Jan nine, first one of wee the four kass. It's gonna be mostly cloudy day. Isolated showers may show up afternoon. It's gonna be high ninety two, low one hundred, heat index, humid, overnight muggy seventy six, a low and cloudy, partly cloudy. Tomorrow hot humid ninety four with the heat index low one hundreds. Tuesday night partly cloudy, muggy seventy three, and on Wednesday, another partly cloudy day with scattered showers and storms possible and a high of ninety two seventy six degrees.
Right now, let's turn it to Chuck and get a traffic update from.
The UCF Tramphing Center, uc Health Weight Boss Center of Verst Surgical and Medical Obcity Care and Expertise called five one three nine three nine two two sixty three. That's nine three nine twenty two sixty three. They cleared the recks on seventy five both in two seventy five and earl Linger and above Monroe. Traffic starting to get better at both seth found seventy five slows just a bit out of Walkman towards the lateral chuck Ingram on fifty five krs the talks day.
Say twenty nine, think about here see the talk station. Happy to look up and see in studio Rabbi Ari June. He's been here before to talk about some other topics, and good to see Rabbi. Welcome back, Thank you. It's nice to be here. It's just always a pleasure engaging in the elevated conversation with you. Have a tremendous amount
of respect for you. What you do remind my listeners your position in the community and why it would be you here discussing this matter, why you would comment about the Robling suspension bridge, which we'll get to in a moment.
Absolutely so. I'm a rabbi in Cincinnati. I'm the senior Rabbi of Temple Sholem and have been active in issues in this community. For gosh, I'm not a real native Cincinnati, but I've been here about fifteen years now, and there's been this whole situation going on over the last few weeks that started with the detention of any mom I'm in Solomon on some immigration related issues and has sort of taken on a life of its own, including this protest over at the Ropeling Bridge.
Right now, I understand that people might protest ice detention of Aiman Solomon. We were engaged in multiple protests about immigration enforcement across this country. It's one of the biggest topics out there politically speaking. Your perception of the detention of i'man i'm in Solomon initially, where are you? Are you defending him? Do you think it was an appropriate detention Before we get to what actually unfolded on the bridge as a consequence of the.
Protest, absolutely, you know, I will to cheat ahead a little bit. One of the things I think is really unfortunate about this protest at the Ropelining Bridge is it draws attention away from the actual issue, which is you know, this question about this particular detention of Imm Solomon and immigration issues broadly. But so I'll pull back from that, right. We're definitely going to get to that, oh, I know, but to bring the attention to where I think it
should be. You know, Imm Solomon, we can only really speak with confidence I think here about who he is been as a member of our local community. You know, he's been in Cincinnati for years now, been working as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and in our community, which is what we can speak with confidence about he's been a model member of Cincinnati. You know, he's the kind of guy who's shown up in the nicu and working with parents who are in dire situations with children
are suffering. He has been to any member of the Jewish community, a real ally that's good, showed up at vigils to support Jews after October seventh, has you know, been there with rabbis and Cincinnati who run the whole spectrum from you know, from Reform to Orthodox, and been a real friend and partner. Doesn't mean we agree on everything.
We don't agree on everything, but that's you know, that's part of living in a pluralistic society is you can make friends with people with whom you have disagreements.
So the I'm and obviously obviously not a Jewish person. He's not a river to the Sea kind of advocate.
I think he's probably a critic of Israel in many regards, and there are Jews who make the same sort of criticism that he makes.
Well, I have a lot of Jewish friends who also will make the same pa It's okay to do that, but he's not the kind of person who's looking to wipe out all the Jews who live in Israel.
One of the interesting thing about things about his case is that he has pushed against people trying to connect his particular situation right now, his detention and his immigration issues. He doesn't want that connected to the Israel Palestine debate. He's been pretty clear about that.
Well, it shouldn't be.
Well, no, look, he's not Palestinian. First of all, he is an Egyptian citizen who's been here on asylum. He, like many members of our global Muslim community, has a connection to the Palestinian community because they consider that, you know, part of their people, so to speak. But he sees a difference between some of these things, and yeah, he's not a River to the Sea kind of guy.
Yeah, your point is, I think too many people well, and I catch myself if I find myself painting with too broad a brush, as they say, I'll call myself out on I wait a second, maybe I was paint with too broad a brush. Because you happen to be Muslim doesn't mean you hold a particular ideological perspective as it relates to the existence of Israel, or the eradication of Israel, or how you feel about the Jewish people.
