On Friday, NYPD officers attempted to arrest 28-year-old Derrick Ingram, co-founder of the nonviolent activist group Warriors In The Garden, at his apartment building in Manhattan.

In a statement to CNN, NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Jessica McRorie said the officers were "seeking him for an open complaint report for an assault on a police officer" during a protest in Manhattan on June 14.

During the June protest, an officer attempted to prevent him from crossing a police line and a struggle ensued, McRorie said. Ingram allegedly "placed a handheld megaphone directly against the officer's ear, activated the megaphone and yelled, causing pain and protracted impairment of hearing," according to McRorie.

"This was an attempt to silence our movement," the statement says. "This militarized police response endangers the safety of residents in Hell's Kitchen and across NYC."

Ingram streamed the interaction live on Instagram.

On Saturday, Ingram, accompanied by an attorney, turned himself in on the misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault, the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said. He was released on his own recognizance and has been arraigned, the district attorney's office said.

"Mr. Ingram turned himself in (Saturday) morning in a surrender negotiated by his attorney, and was peacefully accompanied to the precinct by his friends and allies. Such agreed-upon surrenders are common practice between lawyers and the NYPD," said Lupe Todd-Medina, a spokeswoman for NY County Defender Services.

Todd-Medina said the attorney's efforts to negotiate Ingram's surrender "were nearly foiled by an unprecedented show of police overreach yesterday morning and afternoon" and that they look forward to fighting the charges against Ingram.

"The presence of NYPD officers on Mr. Ingram's fire escape, helicopters circling overhead, and police dogs was a shocking demonstration of the tactics the NYPD is willing to undertake to suppress dissent," Todd-Medina said.

Danny Frost, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said in a statement Saturday that their office "does not condone the extraordinary tactics employed by police on Friday."

"These actions were disproportionate to the alleged offense that occurred two months ago, and unjustifiably escalated conflict between law enforcement and the communities we serve," Frost said.

"The NYPD's top brass better start talking. Who really issued the order to retreat?," Lynch said. "They have set an unbelievably damaging precedent. Police officers and all New Yorkers deserve to know who signed off on the NYPD's literal surrender to criminals."

Officers said they had a warrant for Ingram's arrest, Oss said, but they did not show one when asked. Hours later, the officers left -- without making an arrest.

"Commissioner Shea made the right decision to call off the operation," he said, referring to New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea. "Assaulting an officer is unacceptable and will always lead to consequences, but arrests must be made properly."

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What started as a protest to support the Douglas County Sheriffs Office in Minden early Saturday turned into a fierce battle of words between hundreds of Blue Lives Matter protesters and a small group of Black Lives Matter protesters.

Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley addressed a crowd of about 400 supporters Saturday morning, many of them chanting Stand with Dan and holding American flags and Godand Guns protest signs.

Dozens of the supporters sported militia-style garb -- camouflage uniforms, helmets and semi-automatic rifles.

I love this community and my focus has and always will be on protecting it," Coverley said in front of the sheriff's office. We understand recent correspondence between myself and the Douglas County library has made national attention and may be the reason you are here today.

In July, the Douglas County Library Boardwas set to consider a draft statement thatread in part: "The Douglas County Public Library denounces all acts of violence, racism and disregard for human rights."

The statement also included the line: "We support #BlackLivesMatter."

The indication of support for the Black Lives Matter movement prompted Coverley to threaten not to respond to 911 calls from the library.

"Due to your support of Black Lives Matter and the obvious lack of support or trust with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, please do not feel the need to call 911 for help," he wrote. "I wish you good luck with disturbances and lewd behavior, since those are just some of the recent calls my office has assisted you with in the past."

Coverley later rescinded the threat, saying his department would continue to respond to all 911 calls. He later said he reacted that way because he "perceived that our office may be under attack."

Sheriff Dan Coverley addresses several hundred supporters who gathered Saturday, Aug. 8 in Minden. Reno Gazette Journal

For the record we support the library and we will continue to protect and serve them, and all citizens and visitors to Douglas County, Coverley said Saturday.

He noted that the sheriffs office has been in contact with library officials as well as members of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I simply meant that if you dont trust law enforcement or the sheriff's office specifically, dont feel the need to ask for help, Coverley said.

Heelaborated on previous comments, saying that he felt attacked by public calls to defund the police. He also said that if police reform means constantly improving his office, he is reforming every day.

Supporters cheered and clapped afterone fan asked when he was going to run for governor.

