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Jessica Russak-Hoffman. Credit: Courtesy.

Jessica Russak-Hoffman

Jessica Russak-Hoffman is a reporter for JNS in Seattle.

“I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six,” an Orthodox Jewish volunteer in Silver Spring, Md., told JNS, after he brought his gun to synagogue as usual despite a recent ordinance.
“If there is any place where people are entitled to feel safe and to defend themselves, it is at a place of worship,” the court filing states.
Luc Jasmin III, a Democratic candidate for the Washington state House, previously told JNS that his father, who said at a meeting of the state panel that Jews seem to be “always crying over the antisemitism,” applied for the job “just like everyone else.”
“History teaches us that houses of worship are vulnerable to armed attacks,” the U.S. Justice Department stated.
“Jewish law requires Jews to provide for their own security, and that means carrying firearms when necessary,” a plaintiff in the lawsuit told JNS. “I wish it weren’t necessary, but it is and we must.”
“Idaho was one of the first 12 states to pass legislation regarding malicious harassment,” the state says in a newly released report.
“They do nothing,” a state lawmaker said, of the committee, which has had a problem with antisemitic statements from members. “That doesn’t mean they can’t use the bully pulpit and try to shame people.”
“We’re in the process of getting things going,” a spokeswoman for the Iowa-based kosher meat processing facility told JNS. “We’re doing the best we can.”
The New York City Police Department told JNS that it is still determining motive but is probing the incident as bias related.
Han Tran, whose term on the Washington State Human Rights Commission expired at the end of June, wrote that “antisemitism was being instrumentalized to justify the slaughter of Palestinians.”
The National Jewish Advocacy Center argued that evidence of Jewish students hiding their identities would be viewed differently if they belonged to another protected group.
“I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack,” the mayor said.