Generally speaking, the world's filled with opinions, and within the Muslim community there are many varied opinions, much in the same way you just pointed out there are many varied opinions within the Jewish community.
Absolutely, and I there's something that strange that sometimes goes on which concerns me, which is sometimes there's this if you're Muslim, you're presumed guilty of anti Semitism until proven otherwise.
Yes, and God, I hate it.
I think it's probably clear to those who know me that I've dealt with plenty of issues of antisemitism personally and professionally in my life. I am defensive against anti Semitism. Yes, it does not mean that every person who's Muslim is anti Semitic. It doesn't mean every critic of Israel is anti Semitic. And I Mom, Solomon certainly is not an anti Semite.
All right, Well pause right now because we're gonna take a break. But I'm wondering what is the connection, because Rabbi I do not understand anti Semitism. To me, it's like racism. Why would you hate someone merely because of who they are the race of Jewish people? You just immediately think they're all bad and evil and they're worthy of some sort of form of hatred that's anti Semitism.
Is there a direct correlation between this, this concept of anti Semitism, which I perceive to be the hatred or the antagonism or evil toward Jewish people generally speaking, or is it based upon the existence and creation of the State of Israel. Let's just delve on that. A little good bridge to the bridge should perfect. I'm glad you perceive it to be that way. It's eight thirty five. Rabbi Ari John in the studio will continue after these brief words.
This is fifty five karc an iHeartRadio station.
It's Summertari Juhn in studio, trying to unpack the problems of the world. We were talking about anti Semitism generally speaking. Of course, this on the heels of i' mom Amen. Solomon's detention by Ice. Obviously a well respected man in the community. You mentioned some of his attributes. He's very helpful, he's a bridge crosser, he reaches across the aisle, works well with the Jewish community and other communities. Has done some great work. So before we get to his trials
and tribulations. Addressing my question mark because as I say that, I don't understand the hatred of a person for merely being of a particular race, and so I can't hate you for being a Jew just in and of itself. There are people out in the world who hate black people just because they're black. That makes no sense to me either. You know, I'm like a you know, I never met a man I didn't like kind of guy, which is sort of you got to take the time
to know somebody before you're allowed to draw conclusions. And because all these different people exist across broad political sUAS within any given community, I can't draw a conclusion. It
wouldn't be fair for me to do so. But I'm kind of curious to know if this concept of anti Semitism has more of a connection with the creation of Israel as a state and the displacement of the Palestinian people or anybody else that got this place when Israel was created in what nineteen four or nineteen forty seven? So do you see that as being a sort of a blurred line or maybe a problematic area.
There's an intersection, no question. Look, anti Semitism has been around for literally thousands of years. People call it the oldest form of hate. You know, in our Western context, a lot of people think of the Holocaust as being like the start of antisemitism or something anything. But I mean, there have been thousands and thousands of years of people attacking Jews because of their identity. And what's unique about anti Semitism a form of hate, is that it tends
to mutate throughout history. So generally speaking, in history, people will target Jews for whatever the perceived gravest evil of the time is. So, if capitalism is bad, Jews or the capitalists. If communism's bad, Jews are the communists, you name it. In the present day, when you know ethnic nationalism trends are perceived as evil, Jews must be the colonialist, nationalist, whatever group that's most evil in the world. So Israel's
connected to it, no question. But Israel's more of an excuse than the impetus.
Right because it has been around for a long time. Let's face it, the Holocaust came about as a consequence of Jews getting the blame for the poor economic conditions in Germany. That was an extension of the thousand plus years of Jews being blamed for any other economic calamity or another problem in the world. How is it they became a target. How is it that that was a default group? Is it because of the you represent a minority status in the world in terms of global population.
So the minority status thing is a huge part of it. I think Also, Jews have, in different societies for the last two thousand years, been a minority who was a homeless group, so to speak. Right until the creation of Israel, from you know, the year seventy CE until nineteen forty eight, Jews were existing independently of their own homeland, moving from place to place as a tiny minority, pretty easy to
pick off and scapegoat and target. You layer on top of that religious differences intentions that existed between Christianity and Islam and Judaism, and you've got the recipe for all sorts of disaster.