By 10 a.m., a small counter-protest of about 100 Black Lives Matter supporters had gathered across Main Street in downtown Minden.

"I just hate to see all this happen in our town," said Sally Bowman of Minden, who showed upin support of Coverley. "We hope there's no violence, just peaceful people. We want to keep it that way."

But tensions rose quickly in the ranching town that is home to about 3,000 peopleless than an hour's drive south of Reno.

As counter-protesterschanted Black Lives Matter, a portion of Coverleys supporters gathered on the opposite side of the street chanting "U.S.A." and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sheriff's deputies monitored the gathering from atop the sheriffs office roof and mounted deputies rode horses up Main Street.

While about two dozen deputies stood in a line outside the sheriffs office and a number were deployed to help control traffic as the crowds flowed into the streets, deputies did not enter the swelling protests until later in the day.

By mid-morning a crowd crossed the street and surrounded the Black Lives Matter group, shouting at them to get the hell out of our town, and calling them a number of obscenities.

Thats just the thing we dont need, everyone has the right to gather, no matter what its for, said Gardnervilles Ted Hanson, who showed up in support of Coverley but prepared to leave as people started surrounding and harassing the Black Lives Matter protesters. No matter what you have to say, youre allowed to protest and practice free speech.

Hanson said he didnt agree with Coverleys rhetoric, but he felt that Coverley and library officials both had the right to express themselves.

I dont instigate problems, but I do read the news and if something happens, were going to get blamed for it, said Hanson, who wore a handgun on his hip.

While Hanson said hed worn his gun only to show that we have rights too, he said it was unloaded, and he did worry that the militiagear was intended to cause fear.

"We're going to head out because something bad is going to happen," said Hanson.

The two groups gathered in Minden on Saturday Reno Gazette Journal

As tensions escalated, a few individuals from the sheriff's supporters began shouting for others to leave the Black Lives Matter protesters alone.

I didnt fight for this. They are allowed to protest too, said an armed man in a cowboy hat who tried stave off an angry crowd surrounding a Black man.

Over the course of the day, the Black Lives Matter protesters continued to move locations around town, citing concerns for their safety, but opponents followed closely at their heels.

At one point, Black Lives Matter protesters locked arms two by two and walked down the sidewalks, as counter-protesters yelled and called them "garbage," saying "You ain't welcome here," and, "The only reason youre not burning s*** is because we outnumber you!"

"This is what its like to be Black in America right here," shouteda white Black Lives Matter protester who stood beside a Black woman.

She is peaceful, she is peaceful, the white woman cried out.

Jerome Silas, of Carson City, said he and about a half-dozen other people organized the Black Lives Matter counter-protest. He was not expecting a warm welcome, but he also didn't think it would get as bad as it did.

"Even if we are a smaller protest, it's going to take hell or high water to move us off our mark," said Silas. "When I turned around in the big crowd of people chasing me out of their town, I was reminded of the 1960s civil rights movements."

All around Mindens downtown, demonstrators from both sidespracticed their own forms of protest.

A man wearing a Native American headdress sang Its my life, by Jon Bon Jovi and a pickup full of young men drove around with large American and Confederate flags waving. Others rode horses around town with Blue Lives Matter T-shirts on.

Many wore hats, shirts and flags as capes promoting President Donald Trump.

A few lone protesters for the Black Lives Matter movement appeared amidthe sea of opposing protesters.

Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter groups clash in Minden on Saturday Aug. 8. Reno Gazette Journal

Many of them were told to take their masks off.

Please put a mask on if youre going to spit on me, said Kat Jackson, who traveled from the Tahoe area to protest.

Jackson, who waved a rainbow flag and wore pink hair, said the environment was immediately hostile when she arrived.

People have been very confrontational, said Jackson, who was visibly shaking as two men shouted at her.

Several altercations had been reported by mid-afternoon Saturday,according to the sheriffs office, though it was not clear if any of them turned physical.

Melissa Blosserof the Sheriffs Officedid not know the extent of resources deployed by the Douglas County Sheriffs Office or howd theyd been allocated throughout the day, but she said Nevada Highway Patrol helped with traffic control and Carson City Sheriffs Office also assisted during the protests.

By late afternoon, most of the protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement appeared to have dispersed, leaving behind a spread out gathering of Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter protesters.

