Washington D.C.
This year’s menorah-lighting in Washington included fewer guests than usual due to coronavirus restrictions with social distancing in place.
The Washington ceremony will include U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr and Dr. Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, chairman of the board of trustees of the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence in Bahrain.
Mossad director Yossi Cohen: “A lot of very good people worked on this for a great many years. It didn’t start yesterday.”
Barry Freundel was granted an early release from a D.C. jail due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused jails nationwide to release non-violent convicts early, and earning credits for good behavior.
Dead Sea Scrolls at Museum of Bible in Washington discovered to be forgeries
The source of the forgery remains unknown, though researchers concluded that all the fragments come from the same source.
U.S. Park Police spokesperson Eduardo Delgado noted that “the victim and detectives feel that this was a crime of opportunity only.”
“I am hopeful we can make history,” says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who along with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is in the United States to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the reveal of Trump’s Mideast peace plan.
“The light of religious freedom and tolerance is ever brighter,” said U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. “And so, we gather here in the glow of that light and the Festival of Lights.”
The annual ceremony celebrates its 40th year; it was first lit in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and has been erected and lit every year since.
Police apprehended Luis Montsinos, 28, and charged him with defacing and the destruction of property, in addition to resisting arrest.
Swastikas were written in red ink on a staircase, and the word “JEW” was etched onto a door.
“Comments from a student on social media are disturbing and hateful, and antithetical to our university’s core values of diversity and respect,” said George Washington University president Thomas LeBlanc. “We will not tolerate anti-Semitism or bigotry on our campuses.”
