First Overall Pick in NHL Draft is Jewish
The New Jersey Devils made Jack Hughes the first overall pick June 21 in the National Hockey League draft, JNS.org reported.
Hughes, 18, has a Jewish mother, Ellen, who played in 1992 for Team USA at the IIHF World Women’s Ice-Hockey Championship. His Catholic father, Jim, was a coach and also a defenseman at Providence College.
A year ago, Hughes’ older brother, Quinn, was picked seventh by the Vancouver Canucks. A 15-year-old brother, Luke, will be eligible for the draft in two years.
Hughes told ESPN Radio when asked about his Jewish upbringing that, “We did Passover when we were younger.”
Dutch Rapper Anne Frank Changes Her Name After Anti-Semitic Past Reported
A Dutch rapper who went by the name of Anne Frank has shortened her name to just Anne after her apparent history of anti-Semitic tweets was uncovered, JTA reported.
The rapper — whose real name is possibly Anne van der Does — had said the name is a tribute to the Holocaust victim.
“It’s not malicious,” she told Het Parool in a June 26 interview, adding that it has been her nickname since childhood. Her manager, rapper Lange Frans, said he wasn’t aware of anti-Semitic tweets.
“I’ve known her for a while and there are many sides to her. I believe in her,” Frans said.
But her debut single “Silence” contains the lines, “Anne Frank is a bossy bitch” and “I stashed s–t in the secret annex.”
And the Dutch watchdog group Center for Information and Documentation on Israel said the rapper has tweeted anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments for several years.
For example, she wrote in March 2018, “If Taylor Swift were Jewish, I’d gas her personally,” and earlier this year she said, “Anne Frank died of typhus so she was never murdered.”
Jewish Birth Control Pill Inventor George Rosenkranz Dies at 102
Hungarian native George Rosenkranz, a chemist who was one of three Jewish men to synthesize the key ingredient in birth control pills, died June 23 at his Atherton, California home, JTA reported. He was 102.
Rosenkranz and fellow chemists Carl Djerassi and Luis Miramontes synthesized the progesterone used in oral contraceptive pills
First developed in 1951 as Norethindrone, the drug’s effectiveness was demonstrated over five years of trials. Rosenkranz and his team also synthesized cortisone in 1951.
Rosenkranz immigrated to Cuba to escape the Nazis after earning his doctorate in organic chemistry in Switzerland in 1940. He later became the CEO and chairman of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Syntex Corp.
German Town Buys Entire Beer Supply Prior to Neo-Nazi Concert
Seeking to “dry the Nazis out,” the residents of Ostritz, Germany, bought out the local beer supply prior to a neo-Nazi concert, JNS.org reported.
A resident told local press, “For us, it’s important to send the message from Ostritz that there are people here who won’t tolerate this.”
The plan went ahead, even though a court had already banned from the Shield and Sword Festival the sale and possession of alcohol.
The concert did go on as scheduled, drawing 500 to 600 people the first night and slightly less the second night. Police outnumbered attendees by more than a two-to-one margin.