Pro-police protesters surround Black Lives Matter protesters during simultaneous rallies on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020 in Minden, Nevada. Reno Gazette Journal

The two protest groups converged in Minden on Saturday Aug. 8. Reno Gazette Journal

Several hundred pro-police supporters turned out for a rally in Minden on Saturday, Aug. 8. Reno Gazette Journal

Previous reporting from investigative reporter Anjeanette Damon was included inthis article.

Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/08/08/minden-protest-douglas-county-sheriff-nevada-black-lives-matter-blm/3328009001/

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People take a knee during a Black Lives Matter rally, as protests continue over the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, June 3, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Jonathan Ernst.

While there will be no quarrel regarding the Biblical admonition to pursue justice, what actually constitutes justice is less clear. There is the sense that if one willfully wrongs another and is held accountable, the accountability should be proportionate to the wrong. In Judaism, a disproportionate punishment is deemed unjust. This is Abrahams argument demanding justice for any righteous inhabitants of Sodom, in the first discussion of justice in the Torah.

Abrahams argument reflects the abhorrence of collective punishment. A righteous man living in Sodom should not be punished for the sins of his community. But the Torah also recognizes a communal responsibility in several places. Deuteronomy describes how when a murdered corpse is found outside a city, the community must undertake the ceremonial sacrifice of the eglah arufa.

And then there is Rashis explanation that the sin of the golden calf, chet haegel, falls upon all future generations and that every misfortune that falls upon the Jews is, in part, retribution for that sin.

How can this be just? We were not there, and we didnt worship any golden calf. And there is the Third Commandment, which states that God takes account of the sin of parents upon their children and their childrens children even though they may be complete innocents. Here the commentators explain this apparent injustice as actually an act of grace. Judgment is withheld so that a future generation may purge the sin and atone for a prior generation.

August 9, 2020 11:05 am

The sense of communal responsibility is hardly limited to the Jews. Jews accept reparations paid by young Germans today who would recoil at the atrocities committed by their parents and grandparents. But the Germans pay reparations out of the sense of communal sin, despite their individual innocence.

In short, there is the concept of communal justice and ongoing responsibility, even when members of the community did not commit the original sin.

The reasons for this communal responsibility become clearer when we consider our circumstances.

We are American citizens. We are born into (or seek out) that citizenship and accept it. The United States has treated the Jewish people better than any country in our history. Since the creation of Israel, we have by choice remained American citizens and accepted the gifts and burdens of that citizenship. So great are those benefits that most of those who move to Israel retain their American citizenship.

Those benefits are the result of a communal heritage developed over 250 years: a democratic government; the Constitution, particularly its Bill of Rights; perhaps, above all, extraordinary religious tolerance; the great causes: the Revolution, the Civil War, World War II. And these concepts are supported by a historical heritage of great leaders. To the extent Jews feel comfortable in America today, it is the result of that historical culture.

With that American citizenship comes the burdens and communal sins the American chet haegel, golden calf.

These sins include what was done to the Native Americans, which led Hitler to taunt Roosevelt when he criticized the German treatment of the Jews (Go speak to an Oglala Sioux). But perhaps the largest communal sin is the sin of African-American enslavement, and the compounding of that sin is before us today.

That sin is as much a sin of Americans today as the chet haegel is to Jews. We believe even a convert to Judaism bears responsibility for that sin. Similarly, the unexpiated sin of slavery is part of the American heritage and a responsibility of that citizenship.

Even Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and saw the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives in carrying out that liberation, recognized that it was a national sin that God had inflicted on the American people. In his great Second Inaugural Address, he quoted Tehillim on this point:

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged. The Almighty has His own purposes. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmans 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

So it is no answer that we Jews the majority of us came to America long after the slaves were freed. We are Americans, and we share in the heritage the good and the bad. We did not worship the golden calf, and perhaps no member of the community murdered the body found outside the city. As part of the ceremony of the eglah arufa, the elders say: Our hands did not spill this blood. Still, they must sacrifice and expiate the communal sin. And so it is for us who may not have committed the sin of slavery, but partake of the heritage.

How often have you heard someone say that their great-grandparents came with nothing and look at what they sacrificed and accomplished a comparison that somehow passes the blame on to African-Americans for their plight today?

The Torah has much to say about this as well. The greatest two events in Jewish history were the redemption from slavery and the revelation at Sinai. Yet the mark of slavery was so great that tradition tells us that God forced the Jews to sojourn in the desert until every member of the slave community who left Egypt was dead. Even though they saw the sea split and heard the word of God at Sinai, they had been slaves and the Promised Land was not to be founded by freed slaves. (See Ibn Ezra on Exodus 14:13.)

