Seattle, WA
Seattle Jews to remount an antisemitism exhibit alone, after staff shut it down for Zionism
After dozens of staffers at a Seattle museum walked off the job to protest an exhibit on antisemitism they claimed was “Zionist,” area Jewish groups and the museum all pledged that the exhibit would find a new home.
Months later, the Jewish groups are still planning to mount a version of the exhibit, called “Confronting Hate Together.” But they will do so without their original partners, the Black Heritage Society of Washington State and a museum dedicated to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage. Instead, the Jewish groups say the exhibit will be housed in a Jewish space.
The groups cited “circumstances out of our control” and said that the experience had left local Jews feeling isolated at a time of great need.
“Immense harm has been caused to the Jewish community by not being able to show the exhibit,” the Washington State Jewish Historical Society and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Seattle said in a joint statement. “Antisemitism today is at its highest levels in over 40 years, and more allyship is needed to help meet the moment.”
The statement summarized a feeling that Jews in many quarters have expressed over the last 10 months, since Hamas attacked Israel and triggered an ongoing war that has induced tensions in countless museums, universities, cultural centers and workplaces. Many Jews have lamented not feeling the support they say they have shown to people from other backgrounds in the past.
“We need partners who are stakeholders in the safety and well-being of the Jewish people and who stand with us even when it gets hard,” the Jewish groups said. “Ironically, in an exhibit that was supposed to be about coming together to confront hate, hate has won. And, our community feels more alone as a result.”
Crafting the exhibit
The Jewish Historical Society had spent 18 months crafting the exhibit alongside the Black Heritage Society and Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum. Modeled after a World War II-era American Jewish Committee anti-hate campaign, the exhibit first opened at the Wing Luke in late May and included descriptions of how all three ethnic communities have experienced hate over the years.
But controversy quickly engulfed the project when 26 Wing Luke staffers walked off the job days later, claiming the parts of the exhibit that were focused on antisemitism contained material that “conveyed Zionist perspectives.” The museum promptly closed altogether, and the staff, declaring themselves “on strike,” launched a GoFundMe that has raised more than $11,000 to date.
Museum leaders announced the exhibit would be reconfigured and presented to the public at a different venue later in the summer. The Wing Luke’s executive director, Joël Barraquiel Tan, in a piece for the Seattle Times, shared what he said were “lessons learned” from the efforts to restage the exhibit, including, “Our best work happens when we offer platforms for complex dialogue and vulnerability to inspire civility, grace and understanding across differences.”
The reason the Jewish groups decided to go their own way stemmed from challenges surrounding the search for a new venue, the Jewish Historical Society’s director, Lisa Kranseler, indicated to the Cholent, an independent newsletter covering Jewish Seattle.
But the ultimate decision to pull back was the Jewish groups’, a representative for the Wing Luke Museum told the Cholent. “We are naturally disappointed that the Jewish Historical Society felt they needed to do that,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Seattle JCRC did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In its own statement, the Black Heritage Society seemed to take issue with the Jewish groups’ narrative of events, noting their statement “questions our allyship and tenacity for when times get tough.”
“We have been good and tolerant partners,” the society’s president, Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, wrote. Johnson-Toliver concluded by thanking the Wing Luke museum and “the writers, editors, interns, consulting staff, and funders whose contributions have been great,” but did not mention the Jewish groups by name. (Asked for comment, the society directed JTA to the statement.)
In their objections to the original exhibit, the Wing Luke’s staff contingent, WLM4Palestine, cited portions that read “Today, antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism” and spotlighted campus protests and the phrase “from the river to the sea.” Such passages, the staff allege on their GoFundMe page, “attempt to frame Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism as antisemitism.”
On Instagram, they further alleged that the exhibit “sets a dangerous precedent of platforming colonial, white supremacist perspectives and goes against the Museum’s mission as a community-based museum advancing racial and social equity.”
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat argued that the staffers’ anger was misplaced, and had the effect of abandoning Jews.
“What the exhibit is saying is, don’t take your anger about the Middle East conflict out on local Jews, who are independent, freethinking humans,” he wrote. “For a highly fraught subject, this is pretty basic stuff.”
While decrying the staff response as “fueled” by “anti-Jewish ideas and attitudes,” the Jewish groups added that they had made “adjustments and modifications” to the exhibit following the walkout. They said this was done “to help people better understand the exhibit by clarifying language regarding the exhibition’s intent to focus on confronting hate locally by three historically redlined communities.”
A digital version of the exhibit with the original partners listed, including content focused on the Black and Asian-American experiences, is viewable on the Jewish Historical Society’s website. An accompanying podcast, released shortly after the museum staff walkout and featuring guests including the mayor of Seattle, is also still accessible.
Kranseler told JTA that the Jewish Historical Society was “still working with our partners on two additional panels that will explain the genesis of our collaboration on this exhibit and provide additional information regarding the history of our three communities working together.”
The digital version still includes language the Wing Luke staff had walked out over, such as the declaration that “Today antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism.”
Seattle, WA
Seattle teens arrested after shooting up Portland gas station, carjacking rideshare driver
SEATTLE — Four Seattle juveniles were arrested in connection with a series of armed crimes in Portland, including a convenience store robbery in which an employee was shot multiple times and critically injured, Portland police said.
The investigation began after a robbery and shooting at about 4:46 a.m. Friday at a gas station convenience store in the 400 block of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Multiple armed suspects threatened a store clerk before another employee entered the store, prompting a struggle during which multiple shots were fired, Police said.
