🤔 In the lead-up to Good Friday and Easter, former President Donald Trump is selling “God Bless the USA” bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills. “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country,” Trump said in a promotional video. (AP, Religion News Service)
😲 The neo-Nazi who inspired Edward Norton’s skinhead character in the movie American History X revealed that he is now an observant Jew after discovering his heritage through DNA testing. (NY Post)
🇺🇸 AIPAC said Tuesday that its longtime chief executive would retire at the end of the year after nearly three decades. The influential pro-Israel organization is gearing up to spend tens of millions of dollars on congressional races this year. (Jewish Insider)
🔥 Over the past two years, Borscht Belt resorts have been burning — and no one knows why. At least four formerly prominent hotels have caught fire since the summer of 2022. For longtime Catskills residents, the fires are resurfacing grief over a fading chapter in American Jewish history. (JTA)
🇩🇪 Those taking German citizenship tests could soon face questions including: What gives Germany its special responsibility for Israel? How is Holocaust denial punished in Germany? Those and several other Jewish-themed questions are now pending final approval. (Washington Post)
🏈 New York Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner says his “intentions were positive” when he said Jews “run the world” during a recent interview, adding the he did not know that he was echoing a common antisemitic trope. (JTA)
🎤 After spending six years revising his 90-minute set about attending a white supremacist meeting in New York, and performing it on Broadway and all over the world, comedian Alex Edelman is ending it with a run in Los Angeles — just before the April 6 release of the corresponding HBO special. (LA Times)
🕍 A Colorado synagogue dating back to 1889 had dwindling members and high maintenance costs, nearly forcing it to sell its building in 2016. Now it’s being preserved as a national historic landmark. (Colorado Public Radio)
🪔 A high school student on a hike in southern Israel recently discovered a 1,600-year-old oil lamp, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday. (Times of Israel)
Shiva calls ➤ Helma Goldmark, a Holocaust refugee who joined the resistance and helped produce false documents for other Jewish refugees, died at 98 … Lew Kreinberg, who marched to Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. and helped found the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, died at 87.
What else we’re reading ➤ Ben Shapiro’s split with Candace Owens reflects how Israel and antisemitism are also dividing the right … A year after a deadly Nashville shooting, Christian school relies on faith — and adopted dogs … When Stephen Colbert and Paul Simon talked about faith.