The only portion of the Torah that tradition teaches is a Torah commandment to read is the command to remember what the Amelekites did to us when we left Egypt. (See Deut. 28:17.) What did the Amelekites do? They attacked us as we left Egypt, when we were a vulnerable slave people who had just been freed. This is considered the most nefarious thing done to the Jews recorded in the Torah, so heinous that it is reinforced later when King Saul loses his kingship for failing to heed Gods command to kill all the Amalekites.

When our African-American brethren were liberated, they did not have the good fortune to prevail over the Amalekites. Lincoln was killed and there was no Aaron and Hur to hold up Moses arms, and with Gods aid crush the Amalekites. After they were freed even during the heyday of Reconstruction they were attacked, lynched, and to a great extent effectively enslaved again. We know that this remained their condition in the harshest of ways long, long afterward, for generations. They were in a promised land but with no promise.

So we are commanded to remember how the Amalekites pursued us on the road from Egypt, even though every last Amalekite was slain during the reign of King Saul. And what the Amalekites did is considered a transgression against us. Recall that no slave who left Egypt, even after standing at Sinai, was deemed worthy of entering the Promised Land such was the stigma of generations of slavery. And so, there is no dismissing for this or that excuse, that Black lives matter, or that we are excused because our hands did not shed this blood.

Howard Langer is the founder of Langer Grogan & Diver, an antitrust and consumer law firm in Philadelphia. He is adjunct professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has taught at the Centre for Competition Law and Policy at Oxford and the Law School of the University of Tokyo.

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Jewish Responsibility During Black Lives Matter | Jewish ...

August 8, 2020; Martinsville, Indiana: Black Lives Matter activist Belinda Snowden argues with a member of the Scallywags III-percenter motorcycle club as BLM holds a rally on the Morgan County Courthouse Square Saturday. The BLM activists were met by armed counter-protesters who surrounded the square. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan/The Bloomingtonian)

Before the group of Black Lives Matter activists showed up the Morgan County Square was already surrounded by people holding flags, and some carrying guns.

The rally was supposed to start at 3 p.m., but as a man sat near the war memorial downtown, holding a 16-gauge shotgun, the activists were nowhere to be seen. The man spoke using words like family, and heritage and expressed he was concerned the war memorial would be vandalized.

Two other men stood in the shade near a wall holding AR-15 rifles, one said he had been a cavalry scout in the U.S. Army, as he talked to another man sitting next to a scoped military-style rifle on a tripod, who reached out to pet a dog on a leash.

A man wearing a Military Police hat to indicate his service in the army sat on a sidewalk a short distance away, and a group of women stopped at the corner to pray. A couple from Florida had broken down near the site of the protest, and asked, Whats going on here?

The United States has been the location of continuous Black Lives Matter protests since Minneapolis Police killed George Floyd in May. However, this was the second Black Lives Matter protest in Martinsville.

A man could be heard saying to some people in a vehicle, They wont get much support here. This isnt Democrats like Bloomington. However, a member of the Martinsville Police Department said that Martinsville doesnt deserve the reputation it has and most people from the city would not protest against Black Lives Matter protesters. The city is known for the murder of a young Black woman in 1968, but it turned out the killer was from another city.

As a group of young women in their late teens or early 20s gathered to participate in the BLM rally, a man in his 50s walked past, looked at them, and grabbed his crotch.

Three women organized the rally Saturday. Katelynn Shaffer, and Shaelyn Powell, of Mooresville, spoke to a local reporter while they waited for BLM activist Sherry Tucker.

(Counter-protesters continued to show up at the square, and one man, maybe in his late 50s, wearing a white t-shirt looked at The Bloomingtonians Jeremy Hogan (me) weighed down with cameras and said in a threatening way, Try it and see what happens, as he put down a cooler, I noticed he was strapped with a handgun. So, I held my bottle of water and said to the man, I already have water, and then he said, Thats not what Im talking about.)

Black Lives Matter is for everyone. You dont have to be black to support Black Lives Matter. I feel that if you are not a racist person and you, you, everyone, despite their skin color is equal to you that you would also want them to feel safe and for them to receive justice. Were not anti-police officer. Were not anti-white people. Were just want to ensure that justice is served for people like Brionna Taylor and you know the names, said Katelynn Shaffer of Mooresville.

Tension filled the square as two young men carried Trump flags past the BLM activists who were finally gathering around 4 p.m. Two men carried a sign for the reelection of Donald Trump, and a BLM activist began to engage verbally with them, and out of nowhere Martinsville Police rolled up and separated the men from the BLM activists.

