WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish millennial Jon Ossoff became Sen. Jon Ossoff on Wednesday afternoon at a socially distanced swearing-in ceremony in the Senate chambers hours after Joe Biden was inaugurated as president.
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As he swore the oath of office, Ossoff clutched a book of Hebrew scripture once owned by an Atlanta rabbi whose synagogue building was bombed by white supremacists in 1958.
BREAKING: Democrats gain control of US Senate as VP Harris swears in Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Alex Padilla as the chamber's newest members. pic.twitter.com/MvOQS2s5MF
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 20, 2021
Ossoff, the first Jewish senator from Georgia, was sworn in alongside the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the first Black senator from the state, and Alex Padilla, who in filling the seat of new Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the first Hispanic senator from California.
Ossoff, 33, was escorted down the rotunda aisle by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is not Jewish but often speaks Hebrew and cites Torah passages in public appearances.
In October 1958, the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple in Atlanta sustained “massive” damage from dynamite explosions, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported at the time. No one was injured. The congregation’s rabbi, Jacob Rothschild, was a prominent civil rights movement supporter.
Ossoff and Warnock, a pastor at the church formerly led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., leaned into a narrative of Black-Jewish cooperation in their campaigns. After he and Ossoff were declared the winners in their runoff elections, Warnock said that King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched with King in the civil rights era, were “smiling in this moment.”
The Ossoff and Warnock victories gave Democrats a 50-50 split in the Senate, making New York’s Chuck Schumer the first Jewish Senate majority leader as Harris would break any ties.
Mr. Ossoff’s fabissina opponent who he defeated was a Qanon cultist who retweeted anti-Jewish themes and images. Is this why unEducated archibald liked the chumetz opponent?
You mean a self hating Jew, and war oxi is an anti Semitic priest
His mom is a shiksa
The term ‘Jew’ in the English language as understood by an English speaker does not necessary mean the same as understood by orthodox Jews. Its similar to the term ‘rabbi’. Some years ago the papers referred to a felon as a rabbi when in fact he did not have semicha and was described by Orthodox Jews as a mere melamed. Some complained about this felon be described as ‘a rabbi’, but as far as an English speaker is concerned someone who teaches Judaism be it orthodox or not, and whether to adults or infants is ‘a rabbi’ and the fact that orthodox have a different definition is irrelevant.
Mr Ossoff is a Jew because ‘Jew’ is an English word and that is how English speakers see him as being according to that language.
Not a Jew, and Jill Biden is not a Doctor.
He is 100% goy. His mother was an Australian goy. Thomas Jonathan Ossoff. He can parade around as a YID but he is still 100% Goy, just like the shv..tze cory booker who goes around quoting Torah and sprouting off Hebrew. A 100% GOY!
Osoof is a goy. A shiksa momala. Got it?