Harvey Weinstein allegations, Anne Frank Halloween costume and a big discovery at The Temple Mount
Mikulski’s legacy
Senator Barbara Mikulski’s legacy will be memorialized in a permanent exhibition inside Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Central Library once its massive renovation is complete, Baltimore Fishbowl is reporting. The exhibit, set to open in 2019, will have “dozens” of artifacts from Mikulski’s 45-year political career on display, according to a release from Enoch Pratt Free Library. Among them will be the Presidential Medal of Freedom that she was famously given by President Barack Obama. Mikulski retired from Congress last year and is now a specially appointed professor of public policy and adviser to the president at Johns Hopkins University. She said in a statement that Enoch Pratt was a crucial part of her life coming up in Baltimore. “I want to give back to an institution that has given so much to me and to our community,” she said. “These historic artifacts are from key moments in my career. I hope they inspire others to learn and to serve.”
Read more: Barb Mikulski is Getting Her Own Exhibit in the Renovated Pratt Central Library
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expels Weinstein
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, voted out Jewish Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein Saturday in an emergency meeting amid mounting sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape accusations against him. It was the first time in the body’s 90-year history that it has expelled a member for unethical or potentially criminal behavior. “We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over,” the academy said in a statement. The 54-member board of directors of the academy, which includes Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg and Tom Hanks, said in a statement that the vote was “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority.” It said it would “work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all academy members will be expected to exemplify.” On Oct. 8, Weinstein, 65, was fired from the movie production firm he started in 2005, The Weinstein Company. Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein founded Miramax.
Read: Harvey Weinstein Expelled from Oscars Academy Amid Mounting Allegations
Woody Allen worries about ‘witch hunt atmosphere’
Filmmaker Woody Allen said he was “sad” for both Harvey Weinstein and his alleged victims and expressed hope that the scandal would not lead to a “witch hunt atmosphere.” “The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he said in an interview with the BBC published Sunday. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up.” He added, “You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either.” Allen later clarified his remarks: “When I said I felt sad for Harvey Weinstein, I thought it was clear the meaning was because he is a sad, sick man,” Allen said in a statement to Variety on Sunday night. “I was surprised it was treated differently. Lest there be any ambiguity, this statement clarifies my intention and feelings.” Allen was accused of abusing his daughter Dylan Farrow shortly after his separation from wife Mia Farrow in the early 1990s. Farrow divorced Allen after learning of his affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, whom Allen married in 1997. Allen has long denied the allegations.
Read: Woody Allen ‘sad’ about Harvey Weinstein and worried about a ‘witch hunt’
More trick than treat
An online costume company removed a Halloween costume of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank from its U.S. and European websites. Holloweencostumes.com, whose website is run by the Minnesota-based company Fun.com, pulled the costumes on Sunday after a backlash on social media. The costume included a long sleeve blue button-up dress, a brown shoulder bag and a green beret. The company described Frank as a World War II hero and an inspiration, adding that “we can always learn from the struggles of history.” “There r better ways 2 commemorate Anne Frank. This is not one,” Carlos Galindo-Elvira, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona, said in a tweet. “We should not trivialize her memory as a costume.” Company spokesman Ross Walker Smith in a tweet apologized “for any offense” the costume caused. — JTA
Kosher winery partially reopens
Hagafen Cellars, the only kosher winery in the Napa Valley and Sonoma, partially reopened on Monday morning despite sustaining heavy damage in the wildfires racing through the area. Several buildings and virtually all of the winery’s agricultural equipment were destroyed in the fire. And while one of the winery’s 12 acres of vineyards was burned, the grapes already had been harvested. The inventory remained intact as well. There are hundreds of wineries in the region and most were forced to close in the first days of the fires, which have been burning for more than a week. Some of the wineries burned to the ground. There have been at least 41 deaths reported from the northern California wildfires and more than 80 people remain missing. The fires have burned over 217,000 acres and destroyed more than 5,700 homes and other structures. Damage estimates have topped $3 billion. As of Monday night some 60 percent of the fires were reported contained, with rain in the forecast for later in the week.