A few of the BLM activists got AR-15 style rifles from their vehicles and carried them throughout the rally.

The Scallywags III-percenter motorcycle club rolled up around 4 p.m. and parked on the square. A member of the group told The Bloomingtonian they are second amendment activists, and they are against tyranny. Some of the same bikers had participated in a Defend the Police caravan in Bloomington earlier Saturday.

The men walked in a group past the BLM protesters, and one of them flipped off the activists. Later a biker parked right in front of the group to drown out their chants, and as he revved his engine, he made a fist. Police once again appeared, and a member of the Martinsville police went over to talk to the bikers.

Our Black Lives dont matter, thats why we are out here protesting, said one of the BLM activists.

A woman maybe in her 60s, wearing a plaid shirt, grey sweatpants, and blue sandals, could be heard saying, They look like trouble makers to me. I protested against the Vietnam War, but I didnt go to someone elses town to do it.

The Mayor of Martinsville, Kenneth Costin, standing on the square, told The Bloomingtonian hed gotten no advance notice that the BLM activists would hold a rally in Martinsville, and when he heard about it, he reached out to the organizers of the previous rally, but they said they were not the organizers. The Mayor asked where the protesters had come from and seemed surprised that the bikers who had come to oppose them were also from out of town.

At various points during the rally, both sides insulted each other, and some people were held back by others, or the police.

A chaplain from the Martinsville Police Department handed out water to BLM protesters, and also the counter-protesters, and said he didnt want anybody to have a medical emergency due to dehydration.

Sherry Tucker told the crowd of counter-protesters that its not that white lives dont matter, they do matter, but since Black lives dont matter, that until they do, all lives cant matter.

Tucker told the crowd shed answer any questions they had. Some counter-protesters yelled questions, and Tucker attempted to answer them. Then the BLM activists marched around the courthouse again, and a man in his 50s put a scoped hunting rifle back into his vehicle.

By 6 p.m. the crowd began to dissipate, and the BLM activists appeared to be huddled in a group preparing to leave the area.

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Black Lives Matter activists rally in Martinsville Saturday ...

Athletics has always been the great equalizer, the playing field where human beings could contend with their strength, mind, and spirits against each other. Going back to the ancient Olympics, athletic competitions bonded people together, and spirituality has always been an integral part of the process. The Olympics were competitions in front of and to earn the favor of the Greek gods, and great athletes have always known that the true competition is inwardto excel past their supposed limitations into the heights. There are many parallels (even within our neuro-physiology) between athletic excellence and spiritual praise. As Ken Ravizza, the great sports psychologist who worked with so many MLB athletes once said, A great athlete is like a priest, he stands there and makes himself vulnerable before God.

What happened that athletes now kneel not in respect for God, but to protest a nation that has given them the opportunity to reap fortunes of money by playing sports?

Throughout my lifetime I watched great teams invoke prayer for their success like the armies of old. Like most children, I had my heroes, many of whom were athletes. My favorite was Sandy Koufax, who was called the left hand of God, was an amazing pitcher, and yet stayed true to his religious beliefs and would not pitch on Jewish holidays. It gave me hope that you could observe your religion and still excel in sports. As I got older, I saw team after team of Olympic and professional athletes thank God for their blessings and success.

Where did this Divine gratitude disappear to?

Sports has always been a place where limits could be pushed on the field, and personal beliefs were kept off. When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, he was able to battle the bigots not by screaming, but by hitting. Not by whining against all the taunts and hatred, but by fielding better. He was a hero who stopped the prejudice by showing those bigots that they were wrong: a black man could be as great as anyone else on the baseball field and deserved respect not as a black man, but as an athlete and human being. To paraphrase the great Dr. King, he showed the world that everyone (athletes included) should be judged based on their skill, not the color of their skin.

Dr. King also recognized the power of using athletic success as a platform for political beliefs, but not on the field. Rather, he encouraged athletes to take their popularity and speak off the field for what is right, as individuals who were both great athletes and courageous men for a cause. Shortly after Kings death, Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power Salute at the Olympics. They did it as individuals with a passion, not as a practice for the American team, the USOC, or the Games. They used their individual notoriety to promote a passionate belief, without forcing anyone else to adopt their stance. They were heroes in their own way, all of them.

But we now live in an environment where bullies filled with hate have the ability to dictate practices. Where the loudest shout down what is right and righteous to push people to surrender to their dogma. And their hate has now pushed itself into acceptance on an institutional level.

