Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest serving prime minister, announced his retirement as a result of deteriorating health. Japan recognized Israel in 1952, but for many years they did not have strong relations, as Japan was a major trading partner of the Arab League, which supplied oil to Japan. Over time, however, Japan and Israel have strengthened their ties, particularly since 2014 when the two countries increased their security, economic, and political cooperation following a visit to Japan by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2018, Prime Minister Abe and his wife visited Israel, and while the trip was considered to be successful, there was one diplomatic gaffe by the Israelis. What happened that upset Abe and his wife and the Japanese staff and diplomats?

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by Hudson Institute is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. A dinner was held at the residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu in honor of the Japanese prime minister. At the beginning of the dessert, Prime Minister Abe raised his glass and offered the traditional Japanese toast, “Kanpai.” Prime Minister Netanyahu misunderstood his guest, however, thinking he said pecan pie, and he replied, “No, I'm sorry, we are serving apple pie.”

B. A dinner was held at the residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu in honor of the Japanese prime minister. For dessert, the Israelis served chocolate pralines, that were placed on the table inside shiny leather shoes. However, the idea of a shoe on a table is highly offensive in Japanese culture, where shoes are not even worn inside homes, causing much distress among the Japanese dinner guests.

C. As part of a trade agreement signed between the two countries, Israel agreed to increase imports of cars from Japan. However, in the official document, the Israelis wrote “Nisan” (which is the spelling of the first month in the Jewish calendar) instead of “Nissan,” (which is the spelling of Japan’s second largest automobile manufacturer). Unfortunately, however, the Israelis did not catch this spelling error in the document, and did not know that “Nisan” is a Japanese slang word for a sexual act.

D. A dinner was held at the residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu in honor of the Japanese prime minister. Place cards on the table noted the spot for each person to sit. The Japanese prime minister’s seat was designated by a card reading “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” when in fact, it should have read “Prime Minister Abe Shinzo,” as in Japanese culture the correct form is to state the persons surname first followed by his or her first name.

E. A dinner was held at the residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu in honor of the Japanese prime minister. Among the guests was Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, who addressed the Japanese prime minister incorrectly, saying his name as if it were spelled Abby (the proper pronunciation is A-Báy, accented on the second syllable). When he was corrected, Carlson said, “So I’m disrespecting him by mispronouncing him intentionally? So it begins. You’re not allowed to criticize Abby, or Abie, or Abu Dhabi, or whatever?”

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The United States Postal Service is an independent agency whose head, the Postmaster General, is appointed by the agency’s Board of Governors. The Board of Governors consists of both Democrats and Republicans who are appointed by the President. This system was devised in 1970 to ensure that the Post Office would be able to function independently of partisan political influence. However, last February Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met only with the Republican members of the Board in a meeting not covered by sunshine laws because of a lack of a quorum, thus yielding no public record of the meeting. This meeting, and other subsequent meetings and actions by Mnuchin, led to the hiring of Trump megadonor Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General. DeJoy is now facing criticism for efforts to curtail USPS operations in a way which could greatly impact the processing of mail-in ballots in the November presidential election. Steve Mnuchin’s great-grandfather, Aaron Mnuchin, was a diamond merchant who emigrated to the United States in 1916. What is the root of Steve Mnuchin’s name?

Steven Mnuchin - Caricature by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. The name is a variation of Mincha, which is the evening prayer which Jews recite daily.

B. The name is a variation of the Hebrew words may-Noach, meaning “descending from Noah.”

C. The name is a variation of Menachem, which derives from the Hebrew word for comforter.

D. The name comes from the name Munich, as Mnuchin’s family roots are in that German city.

E. The name is a variation of Munchkin, as Mnuchin’s family roots are in that land over the rainbow.

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Joe Biden announced last week that Senator Kamala Harris of California would be his running mate. Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, is married to attorney Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish. His two children from a previous marriage call Kamala “Momele.” Harris has a long history of support for Israel, favoring a two-state solution and opposing BDS. She has also spoken out strongly against anti-Semitism and all forms of hate crimes, saying at an AIPAC meeting, “As someone who’s personally prosecuted hate crime, I also believe that we cannot stand by while anti-Semitism, hate crime and bigotry are on the rise, whether that’s a swastika on a Jewish Family and Children’s Services bus in San Francisco or the burning of a mosque in Tampa. No one should have to be afraid to put a menorah in their front window or on their front lawn.” What Jewish activity did Kamala Harris participate in when she was growing up?

