?? A bipartisan group of leaders from the House and Senate invited Israeli President Isaac Herzog to address Congress on July 19, in honor of Israel’s 75th anniversary. Herzog is also expected to be invited to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House; Benjamin Netanyahu has not had such an invitation since he started his latest term as Israel’s prime minister in December. (JTA)
⚖️ The man who massacred 11 Jews at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue thought he deserved medals and a parade for perpetrating the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack, a psychologist testified during the penalty phase of his trial Thursday. The witness called the defendant “blatantly psychotic.” (CNN)
? Johanna Ruf, believed to be the last survivor of Hitler’s bunker, died at 94. Ruf was a teenaged nurse at the time and wrote in a 2017 memoir that she once slapped Joseph Goebbels’ young son, Helmut, for being “cheeky.” (Newsweek, Independent)
? A Florida law set to take effect this weekend will allow health care providers to deny patients treatment if it goes against their religious beliefs. The Human Rights Campaign called it an “extreme license to discriminate.” (Tampa Bay Times, HRC)
? A federal judge rejected a family’s claim that a Utah high school’s lax attendance rules during the last week of school violated their religious freedom. The family is Mormon, and sued the school district after their son used his free time to have sex with his girlfriend in the school parking lot. (Salt Lake Tribune)
? A British fitness guru who said that Hitler “did nothing wrong” and shared online posts encouraging violence against Jews and Muslims was sentenced in London to four years and eight months in prison. (Jewish Chronicle)
?️ Thousands of people gathered at the first-ever Kosherpalooza, where 125 vendors hosted cooking demonstrations and wine tastings, and gave away free food samples. The event was held in the same suburban New Jersey expo center as Kosherfest, a trade show that shuttered after 33 years. (NY Jewish Week)
? Warner Bros. cast actor David Corenswet to play Superman, making him the first Jew to play the role in a movie. Rachel Brosnahan, who is not Jewish but is most closely associated with her role as Jewish comedian Midge Maisel, will play Lois Lane. (Rolling Stone)
Long weekend reads ➤ Jewish audiences and Samuel Beckett revered Grock the clown — as did Adolf Hitler … Inside the Mormon church’s globe-spanning real-estate empire … An artist lives in a “Hermit House” built into a cliff north of Tel Aviv. The government wants to evict him.
