On this day in 2001, President George W. Bush announced the formation of what would become the Department of Homeland Security, now a key part of Donald Trump’s authoritarian state.
Good morning friends! Prem here. Today, I bring you new details about how the Trump-Vance administration is commemorating Oct. 7: by holding an anti-Zionist rabbi in detention, using similar logic to that used to keep the student protester Mahmoud Khalil and the student op-ed writer Rümeysa Öztürk in detention last year.
And so, today’s ‘First Draft’ lays out how a rabbi is being stopped from celebrating the Jewish holidays, because he protested against Israel. We’ll also take a look at trouble in Trumpland over advisers working in a pro-Russia Balkan enclave even as midterms catastrophe looms, and catch up with all the news about Trump’s illegal war with Iran.
A ‘Flight Risk’ Rabbi?
Donald Trump’s administration, which is trying to deport the former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil for protesting against Israel – by smearing him as an antisemitic threat – is trying to deport an anti-Zionist rabbi for the same reason.
As the Trump-Vance administration rolls out what it calls a nationwide tour to combat hate and antisemitism, it is simultaneously denying the rabbi religious accommodations and making him pray during Jewish Holy Days next to a toilet, as he languishes in ICE detention.
It’s another awful line on the villainous résumé of this White House of Horrors.
Yehnotan Ovadia is a 35-year-old Orthodox Jewish religious teacher and rabbi who came to the U.S. in 2022 on a religious worker visa. As a member of the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic community, which opposes the state of Israel on religious grounds, he participated in pro-Palestine and anti-Israel demonstrations in New York.
Now in detention arising from such protests, Ovadia alleges in new filings seen by Zeteo that ICE is subjecting him to conditions that make it impossible to observe his faith. He notes that he has been detained through Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot; has resolved to use blankets to separate himself from the cell toilet and his new cellmate while he prays; and claims he has lost 25 pounds in about a month.
This week, Ovadia messaged his counsel about the limitations he faces when he tries to pray: