H EADLINES
NEWSBRIEFS Biden Names White House Liaison to
Jewish Community
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN chose Chanan Weissman
as White House liaison to the Jewish community, JTA
reported. Weissman was President Barack Obama’s
Jewish liaison in his last months in offi ce.

Weissman’s LinkedIn profi le says he has been
director of technology and democracy at the White
House’s National Security Council since May. It’s not
clear if Weissman, 37, will maintain that position.

Jewish groups pressed the White House to name a
Jewish liaison and a State Department antisemitism
monitor as antisemitism spiked. Biden nominated
Deborah Lipstadt, a noted Holocaust historian, to be
the antisemitism monitor a week earlier.

Weissman worked in the State Department aft er
Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2017 as a
career hire, not a political appointee.

The Anti-Defamation League praised the
appointment. “Th is will improve the Biden administration’s
ability to foster relationships with the Jewish commu-
nity and work with stakeholders to address concerns
such as antisemitism and extremism,” ADL CEO
Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

Citing COVID, JFNA Cancels In-person
General Assembly Slated for October
Th e Jewish Federations of North America announced
that it is canceling the in-person portion of its annual
event, the General Assembly, citing the coronavirus,
JTA reported.

JFNA had planned to combine online and
in-person events, but told participants that it was
canceling the latter for the expected 500 participants.

Events in 2020 were held online only, but until
the recent coronavirus spike, JFNA had hoped to
re-emerge into in-person events on Oct. 4-5.

“Th e health and safety of our participants is of the
utmost importance to us, and we believe canceling
the in-person component of the GA is the best and
most prudent decision at this time,” the organization
wrote in an email sent to participants.

British Podcaster Sentenced to Prison for
Making Antisemitic Remarks
British podcaster Graham Hart was sentenced to 32
months in prison for making antisemitic remarks,
JTA reported.

Hart, 69, pleaded guilty to a charge that he “insulted
Jewish people with antisemitic language with the aim
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of inciting racial hatred.” Th e sentence was handed
down on Aug. 6 by the Truro Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds said Hart’s
podcast, “Th e Graham Hart Show,” had Graham and
his guests urging Britons to “take up arms” to take the
country back, but didn’t provide antisemitic quotes.

In a separate incident, the talkSPORT radio station
apologized for airing and not countering an antise-
mitic trope said by a caller.

Russian Scientist Beaten by Man Who Said
He Would Finish Hitler’s Job
Radiation research scientist Vladimir Tselin, 82, was
assaulted on a Moscow bus on Aug. 10 by a man who
shouted that “Hitler should have fi nished the job, so
I’ll do it for him,” JTA reported.

Tselin got off the bus to escape, but was followed
by the assailant, MK reported, adding that nobody on
the bus or on the street intervened. He was treated for
minor injuries.

Tselin, who has worked on the Russian space
program, told MK that he believed the assault was a
hate crime “based on ethnic grounds,” but the report
didn’t say whether Tselin is Jewish. ●
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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