Well. And in that context, you know, people who of like minds tend to dwell together. I mean, it makes perfect sense. If you're of the same religion, you're the same race, and you don't have a land that you can call your own, you're going to congregate in your own community in any given country. That just makes perfect sense. But you've also proven to be demonstrably successful. I mean, I know from my discussions with my Jewish friends and correct me if I'm wrong. You look out for each other.
You're part of that family of Jewish people. You help each other in business perspectives, you elevate your fellow jew And I mean, and because it is I suppose a race predicated thing, there are people who are not of the Jewish race Sammy Davis Junior, who can become Jews by way of religion. It's a very difficult road to hoe. But there's a sense of the race being a component of being part of the Jewish faith as well, is there not? Absolutely?
So. The technical word for it is it's an ethno religious group. It's that combination of ethnicity and religion. And we do as a Jewish people, we try to take care of one another. Yeah, I mean, I don't only care about Jewish people. I know a lot of people beyond the Aws in my community. But but yeah, you
take care of your family. That's that's a value in our community, and that's been used against us of course also at plenty of times that because we take care of ourselves, there must be something wrong with that.
Well, and the insular sort of perception of that is, oh, look at that. You know, they're not letting them buddy in. You know, I want to slice that action. Well, you know, it's it's not that easy of a challenge to overcome. Yes, you can become a member of the Jewish faith, but I can't become a black person just I mean, because of by virtue of who I am and where I was born and where I came from.
No, I mean, there's something, like I said, a little bit unique about that Jewish identity that you can become Jewish even if you're not originally part of the ethnic group, so to.
Speak, I identify as a Jew. How's that I'll take it. Rabbi GM We're gonna pause, take a minute early break, because we're going to dive on into what the how the situation unfolded and the rabbi's comments about the tragic nature of how it unfolded, because it did take away from the focus of the protest, which was the treatment of I'm Aiman Solomon. One more time with Rabbi ri
Jun stick around fifty five KRC dot com. One more time for the Channel nine first one forecast Heat Advisor in effectial eight today because it's going to be hot ninety two with the heat index of low hundreds and some storms maybe after noon today, over Night muggy, partly cloudy, low of seventy six. Tomorrow partly cloudy, hot, humid ninety four and a lowe hundred heat index muggy and partly
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Bit out of black one. Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC.
The talk station Hey forty seven Any forty eight fifty five krc DE talk station g Briyan Thomas here with Rebbi ri John. He wrote an op ed piece in the Cincinna Inquired the other day U Robling Bridge protest turned violent, overshadowed cause. Rabbit and I already talked about the cause, which was the ice detention of a local imum Aimon so them on by all accounts, you know, the I've seen you great citizen benefit to the community, a big bridge builder, et cetera. But things went awry
at the protests. The bridge was taken over and closed down, which then resulted in the police apartment showing up. Braw by your take on that, because that's all I remember. If you'd ask me before our conversation today what the Robling Bridge shutdown was all about, I wouldn't have been able to remember.
No. I mean, people don't have any clue what the cause is. It's the spectacle. This was so predictable of a bad situation. That's part of what frustrates me about it, which is that I you know, there were rumblings early on that the goal here was to block the bridge. I think was the exact phrase folks were using, and I did a little bit of digging on my own to try to see has anyone pulled a permit as
this sanction, what's the plan here? And I wasn't able to find any any evidence one way or another, And that to me was a red lag enough that I came to the vigil where faith leaders had gathered before the folks walked onto the bridge, and I decided I wasn't going on the bridge myself.
I kind of expect that of you, knowing you as I do, I try.
To be reasonable. But look, even before people got onto the bridge, it was already a mess. You know, you had people who had been organizing, who were wearing high vis vests and blocking traffic and things like that. No police to be seen. So these were just you know, the Burrier's entry was who can afford a high visvest? On Amazon? And it's a recipe for disaster. One of the things about this that I think makes it pretty striking is that, you know, some situations, everyone messed up,
and actually, I'll leave one group out. CINCINNATIPD did a fabulous job of managing, you know, trying to restore traffic and you know, stop people from blocking a bridge, which is an act of civil disobedience and they have a right to try to stop and dealing with the protesters effectively. But the conflict between Covington PD and the protesters was awful. One of those officers from Covington p D has been placed on leave, I believe since because of the concerns
about what came out. And as someone who was there when people started coming off of the bridge, I had a fellow clergy member who got back after being in the midst of all of the conflict, and he didn't know what it was about to happen. He had been suckered into it, like a lot of people had been kind of co opted who just thought they were there to demonstrate properly. They figured, you know, permits had been polled or whatever planning was supposed to have happened had happened.