An image of one of the guns that was used, according to police. (PPB)
The employee was struck at least five times — four times in the abdomen and once in the leg. Bullets also hit the store’s walls and shattered a window.
Officers arrived less than four minutes after being dispatched, secured the scene, and summoned emergency medical responders.
The victim was taken to a hospital, where he underwent extensive surgery. Police said he is expected to survive.
Detectives with the Major Crimes Unit, patrol officers, forensic specialists, and analysts linked the robbery to several other crimes earlier in the week, including a rideshare driver’s carjacking at gunpoint on Tuesday, a menacing incident involving armed suspects attempting to steal from a vehicle, and an armed robbery at another gas station convenience store in which an employee was struck in the head with a handgun.
Hours before Friday’s shooting, officers responded to a report of masked suspects attempting to enter another convenience store. After the suspects left, officers searched the area, anticipating another robbery.
Later Friday, investigators identified suspect vehicles and tracked possible suspects to a residence in Northeast Portland.
A search warrant was served with assistance from the Portland Police Bureau’s Special Emergency Reaction Team, Crisis Negotiation Team, and East Metro SWAT. Twelve people were detained, and multiple handguns were seized.
Police said three juveniles, ages 15, 16, and 17, all from Seattle, were charged in connection with Friday’s robbery. Additional charges tied the juveniles to the earlier robberies and menacing case.
A fourth 17-year-old from Seattle was charged in the Tuesday robbery. An adult Portland man was arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants.
The investigation remains ongoing, and additional or modified charges are possible, police said.
Seattle, WA
‘Imagine you crushed a raccoon like a can’: Curley describes viral deformed ‘mutant’ Jimothy – MyNorthwest.com
Jimothy, a raccoon who may have short-spine syndrome, has gone viral overnight after being spotted around Seattle.
KIRO host John Curley tried to describe the uniquely shaped animal, who has quickly become a local celebrity, on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.
“Just imagine a raccoon for a moment,” Curley said. “Normal raccoon in your mind. There’s a raccoon. He has the black around his eyes. You know why that is? That’s to cut down on glare, so he can see better. Like a football player has the black eye shade on there. So, a normal raccoon. Now, just imagine if you took the raccoon and you put one hand on his like snout, and you put the other hand on his backside there, and you had superhuman strength, and you were able to kind of crush him like a can, without killing him.
“No, then you kill him and throw him in the garbage. No, you just squish him a little bit, and you crush him up,” he continued. “Imagine if he’s made out of clay. Then all of a sudden, like, OK, you know he’s got this kind of bump on his back. Well, that’s what this thing looks like. Took me a long way to get to it.”
Jimothy seen on porches, wandering through Ballard
In one video, Jimothy is seen dipping his hands into a bowl on a porch. Curley debunked the common myth that raccoons wash their food, explaining that water actually stimulates nerve endings in their fingers, helping them feel what they’re eating better.
“The raccoon will dip the food, if they find food, in water all the time, and people like, ‘Oh, they’re always washing their food. They got hygiene on their mind.’ No, it helps to stimulate the end of their fingers so that the nerve endings are more sensitive,” he said. “So they do that, and even when they can’t find water, they’ll turn it like they’re spinning it to put it in water. It’s to create more sensitivity, so they have a better idea of what they’re eating.”
Ballard residents have reported seeing Jimothy wandering across backyard decks, drinking from a dog’s water bowl, and sitting in neighborhood trees.
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
Follow @https://twitter.com/jcurleyshow
Seattle, WA
Seattle real estate owner sentenced to prison for $4.7 million tax evasion scheme – MyNorthwest.com
A 70-year-old Seattle real estate owner was sentenced to prison for tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
Steven Loo was convicted following a nine-day trial and ordered to spend 20 months in prison for his $4.7 million tax evasion scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Mr. Loo made a sustained, willful decision to evade taxes. The only thing that explains that is greed,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd stated. “A man who amasses $43 million in wealth can afford to pay his taxes — just like the 85% of us who pay our taxes fully and on time.”
Loo owned and operated multiple commercial real estate properties in western Washington and California, according to records filed in the case. He hired property management companies to manage the properties, and had the companies send profit from the properties to two bank accounts in the name of shell companies he controlled.
Loo hid real estate profits through shell companies, claimed zero tax for 20 years
Loo spent the money for his benefit and for his friends and family. He also re-invested funds in various businesses he controlled. However, Loo did not declare that income— over $4.7 million — on his tax returns. He used shell companies and repeated transfers of funds to conceal the income from the IRS, according to records filed in the case.
“At trial, the government presented evidence detailing the eight properties operated by Loo via various limited liability companies (LLCs),” the attorney’s office stated. “The income from the LLCs was funneled into bank accounts associated with two specific inactive entities that were established in Washington in 1999. Loo did not report this income to the IRS. Loo failed to inform his tax return preparer of these funds that were income from his properties.”
Loo claimed he owed no tax at all over 20 years and even claimed a net refund from the IRS.
“Loo is living the American dream yet believes he has no obligation to pay the taxes that support our nation,” prosecutors said in asking for a 51-month sentence. “Loo was not content with merely failing to report his income. Instead, he contrived a plan to hide his wealth from the IRS using shell companies and money-routing schemes. When Loo’s luck ran out, and an IRS criminal investigator knocked on his door, he continued his deception by trotting out a fairy tale about using imaginary losses to offset his income.”
Along with serving prison time, Loo must also pay a $250,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. The attorney’s office noted Loo has already paid back taxes to the IRS of $1,603,686.
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