel on Roseanne
The Big Story
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reject a petition by North Carolina Republicans that would have enshrined the right of state legislatures to conduct federal elections without oversight from state supreme courts. The case, Moore v. Harper, centered on a dispute over a 2021 North Carolina congressional map approved by the Republican-led legislature that would have likely given the party 10 out of the 14 seats in the U.S. House. After the North Carolina Supreme Court, controlled at that time by a 4-3 Democrat majority, ruled the map could not be used in the 2022 midterms, seven House members were elected from each party. North Carolina Republicans argued that the state’s supreme court violated the constitutional principle of “independent state legislature.”
Supporters of the independent state legislature position argue that the Constitution ascribes powers to the legislatures of the states, but not the courts, when it comes to setting election policy. In this view, the North Carolina court intervention was unconstitutional, although the 6-3 majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, didn’t see it that way. While emphasizing that “state courts do not have free rein” to challenge their legislators on election policy, the decision grants state courts some power over the electoral process.
As the second Supreme Court decision this month to shoot down a petition that could have benefited Republicans in a future election, the ruling has largely undermined dire warnings that the current conservative-led bench would lead a judicial power grab in favor of the Republican Party.
In the Back Pages: COVID Comes for Another Summer
The Rest
→ The White House’s new senior policy adviser for immigration on the Domestic Policy Council, Ramzi Kassem, isn’t so much a fan of the Israeli state: He has said Israel is committed to systemic genocide while also stating his opinion that a two-state solution is not desirable. In 2000, he noted, “The power of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee and other lobbying groups has allowed Israeli ‘ethnocracy’ to flourish.” Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at Tel Aviv Institute, told The Washington Free Beacon that equivalent rhetoric about any group other than Jews would disqualify a candidate for the kind of public office to which Kassem has been appointed, saying, “Unequivocal consensus would swiftly denounce the wisdom of appointing such a person with employment.”
→ On Monday, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill designating the terms Latino, Latina, and Latine as the official terms to be used in government documents to refer to the Latin American community. The bill comes after some Connecticut senators, including Latino Democrats, were inspired by Arkansas’ move to officially ban Latinx, a term popularized by activists for its gender neutrality but familiar to just 25% of Latinos in the United States and used regularly by far fewer of them—roughly 2%—according to recent polls. After a debate in which the proposal to ban Latinx was framed as anti-LGBTQ, the lawmakers chose to take a more positive approach to embrace Latine—a term increasingly used in Latin America.
→ Israelis remain the ultimate mavericks, with their simultaneous embrace of the United States and its leaders and of their belief that Uncle Sam is “meddling in their affairs.” A recent Pew survey found that 87% of Israelis have a favorable view of the United States, second only to Poland’s favorable view of the U.S., at 93%; 68% of Israelis have confidence in U.S. President Joe Biden. Donald Trump received similar ratings from the Israeli electorate.
https://twitter.com/nickgerli1/status/1673774695693385728
According to this Twitter thread by “#1 YouTube Real Estate” guy Nick Gerli, Airbnb owners in some of the hottest markets in the United States have seen their revenue plummet over the past year, with drops of 46% in Austin, 39% in Nashville, and 37% in New Orleans, based on data he analyzed from AllTheRooms. If the trend holds up, Gerli predicts a mass wave of sell-offs from Airbnb owners who are locked into mortgages they can’t afford, potentially triggering a huge drop in home values across the country. However, Jamie Lane, chief economist of AirDNA, claims that according to his data, the average decrease is only 3.6%, not 40.3%. Crisis averted?
→ A recent report from Adalytics found that Google’s video-advertising wing has failed to deliver the goods on paid-for ads by some of the world’s largest companies and government agencies. Google’s TrueView ads are supposed to be skippable, audible, and initiated by direct customer engagement, not passive scrolling, and hosted on websites that meet Google’s standards. But the Adalytics investigation found ads that were played fully muted and on a continuous loop with no user interaction and shopped out to third-party sites below standard. Apparently, according to the research compiled between 2020 and 2023, Google has violated its own standards 80% of the time. However, a Google spokesperson said that purchased ads mostly run on YouTube, as promised, and that buyers can see metrics on any third-party sites being used and opt out. That’s not good enough for Giovanni Sollazzo, founder, chairman, and chief executive of digital-ad agency AIDEM, who says, “I feel cheated.”
