‘His last name was Bernstein’: Exchange over yarmulke brings antisemitism into focus in murder trial

SANTA ANA, CALIF. – Any notion that Judaism would take a backseat in Samuel Woodward’s trial for the murder of Blaze Bernstein dissolved in five words, delivered with barely concealed contempt at the end of the trial’s third day.

The words, from the victim’s father, won’t appear in the courtroom transcript. The judge struck them from the record. He said they didn’t answer to the question the defense attorney put to Gideon Bernstein — whether his son wore a yarmulke. But with Bernstein’s remark, a second front in the courtroom showdown opened: Was his son, whom the prosecution claims was stabbed to death because he was gay, also a victim of antisemitism?

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Leave a Comment