Meir Y. Soloveichik: The Sanity of John Fetterman
Having suffered a stroke, and then subsequent psychiatric ailments that led to his brief hospitalization, John Fetterman’s time in the Senate has not been especially smooth. Yet now that he seems generally recovered, there has been a spate of dubious pieces in left-of-center publications suggesting that the Pennsylvania Democrat is mentally unstable and possibly unfit for office. Fetterman, incidentally, has been one of the most persistent defenders of Israel on Capitol Hill.Seth Mandel: California’s Ethnic-Studies Disaster
The story put Meir Soloveichik in mind of another Pennsylvanian, Warder Cresson, whose wife had him declared non compos mentis after he returned from serving as the first American consul to Jerusalem in 1846:
The application of lunacy to Cresson seemed solely based on his conversion to Judaism; in contrast to his many other previous conversions, it was only a love for the Jewish people that was considered crazy.
Meanwhile, as I type, a new hit piece on Fetterman has just dropped—a report issued by Axios noting that Fetterman has missed votes on the floor. The article runs under the hysterical headline “Fetterman Doubts Explode into Capitol Hill Firestorm.” To paraphrase Cresson’s attorney, the only charge left with which to accuse the senator is that he cares about murdered Jews.
Yet there are millions of people who are utterly unperturbed by Fetterman’s embrace of Israel and his present political persona. This multitude happens to be . . . the Pennsylvanians who elected him in the first place. The senator continues to enjoy high poll numbers among his own constituents; apparently, if Fetterman is crazy, then they don’t want their senators to be sane.
Warder Cresson and John Fetterman represent uniquely American stories, both highlighting the special history of the relationship between this country and the Jews. . . . It is just this that Fetterman’s critics cannot stand about America. That is why, ironically, Fetterman’s choice to stand with the Jewish people is driving them crazy.
When Jews objected to making it a graduation requirement to show proficiency in Being An Anti-Semite, the state tried to remove the worst of it from its model curriculum. Which led, naturally, to the rise of a competing model curriculum that called itself “liberated ethnic studies.” To many in the industry, you see, the anti-Semitism was the point.Yuval Raphael pays homage to Theodor Herzl’s iconic Basel photo
When asked if the Zionist narrative (also known as “history”) should be taught alongside the critical-studies and postcolonial versions, one teacher responded that that was like asking if creationism should be taught alongside biology.
As ethnic studies is actually taught in the classroom, meanwhile, there is almost no relation to the plain facts of history. An example from the Times article:
“In November, several weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, an ethnic studies teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School, in Silicon Valley, presented a lesson that inaccurately claimed the United Nations considered the creation of Israel illegal. (A U.N. resolution partitioned the territory into Jewish and Arab states, and the U.N. admitted Israel as a member in 1949.)
“In addition, a slide depicted a hand manipulating a puppet, recalling antisemitic tropes about secret Jewish control of government, the media and finance.”
It’s just a mix of blood libels and provably false historical assertions.
Because none of what the kids were going to be taught was true, there was growing pushback against California’s ethnic-studies requirement. There is something very mid-20th-century Europe about obligating students in government schools to internalize and then express the idea that Jews are intrinsically evil.
The requirement was set to go into effect next fall. But by law, it cannot be a degree requirement unless the California legislature funds it. This week, Newsom’s revisions to the state budget pointedly excluded the funds for ethnic studies.
Democrats have enough problems with anti-Semitism without the party’s most important blue state making Soviet Jew-baiting a degree requirement. For four years, the fight over ethnic studies has divided the state, and it might end up being all for nothing. That, of course, is better than the alternative. Perhaps all we need to get anti-Semitism under control nationally is to have every Democratic governor run for national office.
Israel's Eurovision representative, Yuval Raphael, posed for a photo paying tribute to the iconic picture of Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, looking out over the Rhine in Basel.
The photo was posted after her triumphant performance of “New Day Will Rise” in the second semifinal of Eurovision 2025 on Thursday night, which landed Israel a spot in the final.
The photo of Raphael on Friday was snapped in the same location where Herzl posed in 1901 when he was attending the fifth Zionist Congress.
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, which sponsors Israel’s participation in Eurovision, released it with Herzl’s most famous quote, "If you will it, it is no dream.” Raphael's journey to Eurovision
It’s easy to see why this quote has special resonance for Raphael, who overcame her trauma after surviving the Hamas terror attack on the Supernova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, to win The Next Star for Eurovision, Israel’s contest that chooses the Eurovision representative. And now she has not only made it to the competition, but won a place in the finals.
On Wednesday, the day before the semifinal, a huge poster/video of Raphael went up in Times Square in New York, urging people to vote for her in Eurovision.
The final will be held on Saturday night, and people all around the world can vote for her. The final, with all its glitz and glamour, will air in Israel on KAN 11 and will be shown on networks around the world to hundreds of millions.
