Need to Know for April 30

April 30, 2019 JMORE Staff

Rod Rosenstein listens during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2017. (Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Anti-Semitic incidents, measles outbreak and Rod Rosenstein

Synagogue shooting

A shootingat a Chabad synagogue in Poway, a city in San Diego County, Calif., left oneperson dead and multiple people injured, including a child. Police theredetained a white 19-year old San Diego man in connection with the shooting, andhospitals said they were taking in wounded people. The man left an “openletter” prior to the shooting, law enforcement said. “A man has been detainedfor questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad of Powaysynagogue,” the San Diego County Sheriff’s office said April 27 on Twitter.“@SDSOPoway Deputies were called to Chabad Way just before 11:30 a.m. There areinjuries. This is a developing situation.” Sheriff William Dore said in a pressconference that the fatality was an adult woman. The three injured were twoadults and one juvenile, he said.

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Nazi-themed graffiti was found in the town of Wellsville, N.Y., the same day that Donald Trump won the presidential election, Nov. 9, 2016. (Twitter)

There were1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018, ADL finds

Last year saw the third-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents since 1979, despite a decrease from the previous year, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League. Though the 1,879 incidents in 2018 dropped from the 1,986 incidents in 2017, according to the ADL’s annual survey of incidents released April 30, the number of anti-Semitic assaults more than doubled, to 39 from 17. The report counts cases of assault, harassment and vandalism. The vast majority of the incidents last year were harassment or vandalism — 1,066 and 774, respectively. According to the report, the last three months of 2018 were “unusually active” in terms of incidents. The shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue at the end of October “likely drew more attention to anti-Semitic activities,” the ADL said. The highest number of anti-Semitic incidents occurred in 1994 and the second highest in 2017. Last year’s number matches the total for 1991, the third most recorded in one year.—JTA

Measlesoutbreak tops 700, the highest since its declared eradication

The U.S. measles outbreak, especially prevalent among haredi Orthodox Jews, has topped 700 cases — the most in one year since the Center for Disease Control declared the disease eliminated in the United States in 2000. The record outbreak of 704 cases reported last week by the CDC includes 400 cases in New York and its suburbs, where it has mainly affected the haredim, topping the 667 cases in 2014. Before the disease was declared eradicated, the previous high was 963 cases in 1994. The CDC pinned the resurgence on the unvaccinated and those who brought back measles from other countries. The outbreaks in Orthodox Jewish communities were associated with travelers who carried the disease back from Israel and Ukraine, according to the CDC. Despite institutional pressure, a strain of opposition to vaccines has persisted in haredi communities based on false claims that vaccines are ineffective at best and harmful at worst. Large families, close-knit communities and the complexity of timing immunizations for a family’s many young children also have contributed to the outbreak. The majority of Orthodox Jewish children are vaccinated, according to statistics issued by the New York state and New York City health departments. There is no religious reason not to be vaccinated. Prominent rabbis in New York have called on their followers to vaccinate their children.—JTA

Also see: How to Respond to the Measles Outbreak

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein officiallyresigns

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, submitted his resignation letter to the White House April 29, according to CNN. It is effective May 11. “We enforce the law without fear or favor because credible evidence is not partisan, and truth is not determined by opinion polls,” Rosenstein wrote. “We ignore fleeting distractions and focus our attention on the things that matter, because a republic that endures is not governed by the news cycle.”

Also see: 5 Things to Know About Rod Rosenstein

City employee fired after thousandsof pornographic images found on work computer

A city employee was fired after he used his work computer to download 4,000 pornographic images, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General published April 26. According to Baltimore Fishbowl, the OIG said a complaint was submitted about the employee using his computer to access sexually explicit images. When confronted, the employee admitted to downloading the pornography and acknowledged he knew it was a violation of city policy to use a work computer for those reasons. Investigators determined the employee downloaded thousands of images in less than a month, and was doing so during regular work hours. Management “took immediate action” and fired the employee, the OIG said. The Baltimore City Office of Information Technology assisted with the probe. The report did not list which agency the employee worked for.

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