Professional football, basketball, and now baseball have institutionally bent a knee to the pressure from Black Lives Matter. Sadly, there have been many injustices throughout the centuries against African Americans because of the color of their skin, and there are some injustices that continue today due to disgusting prejudices. Those injustices need to be corrected. But not through the adoption or support of an organization that is as hateful as BLM.

The Black Lives Matter organization has never repudiated nor denied its manifesto and practices, which arecommitted to Marxism (which includes atheism), a rewriting of history, hate for anyone who disagrees with them, and anti-Semitism. They call for the destruction of Israel, which they call an apartheid state that practices genocide. Many of their leaders, such as Melina Abdullah, the head of BLM Los Angeles, claim Louis Farrakhan as their spiritual advisora man whose hate-filled dogma has for decades wanted every Jew exterminated. They consciously have chosen locations for their protests that are Jewish neighborhoods so that the ensuing riots would cause the residents to feel pain.

And yet somehow, professional sports organizations have adopted and supported this organization by placing Black Lives Matter on the fields and courts.

It is one thing for an athlete like Colin Kaepernick to make an individual choice not to stand for the national anthem. I find it rude, disrespectful, and disgusting on many levels; but I applaud his passion and I treasure that we live in a country where he has that right. Like Smith and Carlos before him, he is using his popularity as a public figure to further his beliefs.

But for the professional sports organizations to endorse the BLM organization; for them to put black lives above any other lives (again, all lives matter); for them to consciously put BLM on fields, pitching mounds, and uniforms is an insult to the very essence of athletics throughout history.

A great irony is that if BLM had its way, professional sports would not even be able to exist financially, and these same athletes, owners, and organizations would be out of work. High-paying professional sports doesnt exist as part of Marxism.

It is profoundly sad that these organizations have caved in to the pressure of the hate-filled BLM organization, especially since there are so many other positive alternatives. They could have placed a powerful statement like No Place For Hate on their fields. The organizations could have endorsed and supported the NAACP, which in spite of the recent anti-Semitic trope voiced by its Philadelphia chapter (which has never been a majority opinion within the NAACP) continually fights for equality and justice; or any of the many similar organization such as the United Negro College Fund. They could even have chosen to allow players to support any political cause or party through patches on their uniforms (and even a brief look at BLM demonstrates that is very much a political cause).

But the loudest voices were heard; the bullies got their way (so far); and the organizations surrendered to supporting an organization that is devoted to hate and to the destruction of their very industry.

As a Jew and an American, I am no longer willing to support these sports until they stop endorsing BLM as an organization, and specifically reject the organization itself. It is not easy to stay away from watching baseball, especially with two children who have always been committed to the Dodgers. But when I showed my children the hate ensconced at the roots of the BLM organization, even they realized that they need to stay away from their beloved sport until the sport once again regains its integrity.

Until professional athletic leagues return to being based in performance and not politics; until the day returns when we can go to a game and not be blasted with advertisements for an organization that wants Jews destroyed and Marxism proliferated; until we can once again watch sports and only be concerned with the score and not the social agendawe will be avoiding all sporting events that continue to support the BLM organization. We base our actions on our values, and so for now, we will be staying away from these major sports.

I hope you will do the same.

Rabbi Michael Barclay is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Ner Simcha in Westlake Village, CA. (www.NerSimcha.org) and the author of Sacred Relationships: Biblical Wisdom for Deepening Our Lives Together. He can be reached directly at [emailprotected], and followed on Facebook at facebook.com/Rabbi.Michael.Barclay

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Black Lives Matter Has Destroyed the Spirit of Sports

The gloomy, depressing group exhibition If on a Winters Night a Traveler is currently being shown at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art the name comes from the title of an Italo Calvino novel that was published in 1979, toward the end of the writers life.

The book was written as an act of wandering through reading, during which the author leads us through various tales that remain unfinished, and never become a coherent plot together, the exhibitions curator, Ruth Direktor, writes on the museums website. Inspired by the novel, the exhibition ... aims to offer the viewer a journey following observation of art.

The exhibition is comprised of 15 artworks created by 11 male artists, most of them Black Americans. They include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Henry Taylor, Rashid Johnson and Theaster Gates.

Direktor deliberately changed the gender in the exhibitions Hebrew title by using the feminine form of the word traveler giving women the role of viewer of these works, which were all made by men.

