Need to Know for Aug. 2

Orioles trades, Paul Ryan’s roots and ‘Orange is the New Black’

The new ‘Oriole Way’?

Having traded away future Hall of Famer Manny Machado last week for five minor league players, the last-place Orioles this week traded All-Star Jonathan Schoop and the great relief pitcher Darren O’Day and former No. 4 draft pick Kevin Gausman — for a whole bunch of more minor leaguers. The Orioles, mired in perhaps their worst season, and certainly their most disappointing one in 64 years, call it cleaning house. Goodbye, best players, and goodbye, high salaries. But any house-cleaning that doesn’t involve Chris Davis – currently hitting .157 and cashing $161 million in pay over seven years – doesn’t get to the core of the problem. If Davis has even a semi-indecent year – say, hits .225 and shows even a semblance of his former power – and maybe the Orioles don’t collapse quite so awfully, and maybe they hold onto some All-Star players, we won’t have to inquire: Who are those guys?

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff named in case of alleged Russian infiltrator

Federal investigators flagged payments to the brother and son of Jack Abramoff, a disgraced lobbyist, from an associate of a Russian charged with infiltrating American groups to advance Russian interests. BuzzFeed reported July 31 that anti-fraud investigators at Wells Fargo bank, acting on a tip from federal investigators, last year flagged what they said were suspicious bank transfers from an account held jointly by Maria Butina, who was arrested last month and remains in detention, and her associate and one-time lover Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican operative. Among the transfers was one a year ago, when the account sent $30,000 to a company whose officers are Abramoff’s son and brother. The company had only been established a few months earlier and was based out of the home of Abramoff’s son, leading investigators to believe that it was operating as a shell company for Jack Abramoff, who has known Erickson for decades. Erickson appears in the indictment but has not been charged. Butina has been charged with “conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government.” Allegedly acting on Kremlin orders, Butina cultivated relations on the American right, including at the annual National Prayer Breakfast and at the National Rifle Association. In 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to defrauding Native American tribes who were seeking Washington’s backing to build casinos. He served more than 3 1/2 years of a six-year sentence. –JTA

Paul Ryan is 3% Jewish

House Speaker Paul Ryan made an unexpected discovery while learning about his ancestry: He is 3 percent Jewish. The Republican lawmaker, who is Catholic, found out about his Ashkenazi Jewish roots as part of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” in which famous people learn about their family histories with the Harvard University historian. Gates said that Ryan was surprised and happy to learn about the fact that someone on his mother’s side was Jewish, The Associated Press reported. “You could have knocked him over with a feather, and then he was very proud of it,” Gates said at a TV critics meeting on July 31. “We don’t know who that Jewish person was, but we know it was on his mother’s German line, which makes sense. So somebody who was a Christian German slept with a Jewish German person and that’s where that came from.” Ryan, who has long been a staunch supporter of Israel, will appear on the show’s fifth season, which premieres in January.

California museum can keep Nazi-looted paintings valued at $24M

A federal appeals court ruled that an art museum in Pasadena, Calif., can keep two Nazi-looted Renaissance paintings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 30 that the Norton Simon Museum can keep “Adam” and “Eve,” which were painted around 1530 by Lucas Cranach the Elder and in 2006 were appraised at $24 million, The Associated Press reported. The heir to Dutch Jewish gallery owner Jacques Goudstikker left the paintings in the Netherlands when he and his family fled from the Nazis to South America in 1940. Goudstikker left his gallery containing more than 1,200 artworks behind, the Los Angeles Times reported. His wife, Desi, kept a black book listing all the paintings in the gallery. The two Cranach masterpieces were listed there. After World War II, Goudstikker’s paintings were returned to the Dutch government, which worked to repatriate property stolen by the Nazis. But the gallery owner’s family decided not to reclaim the two masterpieces, despite settling claims with the Dutch government for other artworks and real estate. The paintings were sold to a Russian prince in 1966 before being acquired five years later by the Norton Simon Museum for $800,000 — the equivalent of about $4.8 million today. They have been on display there for nearly 50 years. Desi Goudstikker’s only heir, Marei von Saher, recovered 200 paintings still in the possession of the Dutch government since the 1990s, but the government would not turn over the Cranachs. “The Dutch government acted with authority to convey the paintings after von Saher’s predecessors failed to file a claim,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote in the decision of the three-judge panel in favor of the museum, according to the Los Angeles Times. Von Saher can appeal the case to a larger appeals panel or to the U.S. Supreme Court.—JTA

Orthodox Cantor Snags Role on ‘Orange Is the New Black’

Cantor Philip Sherman, 62, is a mohel and has performed more than 20,000 circumcisions, both for Jewish and non-Jewish families. But in between performing multiple circumcisions a day and serving as associate cantor at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York — also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue — he has another gig: actor. Most recently, the Orthodox cantor, who lives in White Plains, N.Y., appeared in the Netflix hit series “Orange is the New Black.” Though the role was small — he played a judge presiding over a trial involving one of the prisoners — Sherman says it was his favorite to date. “The really amazing thing about that is that it’s a real part in a real show, where I’m not playing a rabbi or cantor or some Jewish guy,” he told JTA in a phone interview July 31. Sherman has appeared in about 15 other roles in commercials, TV series and movies, playing a religious Jew in most of them.

Hard Hats with Heart

The American Heart Association, Greater Maryland Region, hosts its inaugural “Hard Hats with Heart” event on Aug. 2 from 6-10 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium. Baltimore-area construction companies join together for a networking event in support of the life-saving mission of the association. Guests will network with industry leaders, discover the impact of cardiovascular disease and stroke on the construction industry, learn a life-saving skill with hands-only CPR training, enjoy drinks, food, games and more. Justin Schlegel from 98 Rock is the special guest emcee. For information, call 410-246-6701 or visit baltimorehardhats.heart.org.

Central Scholarship Celebrates 94 Years of Influential Scholars

On Aug. 8, Central Scholarship holds its annual Student Awards Ceremony at the American Visionary Art Museum to celebrate awarding more than $1 million to the upcoming 2018-2019 class of scholarship recipients. The evening brings together more than 300 individuals, including students and their scholarship benefactors. This year’s program pays tribute to Central Scholarship students who began their college careers in the 1950s, including Esther McCready. McCready worked with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP to win a lawsuit that helped her become the first African-American student admitted to the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Central Scholarship is a non-profit organization that awards scholarships and interest-free loans to students pursuing education and training after high school. To find out more about how their programs are impacting the Maryland community, go to central-scholarship.org.

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