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☆ How one 'Squad' member avoided an avalanche of pro-Israel money
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

When Summer Lee ran for Congress in 2022, she had to battle a wave of pro-Israel spending. AdvertisementGoing into this year, Rep. Summer Lee seemed likely to be a top target for pro-Israel groups. Both AIPAC and another key pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), opted to stay out of the primary. Pro-Israel groups spent money against Lee not just in the primary, but in the general election as well. Meanwhile, progressive groups supporting Lee spent nearly $710,000, and on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez came to Pittsburgh to rally with Lee.

Persons: Summer Lee, Lee, —, Bhavini Patel, Mark Mellman, Sen, Bernie Sanders's, Alexandria Ocasio, Cortez —, That's, o6e7abRSr2 —, Patel, Jeff Yass, Cortez, Lee —, Joe Biden —, Biden, who've Organizations: Service, Democratic, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel, Washington Post, Rep, AIPAC, Pennsylvania, House, Democratic Socialists of America, o6e7abRSr2 — AIPAC, Democratic Party, GOP, Law Locations: Israel, Pittsburgh, Alexandria, Squirrel Hill, Gaza, Emboldening

☆ Pro-Israel Groups Promised to Be Active in Democratic Primaries. They Haven’t Done Much Yet.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, pro-Israel political groups put the Democratic Party’s most outspoken critics of the Jewish state on notice: An avalanche of spending was coming to either unseat them or force them to change their posture on the Middle East. But the first expeted target of that avalanche, Representative Summer Lee of Pittsburgh, will face only nominal opposition in the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. And though groups like Democratic Majority for Israel and United Democracy Project, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, have raised tens of millions of dollars to make good on their threats, they have so far mostly declined to spend it. Pro-Israel groups were unable to recruit an experienced, well-known primary challenger to Ms. Lee. That is not the case in primaries to come, especially Representative Jamaal Bowman’s in New York in June and Representative Cori Bush’s in Missouri in August.

Persons: Summer Lee, Lee, Jamaal Bowman’s, Cori Bush’s Organizations: Israel, Democratic, United Democracy Project, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Synagogue Locations: Israel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Squirrel, New York, Missouri

☆ Jury reaches verdict in death penalty case for Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooter
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Carolina Gonzalez | David K. Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Jurors will need to be unanimous to impose the death penalty or else the gunman will receive life without the possibility of parole. The panel will now deliver its verdict to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Colville, who is bound to impose their decision against the gunman. Last month, this same jury found the shooter guilty on 63 criminal counts stemming from the attack in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018. Armed with an AR-15 and other weapons, the shooter barged into the synagogue and opened fire. Law enforcement, five of whom were injured in the shooting, returned fire and hit the gunman, who then surrendered.

Persons: Robert Gregory Bowers, Robert Colville, Dustin John Higgs Organizations: U.S, Department, U.S . Locations: Pittsburgh, U.S, U.S . Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana

CNN —Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, was convicted by a federal jury Friday on all 63 charges against him. Bowers was also convicted of 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. The shooting unfolded on a day when the synagogue was hosting three congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light, for weekly Shabbat services. In addition to the 11 killed, two worshippers and four responding police officers were wounded. Before the shooting, Bowers spent years posting about attacks on immigrants and Jewish people on Gab, a small social media platform used by far-right extremists.

Persons: Robert Bowers, Bowers, David Klug Diane Rosenthal, Cecil, David Rosenthal, ‘, ’, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, ” Myers, ” “, ”, Jonathan Greenblatt, that’s, ” Greenblatt, Dan Frankel, “, Frankel, ” Bowers, Robert Bowers David Klug, Robert Colville, Elisa Long, ” Long, Eric Olshan, ” Olshan, Dor Hadash, Andrea Wedner, Rose Mallinger, ’ ”, Mary Hahn, – Organizations: CNN, U.S, Attorney, Defamation League, Pennsylvania, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Police, Immigrant Aid Society Locations: Maryland, New York

☆ Can Artistry Be Built Into a Machine?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Oliver Whang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One day recently, on a table in Jean Oh’s lab in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, a robot arm was busy at a canvas. Her doctoral student, Peter Schaldenbrand, stood alongside. In recent years, Mr. Schaldenbrand has led an effort to bridge the sim-to-real gap between sophisticated image-generation programs like Stable Diffusion and physical works of art like drawings and paintings. This has mainly been manifest in the project known as FRIDA, the latest iteration of which was rhythmically whirring away in a corner of the lab. The process of moving from language prompts to pixelated images to brushstrokes can be complicated, as the robot must account for “the noise of the real world,” Dr. Oh said.

[1/2] Police officers guard the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron JosefczykApril 24 (Reuters) - The man accused of opening fire and killing 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history faces a potential death sentence at the end of a federal trial that begins on Monday with jury selection. Robert Bowers, 50, is accused of dozens of charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, in a massacre that unfolded at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. In seeking the death penalty, federal prosecutors will try to prove aggravating factors in their case against Bowers, including that he substantially planned the attack and that he targeted vulnerable victims. Federal authorities said Bowers entered the synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood where many residents are Jewish, armed with multiple firearms.

Mr. Stein was a substitute teacher, who over the years had also worked at a plumbing supply store and a funeral home. But the place where Mr. Stein, 71, spent most of his time in recent years was at the synagogue, Mr. Halle said. Mr. Stein’s daughter-in-law recently had a child, and Mr. Stein was delighted to be a grandfather for the first time. Ms. Fienberg has two sons, one living in Washington and one in Paris, and six grandchildren. As he aged, Mr. Wax had become hard of hearing, and in recent years, he did not speak much.

Persons: David, Cecil Rosenthal, ”, Joyce Fienberg, Melvin Wax, Rosenthal, Fienberg, Wax, Rose Mallinger, Diane Rosenthal, Sylvan Simon, Wilkinsburg, Daniel Stein, Jerry Rabinowitz, Irving Younger, “ They’ve, Jeffrey Solomon, “, don’t, Solomon, David Rosenthal, “ I’ve, Mr, Richard Gottfried, Susan Kalson, Dr, Gottfried, Ms, Kalson, Steven Halle, Stein, Halle, Stein’s, —, Israel — Mr, Dodie Roskies, Fienberg’s, Stephen E, Roskies, Bill Cartiff, Cartiff, Jodi Kart, Suzan, . Rabinowitz, ” Ms, Hauptman, Rabinowitz, Marie Jo Marks, Marks, Helen Nothwang, Jerry Schmitt, ‘, I’ll, ’, Schmitt Organizations: Cowen Inc, Jewish Community Center, Pittsburgh Jewish, Health, Mr, Halle, “, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research, Development Center, Pirates Locations: Europe, Pa, Edgewood Borough, Mt . Washington, New York, Pittsburgh, “, Ross Township, Israel, Central, Eastern Europe, Squirrel Hill, Washington, Paris

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