The exhibition has been filled with unexpected, topical and semi-prophetic new meanings by the coronavirus pandemic and the protest wave in the United States. The echoes of those demonstrations enter the exhibition hall, accompany the visitor and create a new journey of observation via the artworks.

At the heart of the exhibition are three extensive works by American artist Adam Pendleton, who is exhibiting in Israel for the first time. Pendleton, born in 1984, is considered one of the most interesting Black American artists working today.

Pendleton had planned to visit Israel for the exhibition, but the flights were canceled, he said with visible regret, speaking to Haaretz via Zoom from his home in Brooklyn.

At such a stormy time, when protests for racial justice in America are refusing to subside and even spreading around the world, Pendleton hasnt sufficed with art. He too has taken part in the protests.

I think that you cannot live in America today, or really at any time, and, just by virtue of being a citizen, not somehow be engaged with unresolved aspects of American history and culture, he says.

I think what it means to be an engaged person at any time is that you are invested, investigating the dynamics of the moment you live in, but with the desire to transcend the dynamics and realities of the moment.

And I think whats interesting about art is that it is both within and outside one particular moment; in that way its anachronistic, its of time, beyond time. It kind of changes the spatial and conceptual relationship we have to time, aesthetics, history.

As part of the protests, statues and monuments symbolizing oppression, racism and colonialism are being topplied around the world. How do you treat this as an artist?

Well, I think that things things change. And we have to have the hope and desire that things will change. And I think that, you know, thats sort of whats unproductive about public monuments in general; they can kind of freeze time. And we begin to accept things rather than refuse or question things when they kind of are always there .... I think we need to imagine different kinds of symbols that represent different kinds of sociopolitical realities.

Do you think art can make a difference?

I like to think about things that art can be and do whatever youd want it to do. So I really think its about the intention of the artist and what she wants to make happen. What I want to make happen; you know, as an artist Im often working on ideas in a kind of isolation. And then those ideas go out into the world and you do hope that there is a reaction to the ideas to the world, both at the moment you put it into the world, and then long after youre gone as well.

And so, that's a kind of a change. I think that people use that word without defining what it means. But I think its all a matter of degree in expectation, and I do think art can shift things conceptually, and poetically, aesthetically. And I think possibilities of what art is and what art can do are far from finite; theyre infinite.

To New York at 18

Pendletons works are a dialogue with modernism and the avant-garde. Many of them are devoted to Black history in America and protest movements in Africa. The slogan Black Lives Matter appeared in his work as early as 2015, long before the current protests erupted.

Hes one of the most prominent young contemporary artists and has been compared to artists a generation older like Glenn Ligon and Christopher Wool. In 2018, a painting of his from the series Black Dada was sold for $225,000.

The texts he collected under the title Black Dada Reader, which he initially distributed to a circle of acquaintances, was later published in hardcover and crowned by The New York Times as one of the best art books of 2017. The work includes Black Dada Nihilismus, a poem by Amiri Baraka.

Baraka (1934-2014) is one of the most important Black American poets and was a prominent human rights activist. He was born Everett LeRoi Jones but changed his name after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Pendleton says Baraka is his inspiration.

In July, Pendletons cover for The New York Times Magazine made waves. The work included text from a famous speech by Frederick Douglass, the legendary anti-slavery activist who was born into slavery.

After a Minneapolis policeman killed George Floyd in May, Pendleton published a caustic essay about the dangers a Black man faces in America. That work was published in the journal ArtNews.

What led you to come out with an opinion piece?

I wrote a public statement, because I think ... if you look at the history of art, if you look at someone like Marcel Duchamp or Joseph Beuys or I mean these are just the people that come to my mind immediately I think one of the things that artists have to do is they have to question the position of the artists in society.

And thats sort of how artists function through social spaces and also how their work is received and understood as a cultural contribution. And I think during these times of upheaval, were used to hearing from journalists, politicians ... but less commonly do we hear from artists. And I think when I sat down to write that piece, I kind of wanted to explore what the artists voice or an artists voice in my case, a singular voice has to contribute.

Pendleton says that of course he experienced racism growing up, just as someone like myself has experienced sexism, but he prefers not to elaborate on this point.

Pendleton grew up in a largely rural area of Virginia; he says there was always art in his house, from music to writing. His mother was a teacher who dreamed of becoming a writer, while his father was a contractor and musician.

My dad has an ongoing love of music. And my mom had a love of writers like Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, and so those were books that were around the house that I was reading at an early age, he says.