Read more: Kosher Winery Partially Reopens as Wildfires Continue in Northern California
Historic discovery at the Temple Mount
An ancient Roman theater and eight stone courses, or layers of cut stone, were uncovered in excavations in the Western Wall Tunnels in Jerusalem. The discovery of the 200-seat theater structure from the Roman period confirms historical writings that describe a theater near the Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement Monday. The discoveries followed work to remove an eight-meter layer of earth under Wilson’s Arch, the only intact, visible structure remaining from the Temple Mount compound of the Second Temple period. The arch served as a passageway for people entering the Temple Mount compound and the Temple. An aqueduct also passed over the arch. The excavations were undertaken with the intent to date the arch, according to the IAA. The structures were built following the destruction of the Second Temple, when Jerusalem became the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. “From a research perspective, this is a sensational find. The discovery was a real surprise. When we started excavating, our goal was to date Wilson’s Arch. We did not imagine that a window would open for us onto the mystery of Jerusalem’s lost theater,” site excavators Dr. Joe Uziel, Tehillah Lieberman and Dr. Avi Solomon said in a statement. The findings will be presented to the public during a conference titled New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Environs, which will take place at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. – JTA
Also see: Ancient Roman theater unearthed next to Jerusalem’s Western Wall
Irish and Jewish
Ireland’s Jewish population rose by 573 people to 2,557 since 2011, according to the 2016 census, the Irish Times reported on Friday. Some 56 percent of the Jews of Ireland, or 1,439, live in Dublin. The population of Jews in Ireland had been steadily falling since the 1940s, according to the newspaper. There was a high of 3,907 Jews in Ireland in 1946. According to the newspaper, Irish-born Jews are an aging population. The increased numbers of Jews are believed to be part of a new influx of employees of hi-tech U.S. multinational companies. Most are thought to be secular and non-practicing, the newspaper reported. There could actually be more Jews in the country, according to the Irish Independent, which reported that the census questionnaire did not include “Jewish” as an option, meaning that respondents had to select “other” and write in Jewish as their religious affiliation. –JTA
Alon Day speeds away
Israeli race car driver Alon Day has won his first NASCAR championship. Day finished first in the standings in the auto racing group’s European series, which ended Sunday with a race in Belgium. The Israeli was fourth in the race — he needed only to complete the first lap to take home the title after being well ahead in the rankings, The Times of Israel reported. He had finished second and third in the European series standings the past two seasons. “It is such an amazing feeling!” Day was quoted as saying in the Motorsport.com racing website. “We were trying so hard the past three years to win this title; we won so many races but never the championship.” Day, 25, who grew up in Ashdod, has done the bulk of his training on computer-screen simulators because Israel did not have a motor sport race track until this year. — JTA
MacArthur ‘genius’ grants
An Israeli computer scientist and an American opera director born to Israeli parents were among the winners of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants. Regina Barzilay, 46, is a computational linguist based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose work includes training machines to understand different languages. Her research helped decipher part of the semitic Ugaritic language by mapping it onto Hebrew, a linguistic relative. Yuval Sharon, 37, whose Israeli parents moved to Chicago when he was born, is the founder and artistic director of The Industry, a Los Angeles-based production company. His productions are often nonconventional, such as “Invisible Cities,” a 2013 adaption of an Italo Calvino novel staged at Union Station in Los Angeles. His 2015 production of “Hopscotch: A Mobile Opera for 24 Cars” took place in locations throughout the city. The winners of the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation each receive a $625,000 grant in recognition of “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits.” Past Jewish recipients include “The Wire” creator David Simon, novelist Ben Lerner and visual artist Nicole Eisenman. — JTA
J-Word of the Day
Alevai (Aramaic)
Meaning: If only I had, I wish
Usage: “I should have listened and bought 100 shares of Western Union when I had the chance. Alevai!
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Top photo: Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority sitting on the steps of the Roman theater structure uncovered in the Western Wall tunnels, Oct. 16, 2017. (Yaniv Berman, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
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