Read More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-violated-its-standards-in-ad-deals-research-finds-3e24e041
→ Two young lovers named Ivan and Haley are wanted by Italian police for allegedly using keys to carve their names into the Roman Colosseum, writing “Ivan+Haley, 23.” On Twitter, Italy’s Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano condemned the vandalism: “I consider it very serious, unworthy, and a sign of great incivility that a tourist defaces one of the most famous places in the world, the Colosseum, to engrave the name of his fiancée.” “Ivan” faces a potential fine of $16,354 and even jail time. But judging from their names, can you really blame a Croatian discotheque lover for trying to impress the American paramour he met on Tinder?
→ Quote of the Day:
People should be glad it’s Jewish too because if Jews were not controlling Hollywood, all you’d have is fucking fishing shows. You see what I’m sayin’?
Roseanne Barr’s recent appearance with fellow comedian Theo Von on his podcast has caused a controversy, not for her criticism of fishing-themed entertainment, but for another part of the interview in which she launched into a sardonic commentary on the policing of official narratives: “Nobody died in the Holocaust either,” she drily joked to Von. “That’s the truth. It should happen, 6 million Jews should die right now, cause they cause all the problems in the world, but it never happened.” Barr, who is Jewish, was obviously being sarcastic, but that did not stop the professional antisemitism police led by the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt from denouncing the comedian. “Sarcasm or not, Roseanne Barr’s comments about Jews and the Holocaust are reprehensible and irresponsible,” Greenblatt tweeted. Uh, actually, the difference between sarcasm or not is pretty significant. Great job, Greenblatt—we’d be lost without you! See, sarcasm. -J.S.
You can watch the whole exchange here: https://twitter.com/TheoVon/status/1673767148794290176
→ Longtime Wheel of Fortune sidekick Vanna White has hired a famous Hollywood lawyer in an attempt to renegotiate her contract as preparations are underway for her famous co-star Pat Sajak to retire next year. While Sajak has been paid about $15 million a year, White has received only $3 million, and with the changing of the guard, she feels it’s time for a raise. New host Ryan Seacrest says he can’t wait to work alongside White, so here’s hoping that Sony will fill this one in before next year, “Sh_ C_ _ S_e Fo_ G_nde_ Di_crim_n_ti__.”
TODAY IN TABLET:
Unfuckable Hate Nerds by William Deresiewicz
Yes, young men are losers. They deserve sympathy, not contempt.
Dissent in the Reform Ranks by Armin Rosen
Judaism’s largest denomination sees growing divisions around Israel, political alignment, Jewish peoplehood, and the very future of the movement
SCROLL TIP LINE: Have a lead on a story or something going on in your workplace, school, congregation, or social scene that you want to tell us about? Send your tips, comments, questions, and suggestions to scroll@tabletmag.com.
COVID Comes for Another Summer
Vaccine and booster mandates at some Jewish sleepaway camps are forcing kids to stay home
By Jackie Zitelman
It didn’t take me much time to realize, as a young American student attending college in Israel, that the Jewish state was my home. In 2009 I made aliya and met Omri, an Israeli-born moshavnik, and before I knew it, I had three beautiful Israeli children. But as all of my family members still live in the United States, it’s always been important to me that my kids grow up immersed in both the Israeli and American Jewish experience.
And what better way to do that than by sending them to a Jewish summer camp? According to one Pew survey, 44% of practicing Jews attend a Jewish sleepaway camp—making attending Jewish summer camp one of the most impactful experiences in maintaining your Jewish identity as an adult.
Luckily Liel, our oldest daughter, mentioned that she would like to try a sleepaway camp. I found one I thought would be a good fit, sent an email, and started getting excited—Liel and her cousin were going to try a sleepaway camp for the 2023 session!
