Hollywood pariah Roseanne Barr has at least one passionate defender: fame-hungry, celebrity stalking Rabbi Shmuley. It started with a rambling sob-fest on the Rabbi’s podcast (very softball interview), and then continued with more excuses during an appearance on The View.

In response to Joy’s grilling about the infamous tweet, the Rabbi claimed that Roseanne is a “serious practitioner of Judaism and a serious scholar of Judaism.” (Say what?!) “Where is the forgiveness?” he demanded to know, adding, “Roseanne has fully repented.” 

This is so wrong, on so many levels, I barely know where to start. 

The Rabbi is either extremely misinformed or completely hoodwinked, because nothing he said is factual. First off, Roseanne is not serious about Judaism, has never been active in Jewish organizations, activities, or charities, and I doubt she studies Torah and Talmud on a regular basis. Her “commitment” to Israel and Judaism is so strong she willingly dressed up as Hitler, removing burnt gingerbread men cookies from an oven. Her only contribution to the Jewish community, if we can call it that, was creating a new member when she encourage Tom Arnold to convert before their wedding. 

Roseanne has apologized, yes, but she refuses to take responsibility for her behavior. Anyone who likes to Tweet, and I do, has written dumb stuff in the heat of the moment. Tweeting while tired or intoxicated tends to end in tragedy. Maybe she was drinking and on Ambien; I don’t know. But I doubt she was also impaired when she took the Hitler photo, or when she disrespected America by screeching the National Anthem, spitting, and grabbing herself in a vulgar fashion. 

Maybe some would call her antics shock comedy. I call it gross, lewd, and hateful. Nobody should tweet that someone is an ape, regardless of their race; it’s insulting and wrong. If she disagrees with Valerie Jarrett’s politics, that’s fine, but there is a right way to have a debate and name calling shouldn’t be involved. 

Rabbi Shmuely says that he has known Roseanne for 20 years. If that’s true, why hasn’t he helped her during that time? She has been on a downward spiral for decades, struggling with addiction, severe mental illness, multiple divorces, promoting wild conspiracy theorists, attempting a failed run for the US presidency, and that’s just skimming the surface. 

Should people be forgiven for their mistakes? Of course. Every year, we dedicate an entire day to repentance (Yom Kippur.) I’ll be the first one to admit that I make mistakes and I’m not perfect. But a big part of forgiveness is behavior modification. If we continuously repeat the same bad actions, we’re not truly sorry. 

Roseanne is not sorry about the content of her tweet; she is sorry the Tweet backfired. Rabbi Shmuley is smart enough to know this and should be brave enough to admit it. She is wrong for doing it, he is wrong for defending it, and I’m not a fan of either one. 

Dr. Dov Bechhofer is a Jewish doctor and a Rabbi’s son who practices radiology at a New York City hospital. He appeared to be totally normal until the world discovered his secret hobby: frequenting hate websites that promote White Supremacy. 

Signing posts with his real name, he is a self-described ethnic nationalist, who supports “tempered” anti-Semitism (whatever that means), deporting non-white Americans, and banning interracial marriage. 

As if that wasn’t strange and sickening enough, the worst part is that his father is the leader of Orthodox Jews Against Racism and Discrimination, a group that’s dedicated to ending hatred! (The father, for the record, has nothing to do with the son’s behavior.)

Once exposed, Dr. Bechhofer admitted he did it, but denied that those comments reflect his true beliefs, claiming to be confused and expressing remorse. The hospital where he works, Montefiore Medical Center, isn’t buying it—he was placed on leave and may end up being fired. 

I am absolutely horrified that any member of the Jewish community, let alone a Rabbi’s child, could support anti-Semitism or racism and be against basic Human Rights. Bigotry is never okay! All human beings are created by God, in His image, and we are all equal, both in God’s eyes and under the Law. To hate another human being, because of their race or religion, is like insulting God himself—very, very wicked. 

Doctors take an oath to treat every patient, not just the ones with the religion, or skin color, or ideology that they like. If a mixed race person came to him for an X-Ray, would he deny them help? What if it was an emergency, where a bone had popped out from an accident? Clearly, he is not right mentally and shouldn’t be treating anyone, especially not in a city as diverse as New York. 

The Alt-Right and the warped views they hold have no place in a decent society. We must have freedom and justice for all and such backwards behavior must never be condoned. Just revolting!

Supermodel Karlie Kloss is having quite a month—first she converted to Judaism and then she got engaged to longtime boyfriend, Josh Kushner. Judging by her fantastic ring and huge smile, Karlie is incredibly happy and I am very happy for her!

I find it interesting that both Kushner brothers, Josh and Jared, prefer models and both managed to convince said models to convert (Ivanka Trump being the other one). They are a wonderful example that we can—and should—tackle intermarriage by encouraging non-Jewish spouses to convert. 

There is no difference between Jews by birth and Jews by choice. Anyone who wants to be part of the Jewish community and is willing to raise Jewish children should not only be welcomed, they should be celebrated. If we turn them away, it would be a huge mistake—one that I have personally witnessed and spoken out against many times.

For far too long, Judaism has discouraged converts and it has hurt us. We need to be open, we need to be engaging, and we need to be receptive towards couples who may be considering conversion. With 70% of the younger generation marrying outside the faith, we are clearly doing something wrong. Let’s try a different approach if we truly want growth. Let’s invest money into outreach. Let’s have temples that treat everyone equally. Let’s offer the hand of friendship to the extended family members of spouses who convert.

There are a hundred things we can try. Doing nothing and pretending that intermarriage will magically reverse is NOT the answer. Unless we take action to make conversion a real possibility, we can not fix the alarming exodus of young people away from Judaism.

I love our community, but we are not perfect. There are too many folks who refuse to change and acknowledge modern issues. Intermarriage is the biggest crisis of modern Jewry, period. By opening our doors, as the Kushner family has, we can fix it. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the candidate for New York’s 14th Congressional District, was featured in a disastrous PBS interview that shows how truly out of touch she is, with one lame-brained comment made after another. 

Ocasio-Cortez, who is a self-identified Democratic Socialist, has expressed a bizarre hodge-podge of beliefs that includes abolishing ICE, abolishing prisons, abolishing bail, abolishing the 2nd Amendment, abolishing capitalism, free college and 100% forgiveness for student loans, free healthcare for all, government-provided housing for all, and government-provided public jobs for all.

Putting her support behind scary fringe positions that are not only impossible to pay for and illogical, but also completely at odds with the Constitution, is extremely troubling and demonstrates that she’s uninformed to say the least.

Couple that with her young age (28-years-old) and the fact that she has no previous experience, adds yet another dimension of insanity to her candidacy.

If that’s not enough to frighten the average voter, she is also a vicious anti-Semite, who has been endorsed by Jihad-promoting Linda Sarsour, applauds BDS efforts to bankrupt Israel, and, during the PBS interview referred to the “Occupation of Palestine.”

The only people who use the word “Palestine” to describe Israel are anti-Semites who want to see Israel destroyed and replaced by Arabs. There is no such country as Palestine. There is only Israel.

When pressed about her occupation comment and some unbelievable tweets that falsely claimed Israel massacres innocent civilians, Ocasio-Cortez had to admit she is no expert on the Mid-East. 

It is truly frightening to imagine such an unfit, uniformed Anti-Semite representing the State of New York which has the largest Jewish population in America. 

This woman shouldn’t be elected to a local school board, let alone the Congress. She is not only ignorant, but also dangerous and doesn’t reflect the good people of America and what our Representatives should believe. 

If you know anyone in her district, please inform them before tragedy occurs. If she is elected, it will be a nightmare for democracy.