Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) speaks during Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement to build new international terminal at JFK (John F. Kennedy) airport.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said he will look into whether the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen should be relabeled as a terrorist group following a drone attack that killed three civilians in the United Arab Emirates’s capital of Abu Dhabi last weekend, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: The Biden administration removed the Houthis from the U.S.’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in February 2021 — reversing a decision by the Trump administration. Biden administration officials have indicated that decision was motivated in part by a desire to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Yemen.

A careful review: “I’m going to be looking at that very carefully and talking to [the administration],” Meeks, the top foreign policy Democrat in the House, told JI on Wednesday. “I’m very concerned and condemn to the highest degree the Houthis and the utilization of the drones and the strike on the UAE. So, [that is] something that we’re looking at.” Meeks added that his “only concern” is “making sure humanitarian aid is able to continue and to make sure that it’s getting to people — women, children, men who are not combatants.” President Joe Biden said during a marathon news conference on Wednesday that the Houthis’ terrorism designation is “under consideration.”

‘A mistake from the beginning’: Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, argued on Wednesday that the decision to revoke the terrorism designation was a mistake from the beginning. “Last year, the Biden administration revoked the Houthis’ designation as a terrorist organization. The Houthis have thanked the president by storming the U.S. embassy in Yemen last November and now firing missiles in Abu Dhabi,” Gallagher said in a statement to JI. “The evidence is overwhelming: the president needs to reverse course, recognize reality, and redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist group.”

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Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) appears on Urban View’s Helping Our Heroes Special, moderated by SiriusXM host Jennifer Hammond at the Cannon Building on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2018 in Washington, D.C.

Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) announced yesterday on Twitter the launch of the Congressional Caucus for the Advancement of Torah Values, eliciting a flood of questions — and snark  — on social media, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Photo finish: Neither Bacon nor Cuellar is Jewish, nor are any of the other lawmakers — Reps. Kat Cammack (R-FL), Dan Meuser (R-PA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — pictured in a photo from the caucus’s launch event last week. Spokespeople for Cuellar and Bacon declined to provide a full list of members. The other members pictured in the photo did not respond to requests for comment.

On the agenda: Cuellar said that the group would “protect Torah values and freedom of religion, while fighting antisemitism and hatred,” and Bacon said it would be “committed to combating anti-Israel bigotry and protecting the Jewish community’s values and right to worship freely.” Bacon’s post about the group featured an image with the Israeli and American flags. The House has had a Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism since the mid-2010s, with more than 100 members. Fitzpatrick is one of the co-chairs of that group.

Border crossing: Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter, a Toronto-based rabbi and real estate investor who leads the Orthodox group Dirshu, which described itself in a press release as “the largest Torah organization in the world,” attended the launch event last week.

Called out: The announcement of the Torah Values Caucus was met with skepticism from some liberal Jewish leaders. Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer tweeted, “There are many challenges facing Jewish Americans, including the insidious threat of antisemitism. With all due respect to our non-Jewish friends, the creation of this caucus is not the way to address them, nor are our ‘Torah values’ in need of your advancement.”

Out of the loop: Leaders within the Orthodox community told JI they also had not been aware of the caucus’s formation. The Republican Jewish Coalition and American Jewish Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

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A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court on January 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, in which the descendants of a Holocaust survivor are seeking to reclaim a painting by the French Impressionist master Camille Pissarro taken from a relative by the Nazi regime, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Backstory: Tuesday’s arguments are the latest step in a long-running battle between multiple generations of the Cassirer family — descendants of Holocaust survivor Lilly Cassirer, who gave up the painting to the Nazis in exchange for permission to flee Germany — and the Spanish government-owned Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which currently possesses the artwork.

In the weeds: At issue is a set of arcane legal rules determining whether federal or California (where the lawsuit was filed) state standards should be applied in the case. The federal and state governments have different “choice-of-law” standards for deciding whether domestic or Spanish law should be applied in deciding possession of the artwork.

Behind the curtain: Bill Charron, who chairs the art law practice at the law firm Pryor Cashman, explained that the Supreme Court likely took this case because of disagreements between federal circuit courts over whether state or federal choice-of-law rules should apply in similar cases. “The context here of Nazi-looted art is absolutely a very compelling context, but it’s not, I don’t think, the driver for why the Court took the case,” he said. “I think the Court is trying to create some certainty, with respect to any number of cases that could be brought in federal courts” involving foreign sovereigns.

Other side: In a statement to JI, the lawyers for the museum, Thaddeus Stauber and Sarah Erickson André, emphasized that they believe — regardless of whether the federal or state choice-of-law rules are applied — Spanish law will ultimately be enforced and the painting will remain in the museum’s possession.

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At the end of this month, a small group of Israeli teens will begin a rite of passage, donning military fatigues for the first time as part of their compulsory military service. But unlike their peers, the training for this crop of recruits will differ in one key way: They will never hold or fire a weapon. Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash reports on a new and unique program launched last summer by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that will enable individuals suffering from anxiety, depression, and other diagnosed emotional and mental health disorders to enlist and serve their country in a softer way.

People’s army: Often dubbed “the people’s army,” most Israelis are drafted into the military at 18 — with exceptions for Arab and some Haredi Jewish citizens. Youths of all social and economic backgrounds, educational levels and even physical abilities serve side by side, abiding by the same strict rules and living under the same conditions, creating a kind of social equalizing apparatus. Until recently, however, those with physical or mental disabilities were excluded from active service. Over the past few years, the army has taken some steps to widen inclusion, creating a “Special in Uniform” program for young people with autism, Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. But for those suffering from emotional or mental health disorders, where holding or shooting a gun might be a dangerous task, the option to formally serve remained elusive.

Socially conscious: “Since its creation, the Israeli army has been unique compared to other armies,” Amotz Asa-El, a fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute, told Jewish Insider. “It was assigned by [founding Israeli Prime Minister] David Ben-Gurion to take on social tasks, most famously teaching Hebrew to new immigrants, and that is how it became part of Israel’s social agenda.” He called the creation of the new program “some kind of latter-day reincarnation” of that process. “There is a distinction between social tasks and military tasks in the army.” While the move to allow women to serve in more combat roles in recent years might be a way to increase the pool of personnel that will help Israel in future wars, the army has also made a clear effort to “appear socially conscious and crusading,” said Asa-El.

Addressing mental health: Hilla Hadas, executive director of Enosh, Israel’s Mental Health Association, told JI that mental health disabilities far outnumbered those of physical disabilities among young people in Israel and, according to figures compiled by her organization, the number of young Israelis suffering from mental health problems was rapidly rising. She cited a 27% increase in the number of teenagers and youth seeking mental health treatment over the past year and said the age of those needing psychological support was trending younger. “Physical disability is much lower compared to those with mental or emotional disabilities,” said Hadas, highlighting that the past two years have greatly changed perceptions of mental health, with a greater acceptance and awareness that it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

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