So my clergy friend, who you know, he's wearing his Roman collar and everything. So the police didn't do anything to him, but he showed me a video right after the fact that he took on his phone and I
was I was appalled by what I saw. Meanwhile, you know, the people trying to block the bridge, it's irresponsible, it's reckless to pull people into a cause that they don't understand fully and they don't know the risks of you got to give people the you know, the information to consent to that kind of thing.
They're engaged. Yeah, it's almost an incitement to mob violence. You know, most people went there to do a peaceful protest. The vigil, they supported this IMOM. That was the only message they wanted to get across. Then when you invade the bridge space, you take over the bridge, you block traffic, obviously engaging in a crime. But I would it sounds to me like the protest was invaded. And I've seen these organized agitators. I mean they're all over in every instance.
You know, they're all dressed the same. Sometimes they're funded by outside organizations. But it's as if and perhaps the motive is to invite police over reaction. That's the image they want to show and project to the rest of the world. Has nothing to do with the condition of the IMOM, has everything to do with the police. And look at the brutality that's been unleashed here. That's the visual moment they want.
I think that there is a good chance of that that they were looking for the escalation, And like I said, both groups probably are responsible here. Covington PD probably could have handled this without as much escalation as occurred, and the protesters weren't upset to have escalation. I mean, I doubt they wanted to be injured in the way that
they were injured. They probably didn't enjoy it, but they got the you know, they got the social media videos that they probably were looking to create out of it. So who loses all of the reasonable people who want to see attention brought to a case that matters. Look, I'm not opposed to civil disobedience within the right parameters. You can choose to shut down a bridge, but their consequences that are going to happen, and people need to know what the consequences they've signed up for are.
But if they want to shut the bridge down, they have to understand that that is going to invite perhaps a reaction they don't want. This is no longer about discussing the issues and ICE's treatment of the IMOM. It's
about people reacting to the bridge being shut down. So you might have some otherwise sympathetic people to your message, but then we all get pissed off when roads are shut down and the traffic's backed up, and we hear about the EMS vehicle who couldn't get through with the you know, the the close to death injured victim, and all these horror stories come out.
No, I think you use the word infiltrators, and you have these these bad actors who try to take over other causes and they turn people off. Yes, and I have no patience for it. I don't think any of us should have patients for people who try to take what should be a peaceful setting and turn it into a sideeshit of good attention for their own thing.
Yeah, and I really do believe that's what's going on, and it's a widespread reality. And let's face it ain't nothing like social media to bring that reality up very easily. You put us posts out there, somebody's going to show up right one hundred percent.
And this is an example of that.
Red by Ari John. It is such a pleasure having you in studio to talk about this, and you know, I mean it's a message for all groups out there. If you're going to organize some activities, you need to be painfully aware that you might have some of these outside agitators come in and ruin the point of your message. You need to be calm, cool and collected and don't follow the quote unquote heard into the street if that's
not what you're about. If you want to engage in that type of protest, recognize there are going to be consequences, but in the final analysis, it's probably not going to do your message any good.
Eyes on the price. You got to do what you've set out to do strategically. In this case, it's bringing attention to this me mom and the detention that he's facing.
Rabbi, always a pleasure to see you and talk to you, and I hope to have you in and again on maybe perhaps some other topics. I know there's luck going on in the world that you're involved with, and you always have a spot here. On the fifty five Cassee Morning Show this morning, Ken Cobra, FLP President on the violence downtown over the weekend, tragic and awful. That was
Christopher Smitheman on the same topic. Boy, he was on a tear this morning for the Smith event Money Money with Brian James, and of course my conversation just now with Rabbi Ari Jen Podcast fifty five Casee dot Com Get your iHeartMedia app Brightbart Inside Scoop tomorrow at eight oh five, followed by the Daniel Davis Deep Dive on the heels of my appearing on the Daniel Davis Deep Dive last week. Rather interesting reaction given some of my comments.
You've got alienated. A few of Daniel Davis's friends will talk about that tomorrow. Thank you, Joe Strecker, executive producer, for all that you do. God bless you, sir. Folks. Have a wonderful day, and don't call way. Glenbeck's coming right up Today's top stories at the top of the hour. It's information that matters to me. Fifty five krs the talk station. This report