Italian Wine

08/29/2022

A. Lunardelli Wine vineyards, which is not primarily a kosher wine producer, markets a small quantity of kosher wine every year that is released prior to Passover to be used by members of the Italian Jewish community for their seders. Each year the vineyard uses a different picture on their wine label representing scenes of the Exodus from Egypt, such as Moses parting the Red Sea or frogs and locusts representing the 10 plagues. But in 2021, during the pandemic when it was not as easy to bring together members of the Jewish community for input, a marketing director chose a picture which represented Jews dancing around the Golden Calf.

B. Mevushal wine is wine that has been heated during the packaging process. Wine that is mevushal may then be touched by non-Jews, such as caterers and servers, unlike non-mevushal wine that can only be produced and handled by Shabbat-observant Jews. Many people think that this heating process yields a wine that is less tasty than non-heated wine. It was discovered that Lunardelli Vineyards had not actually heated their mevushal wine in order to get better taste reviews, but this in fact voided the kashrut of the product.

C. Lunardelli Vineyards, which is not a kosher wine producer, was approached by members of the local Jewish community in the Veneto region of Italy and asked if they might consider producing kosher wines for their community. An internal email written by the vineyard’s head of marketing was released by a disgrunted employee which read, “It makes no sense for us to hire a Rabbi to oversee our wine production. I recommend that we reject this Jewish tax and we reject this project.”

D. The vineyard, which is not a kosher wine producer, markets some of their wines under the heading Famous People (Gente Famosa), and one collection of wines under that umbrella is called Jewish People (Ebrei), with labels featuring pictures of David Ben-Gurion, Maimonides, and Primo Levi. But there was controversy because one of the bottles featured a picture of Madonna, who is not Jewish, though she is a follower of the mystical thread of Judaism known as Kabbalah.

E. The vineyard, which is not a kosher wine producer, markets some of their wines under the heading History Line (Linea Storia), and one collection of wines under that umbrella is called Der Fuhrer, with labels featuring pictures of Adolf Hitler and slogans including “One People, One Empire, One Ruler,” “Sieg Heil,” and “Der Prosecco Vom Führer” (“The Führer’s Prosecco”). Andrea Lunardelli said that the wines represented “a nice joke” because Hitler was a teetotaler.

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Allen Weisselberg

08/22/2022

A. Trump didn’t even greet Allen Weisselberg upon arrival, but went straight to the dining room table and took a large plate of rugelach, bagels and lox.

B. Trump approached many of the shiva attendees and began telling them about available apartments at Trump Tower, and that they should let Allen Weisselberg know if they would like more information.

C. Trump showed pictures to a number of the shiva attendees that were of nude women with Trump on a yacht.

D. Trump refused to wear a yarmulke when the shiva minyan service began, saying “Sorry. No way I’m putting that on top of my head.”

E. Trump was speaking to Allen Weisselberg and other family members when he said “I hope someday my daughter marries a nice Jewish boy, so when his mother dies I can throw a party like this.”

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Olivia Newton-John, RIP

08/15/2022

A. One of her grandfathers was physicist Max Born, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, settling in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he continued his study of quantum mechanics, solid-state physics and optics. In 1954, Born won the Nobel Prize in physics.

B. One of her ancestors, from centuries earlier, was Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and author. In 2005 Britain’s Royal Society (which had once been led by Newton), in answer to the question of who had the greater effect on the history of science–Newton or Albert Einstein–selected Newton.

C. Her maternal grandfather was Sidney Myer, a businessman and philanthropist who was born in Russia and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia at the turn of the twentieth century. Myer initially sold haberdashery to miners as an itinerant peddler, and eventually parlayed that work into the creation of a major retail empire in Australia.

D. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Alan Newton, a noted Australian surgeon of the early 20th century who was one of the founders of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Newton was knighted by King Edward VIII in 1936 and went on to serve in World War II as chairman of the Medical Equipment Control Committee. He was also instrumental in promoting the manufacture and use of penicillin in Australia.

E. She was descended from a Sephardic Jew who lived in Toledo, Spain. The ancestor, Figureroa Newton-Juan fled Spain during the Inquisition and sailed with other Jews to Australia, where they settled in Sydney. The Jews established a small synagogue, a mikveh, and a kosher butcher. Looking to enhance the lives of his community, Olivia’s ancestor started a kosher cookie company, creating a treat which he named after himself, the Fig Newton.

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Alex Jones

08/08/2022

A. Reynal claimed that Alex Jones and his message should be welcomed by all, as he was simply exercising his American freedom of speech rights. Reynal then quoted The New Colossus, by Jewish poet Emma Lazarus which is engraved on the Statue of Liberty, saying “ ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ Mr. Jones, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is just yearning to breathe free, as we all are.”

B. Reynal said that Alex Jones is like all Americans, and should not be held to a different standard, even if he said things that are not always popular. Quoting from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Reynal said, “ ‘I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?’ Alex Jones is no different than that Jew, and no different than any of us. He has hands, organs, and opinions that are sometimes incorrect.”

C. Reynal told the jury, “There is no justification for what the plaintiffs have put my client through. He has been wronged in all of the claims against him. And yet, whatever you the jury may decide, Mr. Jones will remain true to himself and his beliefs, just like Ann Frank, who notably said, ‘It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.’ ” 

D. Reynal asked, “Do you want to choose what you get to watch and listen to or do you want a plaintiff’s attorney to decide for you?” He then quoted Martin Niemöller’s Holocaust poem First They Came – “First they came for the communists, and I said ‘I’m not a communist’ and didn’t do anything. Then they came for the trade unionists and I said ‘I’m not a trade unionist.’ Then they came for the Jews, and I said, ‘I’m not a Jew.’ And when they came for me, there was no one left.” Reynal’s message apparently was that we should all stand up for Alex Jones so that we do not become the next victims, like the Jews and others during the Holocaust.

E. Reynal noted that ordering his client to pay millions of dollars in fines wouldn’t make any sense. Said Reynal, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you know, God made many many poor people, and my client is one of them. Now, Mr. Jones realizes, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor, But it’s no great honor either! So, what would have been so terrible if he had a small fortune?” At which point, Alex Jones jumped up, began wiggling his belly, and sang “If I were a rich man, Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum, All day long I’d biddy biddy bum, If I were a wealthy man.” Mr. Reynal then closed his arguments, saying, “And since he is not a wealthy man, I implore you to dismiss this case so that my client can get back to the synagogue and pray.”

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