I didn’t get far into the email conversation, however, before I asked about the camp’s COVID-19 policy. Staff replied, “To answer your question about vaccination and boosters: yes, we require all campers and staff to be vaccinated and boosted as per the CDC guidelines. I don’t anticipate that changing for summer 2023.”
I sent over articles and studies and pointed out that the CDC’s estimate for infection fatality rate for people ages 0 to 19 is 0.00002%, meaning the survivability rate for that age group is, for all intents and purposes, 100%; that vaccines do not stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and that natural immunity is shown to be more effective than getting the vaccine.
A camp official responded by saying, “I want to be 100 percent honest with you that we will not be changing our Covid vaccination policy. Campers and staff at all of [our] camps across North America all must be vaccinated and boosted for Covid, as per the CDC guidelines.” I asked the official if there was someone else I could discuss this policy with; this request fell upon deaf ears.
Friends and family said to wait, that maybe the policy will change. This was in 2022. A year, they added, was a long way away.
Fast-forward to April 2023, when my older sister told me that her son is going to the trial period at the camp I contacted the previous summer; she sent me a screenshot that the camp requires the routine vaccines—but there was nothing listed related to COVID-19. Excited, I reached out again to see if it had any openings despite camp starting in a little more than two months. The camp replied right away, saying that it indeed had some limited spaces available. But before celebrating, I asked about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement. The director of camper relations sent me the policy:
Camp is a different environment than home and school. We are a close community of nearly 700 people, all living in close quarters, and with varied health needs and challenges. For this reason, at Camp X, our medical committee requires that all eligible campers and staff receive the primary Covid vaccine series. We strongly recommend that all eligible campers and staff receive the bivalent booster, though it will not be required.
“Thanks for sending,” I replied. “Unfortunately this will not be the right fit for us as Liel is not getting the vaccine. Hope you have a successful summer and I hope that one day the policy will change so that Liel can get a true American Jewish sleepover camp experience.”
I couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about how this vaccine policy is suggesting that children who were vaccinated at the end of 2021 are somehow more protected than my daughter who, never vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 in March 2022. So, I emailed again, this time asking for clarification on what I saw as an illogical policy.
Instead of providing concrete medical reasoning, the camp simply responded with a note saying the vaccine requirement was the camp policy. So I asked one last time, “Can you explain to me how a child who received a covid vaccine in 2021 or early 2022 is more immunized than my daughter?”
At this point, the camp director chimed in: “Thanks for your email. We value and respect your stance on vaccinating your daughter. These are our policies for this summer. Additionally, we are now full for this program and are unable to enroll any more campers.”
I’ll be honest: This is breaking my heart. I’m sad for my daughter, who is going to miss out on an opportunity to go to a Jewish summer camp with her cousin. I’m sad that many safe places in the Jewish community are no longer welcoming to fellow Jews. And I’m sad that people are blindly accepting these policies and mandates when research and data show there is no scientific reason for doing so.
This is not about “trusting the science.” Studies have shown that natural immunity, which my daughter has, is more effective than the vaccine. The CDC stopped differentiating between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in August 2022, and the World Health Organization no longer recommends vaccines for healthy children. Yet this camp continues making illogical demands.
What happened to one of the key points of Judaism—to ask questions and to debate? I always learned that, for Jews, asking questions and trying to get a true understanding of something is almost divine. To reexamine what we believe to be true is an intrinsic part of Judaism. Two Jews, three opinions, we used to say. That doesn’t seem to hold true anymore.
Jackie Zitelman is a writer living in Israel
Jackie Zitelman writes "Two Jews, three opinions, we used to say. That doesn’t seem to hold true anymore." No, it still holds. But the other thing that's still true is that there are still stupid Jews making dumb decisions. Sorry you got stuck with one of them.
I am going through a similar experience to Jackie. I was pushed out of my synagogue because of their vaccine mandate. It’s brought me much grief to experience Jews sacrificing our unity over the Covid vaccine.