You’re right, America. Bernie Sanders isn’t religious. Lots of Jews aren’t.

February 27, 2020 By Aiden Pink

Around 60% of Americans think that Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t religious, according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center Thursday.

Nearly a quarter of respondents said that Sanders was “not at all religious,” while 36% said they thought he was “not too religious.” Only 34% thought he was somewhat or very religious.

Some 75% of Jewish respondents described Sanders as not religious — a much higher rate than the general population. The only subgroup with a majority that thought Sanders is religious was black Protestants.

Sanders’ Jewish identity - pride in being Jewish but not involved in organized religion - is actually quite common. According to Pew’s 2013 study of American Jews, 44% said religion was not very or not at all important to their life compared to 26% who said it was very important, and 41% said they seldom or never attend religious services, compared to 23% who said they attend at least once a month. In this way, Sanders is actually more representative of the American Jewish population than the last Jew to run for president, the Orthodox Jewish former Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Sanders, who would be the first Jewish president, and has repeatedly said he is “very proud to be Jewish.” He told The New York Times this year that he’s “not actively involved in organized religion,” but said he was not an atheist: “I believe in God. I believe in the universality of people. That what happens to you impacts me.”

The religiosity survey, which was conducted between February 4 and 15, also found that a majority of respondents thought that former Vice President Joe Biden was a religious person, while most felt that Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg — both of whom frequently cite the Bible on the campaign trail — are not religious.

Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

Most Americans think Bernie Sanders isn’t religious

Spanish town says it was told crematoria float was Holocaust commemoration

February 27, 2020 By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — Answering criticism of a float that depicted Holocaust victims dancing with Nazis alongside crematoria, the Spanish town that hosted the parade said the display was allowed only because its creators had described it as a form of commemoration.

The municipality of Campo de Criptana offered the explanation in a statement Tuesday about the display, which it condemned as unacceptable. It featured men and women dressed in Nazi uniforms and other dancers wearing the outfits reminiscent of concentration camp prisoner uniforms and waving Israeli flags. They danced to disco music alongside a float that was shaped like a train with two large chimneys that evoke crematoria.

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Israel’s embassy called it “vile and repugnant.” Katharina von Schnurbein, the coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, wrote on Twitter that the display was “Holocaust trivialization” and a “disgrace.”

The El Chaparral cultural association from the nearby town of Las Mesas, which created the float, had described it to event organizers in Campo de Criptana when they registered for the procession as “an homage to the millions of of people who unjustly died through extermination” during World War II,” the municipality wrote in its statement.

Spain was widely perceived as a silent ally of Nazi Germany.

The statement said that after viewing the float and routine, the municipality “shares the criticisms leveled” at the display.

“If the initial goal was to commemorate the victims, it is clearly not what was achieved,” it wrote.

A member of El Chaparral told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by phone only that her group had no comment at this time and then hung up. She declined to state her name.

Camp de Criptana hosted the parade over the weekend in the framework of its annual processions for Carnival, a celebration of Lent, the period of 40 days that precedes Easter.

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Spanish town says it was told crematoria float was Holocaust commemoration

West Virginia lawmakers pass bill allowing Bible courses in public schools

February 27, 2020 By Marcy Oster

(JTA) — A bill that would allow the Bible to be taught as an elective in West Virginia public schools passed in the state legislature over the objections of a Jewish third-grader who testified that the measure was a “bad idea.”

The measure would allow social studies courses on the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament.

Debate in the House, which voted 73-26 in favor of the bill on Tuesday, included whether it was appropriate to teach religion in public schools.

A Jewish delegate, Evan Hansen, said the idea “makes me uncomfortable, and I wanted to just speak from my heart.”

He referred to the public hearing on the bill on Monday in which the Jewish third-grader, Malcolm Cohen, urged lawmakers to reject the legislation.

“My little brother and I are the only Jewish kids in our school,” Cohen said. “One day last year at my afterschool program, the teachers taught us about Jesus and made us pledge allegiance to the Bible. It made me feel very worried and confused. I felt like I was doing something wrong.”

Teachers said they would send Malcolm and his brother out of the room the next time such a situation arose.

“That solution seemed so stupid to me,” Malcolm said. “Just because we believe differently we have to leave the room? I think kids who don’t believe in Jesus will have a tough time with this bill. I think it’s a bad idea.”

According to the bill, the courses will “maintain religious neutrality” while “accommodating the diverse religious views, traditions, and perspectives of students in the school,” the West Virginia Metronews reported.

The state Senate passed the bill in a 34-0 vote on Wednesday and sent it back to the House to resolve some differences in the two measures.

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West Virginia lawmakers pass bill allowing Bible courses in public schools

Domestic extremists killed more than 400 people over the last decade, survey finds

February 27, 2020 By Ben Sales

(JTA) — Domestic extremists in the United States — most them from the far-right — killed 435 people in the decade that ended this past December.

According to a new study by the Anti-Defamation League, half of those murders were committed to further the killer’s ideology. The other half were murders that were committed by extremists but not necessarily for ideological reasons.

The report defines domestic extremists as “American citizens or long-term residents with connections to some sort of extreme movement or cause.”

According to the ADL, 90% of those extremist murderers this year came from the right. But the report noted that because right-wing extremists tend to be easily identifiable, it is “likely that non-ideological murders committed by extremists other than white supremacists are underrepresented in ADL’s data.”

In terms of ideologically-motivated killings, 2019 was the third-worst year of the past decade, with 29 ideologically motivated murders by extremists. Those include 22 people killed by a white supremacist shooter at a Walmart in El Paso, four people killed in a December shooting that ended at a Jersey City kosher supermarket, and the synagogue shooting in Poway, California, in which one woman was killed.

“[E]xtremist killings can have a disproportionate effect on communities, especially when they take the form of a hate crime or a terrorist attack,” read the report. “It is important to remember that extremist murders represent merely the tip of a pyramid of extremist violence in the United States.”

The deadliest year of the past decade in terms of domestic ideologically motivated murders was 2016, which saw 58 such murders. That includes the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which was carried out by an Islamist extremist and killed 49 people.

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Domestic extremists killed more than 400 people over the last decade, survey finds

Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar will not attend AIPAC

February 26, 2020 By Ben Sales

(JTA) — Democratic presidential candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg said they will not attend AIPAC’s annual conference because it overlaps with Super Tuesday.

Their absence leaves former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg as the only Democratic candidate to confirm that he will speak at the prominent Israel lobby’s confab March 1-3 in Washington, D.C. The event draws some 18,000 people each year.

Attendance has become a hot-button issue after Sen. Bernie Sanders, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, said he would skip the conference, tweeting that he is “concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights.”

Super Tuesday, on March 3, will feature nominating contests in 14 states and likely will be a make-or-break day for several candidates. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota, are among those battling for the right to challenge President Donald Trump in November.

Vice President Mike Pence will be among the speakers at AIPAC. Among the Democrats speaking will be two high-profile New York lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus and one of the House managers in Trump’s impeachment trial.

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Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar will not attend AIPAC

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