Kamala Harris by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A. Harris attended Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, where she played the role of Hodel in the school’s production of Fiddler on the Roof.

B. Kamala’s best friend was a member of Young Judaea. Kamala used to go door to door with her friend selling World’s Finest chocolate bars as a fundraiser for the organization.

C. When Kamala was 12, she moved to Montreal, where her mother took a job as a researcher at Jewish General Hospital. Every year Kamala would attend the Chanukkah party sponsored by the hospital, and she would help distribute presents to the Jewish children who were being treated at the facility.

D. Harris used to collect donations in the JNF Blue Boxes for planting trees in Israel.

E. Harris ran for president of her senior class, and during her campaign she targeted Jewish students. She spoke of her support for a two-state solution at a local B’nai B’rith Youth Organization meeting. She appeared at a bagel store and posed eating lox on an onion bagel. She went to the Jewish Community Center’s Purim carnival where she kissed a bunch of Jewish babies. She gave a speech to the student body where she used ten Yiddish words including chutzpah, kvell, meshuggeneh, and tushie. She appeared at the county fair where she was seen eating a fried knish on a stick. And she sold campaign T-shirts that read “Vote Kamala, Bubele.”

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Many states are looking to expand their mail-in ballot options for the presidential election, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that makes many hesitant to enter a polling place, but also because of a desire to increase voter participation in elections. President Trump opposes many of these initiatives, falsely claiming that mail-in voting is particularly susceptible to voter fraud. And there is fear that Louis DeJoy, the new Postmaster General, is taking actions that will negatively affect the Postal Services’s ability to handle a huge number of mail-in ballots. What were the circumstances that once led the Postal Service to reject the mailing of an item by a Jewish person?

USPS by Paul Sableman is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A. In 1962, comedian Lenny Bruce, who had already been arrested numerous times on obscenity charges, brought a package to the post office to be mailed. The package was seized by the postmaster who said that Bruce was being investigated on federal obscenity charges. The postmaster opened the package, which in fact contained a copy of Bruce’s record album, The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce. Bruce was arrested on the spot because the album included what were considered obscene riffs on sex as well as religion, including the use of many obscene words (of which “shmuck” was one).

B. In 1927, a Jewish lawyer named Aaron Sapiro filed a libel lawsuit against Henry Ford over the anti-Semitic content of Ford’s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. Additionally, Sapiro published his own pamphlet countering Ford’s message, but when he mailed the pamphlet, the post office in Dearborn rejected the piece, claiming that it libeled Mr. Ford. Given Ford’s powerful position in Dearborn, this was not surprising, and Sapiro had no choice but to delete some of the wording, even though other post offices had no problem with the mailing. In particular, Sapiro altered a headline on the front of the pamphlet which originally read, “Henry Ford, Great Entrepreneur, Greater Anti-Semite.”

C. In 1917, the Post Office would not mail a book by Dr. Ben-Zion Liber entitled Sexual Life: A Popular Science Book. The book, written in Yiddish, covered a variety of health topics, including healthy eating, family planning, and birth control. The postmaster declared the book non-mailable because it was obscene, until the author deleted an article titled “The Incomplete Intercourse” and edited some other pages.

D. In 1984, the Orthodox Yiddish newspaper, Der Yid, printed a front page editorial railing against Jews who celebrated Christmas, or who had expanded their Chanukkah celebration into a major competing holiday. The article was printed in Yiddish. But the editorial also appeared on the front page of the newspaper’s English language supplement, under the headline, “Let The Goyim Keep Their Santa Claus, Their Trees and Their Lights-and Also, Their Jesus.” The postmaster refused to allow the English supplement to be mailed, saying that it was hostile to Christians and violated their religious freedom.

E. In 1959, the Sisterhood of the Monticello Jewish Center in the heart of the Catskills published a cookbook. However, when they brought copies to the local post office to mail to those who had ordered the book, the postmaster rejected the mailing. Apparently, the book included “Shirley Goldberg’s Perfect Brisket” recipe. However, Rosalie Rabinowitz claimed that the brisket recipe was hers, and Shirley had stolen her recipe, only changing the quantity of sliced onions from 2 large to 3 large. Rosalie’s husband Abe just happened to be the local postmaster, and Abe said that he would not allow the post office to accept the books for mailing as long as Shirley’s name was on his wife’s brisket recipe. After some negotiating, the Sisterhood inserted an extra page with “Rosalie Rabinowitz’s Perfect Brisket” recipe (with the “correct” number of onions) and the books were mailed.

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