So I think I just, you know, from an early, early age knew that or felt that things were not simple, that there was a kind of beauty really, and things being complex, and also that there was a kind of beauty and wonderful potential in being misunderstood. And I think thats really nice about contemporary art, or at least how I might be picked up, in thinking that it can be okay to be misunderstood.

As a teenager Pendleton studied art. In late 1999, he told his mother he was gay. My parents did this really generous thing, he told The New York Times, referring to himself, his brother and his sister. They let us be who we are. At 18, he moved to New York.

But New York was a city that was familiar to me. Because growing up, we would make trips to New York. And then in my teenage years, I would make solo trips to New York to visit galleries and museums. And so I remember distinctly seeing shows by people like Richard Serra ... and also Stanley Whitney.

He showed his works for the first time at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in 2005, when he was 21.

An abstract chorus of voices

Just before the pandemic erupted, Pendleton, who has been married to his partner for four years, was planning to open a new exhibit at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. The idea was to address identity politics while expressing his own identity as a gay man and a Black artist. The opening had to be postponed, but Pendleton actually sees this as an opportunity.

Of course its interesting to have time to work on an exhibition. So Im sure there will be different some things will change. Ive been working on a number of large paintings that incorporate text, but the text often sort of toes the line between legible and illegible, and it kind of represents an abstract chorus of voices, but it also plays with the mechanics of making a painting ... this kind of tension between painting and photography, he says.

Were currently witnessing the blossoming of Black art in the United States and around the world. How do you feel about that?

I think that Black people all over the world have been making art for hundreds of years. And this is nothing new. I think its naive and foolish to think that its something new that, you know, were culturally designated as Black or suddenly men making art.

He notes that Black artists have been showing in major museums and galleries for many decades.

What is being understood and rethought and reconsidered? Is this how art made by Black artists and also by women and by other people who have been historically, sexually marginalized how they fit into the dominant narratives around art and art history? Thats really the change: not making art but rather how the history and the story of art is being understood.

The work Black Dada hangs on the wall at the entrance to the exhibition. Its a black vertical diptych, silk-screened on fabric, a black presence in the shiny white exhibition space. At its side, the work includes the D from the word Dada.

As Direktor, the curator, puts it, The title of the work is a concept that infuses the work of Pendleton, who since 2008 has created a series of monochromatic painting, each of which features letters from the phrase Black Dada. Placing the work at the entrance to the exhibition suggests that Pendletons Black Dada is the concept driving the entire exhibition, driving the reading of his works via the logic against the logic underlying Dada, through the range of meanings of the color black a color of art and a skin color, symbolic and real.

Another work in the exhibit is Masks (2019), made of up four face masks that gradually get darker until one loses its form and is nearly swallowed up in black. According to the exhibition catalog, this is an African mask that undergoes a violent process of erasure by abstract art, while also representing a Black American identity.

The work Our Ideas #2 is the heart of the exhibit. Pendleton says this is his favorite work because it can be read many different ways. The work takes up an entire wall and is made up of 32 black-and-white panels of uniform size that merge into a powerful inventory of shapes, words and images. The photos are processed through silk screen on Mylar and include phrases and archival photographs from African history and art.

As I said, Im interested in how ideas are to be represented visually in the world, Pendleton says. And I like this notion that our ideas, my ideas, your ideas, their ideas are somehow one in the same that we are both distinct and indistinct at the same time. So I really like to create a kind of shared space.

He says one thing at the core of his work that excites him is the possibility that art is about having a conversation. He talks about the complicated space that abstraction creates, but also this feeling that I would like to have a conversation with you.

And I think thats really what great works of art do. They begin a visual conversation, they begin a cultural conversation. And yes, they can also begin a political conversation.

And since were talking about a political conversation, have you considered taking the occupation into account and presenting your work along with a Palestinian?

Well, you know, its funny because I think Israel is like America; you know, these are very complicated countries which have complicated political realities and complicated current positions towards oppression and occupation.

And then I think on a geopolitical level, the countries have this sort of relationship with each other .... Its complicated, and I dont shy away from complicated ideas.

In Jerusalem in May, Eyad Hallaq, a Palestinian with special needs, was shot dead by police. In response came the slogan Palestinian Lives Matters. What do you think about that?

I will simply say that this language is a rallying cry for many people all over the world to identify in all different ways, from trans to Black to white to, you know, across the cultural spectrum. And theres a reason why.

Original post:

U.S. artist Adam Pendleton brings Black Lives Matter to Tel Aviv: I dont shy away from complicated ideas - Haaretz